NY Times Now Wants Cops to Shut Down Protests: Canadians ‘Feel Terrorized by Pickup Trucks’

The police were absent from the protest by Canadian truckers against the mandates of vaccines. That’s what the hypocritical media is suddenly demanding, now from the front page of Sunday’s New York Times: “Ottawa’s Police Reacted Slowly As Protest Built.” The online headline: “In Ottawa Trucker Protests, a Pressing Question: Where Were the Police?” (Black Lives Matters protesters in the U.S. were apparently unavailable for comment.)

Canada Bureau chief Catherine Porter first hid her disgust at the protests and neutrally described the joy of having fun:

Steps from Canada’s Parliament buildings, a sprawling festival erupted on Saturday. D.J.s played music for crowds dancing at intersections, singers belted out songs from an improvised stage and protesters’ trucks still blocked the streets, blowing their horns to cheers

The paper didn’t mind dancing in the streets during the George Floyd protests of summer 2020, a time most Americans had to strictly limit significant gatherings like weddings and funerals:

After nearly two years of indefinite lockdowns, the few officers visible were soon swept up by large crowds.

Finally, the judge pronounced judgment. A hysterical local official, using they/them pronouns of course, compared peaceful protests to January 6. Or worse.

Two weeks after Ottawa’s downtown was transformed into a raging tailgate party, many in Canada wonder how this happened — why the police seemingly abandoned the country’s seat of power, with no perceivable backup, and how a motley group of truckers, anti-government activists, anti-vaccine agitators and people just fed up after two years of stringent public health restrictions have managed not only to outfox them, but to become increasingly entrenched and to spread elsewhere.

“This is Jan. 6 in slow motion,” said Catherine McKenney, an Ottawa city councilor, who uses the pronouns they/them, referring to the Jan. 6, 2021, mob assault against the United States Capitol. Mx. Kenney has been bellowing for more police protection for the city’s residents downtown, who feel terrorized by pickup trucks that circle through, delivering supplies to the parked trucks. “But on Jan. 7, 2021, Washington emptied out,” the councilor said. “Here, they stayed.”

Porter, who was guided by inside knowledge and experienced to show a grudging respect for the tactics of truckers, betrayed that trust.

Although trucks are the core symbol of the protest and the main cause of it, few truckers are among the self-described leaders. Many believe that some of the leaders are former officers or army veterans, who used their skills to organize the occupation.

A follow-up on Monday’s front page by Sarah Maslin Nir reporting the reopening of a bridge blockaded by protesters under the online headline “Canada Opens Blockaded Bridge, but in Ottawa, Truckers Won’t Budge.” The tone here was also strangely pro-police from a newspaper that’s spent over a year excoriating American police power, even in the face of deadly rioting and burning buildings:

Canadian law enforcement officials announced that they had opened a major bridge which had been blocked by protesters almost for a whole week ….

They announced the retaking of the Ambassador Bridge linking Windsor, Ontario and Detroit after several arrests. Many hailed this victory as a triumph for the government, shaken by intransigence anti-vaccine mandate protests.

But in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, hundreds of truckers were entering their third week of occupation of the area around Parliament Hill, Where they seemed to feel empowered by growing impunity

Yes, the same liberal newspaper that has spent two years talking up police brutality now wonders why Canadian cops won’t storm peaceful protesters.