Recent Developments Show Signs of Escalation
Regardless of how the US election goes, Canadian anti-lockdown activists are already getting worse
The perils of undergoing a project on a topic like this is that things move fast enough that a lot can change by the time you’re finished. In the introduction to this series, I explained the concept of the three-way fight, arguing that the anti-lockdown and patriot movements in Canada were or are becoming anti-system movements. In subsequent pieces I took a look at some subsets like organized pseudolegal commercial arguments, the New Constitutionalists and QAnon as examples of anti-government currents within these movements. Recent developments show further confirmation of their anti-government orientation.
A number of viral claims have surfaced online among anti-lockdown and patriot activists that show a higher level of extreme paranoia. Fake chain letters ostensibly sent by an anonymous Liberal Party committee insider allege of a plot to build a repressive lockdown in November and speed up the construction of isolation facilities to detain people who refuse vaccinations. Isolation facilities, mostly hotels, are made out to be concentration camps largely thanks to the histrionics of Randy Hillier. On Facebook, these people point to government orders of tear gas supplies and “guillotines” to suggest that they will either be used against their protests or to mass-murder people in the camps. The tear gas is actually a routine order used for military training, and guillotine is just another name for an office paper-cutter. In some variants of these theories the Chinese military, rumoured to be training openly in a public park in Surrey, will be involved and may invade the United States from Canada with Trudeau’s assistance to oust Trump and install President Biden. The video that allegdly shows them training in this public park, while real, is actually of a Chinese cult.
Anti-lockdown activists have also started to face a small level of penalization from law enforcement. Chris Saccoccia got tickets and eventually a charge for violating the Quarantine Act. Later he reportedly got arrested again at the airport in New Brunswick for attempting to enter the province and causing a disturbance. Anti-mask protesters in Montreal have been given fines for at least two demonstrations, (protests in Montreal are now required to wear masks) although police seem more willing to do this when their numbers are small. The Line has also reported several of their activists getting arrested at a Hilton hotel after refusing to wear a mask, although I’ve seen no reports of charges. The Canadian Revolution camp in Ottawa was also forcibly closed, two men who tried to stay were arrested and charged. One got additional charges and was forced to stay in custody longer for refusing to identify himself to police, his current status is unknown. After every incident, a wave of negative comments towards the police ensues, saying that they lost their way.
Some try to reconcile their respect for police with conspiracy theories that those enforcing laws they disapprove are not actually police, but unmarked agents of the New World Order, United Nations, or China. Calls from Black Lives Matter and abolitionists to defund the police are put in line with these theories, believing the police will be replaced by these other more sinister forces. Chris Saccoccia has believed that police deliberately splled his name wrong on tickets to avoid a losing court challenge, where he can challenge the laws as unconstitutional, and continues to praise local police. Many such conspiracy theories focus on Australia as a foreboding example of a totalitarian state due to its harsh crackdown on anti-lockdown activists and its closer relationship with China.
Sovereign Citizen ideology has also been growing interest. I have seen a new “guru” named Christopher James being promoted among anti-lockdown activists in British Columbia and Ontario. His YouTube streams denounce various levels of government as “service corporations,” believes peoples’ names being in capital letters on their birth certificates proves the government enslaved them with an artificial personality, tells business people to give police trespass warnings if police visit them about mask bylaws, etc. His growing appeal seems to be a result of other approaches such as Traversy’s private prosecution of Trudeau and the Canadian Revolution’s efforts to get politicians to step down not picking up any steam. Norman Traversy and his hanger-on Amina Motola have both appeared on Christopher James’ show. Key Canadian Revolution organizer Miranda Remillard has also promoted his material after the War Memorial camp was shut down. I have also noticed more rhetoric from anti-lockdown activists concerning “common law” ant the right to perform citizen’s arrest on politicians.
Protests outside politicians’ homes are also being encouraged. Protests in front of Doug Ford’s house is now a weekly occurrence, ironically some who do this sre the same people who condemned anarchist protests in front of the Hamilton mayor’s house last year. In Quebec, at least one protest has happened in front of public health director Horacio Arruda’s home, where one claimed they would recruit sheriffs to come back to arrest him (unclear if they meant real police or Sovereign Citizen “common law sheriffs”)
Leadership could potentially turn the anti-lockdown movement towards a different, more reformist approach. But much of the leadership shares the same anti-government views, and what other approaches they try are a dead end.
One of the biggest and most important anti-lockdown groups is the Line, which has chapters all around the country. The Line was set up as a front for the now apparently defunct Toronto anti-lockdown group Free North Patriots in late April, but around August it began to become more institutionalized with Lamont Daigle as its executive director. Lamont Daigle has come under fire from an upstart anti-lockdown media outlet called Diverge Media for a number of bizarre statements expressing violent fantasies. Other statements also showed a lack of faith in the court system, which Diverge Media considered strange considering his support for Rocco Galati’s lawsuit.
In an interview with Rebel, Lamont Daigle walked back several of these statements as made from emotion and not expressions of serious intent. He clarified that he did not know the law beforehand but did trust Galati’s understanding of it. Daigle was not asked about statements he made saying Canada breaking up with each province going independent as a way out of the crisis was his “optimistic” outcome, which indicates a viewpoint shared with the New Constitutionalists (he has done videos with the Myth is Canada and Canadian Revolution campers). Additionally, lawsuits can take up a lot of time and Galati’s has a number of outlandish statements that make it unlikely to go far.
At points anti-lockdown activists have attempted to run for office or politicians have tried to co-opt their movement, but this is unlikely to go anywhere. Maxime Bernier failed spectatularly in his run for the York Centre by-election after pandering to anti-lockdown activists, barely getting any media attention. Activists who ran as independent candidates or for alternative parties in British Columbia’s had no victories, Laura Lynn Tyler Thompson achieved the highest outcome with only nine percent of the vote. Newer parties that anti-lockdown activists have supported, such as the Republican Party of Canada, are not even registered with Elections Canada. The most mainstream politician supporting them is Randy Hillier, and he was already kicked out of his party beforehand.
The anti-lockdown movement will still go on. But with no path to achieve their ojectives other than momentarily disruptions, where can they go but down?