Tangle - The Ottawa trucker protest.

Episode Date: February 10, 2022

Two weeks ago, a so-called "Freedom Convoy" of truckers began a trip across Canada. Their goal was to demonstrate against the Covid-19 vaccine mandates and other restrictions that have been put in place by the Canadian government, an effort led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The protesters’ destination was Ottawa, the nation's capital, and since arriving they have gathered throughout the city, blocking off streets, blaring their horns and demanding an end to the pandemic restrictions.You can read today's podcast here.You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and produced by Trevor Eichhorn. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.Our newsletter is edited by Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tanglenews/message Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight.

Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, a place where you get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking without all that hysterical nonsense you find everywhere else. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and on today's episode, we are going to be talking about the Freedom Convoy, the trucker protest in Ottawa, Canada. Before we jump in, though, I want to give a quick plug for tomorrow's newsletter, which will be on media bias and some of what I'm seeing in the media space.

A lot of people have asked me to cover this, to do some writing or podcasting about media criticism and why I started Tangle and kind of held off on it because I really prefer to talk about the issues and some of the stuff that divides us and policy. But I figured, why not? I'm ready to give my piece and share a little bit of my manifesto about why I started Tangle. So you'll be getting that tomorrow, but it is for subscribers only. So you have to be a member. You can become one by going to readtangle.com backslash membership. All right, so before we jump into our main story today, as always, we'll start with some quick hits. First up, the Consumer Price Index increased 7.5% in

January, higher than expectations of 7.2%. It is the highest annual rate of inflation since 1982. Number two, Dr. Anthony Fauci told the Financial Times that pandemic restrictions could end soon in the United States. Number three, House and Senate leaders said they had reached a deal on a framework for a 2022 spending bill compromise. Number four, Iran unveiled a new missile with a 900-mile range that it says can strike U.S. bases and Israel. Number five, President Biden unveiled a $5 billion deal to help expand electric vehicle charging stations. On this Wednesday night, who's leading the so-called Freedom Convoy? With borders blocked and protesters holding steady,

what's next for the organizers of these disruptive protests? Tonight, Canada's Freedom Convoy protest is impacting international trade, leaving truck traffic in Detroit at a standstill overnight. Anti-vaccine protests in Canada are now having a major impact on the auto industry. They're disrupting trade and forcing some manufacturing plants to slow production. Two weeks ago, a so-called freedom convoy of truckers began a trip across Canada. Their goal was to demonstrate against the COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other restrictions that have been put in place by the Canadian government, an effort led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The protesters' destination was Ottawa, the nation's capital, and since arriving, they have gathered throughout the city, blocking off streets,

blaring their horns, and demanding an end to the pandemic restrictions. Since its inception as an anti-mandate protest, the group has evolved more into a protest against the Trudeau government and leaders in Ottawa. On Sunday, Ottawa's mayor declared a state of emergency. Trudeau has accused members of the protesting group of desecrating war memorials, wielding Nazi symbols, spreading disinformation, and stealing food from the homeless. He has also framed them as a fringe minority, though the group has amassed as many as 3,000 trucks and 15,000 protesters. Leaders of the protests have said they are seeking an end to pandemic restrictions like vaccine mandates and rules requiring masks.

Identifiable leaders of the groups span the political spectrum, though most are opposition groups to Trudeau's liberal government, with some right of center and others more far right. Polls in Canada show strong support for the public health measures, and 90% of Canada's truckers have been vaccinated, while 90% of all Canadians have received at least one dose of the vaccine. While 64% of Canadians say they don't support the protesters, 32% of Canadians recently said they had a lot in common with the way the Ottawa protesters see things, and a majority, 54%, of Canadians now say they want all restrictions to end. That's according to a survey from January 31st. The protests have also been rife with controversial stories. A GoFundMe campaign for the protesters that reached $7.8

million went awry after GoFundMe only turned over $1 million to the organizers and then shut the campaign down and decided to refund the money to donors, citing violence and other unlawful activity. Meanwhile, Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino has said citizens on the ground are reporting harassment, saying they have, quote, heard about threatening and intimidation and the spread of hate. We've seen confederate flags and swastikas flying on Parliament Hill. Some have pointed out that the alleged swastikas were being drawn on Canadian flags as a criticism of the government. Along with the protests in Ottawa, another trucker protest against the COVID-19 mandates is now blocking the Ambassador Bridge between Ottawa

and Detroit. The truckers briefly allowed the bridge to reopen Tuesday morning, but began blocking it again shortly after. Between 50 and 75 trucks are blocking the bridge, which carries 25% of all trade between the U.S. and Canada. Toyota and Ford both had to suspend production at their plants as a result of the blockade. While the protests unfold, the truckers and supporters have also gotten approving nods from American onlookers. Former President Donald Trump expressed support for the convoy repeatedly, as have many conservative pundits in the U.S. Below, we'll take a look at some commentary on the convoy from the left and the right, and then my take. First up, we'll start with what the left is saying.

