Like a phoenix, Justin Trudeau has always recovered from everything: from risky polls which resulted in two electoral victories in 2019 and 2021, as from scandals relating to his personal ethics which have weakened him without ever bringing him down. But the images of hundreds of truckers laying siege to Ottawa since January 29, shouting “Freedom” but also “Trudeau resignation” against a background of deafening horns have gone around the world. And undermined the authority of the Canadian Prime Minister, in power since 2015.
Even before the “freedom convoy” blocked the federal capital, he had chosen to ignore the anger of the truckers. “Canadians are not represented by this minority, marginal but very noisy,” he said about these drivers opposed to the vaccination pass required at the US-Canadian border. Then he disappeared… Declared positive for Covid on January 31, he left to isolate himself in the official secondary residence of the prime ministers on the shores of Lake Mousseau, about thirty minutes from the capital. Thus the head of state gave the impression of washing his hands of the ongoing conflict, leaving the Ottawa police to fend for themselves against the huge “truckers” paralyzing the city.
Trucks block Wellington Street where the protest against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s health measures continues, on February 9, 2022 in Ottawa
afp.com/Dave Chan
Since then, the movement has spread to major Canadian cities. The bridge leading to Detroit – the busiest land crossing on the US-Canada border that is a vital corridor for auto industries on both sides – was blocked by around 100 people and 75 vehicles yesterday. . In the west of the country, in Alberta, other demonstrators blocked the border crossing at the level of the locality of Coutts. The movement against compulsory vaccination has even become internationalized. In New Zealand and France, truckers are inspired by their Canadian colleagues.
The Canadian Prime Minister undoubtedly sinned by naivety and pride. He first underestimated the determination of this movement, largely swallowed up by ultra-conservative movements in the country, close to the American alt-right, using the power of Facebook to unite their support. Among the initiators, grouped within Canada Unity, a certain Patrick King, far-right activist from Alberta, co-founder of the Wexit Canada movement (now the Maverick Party), a separatist organization demanding the independence of the western Canadian provinces. The man and his networks have been able to collect in a few days more than ten million dollars via the GoFundMe platform.
Their show of force in Canada has, moreover, aroused the enthusiasm of one of their inspirations, the former American president Donald Trump, who has given strong support to the movement, which “afhave more to defend American freedom than our own leaders.” did he catch fire.
Former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Florence, Arizona on January 15, 2022.
afp.com/Robyn Beck
Convinced of the success of his health policy, with nearly 90% of Canadians vaccinated, Justin Trudeau also did not see coming the fed up of a part of the population, exasperated by the restrictions on their freedom suffered. since the start of the pandemic, repeated confinements to the obligation of the vaccine passport now required everywhere. According to a recent poll, almost a third of Canadians support the message sent by truckers. Unexpected popular support, which goes far beyond the small group of Canadian antivax and the extreme right.
Nothing is easy. The proof: while the demonstrators in Ottawa are demanding the head of the Liberal Prime Minister, it is that of his main opponent who has fallen. Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole was ousted on February 2 by his own elected officials for failing to show his unconditional support for truckers. From now on, the most radical fringe of the Canadian right has the wind in its sails: It uses populist accents to oppose the “elites” to the “people from below”. And lines up without qualms behind the big tattooed arms of the truckers, demanding in turn the abandonment of all sanitary measures.
“The Prime Minister’s room for maneuver is narrow”
But the mess among his opponents cannot serve as a victory for Justin Trudeau. Accused of lacking “leadership” by the opposition, weakened within his party by an MP who dares to reproach him for “dividing the Canadian population, rather than trying to bring it together”, Justin Trudeau finally left the shores of its peaceful lake to reappear in the House of Commons. He pledged to come to the aid of the mayor of Ottawa who was crying out for police reinforcements for his city placed in a “state of emergency”, but he refused any outstretched hand for the demonstrators. “People have the right to demonstrate (…) but they don’t have the right to block the streets illegally, to insult people who wear masks and get vaccinated. This must stop,” he said. he contented himself with rehearsing at the beginning of the week.
“The Prime Minister’s room for maneuver is narrow,” said Frédéric Boily, professor at the University of Alberta to explain Justin Trudeau’s wait-and-see attitude. How to be firm against blockades without antagonizing those who organize them? And how to bring truckers home without calling into question the health policy defended by his government for two years? As of February 3, the Prime Minister had ruled out calling the army to dislodge the demonstrators. In fact, the use of force is extremely rare in Canada.
Also, Justin Trudeau is reluctant to use it for personal reasons. In 1970, his father Pierre-Elliott Trudeau, then Prime Minister, brought the army to the streets of Montreal, sending 8,000 soldiers to quell the violent actions carried out by the Front de libération du Québec. This episode, experienced as a trauma for the entire Canadian nation, is still remembered. So much so that Justin Trudeau will only take the risk of reviving it as a last resort.
At this stage, the authorities seem doomed to play the “rottenness” of the movement. Ottawa police officers, now supported by their colleagues from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, are trying to deprive truckers of refueling (essential to heat the cabin of trucks when the thermometer easily drops to minus 10 degrees at night ). They also hand out fines for “noise” or “illegal parking”, in the hope of “asphyxiating” the diehards. The war of attrition may have only just begun.