Around the World, Authorities Are Cracking Down on 'Freedom Convoys'

Paris police are threatening truckers in a French “Freedom Convoy” with prison if they try to block traffic. Meanwhile, authorities in New Zealand made more than 100 arrests as they moved to clear a protest encampment of thousands outside the country’s parliament building.

"I’m here today to protest against the mandates."

A convoy of cars, campervans and 2,000 protesters blocked streets around New Zealand’s parliament in Wellington on Tuesday to protest #Covid19 restrictions, mimicking Ottawa, Canada's blockade https://t.co/cmSu8pFci0 pic.twitter.com/hVA0xO6EJj

— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) February 9, 2022

Something is happening in the world. At present, it’s a formless, shapeless mass, and barely discernible. But something wonderful—and scary and exciting and possibly earth-shattering—is happening in countries across the globe.

It’s not some socialist revolt of the masses, although ordinary people are largely driving the movement. The sound you hear coming from these Freedom Convoys is the sound of people who’ve had enough and want to control their own destinies once again. And authorities are refusing to oblige.

Mandates may be the proximate cause of the Freedom Convoys, but it’s what the mandates represent that’s at issue: the micro-managing of the lives of people who are being treated like small children instead of rational adults.

Forcing people to do something for their own good just because the powers that be have decided what’s best is no way to live in a free country—in any country. And it’s clear that governments haven’t caught on to what these protests are really about.

The U.S. government is begging the Canadian government to take action to clear the bridges on the border that have been blocked by truckers in the Freedom Convoys. Apparently, the U.S. auto industry is being negatively impacted by the blockade and some factories have been forced to shut down.

Associated Press:

The White House said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke with their Canadian counterparts and urged them to help resolve the standoff.

Federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said Royal Canadian Mounted Police reinforcements are being sent to Windsor, Ottawa and Coutts, Alberta where another border blockade is happening.

Trudeau met virtually with leaders of Canada’s opposition late Thursday and said he spoke with Windsor’s mayor. Trudeau’s office said there is a willingness to “respond with whatever it takes” to end the blockades.

That certainly sounds ominous. But wouldn’t it be better to, like, you know, talk to the protesters before going in and seizing their rigs and bashing their heads?

In Canada, even some on the right have abandoned the Freedom Convoy after Canadian TV dwelt lovingly on some Nazi flags and the Stars and Bars flying in the protest crowd. This proved to be too much for the mild-mannered Canadians. Perhaps one in a thousand people at the protest harbor hateful thoughts, but the coverage in the Canadian press is making it appear as if there’s a Nazi Party convention is in town.

Or worse, that January 6-style “insurrectionists” are trying to take over the Canadian government…or something.

Conservative Ontario Premier Doug Ford, meanwhile, moved to cut off funding for the protests by successfully asking a court to freeze millions of dollars in donations to the convoy through crowd-funding site GiveSendGo. Ford has called the protests an occupation.

Canadian officials previously got GoFundMe to cut off funding after protest organizers used the site to raise about 10 million Canadian dollars ($7.8 million). GoFundMe determined that the fundraising effort violated the site’s terms of service due to unlawful activity.

With political and economic pressure mounting, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens announced the city will seek a court injunction to end the occupation.

Mandates in the United States are dropping right and left as Democrats begin to pay a serious political cost for “following the science” when the “science” isn’t very “scientific.” If the radical left in America is forced—reluctant to give up their emergency powers, why not Canada? European nations are also slowly easing restrictions. The writing is on the wall: the COVID panic is over and it’s time to get serious about rebuilding the damage done by ruinous government policies.