The major media successfully distorted the nature of the Canadian trucker convoy that assembled in protest of vaccine mandates. From the onset, it focused on the presence of far-right, white supremacists in the “leadership,” highlighting neo-Nazi images to vilify the entire movement. When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was criticized for his mischaracterizing the convoy and its supporters, he responded: “Conservative Party members can stand with people who wave swastikas. They can stand with people who wave the Confederate flag.” As Jonathan Kay reported:
Even before the first trucks arrived in Ottawa, one of Trudeau’s MPs was publicly comparing the protest to Charlottesville or the January 6 insurrection. One former CBC host denounced the protesters as a “feral mob.” An Ottawa artist produced a painting that compared the protesters’ trucks to the Chinese tanks at Tiananmen Square. Toronto Star writer Bruce Arthur described the protesters as “a homegrown hate farm.”
In a populace that for the last few years has been primed to consider white working class men with non-woke politics as white supremacist supporters, this became an easy sell. As a result, 57% believed, “The convoy in Ottawa is not about vaccine mandates and pandemic restrictions. It is an opportunity for right wing supremacist groups to rally and voice their frustrations about society.”
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