FROLITICKS

Satirical commentary on Canadian and American current political issues

Mar 12

Why Limited Social Movements Such As The Truckers’ Convoy Fizzle Out

by bcurry

The “People’s Convoy”, which recently numbered about 1,000 vehicles, arrived in Maryland on March 5th.  The convoy had signs and messages referencing far-right political views, pro-Trump  and conspiracy theories, including calls to “arrest Fauci,” referring to White House medical adviser Anthony S. Fauci, and ridiculously equating the mandates to slavery.  Convoy organizers intended to drive the minimum legal speed and increase the number of loops around the Beltway each day to pressure lawmakers and public officials, but not to actually enter the core district of Washington, D.C.  Given what happened during the so-called “Freedom Convoy” illegal occupation in Ottawa, Canada, which lasted over three weeks, police agencies from D.C., Maryland and Virginia are closely monitoring the group.  In addition, hundreds of National Guard members are on stand-by should they be needed to control the protest.

The truckers’ protest is a spin-off of the Canadian version, which has so far fizzled out following the removal and arrests of several protest leaders.  Like the Canadian situation, there are many different complaints and factions among the protesters, some of whom are more radical than others and often represent far right fringe groups.  While the primary protest in Canada appeared to be against vaccine mandates related to the pandemic and other public health measures, there also appeared to be a segment that simply wanted the current federal government to step down and be replaced by some form of alternative governing body.  There was a good deal of American influence on the Canadian convoy as evidenced by pro-Trump and Confederate flags.  In addition, a good deal of funding in support of the protest came from the U.S.  As observers note, what’s already clear is that that success begets imitators.  The Ottawa occupiers’ ability to attract massive financial support and international media attention — while suffering few serious consequences — inspired copycats across Canada, the U.S. and around the world.

While there is little debate over the fact that both the Canadian and American populations have seen even more political division during the pandemic, one has to ask how these intense expressions of anger, sometimes legitimate, will be reflected in the future?  Most enduring social movements tend to focus on single issue causes.  Take for example, the “right-to-life” and “pro-life” movements which have been around for years in both countries.  Then there is the women’s movement for “equal pay and equal opportunities”.  However, there have been those movements which portrayed a scattered issue protest, such as the early 2000’s Occupy movement in the U.S., Canada and other countries.  Started with the Occupy Wall Street in 2011, it primarily focussed on what it referred to as income and wealth inequality between the wealthiest 1 percent and the rest of the population which became the 99 per centers.  The Occupy movement’s goals came to include a vast number of issues including: a reduction in the influence of corporations on politics, more balanced distribution of income, more and better jobs, bank reform, forgiveness of student loan debt, more affordable housing or other relief for indebted students.  Without organized formal leadership, which the Occupy movements deliberately shied away from, the movement soon fizzled away into the history books.

The same outcome could be expected with the recent convoy protests, especially as governments remove more and more public health restrictions and vaccine mandates as a result of declining cases related to the pandemic.  However, this does not mean that the anger of a significant portion of the population will simply disappear.  Some have suggested that the current mistrust of government and the authorities will continue into the future, hopefully to be reflected through the ballot boxes in both countries.  The economy will be the next big issue, notably the impact of hyperinflation, including high gas prices, on the average American and Canadian.  Employment issues surrounding the economic recovery from the pandemic and a possible recession will stand out as major issues for governments and businesses.  Lower income and blue collar workers have been particularly affected and wages have not kept up with the current cost of living increases.  Whether a new protest movement results from the new socioeconomic and political circumstances, only time will tell?  Given past history, I would see future protest movements as being entirely inevitable, in one form or another.

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Mar 9

Who Declared That COVID Vaccines Don’t Work Should Check Out Hong Kong

by bcurry

If there was ever a concrete example of the effectiveness of COVID vaccines, it is the current situation unfolding in Hong Kong.  Today, Hong Kong — a wealthy and modern financial center — now has the highest COVID-related death rate in the developed world.  Overwhelmingly, the elderly, unvaccinated residents, including toddlers and children too young to be immunized, have been hit hardest by the most recent Omicron variant outbreak.  This past January, less than 1 in 5 Hong Kong residents above the age of 80 had been fully vaccinated with two doses, and almost none had three.  That percentage has risen since then, but experts say it is still too little, too late, especially compared with Singapore, South Korea and Japan, where the elderly were a priority for vaccinations.  I find this statistic incredible given that public health officials in both the U.S. and Canada recommended late last year that anyone over sixty-five should get a booster vaccine shot in light of the Omicron variant, bringing the total to at least three doses.  In Ontario, Canada, for example, seniors in long-term care and in senior residences were even given a fourth shot to ensure that their immune systems could better resist the Omicron variant.  As a result, the number of deaths among seniors has significantly and steadily declined since the vaccines were first introduced in both countries.

