Fascists in Ottawa. None in Kiev!

Writing about Kazakhstan a short while ago, I remarked on the hypocrisy of many who seemed very happy to support what I disparagingly called “the mob” when it’s rampaging through the streets of countries they don’t like but get mega upset when it happens at home. Masses demonstrating on the street and occupying squares and buildings are “democracy” when they happen elsewhere but “anti-democratic” when they happen at home. As I wrote, “The thing is that all those complaining about the efforts to restore order in Kazakhstan aren’t too fond of the mob either, at least when it starts attacking things that they like.”

Well, it’s good to be proven true.

A week ago, the “mob” turned up here in Ottawa and our liberal intelligentsia is none too happy about it. Mob is perhaps the wrong word, as the truckers and their supporters who have been occupying downtown Ottawa for 8 days to protest against vaccine mandates aren’t marauding around the city, but sitting in more or less one place, in a more or less orderly fashion. But they are illegally occupying a large chunk of real estate in the centre of our capital city, and there are occasional stories of them harassing locals, misbehaving around the war memorial, and shouting extremist slogans. In addition, a couple of crazies briefly flew in one instance a Nazi flag and in another a Confederate battle flag, though those now seem to have disappeared. If this were somewhere in Eastern Europe, we’d be having headlines wondering if this was the start of a new “colour revolution.”

Let’s be frank here. I have no truck with the protestors. For sure, we’re all fed up with covid-related restrictions and would like it all to be over. But I really don’t understand the anti-vax stuff. How much trouble is it really to get a jab in the arm? Certainly a lot less than hanging around in a truck in the freezing temperatures of Ottawa for days on end. And besides, even if you don’t like vaccine mandates, that’s no reason to occupy our capital, illegally park your vehicles, harass locals and the like. Maybe it’s because I’m deeply reactionary, but unless it’s some sort of counter-revolution against an illegal usurpation of power, I’m not a fan of this sort of street protest against recognized authority, democratic or not.

That said, the trucker protest doesn’t really affect me, so I’m not getting too upset. I’m against it; it’s annoying; but life goes on. However, the same could not be said for much of Ottawa’s liberal intelligentsia, at least judging by their reactions on Twitter, Facebook, and their various blogs. The protest, in their eyes, is an abomination – racist, fascist, sexist, homophobic, you mention it-ist. The Ottawa police are weak and pathetic, having failed to do anything about it, allowing these revolting truckers to settle in unopposed rather than taking firm action to break up the protest. Something needs to be done and done now. This can’t be allowed to continue. It’s an affront to all that we hold dear. Send in the army. Tow away the trucks. Arrest those responsible.

It was interesting, therefore, to read a piece published yesterday by Alex Neve, one time head of Amnesty International in Ottawa, and now a Senior Fellow of my own Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. Neve puts forward what he calls the “human rights case for ending the siege in downtown Ottawa.” While people do have a right to express their views, he argues, this is decidedly limited. The truckers’ protest has gone far beyond what is acceptable, and

“has rapidly become a source of extreme inconvenience and frustration at the very least, and increasingly of incidents of racism, homophobia and transphobia, misogyny, fear, and very serious physical and mental health harm from the hate-filled messages on flags and protest signs, encounters with angry protestors, incessant blaring of high-decibel truck horns, impact of diesel fumes, and helpless sense people have of being abandoned and trapped in their homes. Additionally, large numbers of businesses, small and large, have been left with no choice but to close or scale back their operations.”

Neve goes on:

“It is time for police to take human rights action to uphold human rights. There is no unqualified right to protest that gives freedom to wave flags, chant slogans or make threats that are racist, misogynist or direct hate at the LGBTQ+ community. There is no time-unlimited right to snarl and obstruct residential streets … no unbridled right to ceaselessly blare horns … no unrestricted right to have vehicles idle in those streets for hours at a time, spewing noxious diesel and other fumes … There is no unqualified right to deface, desecrate or vandalize public or private property. And there is absolutely no right to be violent or threaten violence towards others.

All of which is, of course, completely true. But I couldn’t help but wonder what Neve’s former employers, Amnesty International, had had to say eight years ago when a whole group of people occupied downtown Kiev for several months, causing “extreme inconvenience,” waving “hate-filled message on flags and protest signs,” including a fair number of outright fascist symbols, “spewing noxious fumes” from their burning tyres, and most definitely being “violent or threatening violence towards others.”

Well, as at it happens, back then Amnesty had a rather different view about the limits that should be imposed on the right to protest. In a December 2013 report denouncing human rights abuses by the Ukrainian authorities against the Maidan protestors, Amnesty declared that,

“International standards permit states to place certain restrictions on the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, but any such restriction must be provided by law, and is only permissible if it is demonstrably necessary and proportionate for the protection of national security or public safety, public order, public health or morals, or protection of the rights and freedoms of others. The European Court of Human Rights has underlined that this means there must be a “pressing social need” for such restrictions.”

The reasons given by the Ukrainian authorities for trying to forcibly end the protests in Kiev and elsewhere did not “pass the test of being a ‘pressing social need’,” said Amnesty. The actions taken by the government against the demonstrators were therefore unjustifiable and a breach of their human rights.

So let’s get this straight. A so-far peaceful protest in downtown Ottawa in pursuit of a very narrow and limited political goal, in which some streets have been illegally occupied but not any buildings, and in which maybe a couple of fascist flags have been briefly observed, and there’s been a few complaints of verbal abuse and “desecration” of public monuments, goes far beyond what is permitted under the right to protest and is such a breach of the human rights of the locals that the police must step in and end it right now. By contrast, there was no “pressing social need” to suppress a much longer lasting demonstration in Kiev, in which protestors seized buildings, regularly attacked the police (as the Amnesty report admits), displayed fascist symbols in abundance, and sought nothing less than the overthrow of the state.

Am I stupid, or is something a little off there?

Supporters of the Ottawa truckers say that the presence of a small group of extremists in their midst shouldn’t be used to tarnish them all, as they are mostly normal, decent folk. Their opponents, however, say that any number of racists and fascists is too many, that we can’t allow this sort of imagery; besides, the fact that the truckers tolerate such people thoroughly taints them and their cause.

But oddly, if you dare to point out fascists in Ukraine you’re told that such people are a small minority, that most of those on Maidan, and then supporting the post-Maidan government, were normal, decent, democratic folk, and you shouldn’t allow the presence of a “few extremists” to taint the “revolution of dignity” as a whole.

Now, if it were different people saying these different things, then it wouldn’t be a problem. But as we’ve seen with the case of Amnesty, it’s not. Nor is it in the case of Canada’s political elite, including the ruling Liberal Party. Fascists in Ukraine? That’s Russian disinformation, they tell us. When the mob attacked the police and toppled the government, they saw only democracy. But a bunch of truckers sitting around in Ottawa honking their horns – fascism! A threat to our most cherished values.

Hmm.