Thank you so much for this message. Words can inspire hope and that's just what you have done along with Dan, the guest writer of your previous post. Above anything, the freedom convoy has allowed me to hear and see like-minded people, providing inspiration at a time when the bleakness of lockdowns and promises of more restrictions have been weighing heavily on those I love.
Sadly, the MSM have been incredibly corrupt. At a time when a properly functioning press is sorely needed, they are found colluding with the government instead of holding them to account.
One very important example of this is similar to the NYT/Washington Post example you had in this past weekend's podcast. For context, in Canada >95% of TV news coverage is done by 3 outlets: CTV News (owned by Bell Media), Global TV (Shaw Media), and CBC (Canadian Public broadcaster). This past week, Jordan Peterson hosted Brian Peckford on his channel, the last living drafter and signatory of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, where he came out against the vaccine mandates and filed a lawsuit in Federal court to strike down the mandates for air travellers (ironically the Charter was implemented under Pierre Trudeau). Just imagine if the last living signatory of the Declaration of Independence came out against the current interpretation of an Amendment, arguing that the government's overreach is not what the document or the founders intended. You would think this would be newsworthy, even if you don't agree with his position. Not so for our major news media. If you do a search of Brian Peckford on any of the 3 sites listed above, you'll get almost nothing:
CBC - No mentions of his opposition
CTV - A brief mention that he was at a rally in BC
Global - Similar to CTV, but no headline with his name
This suppression of information, as you well know, is commonplace across all topics in today's media environment. Sadly, the Canadian public is eating this garbage and creating a vacuous wasteland in its wake.
I couldn't be more proud to be Canadian during this past weekend, while at the same time being the most embarrassed to be represented by the leader of our country and the media that underpin his lies.
Thank you for this background and summary--it is so valuable, and utterly important. And while I'm not Canadian, I think I completely understand what you describe in the last paragraph. I, too, would be feeling those things were I Canadian.
I emailed Claire L at Quillette about its "studious avoidance" of this story. She directed me to a piece written by Canadian editor Jon Kay whose writing I have appreciated in the past. Claire also expressed her reservation that the trucker story would not be of sufficient interest to Quillette's "international readership."
Now Having read Kay's appallingly smug and insular account -- which by Canadian media standards apparently passes for a "critique of the left's reaction" -- I couldn't agree more with Claire. Kay truly does not understand what any of this is about. He reveals himself as completely out of touch with -- and seemingly uninterested in -- the hardships of his fellow Canadians who have been deprived of their civil liberties and livelihoods.
So, yes, as a self-described "knowledge worker," he best stick to covering the Dungeons & Dragons and Rolex watch beat.
Meanwhile in the real world, 10,000 residents of Victoria BC turned out to hear former Newfoundland Premier Peckford (who participated in writing the country's bill of rights) speak on Canada's constitutional crisis. (This I think was information I read on a Berenson Substack thread.)
Isn't it interesting that once again, your writing and Quillette are at odds? I am "this close" to removing my financial support from the Aussie. I can only take just so much condescension.
There is so much to say here. Before the Convoy rose into my consciousness last week, I was beginning work on a piece about the difference between "elite" and "special." I won't give away too much here, but in brief, I think that many who have thought of themselves as "heterodox" or "outside the Overton window" of current polite society really viewed themselves as elites, and were mostly miffed that they weren't on the inside anymore. They aren't interested in a better system; they like it just fine, they just want some of the players moved around. Some of what Covid is revealing is who the would-be elites are, how little they understand (or care) about the effects of policies on people who do different kinds of work than they do (mostly: blue collar), and also, how little they understand (or care) about actual science and reality.
Thank you for this description. I did not know most of it, although I had seen several hints this week of exactly what you are describing.