Since the air-born Omicron variant is highly contagious, almost 90 percent of elderly care facilities in Hong Kong have COVID cases, and to date about 4,700 care home workers have tested positive.  On the other hand, the number of new COVID cases in Ontario remains low, especially as residential staff had been mandated to have at least two doses of the vaccine since the summer of 2021.  Workers in long-term care homes are currently required to have two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine to stay on the job, and they have until March 14th to get third shots.  For obvious reasons, this is the only sector in which the Ontario provincial government has made COVID-19 vaccination a requirement for employment.

When it comes to children aged between the ages of 5 and 12, both the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Canada Public Health Agency recommended that COVID vaccines be given.  Both public health agencies concluded that the benefits of protecting children against COVID-19 are seen as far outweighing any risk.  Yet, here you have Florida’s Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo in a recent press conference, recommending that healthy children not receive the coronavirus vaccine.  Florida became the first state to officially recommend against COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children.  Dr. Lapado however did not outline any specifics or rationale behind this recommendation.  Of course, such positions have been behind the COVID-related policies of Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis, who has previously resisted the implementation of several public health measures.  Even officials in the state’s Department of Health and Human Services have asserted that unvaccinated teenagers are much more likely to end up in the hospital with COVID-19 than are vaccinated ones.

Interestingly, Florida ranked 19th among states in terms of the share of people receiving at least one vaccine shot, with about 78 percent of its residents at least partially vaccinated.  According to the CDC, the national vaccination rate is 76.5 percent.  However, when it comes to COVID-related deaths per 100,000 population, Florida ranks fifth in the country, just behind West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and South Carolina.  In the past week ending March 6th , Florida reported 1,207 deaths from COVID-19.  In the week before that, 888 deaths were reported.  In total, Johns Hopkins University data shows that almost 71,000 Floridians have died from the disease since the pandemic began or 330 for every 100,000 people.  To date in the U.S., 958,621 people have died since the pandemic began, with the national COVID-19 death rate standing at 288 per 100,000 Americans.

Although the Omicron variant appears to have peaked, the virus is still spreading.  In Florida, the infection rate is still far higher than the national average.  It’s one thing to prevent children from wearing masks in school, but it’s another for the Governor of Florida to suggest that there is no need to vaccinate children!  Maybe, the Governor should spend some time in Hong Kong?

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Mar 6

Truckers’ Convoy in U.S. Aspires to be More Calm Than Canadian “Freedom Convoy”

by bcurry

On February 23rd, taking its cue from demonstrations that paralyzed the downtown of Canada’s capital city of Ottawa for over three weeks, U.S. truckers embarked on a 2,500-mile (4,000-km) cross-country drive towards Washington, D.C., to protest coronavirus-related mandates and restrictions.  Having arrived in Maryland, organizers of the so-called “People’s Convoy” say they are planning to circle their armada of trucks, cars and SUVs around the Beltway on the morning of March 6th and into the following workweek at the minimum speed limit to slow traffic and get their message out to lawmakers.  The convoy, which recently numbered about 1,000 vehicles, intends to repeat that ritual each day this week until the group’s demands are met.  Organizers have proclaimed that they are law-abiding citizens who are simply exercising their rights to protest.  Unlike in Ottawa, they don’t want to shut anything down and they’re not planning to come into downtown Washington.

However, as in the case of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” in Canada, it’s not exactly clear just what are the ultimate goals of the American protesters.  As in the Canadian case, the convoy also involves a number or representatives of fringe groups, often with far-right links and other unrelated causes.  It seems apparent that there are a number of Trump supporters still asserting that the presidential election was stolen, as well as those from the anti-vaccine movement.  As in the Canadian case, many of the signs and messages can be seen referencing far-right political views and conspiracy theories.  A list of organizations supporting the convoy include those led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a leader in the anti-vaccine movement, Gen. Michael Flynn, the former Trump administration national security adviser, and Rob McCoy, a Republican politician and Southern California evangelical pastor.  In general, the convoy participants do push for an end to government health rules requiring masks and vaccinations, a move that has already begun by governments as new COVID-19 cases have ebbed.  However, as in the case of Canada where provincial governments were responsible for implementing most public health restrictions during the pandemic, many of the mandates were implemented by individual states in varying degrees.

