It Could Happen Here - Canadian Trucker Convoy

Episode Date: January 31, 2022

We talk with journalist Dan Collen (@SpinelessL) about the anti-health mandate Truck Convoy at Canada’s Capital of Ottawa. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The numbers won't lie to you. Listen to this week's episode of Let's Talk Offline on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What up? All right, the show started. Garrison? Hey, we're going to be talking about Canada again. Canada again. So, yeah.

And to discuss Canada and politics and the happenings here, we have another journalist who writes for, I believe, Anti-Hate Canada, the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, and also Vice, I believe, right? Yeah, I've written for Vice. I'm currently researching full-time. I'm an extremism researcher for, it's a new initiative called the Online Hate Research and Education Project. It's actually partnered with the Canadian Hate Network, and it's under the New Burger Holocaust Education Center, which we might be renaming very soon. I'm very excited for you guys to get into a Twitter fight with James Lindsay. Can't wait. So yes, Dan here has joined us to talk about Canada because I've gotten a few messages

about this thing that's happening. My mother, who's in Alberta, called me a few days ago to talk about this thing that's happening. So I'm getting a lot of things and it's definitely worth discussing specifically on some of the rhetoric that people are using around this so i'm actually i'm gonna i'm gonna hand it to dan to talk about what like how did this thing like what is it and how did it kind of get started yeah uh well so garrison's not alone by the way for anyone not in canada every single person's mother in the entire country has called and asked them about it i just got another message literally

right now like literally this second it's got another one the moms of canada have been activated the moms of canada have been activated but not in exactly the same way that they're being perceived to be. Yeah, not all the ways. So the quote unquote trucker convoy, which I might get into a little bit later, but I'm kind of like against even calling it a trucker convoy. Yeah. 14th, and by a former Wexit party now called the Maverick Party member, Tamara Litch, and a group of very active far-right grassroots protesters who do a lot of organizing like this. And most of their activities kind of go back to like 2018.

Yeah, they go back a decent amount. Yeah, like this, I mean, there's links to people that have been doing it in the 90s and Canada's movement right now, but a non-binding motion against, I think it's M183 a few years ago, really mobilized people. And it's kind of been more consistent since then of the same groups of people. Yeah, that's what we talked about in our first Canada episodes about kind of how we got to that point. And now, like, those same people are still kind of behind what's going on right now.

So yeah, there's this alleged caravan of truckers, of all the truckers in Canada going to Ottawa. Statistically, all the truckers in Canada. All the truckers. And so this thing was kind of originally organized by some, like, known far-right figures and the people associated with the Canadian

Yellow Vests, which kind of died down. But it didn't die down, it just morphed, right? It morphed into a very strong anti-vax presence in Canada right now. The anti-vax movement is gaining a lot of popularity in Canada and it's run by these guys who were doing Wexit, which is like West Exit.

It's like for Alberta and BC to go away from Canada because the rest of Canada is too liberal. So Wexit and the LFS have really changed all of their focuses into this anti-vax thing as a way to do recruiting. And they've prompted this kind of movement of truckers going to Ottawa for a few specific reasons, which I think Dan probably knows a little bit more about than I do. I know the gist of it, but you've been focused on this slightly more than I have. Yeah, I guess the main reason is it works. Just from the perspective of getting attention and being able to get a message out, there's been a lot of traction on this that these groups don't normally get. I think the last trucker convoy that was done under

this sort of umbrella, it had like nine, I think was the total amount of like trucks that made it to Ottawa. The last time this was tried to be done, it was basically the same demands and the same reasons. So this one was started on January 14th and it didn't get that much buzz the first couple days. The original goal was set at a hundred thousand dollars. I don't remember the exact time, but once it hit that pretty fast and it hit the first million pretty fast in ways that like these fundraisers really, really don't like the last big one we saw in Canada that was quite alarming in that fast capped out at under $400,000. And that was for a barbecue, for a barbecue that got defied protests last year

and ended up getting like all its pad doors shut down. So there's a lot more money now in this one. Yeah, because this fundraiser, which was supposed to go like hand in hand with these truckers protesting the vaccine mandates because they're upset that they're not allowed to truck into these states because they're not vaccinated. So they have decided to all truck into Ottawa as like a pseudo strike slash like blockade type thing, because they're saying that we're not going to do our jobs and we're going to kind of block off access to these roads until this mandate is removed. Now, of course, the funny thing here

is that the mandate to not be allowed to enter the States to do your trucking routes, that's not a mandate by Canada. That's the rule in the United States. It is not. Because you're entering the United States, the States are actually the ones doing the blockage. The Canadian government has no control over this.