The left criticizes the protests, saying they are not representative of Canadians and put Ottawa residents in danger. Many believe conservatives in the U.S. misunderstand the protesters. Some say they represent a threat to the world at large and could be foreshadowing what is coming. Canadian journalist Andrew Cohen says the trucker protesters aren't who Americans might think they are. Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump, and Elon Musk see something monumental here. They're wrong, Cohen wrote. Whatever the facile comparisons, familiar symbols, and fearful words, this Canadian protest isn't a grassroots revolt or even a prairie brush fire. More likely, it's a winter carnival, ephemeral, a flaring of anger, and one that is very, very Canadian.

What unites them is their opposition to lockdowns and mask and vaccine mandates. Some, a reporter found, distance themselves from the more militant truckers who oppose vaccination outright, spread misinformation, and traffic in hatred. Some 90% of Canadian truckers are vaccinated, and their umbrella association has disowned the protesters. Canadians have embraced restrictive measures, wearing masks, closing schools, shops, gyms, offices, particularly measures targeting the unvaccinated. The reason Canadians generally obey their government is not because we are, quote, better people, as one Canadian mocks his country's penchant for sanctimony. We do it because we are prudent, cautious, and moderate, given to compromise and accommodation,

sometimes to a fault. Canada is a progressive place of little social unrest where issues that remain contentious in the U.S., abortion, same-sex rights, voting rights, immigration, are now settled. The national consensus prefers a loss of liberty over a loss of life. As a society, Canada is less willing to accept the staggering number of deaths from the virus as the United States, which has some three times those in Canada adjusted for difference in population. In The Guardian, Arwa Madawi said the whole world should be worried about the siege of Ottawa. Members of the so-called Freedom Truck Convoy have been blaring horns,

desecrating war memorials, and setting off fireworks. Residents are being driven to distraction. The police chief has called the situation a siege. The Ontario Premier called it an occupation. On Monday, the city's mayor, Jim Watson, declared a state of emergency. What's unfolding in Ottawa is not a grassroots protest that has spontaneously erupted out of the frustration of local lorry drivers. Rather, it's an astroturf movement, one that creates the impression of widespread grassroots support where little exists, funded by a global network of highly organized far-right groups and amplified by Facebook's misinformation machine. The drama may be centered in Canada, but what is unfolding has repercussions for us all. They may be a fringe minority, but that doesn't mean you should, as Trudeau seems to be doing, downplay or dismiss them, Madawi said. For one, they have a lot of powerful supporters. The usual

crowd of right-wing politicians in the U.S., including Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, have been cheering them on. They have also been getting millions of dollars in funding from across crowdfunding sites from international donors. Another reason why you should take the Ottawa protesters seriously? Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, fringe groups can have an outsized influence. In the Washington Post, Philip Bump said the American right is importing right-wing fury to Canada. In demonstrating loud, incessant opposition to a vaccine requirement implemented by a leftist politician, the truckers have become heroes to the American political right. And that has meant the appearance of misinformation, political posturing, and frustration for the Canadian

government, Bump said. The energy on the political right has led to the spread of false claims about the protests on social media. CNN's Daniel Dale documented several, including the assertion that 50,000 trucks had participated in the protests. That would constitute a line of trucks more than 500 miles long, which obviously didn't happen. Support for the protests, particularly from the United States, constitutes something akin to foreign interference in the country's domestic politics, he added. If you imagine a scenario where D.C. was rendered partially immobile by an anti-gun protest funded heavily by a concerted campaign led by prominent Chinese officials, you can get an understanding of the frustration that Canadian officials feel.

All right, so that is it for what the left is saying. That brings us to what the right is saying. The right supports the protesters, saying they are a working class movement that is exhausted by COVID-19 restrictions. Many say they are right to be fed up and it is time to end mask and vaccine mandates. They praise the protesters for being a diverse group and for being nonviolent. The Wall Street Journal editorial board said the truckers are sending a message that cannot be ignored. This latest act in a week-long show of civil disobedience is more akin to political life in France or the U.S. That happened in restrained Canada is a signal to the political class across the West. Large swaths of humanity are done with COVID-19 restrictions, mandates, and excessive meddling in their lives. The board wrote, $137 billion last year, reopened Tuesday morning. Yet truckers continue their protests in Ottawa, which is disturbing the peace, and worse, in that usually peaceable Canadian capital.

