The Dog That Isn't Barking In Ottawa

I haven't commented on the Canadian trucker protests here, because so far, I don't think I've had anything to add beyond what Canadian independent media and other observers worldwide have already said. If they get any of it wrong, that's on them. But as of the middle of last night, one thing has struck me, the dog that isn't barking.

As far as I can see, the Ottawa civil authorities, backed up by the prime minister himself, have issued the following bill of particulars against the truckers:

• They are boorish
• They are violating traffic laws
• They are violating noise ordinances
• They are maintaining dangerous stocks of gasoline and propane
• They are conducting psychological warfare
• They are infiltrated and financed by anti-Canadian Trumpists from across the border
• They are destroying Canadian democracy
• They are un-Canadian
• They are racists, Confederate secessionists, and Nazis.
• UPDATE: Sedition and treason

I may have left some out, but this is the most comprehensive list I can think of as of this writing. I will add others if anyone can suggest more. And I venture no opinion as to the truth or falsity of any allegation; I agree with those Canadians who say that Canada is a sovereign country that is entitled to work out its own political disputes.

The one observation I make is that there's a dog here that isn't barking. Nobody, north or south of the border that I've been able to locate, has said the trucker demonstrations are COVID superspreader events.

As of mid 2020, rightly or wrongly, US public health authorities and legacy media were insisting that Trump rallies be discontinued specifically because they were thought to be superspreader events. Although the same authorities and media tolerated BLM riots, the right at least accused them of hypocrisy by not labeling them as superspreader events. By the same token, throughout 2020 and 2021, even family holiday gatherings were discouraged on the basis that they were potential superspreader events. It took a US Supreme Court order to establish that religious services were not superspreader events.

So why, in Canada which up to now has had among the more stringent COVID regimes in the world, are no public health authorities denouncing the trucker protests as superspreader events? As far as I can tell, Nova Scotia forbade roadside gatherings in support of truckers traveling to Ottawa on a broad "safety" basis, possibly implying that people could get sick that way, or maybe just get hit by a runaway 18-wheeler, but even if there was an underlying public health justification, this was a distant event in a small province.

And there are, as far as I can tell, noise Karens in Ottawa itself, but no mask Karens. I made a quick survey of photos from Ottawa and found that by and large, nobody but police are wearing masks, but of the arrests that have been made, none appears to be for mask violations, nor indeed for singing the national anthem unmasked in a crowd, which would normally be a superspeader event, every bit as dangerous as chanting Let's Go Brandon in a stadium.

I take this as an acknowledgement, both tacit and universal, that the policy dispute over COVID has become exclusively political. The public health jusification has been effectively abandoned, even as political -- not public health -- authorities in even blue US states, the heretofore curfew-loving Canadian province of Quebec, and several European countries are announcing the phaseout of COVID restrictions. In California, Gov Newsom has announced the phaseout of its mask mandate -- he faces reelection this year -- while LA County public health authorities -- not politically accountable -- insist masks will remain.

I make no predictions and make no judgments. I simply observe that even Canada has acknowledged that the debate has become political, not scientific. Prime Minister Trudeau himself has declared the threat is now Nazis and US Trumpists, not a virus. I do, however, agree with the characterization from US observers that the prime minister looks like an elite cupcake.