Police haven’t reported any physical violence at the ongoing Ottawa rally against vaccine mandates and other government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions, but critics warn that conflating the absence of bloodshed with “peaceful” protest downplays the dangers of the weekend demonstrations.
For two days, the downtown core of the nation’s capital has been a no-go zone as trucks and crowds have snarled traffic, with some members defacing monuments and wielding signs with violent and hateful imagery. Police are also investigating what they describe as threatening behaviour toward officers, city workers and other individuals, as well as damage to a city vehicle.
But as of Sunday afternoon, there were no arrests related to incidents of physical violence during the demonstrations, a police spokeswoman said, though a statement issued that evening said “confrontations and the need for de-escalation has regularly been required.”
This has prompted many media reports to describe the protests as “peaceful.” Activists and academics on social media have taken issue with this characterization, saying it undermines the fear, damage and disruption the protests have wrought.
Catherine McKenney, the councillor for Ottawa’s downtown, said the protests have been very disruptive for local residents, adding many have also found them disturbing.
“They’re also seeing the images that we’re all seeing, of very right-wing extremist messages: the flags that display the swastika, confederate flags, images of a prime minister being lynched,” McKenney said. “I’m not sure that I would continue to call this peaceful.”
McKenney, who is non-binary, said they aren’t sure they would be safe venturing downtown.
“There’s no doubt that there is a large element in this convoy, that is part of a movement, that is extreme and that is xenophobic. We knew that coming into the weekend, but it’s really very difficult to see that play out in our neighbourhoods.”
Josh Greenberg, professor of communication and media studies at Carleton University, echoed many of McKenney’s concerns.
He explored the issue in a series of tweets in which he argued the evidence of intimidation and harassment, alongside the blatant flouting of public health measures and limiting access to key city infrastructure, do “not meet a common definition of ‘peaceful.”‘
“By what common understanding of the term does what we are seeing on the ground, on TV, in our social media feeds qualify as ‘peaceful protest?”‘ he wrote. “Is it merely the absence of physical violence and injury? That’s not unimportant but is insufficient as a definitional threshold.”
Greenberg did not respond to request for an interview on Sunday.
Fareed Khan, founder of Canadians United Against Hate, described the protests as a threat to political stability and “peace-loving” Canadians.
“People do have a right to peacefully protest. I’ve been involved in organizing a number of these sorts of things,” said Khan.
“But you know what we didn’t do? We didn’t disrupt an entire city … we didn’t call for the unseating of the government. We didn’t intimidate and threaten people who didn’t agree with us.”
Khan said the demonstrations don’t have to come to blows to jeopardize public safety. He said some protesters have refused to wear masks in indoor venues, and suggested the mass gathering could become a COVID-19 “superspreader event” that would have deadly consequences far beyond those who attended it.
Khan accused protesters of targeting marginalized groups with racist and antisemitic symbols, intimidation and harassment.
He added that Canadians United Against Hate’s planned in-person vigil in Ottawa marking the fifth anniversary of a deadly shooting at a Quebec City Mosque was cancelled on Saturday due to safety concerns.
Deirdre Freiheit, president of Shepherds of Good Hope, said staff and volunteers at a soup kitchen allegedly fielded verbal abuse from protesters demanding meals over several hours.
Freiheit alleged that a member of the shelter community was assaulted by protesters, and a security guard who came to his aid was threatened and called racial slurs. Ottawa police have reached out to Shepherds of Good Hope to investigate the incident, a service spokeswoman said Sunday evening.
Khan said the public response to this weekend’s demonstrations exposes a racist double standard in civil resistance, suggesting protests advocating for the rights of those who are Black, Indigenous or people of colour have faced much harsher opposition for causing far less disruption.
“This smacks of racism and white privilege,” he said. “If you had a Muslim, or a brown person, or an Indigenous person who organized such an event and called for unseating the government of this country, security forces would have been down on them like a bag of hammers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 31, 2022.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