It's not actually the thing. The way to get the message out and support is incredibly effective because something i think like 28 there was a survey recently of canadians are against the mandate which is like really huge um for like canada's anti-vax movement to kind of get that like support and like a lot of people are mobilized to by there's a trend of posting uh it started on 4chan in 2018 but it's getting revived a lot again now of uh people posting like empty grocery stores uh even a conservative member of parliament recently posted an empty grocery store and asked for people's emails to try to like change the laws uh it turned out to be from the uk it was a stock photo uh

and there's been like even like the stores themselves have had to like come out and make statements being like no we're not we're not empty we have we have things we are in the process of we restocking that's happened in the u.s too where it's like yeah we're literally emptying that shelf to move stuff we've also had so many snowstorms. We've had really bad snowstorms in Ontario for a lot of the real photos of empty shelves. And it's just like, oh no, the salads half out and the store just make a statement. It's like, yeah, we had two snowstorms a day in a row and our truck arrived today. But the narrative that they're trying to push is like these mandates are causing these shortages.

And it's working. And the propaganda is working, even though it's all on a false premise, because first of all, it's not. That's not causing that. And second of all, complaining to Canada, Canada's not the one who's making the restrictions. The states are the one that's blocking you from doing this.

But it's not actually about these issues. That's not the reason why you're getting all these people driving to Ottawa. Because there is a lot of people. There's not many trucks. But there is a decent amount of people that are going this because it's not actually about these specific issues. It's this general seething hatred of Trudeau and a generalized grievance that it's gotten this broad support. It's gotten enough financial backing.

The fundraiser is what, like, like over $6 million now. Um, and it's, it's not like, it's just what it actually is, is an incoherent kind of intention just to go to the Capitol and cause

problems. Right. That's what they're actually, that's what like the underlying thing is for a lot of, a lot of the, of like explaining why it's gotten so picked up. Some, some official demands like have been put out and they would be even more confusing like to read than like some of them are. A couple of the most recent ones are just very general, like stop this divisive nature that our government is imposing kind of thing.

Like I'm paraphrasing, but it's really quite bland. Some demands from tangential groups involved, one, they say they won't leave until Trudeau steps down. Others say at one point said until every politician stepped down. I think that was before someone kind of pushed in more realistic goals into the movement. But in terms of what they're talking about for the rhetoric surrounding it, we're seeing a lot of rhetoric around the sentence being like, this can be our version of January 6th. But they're saying

that in a good way. That's the thing that at least some of the organizers, and then it's being carried out into the generalized rhetoric, is that this should be our own version of this which is which is interesting on a few ways but like also like this would not have been said like seven months ago but it's being said now which means like there's been a shift in how january

6 is being viewed there was this initial like really distancing and now it's like it's becoming almost like more acceptable to acknowledge that it was maybe a good thing in your eyes and it's like that's an interesting rhetorical shift that that's been going on but then it's also concerning on just like a regular level to be like yeah these people wanted these people are saying they want to do their own january 6th that has obvious like physical implications for all these people trying to drive to ottawa do either blocking off roads or just like making the government inoperable. Yeah. A,

a, a co-streamer or a streamer in what's called the plat army. And now that's sometimes kind of just being rebranded as like diagonal on network, a quote unquote, which we can get into more, but it's, it's going to be sillier.

Yeah. They're, they're kind of their own, they're their own issue for later. Yeah. They're their own issue, but it was one of their sillier. Yeah, they're kind of their own. They're their own issue for later. Yeah, they're their own issue. But it was one of their streamers who is very tangentially connected

to like a lot of the far right people that are involved in this protest movement leading up to it. In fact, Pat King, who is officially one of the organizers of the convoy until he wasn't. And then he was again. That was a whole dramatic thing for a day.

Like he streamed alongside Plaid Army guys before. So someone on Plaid Army said, and I would quote, I would like to see our own January 6th event, see some of those truckers plow right through that 16 foot wall. And on January 24th, that was put up on CTV news made alive. And it's kind of scared a lot of people. I think at that point, former conservative leader andrew sheer had already voiced support for the convoy there have been a lot of other like members of parliament stuff voicing support for the convoy

uh some of whom really didn't seem to know like what was involved and really just kind of heard ten like in passing oh it's against these mandates and i oppose these mandates too and it's like if it's against true deal you may as well sign on, it's against these mandates and I oppose these mandates too. And it's like, if it's against Trudeau, you may as well sign on because it's going to help you. You're going to help

your political career. Yeah, that's completely true. Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter... Nocturnum, Tales from the Shadows. Presented by I Heart and Sonorum. An anthology of modern day horror stories

inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America

since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura podcast network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex positivepositive and deeply entertaining podcast,

Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

New episodes every Thursday. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible.