Given what happened in Canada, the Defence Department authorized deployment of about 700 unarmed National Guard personnel from the District of Columbia and neighbouring states to help manage the expected traffic.  Capitol Police said that plans were being drawn up to reinstall the temporary fence that was erected around the Capitol after last year’s January 6th riots in the Capitol.  Like the Canadian protesters, the organizers claim that they just have a message that they want heard and they’re not going anywhere until it’s heard.  Unlike the Canadian truckers’ convoy, they have not also stated clearly any specific protest against the American and Canadian vaccination mandate requirements for truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border.  The Canadian protest included blockages by vehicles of the Windsor-Detroit and Coutts, Alberta, border crossings that occurred in late January and mid-February.  The negative economic impact of the blockades on trade contributed to the Canadian federal government invoking the Emergencies Act in order to pressure the protesters to remove their vehicles and reframe from further illegal activities.

In Canada, many arrests of leaders and protesters were made both in Ottawa and at the affected border crossings.  In the case of Coutts, Alberta, several guns, body armour and ammunition were seized by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).  The seizure is attributed to militia-style right-wing fringe elements.  In the case of the American truckers’ protest, it is hoped that the organizers will maintain a more peaceful stance.  In light of the decline in new COVID-19 cases and related hospitalization rates, the irony is that both protests against government public health mandates are occurring at a time when many of the restrictions are in the process of being removed.  If the American protest resembles its Canadian counterpart, one will probably see no clear plan and a hodgepodge of multiple and diverse grievances.  Many grievances will once again reflect the general malaise within a large segment of the population, often compounded by a growing mistrust of government and the authorities.  Unfortunately, as illustrated in the Canadian truckers’ protest, these grievances can lead to illegal and sometimes violent actions.

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Mar 4

Comparison of Workers’ Wages and Benefits Between the U.S. and Canada

by bcurry

In recent months there has been a lot of discussion about the impact of the pandemic on the labour market in both the U.S. and Canada.  Much of the discussion has now evolved around the issue of hyperinflation in both countries and the resulting worker demands for increased wages.  In addition, there has been a shift in the labour market itself whereby many workers who worked in certain sectors, in particular retail, tourism, services and restaurants, were laid off due to COVID-19 for months on end.  Now that the economies are supposedly reopening in both countries, some of these workers have decided not to return to those sectors, but to seek other more reliable and better paying employment.  Indeed, according to recent stats, there have been record levels of workers switching jobs, a trend that picked up markedly in the second half of 2021.

However, there are still signs that wage raises are stopping fall short of compensating for all of the higher prices.  In some private sectors, unions are now taking advantage of the inequalities and have moved to organize disgruntled workers, offering better wages and benefits.  An example of this is the American United Auto Workers (UAW) that is looking to organize Tesla workers.  Several Starbucks workers have been seeking to organize unions in Buffalo, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Knoxville, Tallahassee, Florida and the Denver area.  The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers promoted a two-year-long push to unionize thirty Amazon facilities in the U.S.  Generally, such attempts have been unsuccessful.  In Canada, where unionization is easier in the private sector under industrial relations laws, certain unions have been more successful in organizing workers in facilities run by union-resistant companies such as Wal-Mart and Starbucks.

Among the major differences between the two countries is the fact that Canada has a universal health system in place and more labour standards laws offering such benefits as paid sick leave, maternity and adoption leave, paid vacation leave and higher minimum wages.  Canada’s federal unemployment insurance program is national in scope, unlike in the U.S. where states have a lot more leeway to differentiate in their qualifying requirements, amounts and duration of unemployment benefits.  Moreover, the Canadian safety net for the unemployed has been strengthened in recent years, playing an important part in allowing unemployed workers to do lengthier job search, provide additional economic security and keep their job protection guaranteed under the law.