Truckers should be prosecuted if they break the law, as we argued for Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter protesters on the left, the boardroom. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. But as the Omicron virus showed itself to be less lethal and positive test rates fall,

the truckers are sending a message to democratic governments that it's time for the pandemic emergency orders to end. The lesson for the COVID-19 police is that when you've lost even Canadian, arguably the most law-abiding people on the planet, you've lost the political plot. In common sense, Rupa Subramanya, who lives in Ottawa and spent 10 days interviewing the protesters, said what is happening is far bigger than vaccine mandates. They are a city inside a city whose inhabitants, there are an estimated 8,000 to 10,000, were outraged with the country that seemed to have forgotten they existed. This past Sunday, as if to confirm that suspicion, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has yet to meet with Freedom Convoy leaders, took a personal day.

On Monday, during an emergency debate at the House of Commons, he called them, quote, a few people shouting and waving swastikas, end quote. I've spoken to close to 100 protesters, truckers, and other folks, and not one of them sounded like an insurrectionist, white supremacist, racist, or misogynist. Ostensibly, the truckers are against a new rule mandating that when they re-enter Canada from the United States, they have to be vaccinated. But that's not really it. The mandate is a moot point. The Americans have a similar requirement, and anyway, the vast majority of Canadian truckers, according to the Canadian Trucking Alliance, are vaccinated. The CTA represents about 4,500

truckers nationwide. So it's about something else, or many things. A sense that things will never go back to normal. A sense that they are being ganged up on by the government, the media, big tech, big pharma. The convoy is spearheaded by truckers, but its message of opposition to life under government control has brought onto the icy streets countless once-voiceless people declaring In the New York Post, Glenn Reynolds said, working class protest, and the left hates it. For more than a century, lefties have talked about such a revolt, but if you really paid attention, the actual role of the working class in their working class revolution was not to call the shots. It was to do what it was told by the intellectual vanguard of the left. A working class revolution led by the working class is the left's worst nightmare because the working class doesn't want what the left wants, Reynolds said. The

working class wants jobs, a stable economy, safe streets, low inflation, schools that teach things, and a conservative, non-adventurous foreign policy that won't get a lot of working class people killed. It's not excited about gender fluidity, critical race theory, modern monetary theory, foreign adventures, and defunding the police. That's why, even as they legitimize and valorize outright rioting and violence by leftist groups, lefties vilify every working class protest movement going back before the Tea Party, he wrote. In Canada, the press even tried to pretend that the thousands

of truckers driving to the capital city of Ottawa were actually Russian agents. When that failed, it fell back on the old standard, calling them fascists, Nazi sympathizers, and white supremacists. All right, that is it for the left and the right's take, which brings us to my take. So I'm fascinated by this entire scene. First of all, I think the truckers are due some credit here. The American version of occupying a city has traditionally involved brandishing weapons, breaking glass, or storming past police and security. In Portland, it has involved lighting federal buildings on fire and clashes with police. On January 6th, it involved hundreds of injuries, criminal indictments, and whether the fault of police or the rioters or pre-existing health conditions,

the deaths of five people. So far, the Freedom Convoy has managed to, quote, shut down the Capitol with no discernible violence, few, if any, weapons, and little more than their trucks and their horns. Yes, some prominent members of the group seem a little too interested in Muslims and the Anglo-Saxon race, but folks on the left should be well acquainted with the way protesters get smeared as violent, extremists, or otherwise unworthy of support, and I'm not going to participate in that game here.

The vast majority of the protesters seem like normal, working-class Canadians, even if they are in the minority on vaccines, and as far as I can tell, there have been no confirmed reports of violence. That's not to say there aren't reasonable areas of critique, though. For one, the protests seem strongly centered on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which, to a lot of observers, kind of gives away the game. COVID-19 mandates are provincially enforced in Canada, meaning that the real gripe should be with the leaders of those provinces, not necessarily the Prime Minister. It's also true that, for many citizens of Ottawa, the protests seem to be a nightmare. Businesses have had to shut down, roads are closed, truck horns are blaring

all hours of the day, and the very presence of protesters has left many people feeling unsafe and on edge. One Ottawa resident told me their daughter's daycare has been closed since the start of the protests. Of course, protests aren't supposed to be convenient, but for a group of people frustrated by the government shutting down a country, to then go shut down an entire downtown area could rightly be described as a bit hypocritical. Canadian journalist Matt Gurney described the scene in even harsher terms, explaining that protesters have built infrastructure inside Ottawa, are setting up tent cities and bringing in cranes, and are taking control of much of Centre City.

Gurney categorized the non-violence as a lucky break given that Ottawa had lost control of much of Center City. Gurney categorized the nonviolence as a lucky break given that Ottawa had lost control of the city center. The government, quote, can't get it back without a confrontation and it isn't confident it would win that confrontation, he said. Our government doesn't have control of the capital city. Super. I think we are in deep, deep shit. Other reports are more disturbing. A homeless shelter guard said he was assaulted, and protesters yelled racial slurs at him. A gay couple with a pride flag outside says they fled their home after someone allegedly defecated outside their door.

