Canadian Trucker Strike
Last week’s column (02-17-2022) on the Canadian truckers was nothing short of a ludicrous piece of propaganda, vaunting “freedom” above all other values, including that of the public safety in the management of a world-wide pandemic that has required an intelligent response throughout the word, whether in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and North America. The article is flawed on several counts; in its representation of the press in falsely characterizing the protestors as a “gaggle of racist pinheads,” in presenting the truckers as “ordinary [and, therefore, representative] Canadians,” and in associating Prime Minister Trudeau’s reluctant call to enact the rarely used emergency powers with the exercise of “de facto” dictatorial powers. One might wonder what this was all about. “ The drivers were protesting new federal regulations requiring truckers crossing into Canada from the United States to be vaccinated against the coronavirus” (NYT, 02-20-2022). In light of the prospe