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and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries. Don't miss out on the fun, el té caliente, and life stories. Join me for Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get into todo lo actual y viral. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. podcast or wherever you get your podcast. So have they actually started like blocking roads or is it just a bunch of random people driving? So there's, there's a few different like converging points of the convoy. I think I would say probably the biggest one,

but it's hard to kind of keep track. Started in British Columbia and it's going to this. I'm sure not everyone knows like map for Canada. So like British Columbia is like our West Coast. That's our California. And Ottawa is it's close to the West and it's in Ontario, but it's on the border of Quebec and Ontario. And that's where our parliament is. That's our capital city. So it's coming from every which way, but I think the largest contingent comes from British Columbia and it just basically goes eastward to Ottawa, picking up people along the way.

Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's heading in that direction. How do we know about,

I know some people have kind of already, some people have kind of already sort of arrived in Ottawa, but mostly people are expected to more arrive in the next – well, we're recording this Thursday night, so this episode will probably come out on Monday. People are expected to arrive on Saturday is the day that people are expecting everybody to be there. At least that's my understanding of it. The convoy itself arrived Saturday. be there uh at least that's my understanding of it the convoy itself arrived saturday um there are people like coming from further east uh who are like staying overnight in town and kind of just showing up the parliament event so like by by all accounts uh the parliament show will probably be a lot bigger than that so far uh which i guess we haven't mentioned numbers yet

sorry numbers nor like what what they actually really plan on doing once they get there because it's been so much talking about like why this got started and what's the like driving motivational factors but yeah like their goal is to get to a place and do a thing and and that's the that's yeah the thing is unclear that's the unclear part the thing is mostly unclear i have seen discussions about like blocking off like doing like a base trying to assemble like a trucking strike um and then like blocking off access so that the government's forced to obey their demands or else like the country will shut down um then some people maybe are just kind of doing it as like a one-day protest it's it's it again it is it is it is pretty unclear but people are headed to there um what what is the what is the numbers

at least from where we can see like online and stuff so their numbers have been the number of 50 000 people 50 000 trucks yeah 50 000 50 000 people became 50 000 trucks uh very quickly um and that same number i think rogan repeated it i know Joe Rogan said it yeah yeah Joe Rogan said it Theo Fleury went on Laura Ingram and repeated the 50,000 number he said 50,000 truckers not trucks specifically as far as I know Theo Fleury has no official involvement

with the convoy and is just a fan and is just repeating some numbers that like organizers themselves have kind of echoed this is all so complicated for me because this is very troubling in a lot of ways but also i'm a huge fan of the song convoy so this is really devastating please continue it's all right yeah so canada's far-right protest movement has kind of a habit of doing this uh in fe of 2021, Kellyanne Farkas, who's like a mainstay

of the anti-mask, anti-vax movement, and in between what I'm talking about and right now, actually dated Pat King for a while, who's kind of the most outspoken person in organizing the current convoy, claimed that 100,000 people were coming to Parliament for what was then like an anti-mask demonstration. Before the event, that outlook changed to 50,000. And I was actually there, it looked closer to like 200 people. I had friends that had counted like 170 people, so not quite 50,000. For all intents and purposes, the current one will be longer. Reporters doing great journalism along the way have estimated up to like 400 people so far um including i think 15 trucks uh outside the bass pro shop in toronto this afternoon

uh was counted side note uh if nothing else got to give them points for stopping at bass pro and toronto it's a pretty sweet bass pro i do love a good bass pro shop my favorite is the one they built into the giant pyramid. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Obviously. Nashville, baby. So the Bass Pro in Toronto, if you're ever in town, Robert, it's the only place around that I've been told that sells Subsonic 22 rounds. So if you're, like, in the woods. Oh, great.