"Truth has a power of its own. Art has a power of its own. That age-old lesson – that everything we do matters – is the meaning of the people’s struggle here in the United States and everywhere...We live in a beautiful country. But people who have no respect for human life, freedom, or justice have taken it over. It is now up to all of us to take it back." -Howard Zinn
Heather, thank you for this article. I don't know what has happened. My former truck driver father, whose radio was always tuned to NPR, who solved crossword puzzles when he had a free moment and never lost a game of Scrabble, insisted on sending his children to private school and then to prestigious colleges, cost be damned. He told us "I don't care if you decide to drive trucks or become a doctor, I care that you have a choice." He also passed on his preference for casually using a double negative and sly malapropisms; if the trend had been declaring your contractions, Dad's would have been "ain't". My father harbored no prejudices, but he liked to use his speech to weed out those who did.
I agree with Dad. I stand with Csava Vizi. Regardless (or "irregardless, as my father would have said completely deadpan) of whether Mr. Vizi knows he has poor grammar or not, he gave the press a good opportunity to show their contempt, once again, for Zinn's "human life, freedom, [and] justice." Please keep calling them out.
Thank you for sharing these memories of your father, and the values he helped instill in you. This is what we need--more human connection, told through real stories, not as caricatures.
Sadly, the reporting on msm has been skewed, as was to be expected. I would like to draw your attention to a piece by a maverick Canadian activist who has been around the political block a few times.
Thank you--saved for tomorrow. I look forward to reading a piece by a "maverick Canadian activist who has been around the political block a few times."
The US education system has done such an outstanding job at teaching "set it and forget." I graduated high school in 1998 and attended college that fall. I remember learning "critical thinking" in elementary school and having it reinforced throughout my public school education. There was a stark downturn in college. Not only were you not supposed to think outside the narrative, I was even insulted for admitting how I "used to think." About 20 more trips around the sun and that use of critical thinking has come to save me from myself. I hope it becomes highly contagious because I am heartbroken by my "well-educated" peers who are content being spoon-fed information, standing aloft an ivory tower, unwilling to use that pricey education to scrutinize real information. Thank you Heather for lighting the way.
I recently discovered Dark Horse podcast, and I have become a big fan. Just wanted to share this astounding interview with Kyle Kemper, half-brother of the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. He is very outspoken against what his brother is doing (the divisive language, vaccine mandates etc.), and also speaks in favour of the trucker protest.
Heather: I have followed you and Brett for a couple of years now and thank you for your coverage of our trucker convoy. I have noticed that the university educated people in my life are the most fanatic in their Covid hysteria, but it also infected others who are more fearful in general and are used to the government looking after them. What causes these people to feel superior to a working class person? Why do they not feel any compassion and empathy towards people with different opinions or politics?
We were part of the crowds at a crossroad near our local town where the convoy passed through last Friday night. The temperature was -28 C, but there were 100's of people out with their kids enjoying bonfires, fireworks, music, laughing and dancing. The air was filled with relief, hope, joy, positivity and amazement. We didn't know a soul there, but there was a kinship of friendly smiles and chatter. It was desperately needed by this Canuck and just in the knick of time. Sadly, some people I know are barely holding on right now and things need to change here (and elsewhere) as soon as possible.
So who are the elitists who think they are better than others?? What party do they belong to? Let's take a long hard look at that over the past two years. I stand with the truckers and NOT with the liberal elites. I suggest you examine the evidence on full display and vote accordingly.
The elites are in both parties, especially at the top. In some regions, the (American) Republicans know that their constituents won't approve, so they don't flaunt it as much, but that doesn't mean they aren't still elite. Personally, I couldn't bring myself to vote for either party in the last election, and it's not the first time I've been there, either. I know far less about the parties in Canada, but in the U.S., I don't see either of the two established ones fixing themselves anytime soon. Part of this is entrenched special interests and perverse financial incentives; part of it is that such people--the elites--disdain physical work which, frankly, makes them much more likely to be entirely social beings who don't know how to think or do things.
Couldn't agree more. My boys (almost adult men) say the two party system is corrupt. I personally like Tulsi Gabbard and others like her who speak the truth. I think we need a Truth and Lliberty party and a way we can vet any special interests. Is that possible?? We need to aim really high at this point because this is truly (and I hope) the lowest point we can go. I nominate you and Brett. Go figure it out for us PLEASE!!
Make yourself a cup of tea (actually, better make that a pot) and settle down to listen to one of our Canadian jewels, Dr. Norman Doidge. On the need for camaraderie and generosity towards each others in these difficult times:
These days everything that happens, even far away, matters because we are unbelievably interconnected.