Protesters have reportedly urinated on war memorials, and police are setting up a hotline after reports of assault. Again, best I can tell, none of those reports have been confirmed, but they are out there. Gurney would know better than I do about where things are headed, but I have a hard time being worried from where I'm sitting in New York. I certainly don't think, quote, the world needs to be worried or this is the beginning of some dangerous global uprising. I think we've been asking ourselves for a long time when the pandemic would start breaking people, and we are now seeing, inanny synchronization that that breaking point is coming to a head. We've reported in Tangle how the dam is breaking in Democratic-led states who are now announcing an end to COVID-19

restrictions. Those decisions are being driven both by science, that vaccine rates are high, natural immunity is high, infections are falling, and politics. The fact that people are increasingly just done. After two years, many are ready to begin living with the virus rather than doing everything they can to avoid it. Outside of urban areas in the U.S., most people already are. Inside urban areas, and especially among people I know, having gotten COVID-19 or the latest Omicron variant is increasingly being seen as a gift, the same way getting the vaccine was. I've heard elderly Americans say they wish they would just get it to get it over with, knowing that the risk of death or serious illness is low if they are vaccinated. That is the mood for millions of Americans here in the U.S., and it's clearly the mood of the

many protesters in Ottawa. They are, by every indication, a minority in Canada. But exhaustion with the COVID-19 restrictions is an easy thing to sympathize with, and it's a global phenomenon. If there is a larger message to take from Ottawa, it's that the citizenry is hitting a breaking point, and it's picking up speed. All right, everybody, that is it for my take. That brings us to your questions answered. This is going to be a quickie because today's podcast got pretty long pretty fast.

This question is from Angela in Miami, Florida. She said, I'd like to read a good book about the Biden family. Any suggestions? Yes, I do have a suggestion. This is an easy question for me. The best book I've read about the Biden family is actually a recent book. It's called The Bidens. It's by Politico's

Ben Schreckinger. The book goes deep on Biden's rise to power, how his family operates, the real story behind Hunter's laptop and the Ukraine controversy, and it spares nobody. It pissed off everyone from the Bidens to folks like Rudy Giuliani, all without any corrections or reporting being knocked down, which is a good indication it was an excellent piece of work. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I learned a lot, and I strongly recommend it. All right, next up is our story that matters. Online gambling is now coming for kids. Global downloads of social gambling apps where no real money is exchanged, but kids can gamble against each other, soared from 33 million in 2012 to 1.39 billion in 2020. As gambling becomes legal and normalized across the U.S., some experts are warning that games like this could lead kids to the real thing.

Younger generations tend to view sports betting as a game of skill rather than gambling, which has a more negative connotation, Axios sports editor Kendall Baker said. From TV commercials to in-stadium sports books, betting has fully infiltrated the fan experience for all ages, making it feel mainstream and casual. Erica Pandy from Axios has a report on this. There's a link to it in today's newsletter. All right, that is it for our story that matters. That brings us to our numbers section. 65% is the percentage of Canadians who said the Freedom Convoy represented a small minority of selfish Canadians. 32% is the percentage of Canadians who said they supported the convoy. 54% is the percentage of Canadians who said they want all COVID-19 restrictions to end,

according to one late January survey. Plus 15% is the percentage point increase in Canadians saying they want all COVID-19 restrictions to end between early and late January. 40% is the percentage of Canadians who disagree that it's time to end COVID-19 restrictions. All right, last but not least, I have a nice day story. This one is for Team USA, all right? 16 years after blowing a gold medal at the Olympics, Lindsay Jacob Ellis is finally bringing one home.

In 2006, the then 20-year-old snowboarder was on her first Olympic outing. With the finish line in sight, she was about to bring home the gold medal and use the moment to begin celebrating. But instead, Jacob Ellis fell, allowing Switzerland's Tanja Frienden to pass her and steal the gold. It took 16 years of perseverance, but Jacob Ellis finally got her gold medal. It finally all came together. All the stars aligned and in this sport, that can be rare, she told BBC. Congrats to Lindsay. An amazing story. I can't believe you stuck with it after what happened in 2006, but it is impressive nonetheless.

All right, everybody, that is it for today's podcast. As always, if you want to hear from us tomorrow, it's Friday, you have to subscribe. www.retangled.com backslash membership. Go subscribe. Check us out. Support us. We need it.

If not, see you guys on Monday. Have a good weekend. Our newsletter is written by Isaac Saul, edited by Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and produced in conjunction with Tangle's social media manager, Magdalena Bokova, who also helped create our logo.

The podcast is edited by Trevor Eichhorn, and music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. For more from Tangle, subscribe to our newsletter or check out our content archives at www.readtangle.com. We'll see you next time. crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+.