So if you're, like, in the woods, but, like, you don't want to, like, scare your neighbors because the woods aren't that big. Yeah, I used to have some friends, and I used to go shooting in a suburban neighborhood with 22 because it's technically well don't don't do the part you come definitely uh it was weird there was it was legal oh right canada doesn't i do not i don't endorse the might have to might have to cut this part out for regional sharing no leave this all in just a bunch of words make it nonsense with bleeping please continue yeah so only 15 uh trucks were counted by uh cbc at at that point um and like videos and stuff have been

yeah yeah there might been a couple dozen. Slightly short, but I think by the time, by Saturday, I think there's a decent chance that there might be maybe around 50 trucks to 100 trucks. If there's anything more than 500, all of the media footage will look like there's 50,000. That's enough trucks that nobody's camera's going to be able

to show the extent of them realistically. And then, yeah, once they're there, it's unclear what they want to do. Some people just want to do the fuck shit up thing. Some people want to carry on the tradition of what most of the anti-vax, anti-mask protests in Canada have been, which have been pretty big,

but it's been mostly standing with signs. So it is really unclear because, again, most of the truckers in Canada probably are not going to be there nor to necessarily endorse this idea. Nor is like – because they're pressing the – their initial issue is not even based on an actual thing. So it is – I'm not sure how many people are really going to show up because I don't know even how specific it is to an issue. government resigns like these people who are talking about this like like blockage and shortage and stuff are also like the same people who get very angry at indigenous people for blocking off roads and trails um for like oil and like pipeline protests a lot of them yeah some of them some of them are indulged in pretendian stuff uh like pat king uh back in september um kind of went on like

a kick where he just let a lot of people believe he was indigenous and claimed so and not correct them. That is that is weird. And a family member of him went on Facebook and like bombarded people with information that he was not, in fact, indigenous. And it was all very weird. And a lot of people held him to comments in the past where he talked about anglo-saxons having the strongest bloodlines uh yeah that is i think that's good stuff pat pat king probably deserves his own little deep dive on one of the pods but but yeah like it is

it is like with all the people talking about blockades and stuff all you most of them coming from like the western side of canada um it is it is uh yeah like you're you're talking about all these things and like there's really big pro-oil sentiments and all of the in all of this crowd uh yeah because a lot of it is connected to financial and political stuff not necessarily even this vaccine issue it's been more like a symbol to represent their general kind of upsetedness at um at theness at the way things are going for them. It's interesting to me, so when I first heard

about this, I was like, oh, okay, so this is going to be like the Chilean truckers. And I was like, okay, well, this is really bad. But it's interesting to me how few people they've been able to mobilize. That's not a large number of truckers. It's tough because they actually get yeah it looks like a lot of like vehicles when you when you see like

footage uh photos and videos like like in i'm gonna like a lot of like telegram and facebook groups of just people just like sharing pictures and photos um of the rally of the convoy passing through their town and like it it's like what ro said, like it's when it fills up both sides of the camera and you have a wide depth of field, it looks huge and it's really hard to count. The money is preposterous. Also, side note on the money, the funds were frozen a few days ago on the 25th. But today, one million million was released back to them because they gave GoFundMe a pretty clear plan,

allegedly, according to GoFundMe, for how they're going to distribute it. The rest of the, I think it's like $6.7 million now, so the rest of the $5.7 million I think is still frozen. Okay. It is so much money. Yeah. We should do something like that.

They could actually buy truck nuts for 150,000 truckers, which is the most I've seen them guess truckers are coming. They could buy $20 truck nuts off Amazon for all of them and still have the vast majority of their funds left over. Yeah, but see, that would be an act of actual heroism, and they're not going to do that. The reason why I wanted to talk about this is one, to acknowledge that it's happening, right? Acknowledge the tactics that they're using in terms of trying to go into an urban area and block off trade routes, essentially.

Yeah. And then I wanted to talk about, first of all, it doesn't matter that the fact that this is happening is divorced from any kind of direct cause. Right. Because their their actual grievance is false and the grievance doesn't really actually matter. It just needs there needed to be some kind of cultural or propaganda push in order for this physical action to happen. And that's been done. It doesn't even need to be like coherent. And then escalation, people driving here, doing this thing, and then I know there was this one interview, I forgot on what news channel,

but they interviewed this one trucker guy, part of this convay in my hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. And he said, I advocate civil war. If people don't want to step up, we guns we'll have some we'll stand

up and we'll bring them out but like so that's the quote so like in the fact that you're just openly saying i advocate civil war in relation to this movement is like my goals my goal here is being like people fantasize about canada as being a place to escape. You know, Canada is like the other from the States. And like, no, it's the same. Like, you cannot escape away from fascism. There is no real away right now. There's no safe ground. There's no safe ground.