In Lithuania, we've had some protests taking place recently and a few first significant victories. My guess is that the effect of the Freedom Convoy in Canada has been spreading across and beyond the borders...
On the 13th of January, Lithuania marked the Day of Freedom Defenders. This is a special day to commemorate the events in 1991, when ordinary people without guns gathered and tried to protect the main governmental institutions and the TV tower in Vilnius from the Soviet Army. Some people were killed, many injured. This year, the commemoration ceremony was special: for the first time in contemporary Lithuanian history, it consisted not only of formal speeches by our leaders, but also of whistling, shouting and booing by ordinary people without guns, who tried to defend their basic human rights and freedoms. This time they were standing pushed a hundred meters back from the parliament building that they or their parents once defended, behind an anti-riot fence and surrounded by hundreds of policemen and soldiers in medicinal masks. It was such a surreal picture that I can hardly find words to describe it! The protesters honored the victims of 1991 with the minute of silence but did not let the Prime Minister and Speaker of the Seimas speak. The latter gave speeches with smiles on their faces anyway, as if nothing were happening. They were broadcast on the national TV, where the noise of the protesters was hardly audible. Immediately, a hate-speech campaign was launched by the local mainstream media towards the protesters: "uneducated, anti-vaxxers, minority, rural, sick, mad, jobless, lost, insecure, always unhappy about everything, not knowing what they want of life, enemy of the state, bio-weapon, pro-Russian", etc. The culmination was reached when the former leader of the independence movement, whose grandson is now our minister of foreign affairs, called the protesters "not the people of Lithuania." (How funny that Justin Trudeau was making a similar mistake just a couple of weeks later!)
Here are a few examples of the questions shown on the national TV channel, which is state funded by our, taxpayers', money. The audience was asked to vote whether: 1) "the life of the unvaxxed should be turned into "hell" by forbidding them everything, even grocery shopping" and 2) "Are the vaccinated being discriminated when they have the same rights as the unvaxxed?" The latter appeared on their website, and I had to read it several times to actually believe my eyes. The polls supposedly were 50/50. Need I say that many people had stopped watching the national TV a while ago...
It is not pleasant to write bad things about your own country. But I think, it matters. What you do there in Canada and the U.S. matters to us here in Eastern Europe and vice versa. I’ve heard the Canadian truckers mention Eastern European diaspora supporting them, remembering the Baltic Way. Here, our protesters, ridiculed, humiliated and censored, managed to stop the new law on mandatory vaccines. The shameful “opportunity passport”, which is how the Lithuanian equivalent of a covid passport is called, has just been suspended. For now. The government fears more protests. In the meantime, the mainstream media is suppressing and distorting the information on the protests in Canada and is already slandering the coming possible protests in Lithuania. There is still a long way for us to go...
I am with you with all my heart and soul when you defend human rights, wisdom and freedom in Canada, the U.S. and all over the world.
The Leader of the Conservative opposition, O’Toole, may be the first “head to roll” as a consequence of the protest. Best to clean one’s own house first (though likely not all the protesters are card-carrying conservatives).
I think it’s time our thinkers — that’s you, Darkhorse and cohort — start thinking out loud about what this is really about — the powerful few. We know they’re there, but where, and who? And how? We can figure the goal is money and control — but that’s as far as my knowledge or intellectual capacity takes me. Covid is so 2020 — pls help uncover the oligarchy and help us figure out the next steps out….. [Poor grammar intentional, in solidarity.]
Thank you so much for this message. Words can inspire hope and that's just what you have done along with Dan, the guest writer of your previous post. Above anything, the freedom convoy has allowed me to hear and see like-minded people, providing inspiration at a time when the bleakness of lockdowns and promises of more restrictions have been weighing heavily on those I love.
Sadly, the MSM have been incredibly corrupt. At a time when a properly functioning press is sorely needed, they are found colluding with the government instead of holding them to account.
