Why are truckers protesting in Canada? Why is Desi Twitter calling it Karma?
In the biting chill of January, a large group of people are driving their trucks for thousands of kilometers to reach the national capital in protest against government policies. Protesters say they are ready to sit in protest for long periods of time in front of Parliament Hill till the government rolls back the contentious policies.
Does this sound like the 2021 farmers’ protest? But it’s not India’s farmers’ protest we are talking about; we're talking about the Canadian truckers' protest. Indian netizens are calling it ‘Karma strikes’ for Canadian PM Justin Trudeau.
We explain why.
WHAT IS THE CANADIAN TRUCKERS’ PROTEST?
A group of Canadian cross-border truck drivers drove cross-country to the capital Ottawa, covering an epic 3,765 km to protest against the Justin Trudeau government’s Covid-19 vaccine mandates (no surprise here; the West can’t seem to put an end to the vaccine debate) and other public health measures. The protest has been dubbed the ‘Freedom Convoy’.
These truck drivers in Canada usually drive across the US-Canada border supplying the country with various necessities. The Trudeau government has made it mandatory for cross-border truckers to be fully vaccinated, or face quarantine measures upon arriving in Canada.
Canada’s more conservative society has been long opposed to the liberal Trudeau government’s public health policies to contain Covid-19, citing it as a government overreach. The agitating truckers are protesting for the same reasons. It’s nothing different from all the US anti-vaxxers or the likes of the Novak Djokovic drama that the world has been tuned in to.
Though 90% of the 1,20,000 cross-border Canadian truck drivers are vaccinated against Covid-19 and the protesters only include a minority of 16,000-something industry workers, according to the Canadian Trucking Alliance who have not supported the protest.
Justin Trudeau and his family have been moved to an undisclosed location from their official residence for security reasons as the protest moved closer to the Canadian Capital. The organisers of the protest have called it a ‘peaceful agitation’, but, authorities say they are prepared for any violent breakouts.
It doesn’t help that some ‘protesters’ were seen waving the Nazi and confederate flags, both symbols of extreme hate and violence. The local police have been wary of far-right extremist groups taking advantage of the protest.
Truck driver Harold Jonker also told BBC News that they’ve urged participants to report any misbehaviour and clarified that extremists are unwelcome.
WHY IS INDIAN TWITTER REACTING?
If you’ve noticed Indian Twitter, there are numerous reactions pouring in about Canadian truckers’ protest. Why would Indians react to a domestic issue of a faraway foreign land? Well, it’s because of two reasons.
1. Farmers' Protest: Some Indian netizens are drawing parallels between the Canadian truckers’ protest and the Indian farmers’ protest.
Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau in November 2020 had said, “Canada will always be there to defend the right of peaceful protest.” He had made the comment in context of the farmers' protest in India.
Now, that Trudeau is being faced with protests against his policies, Indian netizens are saying, "Karma strikes."
It also needs to be added that some of the protesters in Canada include Sikh immigrants from India.
Some of the protesters desecrating war memorials in Canada have been referenced to the Republic Day Red Fort clashes between protesting farmers and the police in India. Netizens accused Trudeau of having supported similar protests on New Delhi roads while hiding from the protests in his own country.
2. Swastika: Videos and pictures from the Canadian truckers’ protest showed waving of Nazi flags and confederate flags. Both are symbols of extreme hate and genocidal violence in world history. However, Indian netizens took offense to the Nazi symbol of a hooked cross being referred to as a ‘Swastika’.
Indian netizens urged their Western counterparts to refer to the Nazi symbol with its German name, ‘Hakenkreuz’.
They said associating an anti-semitic and a symbol of hate with the symbol of the Hindu religion - the Swastika - only enforced Hinduphobia.
For history buffs, here’s a piece of interesting information on the origins of the Nazi symbol: The Swastika in Sanskrit is literally known as ‘good fortune’ or ‘well-being’. The symbol had been long in use before becoming a Nazi symbol, not just in India, but many parts of Eurasia and across various religions (not just Hinduism) and has always been associated with something good.
Hitler stole the symbol and turned it into something fearful. He started using the symbol after a few German scholars studying the cultures of India and other Eastern countries found it on ancient German antiques and associated it with the shared ‘Aryan culture’ spanning Europe and Asia. And as the world knows, Hitler was obsessed with the pure Aryan race and associated the symbol with his deadly ideology.
The Canadian truckers’ protest over Covid-19 vaccine mandates is an ironic byproduct of the first-world problems compared to the vaccine problems of the developing countries. While people in the first world countries are refusing to take the vaccines their rich governments procured in abundance and hoarded, people in developing countries are struggling to get vaccinated due to shortages.