Opinion | While indigenous and black people are being killed for talking, white supremacists are getting a free pass in Canada. Just look at the convoy

Imagine a Canada where land defenders, who oppose the ecological threat of their homelands, are encountered with violent police and assault rifles.

A Canada where indigenous women fighting for compensation for children abused by child welfare are being sued by the country. Where Black people who demand meaningful inclusion in a Pride parade incur the wrath of a country because they spoke at a parade to which they were invited. Where black and indigenous people exercising their rights to protest are regularly monitored by the RCMP, which are seen as threats to the state.

Where truck drivers bump their pickups through protest lines, or adorn their vehicles with violent and racist language to harm indigenous peoples as a result of their protests.

Now imagine a Canada where people openly support far-right movements, openly complain about “Depopulation of the Caucasian race” (because) the goal is to depopulate the Anglo-Saxon race because they are the people with the strongest bloodlines, “and threatens to bar the nation’s capital or to overthrow it. Where MPs are told to hide while the mob receives police escort and gain access to laundry rooms and heartfelt greetings with the same leaders threatening to criminalize Blacks and indigenous protesters for fighting for their lives.

This is the current reality, Canada. And it’s ugly.

This convoy, which I refuse to associate with truck drivers or “freedom”, shows us who may speak in this country and who will be arrested, attacked and threatened to do so. This week showed that a violent group of white supremacy, proudly waving Confederate flags in the country’s capital, is being given that privilege.

This is just another shining example of the continuing legacy of racism and colonialism in this country. Do not twist it. It shows us that our skin color automatically makes us more threatening than those who spent a week destroying infrastructure and openly threatened to overthrow our democratically elected leader. Where people in this convoy fight for their barely articulated concepts of “freedom” and an end to “mandates,” we fight for the state to stop harming us with their state-funded police brutality. We are protesting for our land not to be destroyed, to repair the damage that the state continues to repair for clean water.

For schools where our young people can thrive and not be disadvantaged, fair and equal representation is given in levels of leadership. However, when we do it peacefully, and are very careful not to even point to violence, we become dehumanized, criminalized, subjected to state violence, and sometimes even murdered.

We are spied on, branded as state robbers, terrorists and are subjected to threats and violence from the public who do not agree with us while the state looks the other way.

For those working to actively dismantle the racist systems and values ​​of this country, the response of our leaders and the media to this convoy was predictable. While some like to separate ourselves from the US – living a fantasy that things are somehow fairer here – we hope it was enlightening this week.

It is clear who may protest with state and police support, and who may not.