One very important example of this is similar to the NYT/Washington Post example you had in this past weekend's podcast. For context, in Canada >95% of TV news coverage is done by 3 outlets: CTV News (owned by Bell Media), Global TV (Shaw Media), and CBC (Canadian Public broadcaster). This past week, Jordan Peterson hosted Brian Peckford on his channel, the last living drafter and signatory of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, where he came out against the vaccine mandates and filed a lawsuit in Federal court to strike down the mandates for air travellers (ironically the Charter was implemented under Pierre Trudeau). Just imagine if the last living signatory of the Declaration of Independence came out against the current interpretation of an Amendment, arguing that the government's overreach is not what the document or the founders intended. You would think this would be newsworthy, even if you don't agree with his position. Not so for our major news media. If you do a search of Brian Peckford on any of the 3 sites listed above, you'll get almost nothing:
CBC - No mentions of his opposition
CTV - A brief mention that he was at a rally in BC
Global - Similar to CTV, but no headline with his name
This suppression of information, as you well know, is commonplace across all topics in today's media environment. Sadly, the Canadian public is eating this garbage and creating a vacuous wasteland in its wake.
I couldn't be more proud to be Canadian during this past weekend, while at the same time being the most embarrassed to be represented by the leader of our country and the media that underpin his lies.
Thank you for this background and summary--it is so valuable, and utterly important. And while I'm not Canadian, I think I completely understand what you describe in the last paragraph. I, too, would be feeling those things were I Canadian.
I emailed Claire L at Quillette about its "studious avoidance" of this story. She directed me to a piece written by Canadian editor Jon Kay whose writing I have appreciated in the past. Claire also expressed her reservation that the trucker story would not be of sufficient interest to Quillette's "international readership."
Now Having read Kay's appallingly smug and insular account -- which by Canadian media standards apparently passes for a "critique of the left's reaction" -- I couldn't agree more with Claire. Kay truly does not understand what any of this is about. He reveals himself as completely out of touch with -- and seemingly uninterested in -- the hardships of his fellow Canadians who have been deprived of their civil liberties and livelihoods.
So, yes, as a self-described "knowledge worker," he best stick to covering the Dungeons & Dragons and Rolex watch beat.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/jonathan-kay-to-ottawa-progressives-the-trucker-convoy-is-a-military-invasion-they-are-bravely-resisting
Meanwhile in the real world, 10,000 residents of Victoria BC turned out to hear former Newfoundland Premier Peckford (who participated in writing the country's bill of rights) speak on Canada's constitutional crisis. (This I think was information I read on a Berenson Substack thread.)
Isn't it interesting that once again, your writing and Quillette are at odds? I am "this close" to removing my financial support from the Aussie. I can only take just so much condescension.
There is so much to say here. Before the Convoy rose into my consciousness last week, I was beginning work on a piece about the difference between "elite" and "special." I won't give away too much here, but in brief, I think that many who have thought of themselves as "heterodox" or "outside the Overton window" of current polite society really viewed themselves as elites, and were mostly miffed that they weren't on the inside anymore. They aren't interested in a better system; they like it just fine, they just want some of the players moved around. Some of what Covid is revealing is who the would-be elites are, how little they understand (or care) about the effects of policies on people who do different kinds of work than they do (mostly: blue collar), and also, how little they understand (or care) about actual science and reality.
Thank you for this description. I did not know most of it, although I had seen several hints this week of exactly what you are describing.
I look forward to that piece. After fifty years in the region my inner redneck has grown at the expense of the inner hippie.
"Truth has a power of its own. Art has a power of its own. That age-old lesson – that everything we do matters – is the meaning of the people’s struggle here in the United States and everywhere...We live in a beautiful country. But people who have no respect for human life, freedom, or justice have taken it over. It is now up to all of us to take it back." -Howard Zinn
Heather, thank you for this article. I don't know what has happened. My former truck driver father, whose radio was always tuned to NPR, who solved crossword puzzles when he had a free moment and never lost a game of Scrabble, insisted on sending his children to private school and then to prestigious colleges, cost be damned. He told us "I don't care if you decide to drive trucks or become a doctor, I care that you have a choice." He also passed on his preference for casually using a double negative and sly malapropisms; if the trend had been declaring your contractions, Dad's would have been "ain't". My father harbored no prejudices, but he liked to use his speech to weed out those who did.
