The freedumb fighters

This is a deeply disturbing photo.

The building in the background (in case you don’t recognise it) is the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa, where, over the weekend, a convoy of haulage trucks, pick-ups and cars from across Canada descended.

If you live in Canada you know what this is about. If you don’t, this, in a nutshell, is what it purports to be about: It has now been mandated that any Canadian truck driver who is crossing the US border has to be fully vaccinated or isolate for 14 days after every return to Canada. Given that the US is Canada’s larges trade partner this means pretty much every Canadian truck driver crosses the border. The convoy has been denounced by the Canadian Trucking Alliance, 90% of whose members are quite happily fully vaccinated. This is indeed the fringe – the anti-science lunatic fringe.

The protesters are calling this the Freedom Convoy.

More like, as a friend dubbed it the other day, the freedumb convoy.

No lesser luminaries than the Tangerine Wankmaggot, Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity have voiced their support which pretty much tells you all you need to know.

Meanwhile, in Canada, Erin the Tool, leader of the Conservative opposition refuses to denounce the anti-vax convoy and its racist camp followers for fear of driving them into the welcoming arms of the openly xenophobic People’s Party.

What clever signs and symbols these Freedumb fighters have come up with. (Bit of a problem with mixed messaging. Other Canadian flags were adorned with Nazi symbols.)

As detailed in this report by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, the individuals behind Go Fund Me fundraisers in support of the convoy (which have raised millions of dollars) are a who’s who of the extreme far right in Canada.

In late 2016, a friend who worked at the Guardian, congratulated me, in the aftermath of Brexit and the Wankmaggot’s election, on living in a relatively sane country. At the time I was inclined to agree. Canadians generally were sane, responsible people who believed in the social contract. Conservative politicians were as subscribed to universal health care and a social safety net as their Liberal and NDP counterparts. (Alberta, of course, has always been a wild card looking longingly south of the border.) And the vast majority of Canadians still are.

A lot of imports from our largest trading partner are very welcome in Canada – California or Florida oranges, for example. The froth-at-the-mouth lunacy of orange politicians is not.