On top of everything, workers are looking at the huge profits made by certain companies during the pandemic, such as Amazon, Wal-Mart, Loblaws Canada, etc., etc.  Many believe, and rightly so, that they have not received their fair share of the record profits in the form of increased wages and benefits.  Instead, they see companies buying back billions of dollars in stock from investors and increasing the dividend rates given to investors by large amounts.  With companies declaring the end of the worst of the pandemic, previous increases in the form of risk pay are also quickly disappearing — this despite the fact that many of the pandemic risks still remain.

Moreover, the pandemic has had a significant impact on the labour markets of both countries.  Employers in both countries are being forced to compete for scarce labour due to the shift in the bargaining capabilities of workers, especially in light of today’s hyperinflation.  Indeed, wage increases are just one of many sweeteners that hungry firms are offering.  Also on the rise are perks like a four-day workweek — offered by some eleven percent of companies surveyed recently by the Payscale data firm —  as well as remote work, flexible schedules, free college tuition and other attractive benefits.

All in all, current hyperinflation will continue to cut into workers’ pay cheques.  The coming months will be difficult ones for both employers and workers.  Both Canada and the U.S. have similar labour markets, suggesting that significant adjustments will have to be made in each country.

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Feb 27

Invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin Puts American Right-Wing Supporters in Tough Spot

by bcurry

The current military invasion by Russian troops has placed many of Vladimir Putin’s American admirers, including Donald Trump, in an awkward situation.  In the past, Trump and other Republicans praised Vladimir Putin as a strong and savvy leader.  This was in spite of the fact that Putin runs a Russian oligarchy made up of billionaires, with Putin’s personal fortune and that of his oligarch friends estimated to be in the billions.  Russia’s ultra-rich are among the biggest owners of private jets, fancy mansions and superyachts, some of which are found in the U.S.  Although the U.S. and other Western countries have imposed severe sanctions on Russia and members of Putin’s administration, the challenge is their fortunes and assets could be held through shell companies, complicating the ownership chain.  While imposing sanctions on Russian’s ultra-rich is important, getting at the money itself is complex.  So far, even as the U.S., the U.K. and other Western countries have ramped up sanctions on more than 100 Russian individuals and entities, these assets of the country’s elite — which can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars each — have avoided any direct hit.

As in Europe, many ultra-right American groups looked up to Putin as a some sort of model leader for the ‘populism’ movement.  Fox News host Tucker Carlson urged Americans to ask themselves what they had against Putin, echoing the Kremlin as he denigrated Ukraine as not a democracy but a puppet of the West and the United States.  Former President Donald Trump defended his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, causing a number of top Republicans to distance themselves from his position.  What makes matters worst is that Putin’s regime has already imprisoned thousands of Russian protesters against the invasion.  So much for populism!  If the Russian military aggression continues longer than expected, there will be even greater unrest back in Russia, particularly as Russian military and Ukrainian civilian casualties rise.  Most observers believe that an inability of the Russian military to overthrown the current Ukrainian government in under two weeks will cause further enormous stress on Putin’s rule.

The negative toll on Russia’s economy as a result of Western sanctions and other economic penalties has already resulted in a massive slump in Russian stocks, considered to be the third-worst in the history of stock markets.  The Russian ruble has taken a major hit which will increase the costs of imported goods in Russia and contribute to the already post-pandemic economic downturn.  Any resulting reduction in the export of Russian oil and gas will have an impact on American and European energy markets, again contributing to the current hyperinflation world-wide.  Moreover, the war in Ukraine threatens the world’s economic recovery.

For many of his long-time admirers — from those in the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, and Brazil — it is something of an awkward spot.  The longer Putin’s aggression continues, the more populist movements around the world will be forced to be on the defensive over their past and present support for Vladimir Putin.  With every day, it is clearly becoming ever more uncomfortable to try to defend Putin’s actions, despite what Donald Trump might say.

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Feb 24

Unfair Condemnation by American Mainstream Media of Canada’s Invocation of the Federal Emergencies Act

by bcurry

For the first time since its creation, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act, giving the government far reaching powers, allowing the government to freeze financial accounts, press tow truck operators into service and end blockades.  As required, limited to an initial thirty day period, the invocation of the Act was subsequently debated in Parliament.  However, on February 23rd, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau withdrew the law, stating that it was no longer necessary because illegal protests that included blockades at some border crossings and the occupation in downtown Ottawa were no longer considered an emergency.  He said the federal government is confident existing laws and bylaws are now sufficient to keep people safe.  No one’s peaceful “right to protest” was ever affected, as long as no laws were being broken.

