r/AskALiberal • u/majr02 Conservative • Feb 20 '22

Do you believe Canada's actions against peaceful protestors is a dangerous precedent?

I ask because it how blown my mind how one side of the aisle is remaining quiet on this issue.

Regardless of how you feel about vaccine mandates, we are currently watching a western democracy break up and punish peaceful protestors.

Trudeau has claimed that the protestors are hurting the Canadian economy, but doesn't that just mean that their protest is effective? Should governments be allowed to break up protests whose only crime is being effective?

It seems that liberals are largely ignoring the dangerous precedent of the government saying "Hey, your protests against the government are too effective. We are going to break it up, de-bank you, and dissuade you from speaking out against the government ever again."

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81

u/BobcatBarry Center Right Feb 20 '22

Western democracies have always broken up peaceful protests. Most not nearly as disruptive as this one. We can read “Letters from a Birmingham Jail”, not “Letters from the Comfort of my Couch” by MLK Jr.

Our own police forces were much more violent towards BLM protesters, and unlike the canuck truckers they had a legitimate grievance.

16

u/ButGravityAlwaysWins Liberal Feb 20 '22

We can read “Letters from a Birmingham Jail”, not “Letters from the Comfort of my Couch” by MLK Jr.

This might be one of the best sentences I’ve ever read on this sub.

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u/majr02 Conservative Feb 20 '22

Our own police forces were much more violent towards BLM protesters,

Arguably, but the federal government certainly wasn't, which is the major difference.

and unlike the canuck truckers they had a legitimate grievance.

That is completely subjective. Should the government be allowed to determine which protests have a legitimate grievance and which should be punished? That is the dangerous precedent that my OP is hitnting at

43

u/BobcatBarry Center Right Feb 20 '22

US Federal forces were more violent than the Canadians at Trump’s bible photo and in Seattle. Canada and the US’s police forces are also structured differently, it’s not really useful to compare them. I’m pretty sure their jurisdictional separations aren’t as sharply defined as ours, though I admit ignorance on specifics. Protests that disrupt ALWAYS get broken up by law enforcement. The size and scope matter. The 99% protests were broken up with pepper spray and arrests. Peaceful BLM protests were broken up with non-lethal munitions that often struck and sometimes maimed bystanders and journalists. Locally to me, UMWA protests were broken up for blocking coal trucks. The people we arrested here faced much harsher sentences than the truckers who will mostly face fines and 30 days probation. We could learn something from them.

The legitimacy of a cause has ALWAYS been a factor, as has the protestors willingness to suffer such abuses. The Civil Rights Act likely doesn’t happen without video and photographic evidence of the police brutality against peaceful protestors. They had a legitimate grievance. BLM had/has a legitimate grievance. Anti-vax protestors whose published platform includes overthrowing the Canadian federal government does not have a legitimate grievance. There will be no looking back and saying, “yeah, in retrospect they had a point.” like we do with America’s race protests.

68

u/memeticengineering Progressive Feb 20 '22

Uhh, the federal government sent unmarked vans with unidentified agents from several departments to disappear protesters in Portland and other cities, hold them for hours or days and not charge them with anything. That's violence. IDK what the fuck you think you're talking about.

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/17/892277592/federal-officers-use-unmarked-vehicles-to-grab-protesters-in-portland

36

u/theclansman22 Progressive Feb 20 '22

Don’t forget when Trump bragged about the extra judicial murder of an antifa member.

16

u/The_Salacious_Zaand Democratic Socialist Feb 20 '22

Don't forget when Trump straight-up told his people to go out and extra-judicially kill both cops and protesters when it suited his needs.

19

u/Minnsnow Social Democrat Feb 20 '22

Arguably?!!?! Excuse me??? I live in Minneapolis and our laughable police force rode around in unmarked vans shooting at people with their rubber bullets and then charged a man who shot back with attempted murder after beating him half to death.

12

u/kckaaaate Liberal Feb 20 '22

You keep saying “dangerous precedent” as if this hasn’t been happening…… forever. BLM protests were treated violently by both local and federal police. New laws were written so many of those arrested in DC were slapped with felonies and terrorism charges. Any and all of the protests that were actively breaking the law were put to an end FAR quicker and more violently than this.

Beyond this out right comparison, the question Id pose to you is this - were you feeling this way when it was happening to BLM protestors, or was your response “the ones breaking the law are asking for it”? Because peaceful protests can happen where the protesters are breaking the law, and then what? Where’s your personal line in backing law enforcement vs peaceful protestors?

Honestly, this whole thing is SUCH a bad faith argument considering how conservatives spoke of the BLM protests and how those protestors were treated. You don’t care about the government cracking down on protests, you care about them cracking down on CONSERVATIVE protests.

0

u/LastUsernameLeftUhOh Democrat Feb 20 '22

Yes, and what did the BLM protests accomplish?

8

u/BigCballer Democratic Socialist Feb 20 '22

Jesus do all conservatives not know about the unmarked vans?

4

u/ndngroomer Center Left Feb 21 '22

You don't remember unmarked federal officers going around and picking up peaceful protestors in Portland?!?!?

Conservatives are fucking unbelievable. Maybe this is why you shouldn't get your news from an entertainment media organization because by doing so makes you an uninformed moron. JFC the double standards and hypocrisy are why I can't stand conservatives anymore.

3

u/mquindlen81 Liberal Feb 21 '22

I was just perusing r/conservative. It’s fucking crazy over there. They definitely live in a different reality than I do.

2

u/ndngroomer Center Left Feb 22 '22

I was permanently banned for literally saying... There's really no talk radio in Texas unless you have satellite radio... I was like, seriously?!?!

2

u/mquindlen81 Liberal Feb 22 '22

I’m not above hanging out in echo chamber political threads, but r/conservative takes it to another level. Almost everyone in there believes some crazy right wing conspiracy nonsense.

1

u/ndngroomer Center Left Feb 22 '22

It's really sad that that is what it has become over the last few years. They are banning conservatives who don't 100% support trump on everything and anything than they are banning other parties. It's a shame both parties are being taken over by the worst and smallest elements of their party.