In 2020, a man was killed by a local police officer during a routine arrest for an alleged petty crime. The world reacted with outrage, and condemnation. Portions of cities were occupied for several months. Despite peaceful intentions on the part of most protestors, there were numerous acts of vandalism, looting and arson associated with these protests, which went on for several months across the globe. Many of the politicians currently in power supported this protest, including the PM of Canada, who publicly took a knee in solidarity.
In 2022, while peacefully protesting suspension of Charter rights and the violation of informed consent, horse-mounted police trampled a woman using a walker, and smashed her skull. This ended twenty-two days of consecutive peaceful protests, where no crime more serious than parking violations were committed.
The BLM protests during the summer of lockdowns enjoyed a curious sanction from public health authorities, who endorsed these mass gatherings even after terminating primary elections due to the “risk”. Any one of these, in Minneapolis, in Portland, in Seattle, and eventually in Kenosha, were more violent and disruptive than what has been taking place in Ottawa.
Police brutality is always just cause for public protest. Citizens deserve to be protected against excessive force, and have a right to redress the government for grievances. One must wonder, though, why the Floyd protests, sparked by a single instance of deadly force by local police, were so well tolerated by those like Trudeau, when the Freedom Convoy, protesting the singular and unilateral actions of a dictatorial head of state, is deemed “unacceptable”.
Candy Sero was guilty of nothing more than exercising her rights as a citizen, to assemble peaceably and redress grievances on Parliament Hill. If the right to peacefully protest does not apply there, it does not apply anywhere. Canada has abandoned the pretense of democracy.
If the death of one man at the hands of local police is cause for global upheaval, why isn’t the senseless assault of this woman, trampled on orders from the Prime Minster himself? The world is faced with this question, and if you stood up for BLM, yet ignore this higher-order state-sanctioned violence because she was protesting a cause you disagree with, you never were acting on principles at all.
Note: at this time, there are conflicting reports about the outcome of this trampling, with some suggesting that she has survived in the hospital and others saying otherwise. Hopefully the reports of her demise have been exaggerated.
Further note: she survived a dislocated shoulder and was hospitalized, despite the police claiming that “no one was injured”. She is an indigenous woman who was strangely in the midst of the “white supremicists” at the protest.
Must we wait for further tragedy before standing up against the police brutality in Ottawa?