Trucker Protests – Appropriations

The single protest, beginning just a few weeks ago with cross-country convoys starting on each of the east and west coasts converging on Ottawa, has metastasized across this country to Toronto, Fredericton, Quebec City, and at various border points in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and most importantly the Detroit-Windsor border crossing.  Photographing one in Toronto and then seeing several on TV, I was struck by the recurring joining of iconic Canadian symbols and right-wing themes. The link with Trump and right-wing-American talking points, has injected a foreign taint into the protests. Statements by some of the protesters linking vaccine mandates with Nazism suggested a mindless regurgitation of talking points that recur often enough to suggest that these are no longer the honest views of individuals but those of a campaign.  For me, this detracted from the legitimacy of the protests. 

Yet more disturbing for me was the use of iconic Canadian symbols: the Canadian flag, the anthem, hockey sticks, people drinking Tim Hortons’s coffee and  the “I Am” logo. I inferred the intent was to engender a sense of a grass-roots authenticity and legitimacy by association in the eyes of the general public, as well as the protesters, who are lead to believe they are undertaking a patriotic act, they are defending freedom. I suspect they are being duped.

I am left feeling the use of these symbols is exclusionary; their adoption by these protests associates them with beliefs contrary to mine and thus excludes me. If I were, today, to walk down Yonge Street carrying a large Canadian flag, in all likelihood I would be associated with these protests. In future, each time I see flag wavers, especially in large numbers, I will be reminded of these protests; not Lake Louise or Peggy’s Cove. I will be reminded of these people who so fervently wave them thinking they are exercising an act of patriotism, suggesting that we who do not participate are not patriots. I can’t help but feel they have appropriated these symbols exclusively for their own cause.