Interestingly but not surprising, mainstream media in the U.S. came down hard for the most part on the use of the Emergencies Act to deal with the border blockades and Ottawa occupation by the so-called “Freedom Convoy.”  Mainstream media is a term and abbreviation used to refer collectively to the various large mass news media that influence many people, and both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought.  Major outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times and Fox News threw in their lot with the truckers — or at least, the truckers’ right to protest.  However, while the Canadian protests where not as violent against COVID-related mandates as occurred in Europe, the protesters did block the Coutts (Alberta) and Windsor-Detroit border crossings for over a week and occupied downtown of the National Capital of Ottawa for over three weeks.  The courts declared that these blockades and occupations were illegal and ordered protesters to reframe from such activities.  In order to carry out the resulting injunctions, the province of Ontario called upon the federal government to provide whatever assistance that it could.  Hence, the invocation of the Emergencies Act on February 14th.   Over two-thirds of Canadians polled approved of the Act’s invocation.

What the Act achieved was to allow all national, provincial and local police services across Canada to collaborate in the removal of illegal blockades and occupations.  Up to then, protesters, often with leadership involving fringe groups, had thumbed their noses at municipal police services.  The Act also went after the funding sources for the protesters’ illegal activities, often provided for by right-wing American sources (U.S.-based crowdfunding websites) initially through GoFundMe and later through GiveSendGo — resulting in millions of dollars worth of support.  More than half of the funding came from American sources, clearly representing foreign involvement in the domestic affairs of Canada.  None of the American mainstream media really caught on to this new phenomenon until GoFundMe froze the funding and the GiveSendGo funding website was hacked into, disclosing several large contributions originating in the U.S.  While the federal government asked Canadian financial institutions to freeze the accounts of the convoy protesters to encourage them to reframe from continuing illegal activities, it was designed to primarily target the accounts of many of the known leaders.  With discontinuation of the powers provided for under the Emergencies Act, the accounts should no longer be frozen for persons reframing from illegal activities.

Indeed, as in any democratic society, the Act was created in 1988 to ensure compliance with Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms and was to used as a last resort in the event of national emergencies.  There is little doubt that its use will be challenged by various groups and certain Conservative provincial governments in the courts.  While there appears to be no similar piece of legislation in the U.S., any suggestion that the Act’s invocation removed the democratic rights of Canadians has be overblown and misunderstood by American mainstream media.  While one can appreciate such a reaction by the so-called “alternate media”, I find the editorials in most U.S. media to be an overreach.  At no time during the Act’s implementation was the “due process” under existing laws not carried out.  Those being charged by the authorities under Canada’s Criminal Code will have their day in court, and many were released with or without bail until their appearance in court.  All the normal judicial processes were carried out under very difficult circumstances.  I would hope that most Americans would support this?

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Feb 13

How Extremist Groups Spread Misinformation And Build Support Using Social Media

by bcurry

For some time now, observers, including myself, have been warning of the growth of right-wing extremist groups in Canada, many influenced by parallel groups in the U.S.  With the prevalent use of social media, the border remains porous to the influx of misinformation and propaganda originating with these American groups.  Their content is easily accessible through social media platforms, and their ideas are amplified on websites such as 4chan and Gab.  YouTube, in particular, has been described as a breeding ground for the alt-right.  They are seeking to recruit more followers, promote conspiracy theories, use provocative and sensational actions to gain news and social media coverage and spread misinformation that supports their views.  At the outset, these groups claimed that COVID-19 was all a hoax, perpetuated by governments and big pharmaceutical companies.  Once they could no longer argue the point as COVID-related hospitalization rates stressed the health care sector and hundreds of thousands of deaths occurred, they moved on to attacking vaccination programs and other public health measures.  As a result of vaccines and other COVID-related mandates implemented in Canada and the U.S., they turned to what they now claim to have been an infringement on our liberties. 

