Up until very, very recently, I’ve been pretty good at keeping the politics of covid out of mind. Sure, I’ve had opinions about the way governments were handling things (or wiping their hands of things, more appropriately). But it’s generally been easy enough to keep my head down, mask on, and go about my day.
I’ve now lost all faith.
Faith in humanity. Faith in the notion of good governance. I’ve lost faith in Canada.
And it hurts.
My entire life, I’ve believed that people are doing the best they can. Sure, I may not agree with others, but basic human decency was generally maintained. People weren’t blasting air horns all night. People weren’t blockading traffic to further their own agenda. And, people weren’t coopting the Canadian flag into a symbol of rebellion and hatred.
On the surface, this “truckers protest” (which neither is representative of truckers, nor of actual constitutional rights to protest) is about mandates, which apparently our spineless lurch of a Premier is eager to accommodate. Thanks, Heather, for throwing off the shackles of covid. Today might be a good day for you, and the right-wing lunacy you evidently support, but it’s not a good day for the majority of Manitobans who have taken their shots, worn their masks, and done their best to get us through this.
The point that’s legitimately terrifying is the fact that the announcement of the government today has completely legitimized a group of domestic terrorists, who have been wreaking havoc and profoundly disrupting the lives of citizens in cities around the country. What’s worse, if you dig into the backgrounds of some of the protest “leaders”, connections to white supremacy, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTO, and separatists groups. The pendulum has swung to the opposite side of everything Canada has claimed to be about: acceptance, tolerance, and diversity. Those days are now gone.
I’m scared of what comes next. No doubt there will be a group of fanatics that takes this as a win. I’ve already heard others discuss their fears of being attacked in the street for continuing to mask, or keep their distance while out in public.
The Canadian flag is ruined for me now. A group of “patriots” have fundamentally shattered my belief that we are, on the whole, a nation of good people. Any residual faith I did have in the provincial government is now well and truly gone. February 11th may now truly be the Manitoban equivalent of January 6th in Washington.
The very moral fabric of our province and our country has been ripped apart, and can never be the same again. It feels apocalyptic to say, almost. I knew things would be different after covid, but I never thought I’d quite be feeling this way. It’s clear today, though, that we’re shifting more and more into a diehard, alt-right universe.
It should terrify us all.
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