It has been a few years since I have read Pique due to COVID and travel restrictions. I recall rightly or wrongly that it was at that time somewhat middle-of-the-road/trendy-left, presumably reflecting the Whistlerite readership.
I was dismayed to note that it has apparently fallen squarely into the hands of the woke, think-alike, farther left crowd. My credulity was particularly stretched by the article advocating for free public transit, in which the lack thereof was equated with “racism.” In the new woke world, everything is viewed through the lens of our alleged shameful societal racism, even while we live in probably the least racist country on the planet!
However, I was particularly struck by Leslie Anthony’s “Carnival of cowardice” heaping paragraph upon paragraph of vituperative scorn on the recent truckers’ convoy. This was an unrelenting succession of exaggeration, hyperbole and downright falsehoods concerning almost every aspect of this event. I guess his research for the article was conducted by watching the CBC and at a distance of a few thousand miles from the actual event.
I do agree that there was a dereliction of duty on the part of our leaders in not brokering a transfer of these activities to a location where they would not interfere in the peace, order, and good government of Ottawa and elsewhere. The invocation of the Emergencies Act after three weeks of dithering inaction with its unwarranted suspension of civil rights was completely unnecessary as existing laws were sufficient to justify appropriate action. The acquiescence of the federal NDP in approving this emergency invocation was particularly hypocritical and unconscionable in a party that likes to portray itself as a defender of all that is right and good.
A demonstration of dissent, however inappropriate and intrusive, is not the same as an insurrection intended to topple a legally constituted government!
The general tone of this issue (all recent issues?) of Pique brings to mind one of my favourite quotations from George Orwell: “He must be a member of the intelligentsia, as no ordinary man would believe such nonsense.”