In the case of the current protests under the guise of a so-called Freedom Convoy, groups of Canadians have attacked the governments’ COVID-related public health measures.  Initially, thought to be a reaction of a small group of truckers to U.S. and Canadian vaccine mandates at the border, the protest was easily overtaken by a radical fringe.  At the outset, the convoy was started by Canada Unity, a group that has been extremely critical of all COVID-related mandates.  One simply has to look at the supposed spokespersons for the Convoy, none of whom are truckers, and examine their tactics.  You have several leaders who have participated in past movements, such as Tamara Lich, Dave Steenburg, Patrick King and B.J. Dichter.  They are known for promoting extremist messages and civil disobedience.  The resulting protest tactics include the three-week long occupation of the Canadian capital, Ottawa, and blockades at border crossings in several provinces.  These are anything but “peaceful.”

Next, one has to deal with the means by which such movements are funded.  This is where American web-based outlets such GoFundMe and the Christian fundraising site GiveSendGo come in.  Millions of dollars were raised by these mechanisms.  However, there is now a lot of concern about who are providing the funds, since the majority of funds (more than half) appear to have come from American sources.  It is believed that some of the largest contributors are probably associated with right-wing groups in the U.S.  Given that Canadian authorities have declared the Ottawa occupation and blockades as illegal, they are now working with the Biden administration to examine the nature of such on-line funding activities and whether they are legitimate or not.  Meanwhile, in light of the situation, Canadian authorities and financial institutions have moved to block the transfer of the funds to the Freedom Convoy organizers.  As a result, the organizers have now turned to collecting donations in cryptocurrency, which in itself creates causes for concern.

In the context of COVID alone, far-right movements have been sustained, and in some cases propelled into the mainstream, by co-opting vaccine anxiety and pandemic frustration.  Overall, there is little doubt that far-right extremists have hijacked the current agenda under the general banner of protecting civil liberties.  Unfortunately, waving Canadian and American flags and Trump and anti-Trudeau banners doesn’t really mesh with the reality that we are still in a pandemic.  Prior to the convoy protest, governments at all levels were in already in various planning stages to gradually ease restrictions, while ensuring that the health care system can handle hospitalization levels.  Today, with the Internet and social media, news travels fast.  The pictures and videos of protests in Canada have now led to similar protests in other countries, including the U.S., Australia, France and Austria.  The difficulty evident in the ability of Canadian police services to control the protests in Ottawa and at border crossings is no doubt lending encouragement to foreign elements, especially those associated with right-wing extremists.

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Feb 9

Truckers’ Protest Convoys Could Be Harbinger Of Societal Problems To Come

by bcurry

At the beginning of the global pandemic, I warned that the war against COVID-19 could prove to be a real test for societies, particularly those classified as being democratic.  After over two years of combating the disease, we are now seeing the brunt of pandemic fatigue on the general population due to its obvious economic impacts.  This has led to several anti-government protests, including the current truckers’ protests in Canada, Australia and the U.S.  However, people’s general frustration and lack of trust in governments are just the tip of the iceberg.  Even if countries may be slowly going from a pandemic to an endemic with respect to COVID, the fact of the matter is that some underlying socio-economic trends had been already set in motion.  In Western societies, the growing disparities between the haves and have-nots will no doubt lead to even more rank and file populist protests.

What is contributing to people’s disenchantment with the free market-based economies and political institutions that supposedly protect them?  Recent economic data and polls have shown us several outcomes.  The pandemic and the resulting restrictive economic measures imposed by governments have further exacerbated the gaps in incomes and increased the average person’s lack of trust in their governments.  In recent years, fewer families have been able to become full members of the middleclass.  Educational, employment and other opportunities to obtain or retain middleclass status have become fewer and fewer, especially given the increasing costs associated with a post-secondary education.  Many of the blue and white collar jobs that offered good wages in the past, whether in manufacturing or other sectors, have slowly disappeared due to new technologies, automation and informatics.

Take these factors and evident increases in the cost of living, including the lack of affordable housing and rising costs in everyday essentials, you have the basis for a lot of disengagement.  The majority of economists agree that hyperinflation is here for some time to come.  This is especially difficult for low-wage workers and small businesses.  On top of this, government subsidies which assisted businesses and workers during pandemic-related restrictions are or have disappeared.  As interest rates rise to deal with hyperinflation, there will be increasing debt loads for both individuals and governments.  The lack of affordable housing in most North American cities has now reached crisis proportions.