It can spread to where you are. have people on the new on like global news saying i advocate civil war within the context of this of this like um you know convoy movement it is it is an actual thing worth paying attention to it is an actual problem it's it's huge and earlier today uh and i might pronounce his name wrong but uh del manuk doc uh from cbc toronto uh tweeted a story cause he, on behalf of CBC, uh, contacted, uh, an actual organizer of the convoy. They have different regional organizers and their website lists them all. Um, and it had packing funny side note, it had packing listed as an organizer while their GoFundMe had a statement saying they had no connection to him, um, which was very funny. Uh, but, uh, yeah, so CBC Toronto contacted them

and the guy responded, enough lies, you quote, slave-blooded traitor. Evil will get its due in the end. Slave-blooded? Yeah, after, yeah. After a back, yeah. After a back and forth, a very brief back and forth

and just like a couple of questions the organizer ended with you know you tow the line for the global corporate coup taking place under the guise of public health you can't be that dumb traders will swing in time oh boy yeah welcome i'm danny thrill won't you join me at the fire and dare enter Welcome. I'm Danny Trejo. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? Nocturnum, Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America.

From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters. inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? You get your podcast. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead,

now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how Tex Elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, better offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel winning economists to leading journalists in

the field. And I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God, things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. Hola, mi gente.

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where we get into todo lo actual y viral. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I do think Americans don't fully understand how much the anti-vax movement is tied to far-right politics within Canada. And it's been the driving force of far-right politics for the past two years and it's gotten so much larger um it is like it is it is it is a thing like when you have when you have people on camera saying we want to january 6th i advocate a civil war talking about not leaving until the government either resigns or mandates are dropped and then threatening physical violence on top of that um yeah like it's it is it is a thing that could happen there and that's kind of why i wanted to talk about it is like yeah when i have my mother calling me dozens of messages from random people like worried about this then yeah it is an issue like i've um

it's it's it's not it's not not a thing no it is. And the rhetoric is so universal against anyone they perceive to be leftist to that it is really dangerous. There's been a little bit of talk of counters in Ottawa. When the numbers are this big, there's no safe way for people to stop that sort of thing, especially when all the vehicles are on that side. It's dangerous. are this big like there's no safe way uh for people to to stop that sort of thing especially when all the vehicles are on that side like it's uh it's dangerous there's a lot of violent stuff um even uh like i was uh looking today uh the people's party of canada's they got like five percent of votes in our last election they had a little bit of a scandal uh during our election uh which is the end of last year, where a writing director for, I think

it's the Greater Area of London, it is Elgin Middlesex London, so their writing director, so not their member of parliament writing, was revealed to post like skull mask Nazi memes and memes comparing Bernier, the leader of his own party to Hitler. So like probably not a negative comparison. And he was not fired for it, but he was fired after it came out that he was being charged for throwing rocks at our prime minister. Oh, good.

That's fine. Yeah. He actually, he recently said on a live stream, he was asked if he was currently on trial and he said yeah i mean as far as i know uh like he's been posting images of like trucks running people over and that's just like one connection to uh to the legitimacy of it all um like i mean the uh the plat army guys the ones who talked about, uh, driving the truck 16 feet, they're also connected with, uh, Bernier. They've had, um, Randy Hillier on their podcast before, who's a sitting politician and a member

of provincial parliament, which is kind of like our state Senate equivalent over here. Um, uh, they, they've had him on and like, there, there's some like legitimacy to it, um, getting on. And when you just talk about the broad movement in general, uh, former, um, conservative They've had him on and like there's some like legitimacy to it getting on. And when you just talk about the broad movement in general, former Conservative Party of Canada leader Andrew Scheer, who had kind of a rocky departure from the party because he allegedly used campaign funds to pay for his kids' private school, side note. Like he'd already signed on and endorsed and been interviewed. Aaron O'Toole, the current leader of the conservative party,

just today actually said he was going to engage with them. Earlier this evening, Sergeant-at-Arms Packerish McDonald sent an email to our parliamentarians ahead of Saturday's trucker convoy protest. I'm quoting Justin Link's Twitter here. There have been attempts to collect MPs' home addresses. As such, the sergeant at arms is advising to avoid the rally and go somewhere safe. That apparently wasn't listened to Aaron O'Toole, who said, I'm going to do it anyways. And Justin Ling

