We don’t agree about the kind of Canada we want to live in, that’s plain to see. But we have to shelve that discussion for now. Clear and present is the situation in Ottawa, Windsor, and at border locations across the country, where you’ve made your displeasure known to the world: Vaccine mandates have got to go.
Also, a bunch of other messages have gotten lumped in with your legitimate fears about job security. Racist messages. Seditious messages. You must know this by now.
I hope you haven’t forgotten that Canada - whatever the country is to become in our lifetime - was founded on principles of peace, order and good government. Look it up. The good government bit will be defined differently depending on what you expect of Canadian legislators, but the beauty of the democratic process is that we have a chance to determine what good government means whenever we go to the polls.
The other principles, peace and order, we both know what that looks like, and it isn’t what these protests have become. Civil disobedience has a place in a just society. But there is a balance to be struck between the need for change and transformation in government, and the need for institutional stability and rule of law.
You say government has overreached itself, that our freedoms are being stolen. I say, the role of government is to create laws that allow us to live in relative safety and autonomy, the same laws that keep people from driving on the wrong side of the road. Canadian laws also constrain the right to free expression that exists in other jurisdictions, most notably to our south, where citizens espouse life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness above all.
But in Canada, societal freedoms have limits, and it’s the job of government to legislate those limits. And since our vote determines the membership of said government, by extension it’s our job.
There's not much else to say, except to remind you that the last few years have been challenging for everyone, no matter your identity, or politics, no matter your station in life, or whether you took the vaccine or not. The human capacity to suffer is common, and throughout history, not one person, or group of people, has had the franchise on it, nor can claim the exclusive experience of it. Why would things be any different now?
So please, stand down. Go home. You don’t speak for me, but your message - both the intended and the unintended parts - has been communicated. As for freedom, emancipate yourself from mental slavery. That’s the real revolution, and in the end, the only one that matters.