We have whole segments of populations facing extreme stress levels.  Everyone is talking about mental health issues, something considered taboo not that many years ago.  The growing use of marijuana, prescription and illegal drugs and alcohol has unfortunately led to growth industries which are indicative of our times.  Suicide rates are at an all time high, especially among our youth.  A study released by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in December 2014 concluded more than 230,000 Ontario adults, amounting to 2.3 percent of the province’s adult population, “seriously contemplated suicide” in 2013.  Since then, things on the mental health front have simply gotten worst.  Spurred on by the pandemic and substance abuse, the use of violence, most notably gun violence, in our communities and domestic lives has grown in the last two years.  Needless-to-say, these are grave societal issues that cannot be resolved overnight.  Are governments and communities up to the challenge?

Populist movements have grown within the U.S. and Canada in recent years, with Donald Trump leading the way.  America today has two major political parties, but the presidential election of 2016 managed to reshape the platforms and agendas of both.  In Canada, one has the People’s Party of Canada (PPC), led by Maxime Bernier, which claims to bring together “common sense, populism, classical conservatism, and libertarianism to create solutions adapted for the challenges of the 21st century.”  Bernier was the only political leader to officially address the protesting truckers and others at their demonstration in front of Parliament Hill.  In the 2021 Canadian federal election, the PPC did not win any seats, despite winning nearly 5% of the popular vote.  Time will tell whether the current truckers’ protests are a sign of things to come in both Canada and the U.S., or just one more anomaly?

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Feb 2

To Defeat COVID, People Must Have Trust In Their Governments

by bcurry

If there is one thing that the current truckers for freedom convoys in Canada illustrates, that as the pandemic has continued, certain frustrated factions of the population have loss their trust in governments.  This is really important in the war on COVID.   Following ten months of research, a peer-reviewed study recently published in the Lancet, a top medical journal, concluded that trust in government and strength of community engagement is critical to the public health response.  It noted that wealthy countries with more robust health systems, including the U.S. and much of Europe, struggled with tackling COVID through public health measures.  The study noted that the U.S., for example, had the second-worst standardized infection rate of any high-income country.  Starting with President Trump, the messaging has often been confusing and had hampered to work of local and public health officials in implementing vaccination programs and restriction policies.  Frequently, lack of initial public trust in governments and the health care system prevented the more effective implementation of such measures. In this case, the pandemic has furthered eroded trust in the government among certain groups.  Thus, the high rates of COVID-related cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the U.S.

Canada is not immune to the diminishing trust level of certain groups, as evidenced by the current truckers’ protests across the country.  Unfortunately, this lack of trust on the part of these groups has opened up the door for extremist fringe groups to attach themselves to such demonstrations.  Originally, the purpose of the so-called Freedom Convoy was to protest the implementation of a vaccine mandate for truckers entering Canada from the U.S.  The same mandate applies to Canadian truckers entering the U.S.  As the protest grew in numbers, led by Canada Unity, the group behind the convoy, the protest morphed into a call for the end of all anti-COVID restrictions.  The participation of extremist fringe groups became increasingly apparent with the display of swastikas, Nazi and Confederate flags, and the yellow star of David left over from the yellow vest movement which was known for its racist conspiracy theories.  Indeed, one of the convoy’s organizers is controversial right-wing figure Patrick King, who has stated that the truckers currently occupying the capital’s downtown core will not be leaving Ottawa any time soon, and are planning to stay until all COVID-19 public health measures are eliminated.

A “memorandum of understanding,” posted on the Canada Unity website, says its coalition is opposed to all restrictions and mandates related to COVID-19, rules it deems are “unconstitutional, discriminatory and segregating.”  The memorandum’s goal, it says, is to form a committee with the Senate and Governor General to override all levels of Canadian government.  If parliamentarians refuse to join, the group says they should “resign their lawful positions of authority immediately.”  Otherwise, they propose to overthrow the current democratically elected Parliament and install an autocratic government.  Interestingly, a GoFundMe campaign was launched in support of the truckers convoy — to date raising almost $10 million Canadian.  However, questions have been raised about the destination of the money, particularly since some of the organizers have been involved in extremist politics.  In addition, it is believed that some of the donations have come from groups in the U.S.  For this reason, it appears to be incumbent on the federal government to investigate this GoFundMe campaign to ensure that the funds are allocated to assist the truckers with their expenses and not for other political causes.  GoFundMe has announced that it would begin releasing money only after the organizers of the fundraising campaign provided a distribution plan for the funds.  In the meantime, given some of the charges levelled by law enforcement as a result of illegal actions committed by protesters, the government may want to have the courts issue an injunction against the distribution of any GoFundMe funds until full disclosure of the processes is made public.  One owes this full disclosure to donors.