tweeted later, tomorrow I will be meeting with truckers, O'Toole announces, right after parliamentary security warned MPs to avoid the protests entirely. So it's not great. Yeah, I mean, again, this will probably come out after Saturday. So if we don't talk about this again, then that means it's good. I mean, they showed up, they protested, they kind of dissipated. If we're following this up in a few days with another episode, then that means something bad happened. Yeah. But again, even at this point, it is still worth talking about in terms of like the – generally, like this is like a thought. Yeah, because this is the kind of – like the nut of why this is so important for everybody is what you were saying about like when you've got this many people, this many trucks coming from an outside and moving into a city, there's very little that can be done against them. Like there's not, there's not really much of an effective counter other than trying to get

another mass of people in cars to confront them. And that's, you know, a potentially dicey situation. So this remains a very powerful tactic. We've seen it used all over the United States too. Like, and it's this idea of like blockading a city even though this is kind of the earliest step in taking that is is this is gonna be the last time people try to extend this logic yeah so that that's kind of the surrounding cultural reasons and shifts in rhetoric and like applicableness as like an act

of like an act of like protest or like revolt or insurgency whatever term you want to use is just interesting because like a lot of these other interesting thing about the states compared to Canada is like in the states we have like an actual like far right movement like we have like

conservatives and then we have like the far right movement movement. In Canada, that distinction is not much of a thing. There is some far-right figures trying to push stuff forward, absolutely, but a lot of the space

in between conservative and far-right is kind of a little bit more fluid. A lot of these people who are showing up are not far-right protesters. They are kind of regular conservatives, but they're still getting sucked into saying, I advocate a civil war. That is just

a regular conservative dude. He's not a member of any kind of political thing. That is just kind of what this culture on the western side of Canada really defaults to almost when you start going into this kind of like anti-trudeau territory because that's the their their main their main politics is anti-trudeau like that is that is what they are so

anything that gets to that point is allowed whether that is conservative or that is like more far right as long as it's anti-trudeau then it's it is a valid politic and that's another distinction in the state that there's a thing in the canada that i had don't really see as much in the states it's very familiar to me when you talk about how anti-clintonism fed into trumpism like that that is i think a worthwhile comparison to make because there were a lot of american conservatives who could get in bed with anybody if they were staying against Hillary or Bill. Cool stuff. Well, this is all fun.

I hope to not talk with you about this again, Dan. But there is a chance there is a chance we will have conversations. If you wouldn't want to, after this episode airs, if people want to see what happened, right, because this airs probably Monday and the convoy is set to arrive on Saturday, where can they find work talking about this? Whether that be like your Twitter feed or if you know if any articles are planned.

Yeah, so I'm planning on live tweeting. I can't make any promises because safety is always a thing. Yeah. And I won't know what it looks like until Saturday happens, but I'm planning on live tweeting. My Twitter is at spineless L that's the word spineless. And then just the letter L. So,

yeah, you can check in on his account to see if he has a thread by the time this episode's out. And yeah, that's how you can kind of figure out what happened if you're just listening to this now. There'll be a lot of Ottawa media covering it if you just want to see the fallout. I imagine the Canadian IDA Network might talk about it more.

They put out an article today on it that covers more of the kind of problems of the far right that we talked about today than the most other media will go into. They did. That was a very good article and then also today Elon Musk tweeted in support of the Canadian truckers.

So just in terms of let's just, as a good example, I think this situation is a really great way to start thinking about politics and culture and how they relate to each other and how this type of thing succeeds and how it succeeds and why this rhetoric

is so successful in bringing in so many people in Canada and raising $6 million, almost $7 million. But anyway, that is the show. One more plug, Dan, so people know where to find you. I only really am active on Twitter. So again, it's at spineless L, the word spineless,

as in I don't have a spine, and then the letter L on Twitter. Thank you, Dan. Do you want to plug your Gitter account? Your Gitter? Wow. Wow. Yeah, real getter user vibes coming off of Dan.

The only social media platform that Joe Rogan looked at and said, eh. Robert's just trying to get me to plug my sock puppet accounts. Yeah, yeah. Everyone, follow his socks. This is a fucking op. You can follow all my sock puppets at fascistwizard.ca.

Anyway, that does it for our show. Thank you for listening. And yeah, convoys, Canada, can't escape. Excellent. Thank you for having me. Cape. Excellent. Thank you for having me.

It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly at coolzonemedia.com slash sources. Thanks for listening. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow. Join me, Danny Trejo, and step into the flames of right. An anthology podcast of modern day horror stories

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