I agree with Dad. I stand with Csava Vizi. Regardless (or "irregardless, as my father would have said completely deadpan) of whether Mr. Vizi knows he has poor grammar or not, he gave the press a good opportunity to show their contempt, once again, for Zinn's "human life, freedom, [and] justice." Please keep calling them out.
Thank you for sharing these memories of your father, and the values he helped instill in you. This is what we need--more human connection, told through real stories, not as caricatures.
Sadly, the reporting on msm has been skewed, as was to be expected. I would like to draw your attention to a piece by a maverick Canadian activist who has been around the political block a few times.
https://stuartparker.ca/why-the-coverage-of-the-trucker-protest-should-worry-all-canadians/?fbclid=IwAR2eSalHyaVXCrk2sTg6G4fDQs36LQIHj4n_3lU-WMJhPbTYpf15595mYqw
Thank you--saved for tomorrow. I look forward to reading a piece by a "maverick Canadian activist who has been around the political block a few times."
Well, well, well I guess I won’t be cancelling my Quillette subscription just yet. Parker’s piece (basically verbatim) is its new lead story.
From your Substack to “god’s ear” via your humble servant who posted it on an omicron thread? Who can say…?
The US education system has done such an outstanding job at teaching "set it and forget." I graduated high school in 1998 and attended college that fall. I remember learning "critical thinking" in elementary school and having it reinforced throughout my public school education. There was a stark downturn in college. Not only were you not supposed to think outside the narrative, I was even insulted for admitting how I "used to think." About 20 more trips around the sun and that use of critical thinking has come to save me from myself. I hope it becomes highly contagious because I am heartbroken by my "well-educated" peers who are content being spoon-fed information, standing aloft an ivory tower, unwilling to use that pricey education to scrutinize real information. Thank you Heather for lighting the way.
I recently discovered Dark Horse podcast, and I have become a big fan. Just wanted to share this astounding interview with Kyle Kemper, half-brother of the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. He is very outspoken against what his brother is doing (the divisive language, vaccine mandates etc.), and also speaks in favour of the trucker protest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=hzuDTmBe6YQ
The Rumble version of this video has a few minutes at the end that the youtube version cuts off.
https://rumble.com/vthgo8-watch-exclusive-sit-down-with-kyle-kemper-half-brother-and-active-critic-of.html
Heather: I have followed you and Brett for a couple of years now and thank you for your coverage of our trucker convoy. I have noticed that the university educated people in my life are the most fanatic in their Covid hysteria, but it also infected others who are more fearful in general and are used to the government looking after them. What causes these people to feel superior to a working class person? Why do they not feel any compassion and empathy towards people with different opinions or politics?
We were part of the crowds at a crossroad near our local town where the convoy passed through last Friday night. The temperature was -28 C, but there were 100's of people out with their kids enjoying bonfires, fireworks, music, laughing and dancing. The air was filled with relief, hope, joy, positivity and amazement. We didn't know a soul there, but there was a kinship of friendly smiles and chatter. It was desperately needed by this Canuck and just in the knick of time. Sadly, some people I know are barely holding on right now and things need to change here (and elsewhere) as soon as possible.
So who are the elitists who think they are better than others?? What party do they belong to? Let's take a long hard look at that over the past two years. I stand with the truckers and NOT with the liberal elites. I suggest you examine the evidence on full display and vote accordingly.
The elites are in both parties, especially at the top. In some regions, the (American) Republicans know that their constituents won't approve, so they don't flaunt it as much, but that doesn't mean they aren't still elite. Personally, I couldn't bring myself to vote for either party in the last election, and it's not the first time I've been there, either. I know far less about the parties in Canada, but in the U.S., I don't see either of the two established ones fixing themselves anytime soon. Part of this is entrenched special interests and perverse financial incentives; part of it is that such people--the elites--disdain physical work which, frankly, makes them much more likely to be entirely social beings who don't know how to think or do things.
