For three weeks, Canadian truckers and their supporters have occupied downtown Ottawa.
Organised by far-right activists, the so-called “Freedom Convoy” has dominated international news headlines as participants called for an end to all coronavirus restrictions in Canada and for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to be removed from office, among other things.
On February 14, Trudeau invoked a never-before-used emergency measure to give his government sweeping powers to disperse the demonstrators, and police on Friday began arresting participants in the blockade that has paralysed downtown Ottawa.
While the protest – which Ottawa residents called an “occupation” and officials at all levels of government described as unlawful – is coming to an end, the issues that fuelled it are not likely to go away.
Carmen Celestini, a post-doctoral fellow with The Disinformation Project at Simon Fraser University, says the convoy is the culmination of the growth during the COVID-19 pandemic of online communities rife with conspiracy theories, misinformation and disinformation. “Simultaneously, we had right-wing extremist groups … making a concerted recruitment effort to spread ideologies within these social communities being created online,” she said.
Here, Al Jazeera speaks to Celestini about the factors that led to the convoy blockades and protests, what ideas have circulated among participants, and where Canada goes from here.
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Al Jazeera: Who has been participating in these protests?
Carmen Celestini: We can see that there are people who genuinely are there to protest their concerns about mandates and how it affects their families and their finances and way of life. But we also see a large component of conspiracy theorists, both about COVID and QAnon and the Great Reset, and we see right-wing extremists, as well.
Al Jazeera: We have seen people rallying around the word “freedom” – why is that?
Celestini: It’s really important when we think about social movements that the language that is being used is something that can really motivate people. [Freedom] is something that people hold dear – and it can be something that you want to fight for. It’s a common language.
We can see that too with slogans that they’re using, like Make Canada Great Again. We see these terms that sort of have filtered out from the south [the United States] up here to Canada.
Even some of the leaders, with the way that they were articulating what their end goal was, it wasn’t simply the end of the [coronavirus] mandates, but also for them to have a role in our government and to have control over the democracy.
While there was a movement with people who were protesting for genuine concerns, people who were there because they see themselves as heroes, saving Canada from these conspiracy theories. We also see nefarious characters acting out with extremism and with almost a dismantling of our democratic process.
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Al Jazeera: Far-right and other extremist activists were among the key convoy organisers, who over the past few weeks have been able to raise millions of dollars for their cause. How have they been able to get that level of support?
Celestini: The way that populism, or the spreading of right-wing extremism ideology, or ideology as a whole works, is based on fear.
If we look at what was happening during the pandemic, people were afraid of losing their jobs, or not having money to pay rent, not being able to care for their families or feed their families or house their families. It seemed never-ending that this perpetuation of disaster or fear was there, and so you try to find some type of resolution for that fear. Some people may turn to their religion, but when prayers don’t work … you try to find what is human-made that is making this happen.
For conspiracy theories to take effect, there also has to be distrust in institutions. So we see this sowing, which has been happening for a while, of distrust of legacy media, distrust of the government, distrust of most institutions. And so there’s also an aspect of disenfranchisement.
Al Jazeera: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau really seems to be the main target of a lot of the vitriol we have seen over the past weeks. Can you explain how he has been so vilified?
Celestini: These conspiracy theories are inter-linked together and it’s hierarchical, creating what we call a super conspiracy theory – so the Great Reset and other conspiracy theories like QAnon interact with each other, and provide different formats for discussion, for solutions.
Politically it’s not a group of people who are angry at the political system or angry with a specific party; they’re angry at an individual. Everything is directed towards Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and he is so interlinked to these hierarchical conspiracy theories that he really has become the problem.
We see a rhetoric of more anger. The people who are participating as [political] candidates spreading conspiracy theories, spreading name-calling, things that were not common within the politics of Canada, and we see new players trying to engage through these conspiracy theories to create their own government movement. This is somewhat new.
Al Jazeera: Who or what party are you referring to?
Celestini: The People’s Party of Canada. There were candidates there whose entire platform was against mandates and against vaccines … and we see them engaging and popularising what is happening during the convoy. They built this populist movement and now they are supporting this [convoy] and encouraging them.
This isn’t going to go away once the protests have been dismantled. That will be something that is continuously built upon until the next election, which can grow populism and nationalism in Canada, much more so than it has been already.
Police hand out leaflets warning truck drivers to leave downtown Ottawa [File: Blair Gable/Reuters]
Al Jazeera: Trudeau’s comment that the protesters make up a “fringe minority” seems to have galvanised people, who have worn the phrase as a badge of honour. How difficult is it to break through that, as participants in this convoy appeared to have hardened their views?
Celestini: I think that so many people have been, for lack of a better term, down this rabbit hole, on the conspiracy theories – and I think that as a society we haven’t really dealt with the ideas of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theory.
These are things that previously we have dismissed. If you think about conspiracy theory, you think of somebody who is on the margins of society and then have stereotypical ideas of them wearing a tin-foil hat or not really understanding politics and not understanding reality. Then people who engage in misinformation or disinformation, we also approach with mockery or dismissal. But I think it behooves us to engage in this, understand it, and learn how to interact with it to stop it.
At this point, even if all of the mandates end … that distrust and sense of disenfranchisement is not going to go away. As a whole, we didn’t take it seriously enough and we didn’t engage with it and try to counter it, and so now we’re really feeling the impacts of this.
This is articulated truly as a battle for Canada, for the world, against this new world order and the figures like the prime minister who are attached to this.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
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Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
