BLM-Loving NYTimes: Canadian Trucker Vax Protest ‘Scene of Disruption and Desecration’

Canadian truckers in Ottawa protesting vaccine restrictions and excessive Covid restriction are not going to get the Black Lives Matter love. The New York Times. Tuesday’s front-page story was crammed with contempt for the protesters, smeared for allegedly committing the same sort of acts that BLM protesters did during the often violent nationwide protests after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in the summer of 2020: Theft, disruption, and “desecration” of statues.

The headline under a story by Catherine Porter, Ian Austen and Sheera Frenkel upped the sense of danger, throwing in a “far-right” in the front-page headline “Ottawa Protests Become Rallying Cry for Far-Right and Anti-Vaccine Groups.” The “far-left” is barely if ever noticed by The Times (click “expand”):

Eleven days into an unruly occupation against coronavirus restrictions that has paralyzed Canada’s capital, the protests have become a rallying cry For powerful anti-vaccine and far-right groups all over the globe that have taken the cause as their own.

A loosely organised convoy comprising truck drivers, protestors and others marched through Ottawa to protest mandatory vaccination for truckers traveling across Canada from the United States. The protest gained support quickly from other Canadians who were tired of the nearly two-year-old pandemic restrictions.

Some were clearly on the fringe, wearing Nazi symbols and desecrating public monuments. Many described themselves as normal Canadians who were driven by despair to hit the streets.

After some smidgen of fairness, The TimesThe movement was again linked to the far right:

About two weeks ago, anti-vaccine Facebook groups posted photos featuring Canadian truckers. Many prominent figures of far-right have been active in many countries since then. including the United States, Australia and Germany, have praised the protests….

(….)

The GoFundMe account was created Jan. 14, and had accumulated $7.8million before being frozen by crowdfunding site. It was then stopped on Friday. According to the company, donors may request refunds.

Visualize The TimesJust a factual report about Antifa and BLM trying to raise funds during the summer 2020. “GoFundMe had released only about $789,000 of those donations before the fund-raiser was shut down, after the company consulted with the police.”

Notably, GoFundMe didn’t shut down fundraising on behalf of Antifa rioters or CHOP in Seattle. But Ottawa? That sounds great! The Times Based on what has been happening:

In Ottawa, the occupation has paralyzed the core and political center of Canada’s capital, pushing residents to sleepless furychaos and panic, causing businesses to close, resulting in millions of dollars lost.

The reporters had to admit the “festive” atmosphere in Ottawa, before switching back to condemnation that “[m]any Ottawa residents are besides themselves.”

How strange! The TimesIt didn’t matter how residents felt about the noise and closures that were caused by the Floyd protests in 2020.

The ​​​​​​​Times is also suddenly against vandalizing statues, though on Tuesday it ran a story that approved of destroying a statute of a British slave-trader.

Online coverage of the newspaper was worse. This headline was galling in its petulance: “Protests turn Ottawa’s downtown into a scene of disruption and desecration.” What did Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, etc., look like after rioting in the aftermath of Black Lives Matter protests? Was that not “disruption and desecration?”

This headline is pretty amazing, considering how The Times wailed when Donald Trump used the National Guard to clear a path through D.C. protesters: “Ending Protest Requires More Police, Ottawa Chief Says.”