The public health battle against COVID has gone reasonably well in Canada with 90.9% of doses delivered to the provinces having been administered as of today.  The result appears to imply that the vast majority of Canadians still have a fair amount of trust in their governments and in the science, despite certain public health restrictions remaining in place.  It is expected that these restrictions will be slowly lifted when there are fewer new cases of the Omicron variant and the rate of hospitalizations decreases.  I am certain that this public trust is warranted under the circumstances.

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Jan 26

Canadian Trucker Protest Over Mandatory Vaccination Between U.S. and Canada

by bcurry

This weekend, in something called the Freedom Convoy 2022, hundreds of semi-trucks will be arriving in Ottawa from cities across Canada in order to protest vaccine mandates.  However, plain and simple, their reaction to the Canadian government’s January 15th imposition of a vaccination requirement for truckers entering Canada appears to be just another protest tied into anti-vaxxers’ movements.  Indeed, the largest national organization representing Canadian truckers, the Canadian Trucking Alliance, has denounced the protest.  The Alliance has already stated that 85 percent of its members have been fully vaccinated, roughly the same as for the Canadian population at large.  It has strongly denounced any protests on public roadways, highways, and bridges and has urged all truckers to get inoculated.  However, the Alliance does not represent the majority of independent truckers who one would suggest are primarily involved in this protest, especially those in the West. 

On the other side of the border, the American administration has also imposed a mandatory vaccine requirement for truckers entering the U.S.  Indeed, it is interesting that Donald Trump Jr. this past Tuesday urged Americans on social media to follow the example of the Canadian trucker convoy’s fight against ‘tyranny’ and should carry out similar protests in the U.S.  Apparently, it is estimated that only half of American truckers have been vaccinated, not a dissimilar portion when compared to the general population in the U.S.  What concerns authorities is that the trucker convoy has become a lightning rod for far-right fringe, particularly those against public health measures and government restrictions in the fight against COVID. 

Despite claims that the vaccine mandates will negatively further exacerbate supply chain problems, in monitoring the volume of trucks crossing the border each day since January 15th, authorities have seen no measurable reduction in the number of trucks to date.  Last week, the Canadian Transport Minister noted that almost 100,000 trucks crossed the border — about the same as usual for this time of year.  Unfortunately, those opposed to vaccine mandates have attempted to frighten Canadians by claiming that there will be food and other materials shortages as a result of the government’s policies.  For the vast majority of Canadians, who support COVID vaccination and such mandates, the real issue is in the fight to control the pandemic’s current wave and reduce its terrible impact on a stressed-out health care system. 

Moreover, studies have shown that vaccine mandates work in increasing vaccination rates.  For example, recent research from Simon Fraser University economists indicated that the mere announcement of vaccine mandates last fall led to an average 66 percent surge in new, first-dose vaccinations in Canadian provinces.  From a constitutional perspective, whether a government can mandate vaccines depends on what exactly a new law says.  Canadians have rights to make decisions about vaccination but these rights are not absolute.  And having rights does not mean there will be no consequences for your decisions, including forms of penalization.  In the case of truckers, the government has done more than enough to promote voluntary vaccination.  Since the federal government imposed an immunization requirement last fall on workers in the air, rail and marine transportation sectors, it deliberately gave truckers more time to get vaccinated.  In consultation with the trucking and retail industries, the government waited for a “critical mass” of truckers to get their shots before making it mandatory.  In taking this approach and given the proven effectiveness of vaccine mandates, there is little doubt that the courts would find that such policies legally pass the taste test.

There is no doubt that Canadians and Americans owe much to these essential workers, but truckers need to vaccinate for their own health reasons and those of their families and friends, just like the rest of us.  While independent truckers in particular tend to reflect a ‘wild west’ mentality, they still have a responsibility to themselves and their communities to continue contributing to beating COVID-19 so that life can get back to normal and the economy can open.  They need to cut down on extreme pronouncements about attacking ‘tyrannical governments’ who supposedly are oppressing their people with public health measures.  Instead, they might gain more public support by avoiding such far-right fringe edicts.

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