The scenes that unfolded in downtown Ottawa over the past three weeks have been described by people living there as disruptive and frightening. For people right across the country, they’ve also been eye-opening.
Anyone who thought this kind of dug-in, angry occupation of streets in a capital city would never happen in Canada was proven wrong by how quickly and easily Ottawa was brought to a standstill by the so-called Freedom Convoy.
What’s more, as the days of diesel-spewing truck idling and intrusive horn-honking went on, there has been disbelief at how little anyone seemed willing — or able — to do. Peter Sloly resigned as Ottawa police chief on Tuesday, after days of criticism over how the convoys were handled from the beginning.
Experts, including some who have spent time in the crowds, say the occupation will probably have some lasting effects, but it is unlikely to become the new face of protest.
Shattered norms
It’s not known why Ottawa police allowed the convoy protesters to set up where they did in the downtown core or expected them to leave after a few days.
But Regina Bateson, who studies human rights and the political consequences of conflict and violence, says that’s a key question.
“I think there needs to be a very active look at what real racial bias or preference may have played in how the group was initially assessed and why they were deemed to be not particularly threatening, even though they clearly are,” she said.
“Other protesters, in particular Black and Indigenous groups have been treated much more harshly in the past.”
Bateson, an assistant professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa, said the events that unfolded in Ottawa have “shattered norms” and that the participants have established new tactics and “pushed the envelope of the possible in Canada.”
“What we’ve seen in Ottawa is something that had elements of a protest to start with, that then morphed into an illegal occupation, that now has significant foreign involvement, as well as more organized militia-style activity happening,” she said.
She believes other groups are unlikely to succeed if they decide to emulate their tactics.
Protests generally involve the gathering of people to express a collective disagreement about a government policy or something going on in society.
The Anti-Defamation League cites a number of goals a protest can have, including to influence public opinion, draw attention to and share information about a perceived injustice or gain a wider audience for the cause.
Sometimes protesters do break laws in the course of their actions.
“They have some sense that there are laws, that they may try to disturb a bit, but they know they’re breaking the law,” said Joao Velloso, associate professor at the University of Ottawa’s faculty of law. “When an Indigenous group is blockading a train from passing, they’re going to tell you that they’re breaking the law to achieve a certain thing.”
Velloso spent several days in the streets of Ottawa during the truck blockade, speaking to the people who were part of it.
“Most of these guys downtown, they don’t believe they are breaking the law,” he said.
Velloso described what happened in Ottawa as akin to holding people hostage.
Loss of public support
If the goal was to influence public opinion, the convoy members lost the support of the general public pretty quickly.
An Angus Reid poll out this week suggests nearly three-quarters of Canadians (72 per cent) believe the convoy members should go home. Further, 44 per cent of those polled said they are now more likely than before the convoy action to support vaccine requirements at the Canada-U.S. border and indoor mask requirements in their communities.
Colleen Coffey has been organizing and taking part in protests for more than 30 years, most recently as Atlantic Regional Executive Vice-President for the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
“I probably have broken the law more than once,” she said. “But not in such a way that I was going to cause harm to any individual or group of people.”
She said she has always operated from the position of “you make your point, and that’s it. And it’s not about hatred or inflicting suffering on people.”
Bateson recalled a video that circulated of one member in particular, who was angry about COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
“His rationale for why they were blowing the horns was to make other people suffer the way he had already suffered. So it was actually a rationale of retaliation and not about, like, expressing anger to authorities.”
And the problem, she said, was that police failed to act promptly.
WATCH | How the convoy is forcing the end of some relationships:
Unfriended: Protest convoys create rifts with family, friends
7 days ago
Duration 2:11
As deeply divisive pandemic protests continue across the country, some Canadians say it’s taking a toll on their relationship both on and off social media. 2:11
‘A fundamental epic failure’
“Nothing really went right here,” said Christian Leuprecht, a professor at Royal Military College and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.
The security expert says there was clear failure by all three levels of government when it came to preparing and dealing with the onslaught of trucks.
“A modern state has three basic functions: security, prosperity, democracy,” he said. “If you don’t have security and safety for your population, you won’t have a prosperous country and you won’t have a democratic country.
“And what we see in Ottawa is a fundamental epic failure of all levels of government to provide for the most basic function of the modern state.”
Leuprecht said the problem runs even deeper than simply police inaction.
“From the beginning, we have people thumbing their noses at the rule of law and the Constitution and our democratic institutions. Making claims they want to bring down the prime minister,” he said. “Clearly seditious type of activity among a minority — or perhaps a majority of the protesters, who knows? But the state was nowhere to be seen.”
Leuprecht said a much heavier-handed approach should have been used from the onset, and warns what happened did not escape notice abroad.
“You can also bet that our adversaries in Moscow and Beijing and elsewhere are also watching, as well. How do you bring down Canadian democracy and disrupt Canadian democracy? Support a few fringe groups that resort to unlawful protest measures.”
Leuprecht thinks the intelligence as the convoy was approaching Ottawa was flawed, and only concerned with a certain type of extremist group.
“For 20 years, we’ve been so singularly focused on jihadi terrorism,” he said.
“Imagine if instead of that Confederate flag, that would have been an ISIS flag carried by a guy in a beard who identifies publicly as Muslim,” he said. “Do you think the enforcement might have been just a tad different?
He says there should be a Royal Commission to figure out exactly what went wrong in Ottawa and to ensure it never happens again.
“Our law enforcement and national security system came under limited stress by a few thousand protesters, and the system completely collapsed, as far as I can tell,” he said.
“That suggests to me we need a complete overhaul of our institution, of our capabilities, of our legislation. The system is not working.”
WATCH | Why the government says it needed the Emergencies Act to dismantle the convoy:
Why the government invoked the Emergencies Act
4 days ago
Duration 2:38
Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair talks to Ian Hanomansing about why it was necessary to invoke the federal Emergencies Act to try to end the protests. 2:38
Angus Reid surveyed 1,622 Canadian adults online from Feb. 11-13, 2022 who are members of Angus Reid Forum. The margin of error of is +/- 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
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.