In early 2022, in my home country Canada, a convoy of truckers drove from the western part of the country to the capital Ottawa, a journey some 3000+ kilometers long. It was to protest the laws put in place by the government to only allow people who were vaccinated against Covid-19 to use public facilities. From a political perspective, mitigating the response to a new, and misunderstood disruptive event (Covid-19) in a way that will please the population at large is an impossible task. The government chose to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated which pissed off most people who weren’t vaccinated who in short concluded they were being discriminated against. If the government chose another route and allowed anyone to attend any public facility regardless of vaccination status, they would have pissed off the people who were vaccinated and were concerned with the spread of the still misunderstood virus. This also would have risked the government giving the impression that they were not looking out for their citizens, just one of the many factors that can increase the likelihood of a revolution. But what I want to focus on today is the term the truckers used repeatedly in their campaign:
FREEDOM
The convoy that inspired other countries to follow suit was dubbed the “freedom convoy”. In a nutshell, these protesters wanted to have the freedom to live their lives the way they were used to.
Is there such thing as freedom in the absolute sense?
- The truckers wanted the freedom to enter public spaces regardless of vaccination status but to do so they would have to give up the freedom to live in a world without covid.