Couldn't agree more. My boys (almost adult men) say the two party system is corrupt. I personally like Tulsi Gabbard and others like her who speak the truth. I think we need a Truth and Lliberty party and a way we can vet any special interests. Is that possible?? We need to aim really high at this point because this is truly (and I hope) the lowest point we can go. I nominate you and Brett. Go figure it out for us PLEASE!!
Make yourself a cup of tea (actually, better make that a pot) and settle down to listen to one of our Canadian jewels, Dr. Norman Doidge. On the need for camaraderie and generosity towards each others in these difficult times:
https://odysee.com/@JordanBPeterson:c/needle-points-norman-doidge-the-jordan:f
Dear friends across the ocean,
These days everything that happens, even far away, matters because we are unbelievably interconnected.
In Lithuania, we've had some protests taking place recently and a few first significant victories. My guess is that the effect of the Freedom Convoy in Canada has been spreading across and beyond the borders...
On the 13th of January, Lithuania marked the Day of Freedom Defenders. This is a special day to commemorate the events in 1991, when ordinary people without guns gathered and tried to protect the main governmental institutions and the TV tower in Vilnius from the Soviet Army. Some people were killed, many injured. This year, the commemoration ceremony was special: for the first time in contemporary Lithuanian history, it consisted not only of formal speeches by our leaders, but also of whistling, shouting and booing by ordinary people without guns, who tried to defend their basic human rights and freedoms. This time they were standing pushed a hundred meters back from the parliament building that they or their parents once defended, behind an anti-riot fence and surrounded by hundreds of policemen and soldiers in medicinal masks. It was such a surreal picture that I can hardly find words to describe it! The protesters honored the victims of 1991 with the minute of silence but did not let the Prime Minister and Speaker of the Seimas speak. The latter gave speeches with smiles on their faces anyway, as if nothing were happening. They were broadcast on the national TV, where the noise of the protesters was hardly audible. Immediately, a hate-speech campaign was launched by the local mainstream media towards the protesters: "uneducated, anti-vaxxers, minority, rural, sick, mad, jobless, lost, insecure, always unhappy about everything, not knowing what they want of life, enemy of the state, bio-weapon, pro-Russian", etc. The culmination was reached when the former leader of the independence movement, whose grandson is now our minister of foreign affairs, called the protesters "not the people of Lithuania." (How funny that Justin Trudeau was making a similar mistake just a couple of weeks later!)
Here are a few examples of the questions shown on the national TV channel, which is state funded by our, taxpayers', money. The audience was asked to vote whether: 1) "the life of the unvaxxed should be turned into "hell" by forbidding them everything, even grocery shopping" and 2) "Are the vaccinated being discriminated when they have the same rights as the unvaxxed?" The latter appeared on their website, and I had to read it several times to actually believe my eyes. The polls supposedly were 50/50. Need I say that many people had stopped watching the national TV a while ago...
It is not pleasant to write bad things about your own country. But I think, it matters. What you do there in Canada and the U.S. matters to us here in Eastern Europe and vice versa. I’ve heard the Canadian truckers mention Eastern European diaspora supporting them, remembering the Baltic Way. Here, our protesters, ridiculed, humiliated and censored, managed to stop the new law on mandatory vaccines. The shameful “opportunity passport”, which is how the Lithuanian equivalent of a covid passport is called, has just been suspended. For now. The government fears more protests. In the meantime, the mainstream media is suppressing and distorting the information on the protests in Canada and is already slandering the coming possible protests in Lithuania. There is still a long way for us to go...
I am with you with all my heart and soul when you defend human rights, wisdom and freedom in Canada, the U.S. and all over the world.
The Leader of the Conservative opposition, O’Toole, may be the first “head to roll” as a consequence of the protest. Best to clean one’s own house first (though likely not all the protesters are card-carrying conservatives).
I think it’s time our thinkers — that’s you, Darkhorse and cohort — start thinking out loud about what this is really about — the powerful few. We know they’re there, but where, and who? And how? We can figure the goal is money and control — but that’s as far as my knowledge or intellectual capacity takes me. Covid is so 2020 — pls help uncover the oligarchy and help us figure out the next steps out….. [Poor grammar intentional, in solidarity.]
Well done again. Thank you