Unless you went back to sleep with the groundhog, who is still grumpy, by the way, from being so rudely awakened on the 2nd, you are aware of the truckers swarming Ottowa, grinding everything to a halt in what the call a "protest" of covid vaccination requirements for truckers crossing the international border. Many of these are US truckers, because of course they are.
Everywhere they drive in the good ol' US of A has some right wingnut radio station they can listen to all day and all night. There's no fairness doctrine where both actual sides of whatever must be presented fairly. There are no truth checks on what gets broadcast. The most virulent poison gets spewed nonstop on many stations, even with Rush gone to his reward - which I have an opinion about but that's another post. The rabble is being roused, and the issue of the year is whatever conspiracy is even crazier than the last one with no regard to science, logic, or reason. Because why would it be?
"Vaccine is just a way to get us all microchipped so (insert name here) can follow us wherever we go." Nevermind the needles are too small, microchips need a close detector to identify the 16 digit number that offers an identity, and have no power source to broadcast anything. Got a cell phone you take everywhere? There's your microchip, buddy. Got a vehicle with computerized features? There's your microchips. Both have power sources and broadcast your locations. And NOBODY CARES! (Well except maybe - shhhhh- insert-name-here.)
"The government can't tell us what to do." Really? Did you need to get a driver's license, a nice special one that certifies you are qualified to drive that big rig? Wear a seatbelt? Follow a speed limit? Drive on certain roads in certain lanes, take a number of hours off from driving, supposedly for sleep so you can be alert for the next leg? If you're an American in Canada, didn't you have to cross an international border? American laws stopped applying to you, but Canadian laws certainly now do. You don't have your bill of rights any longer. Canada can do whatever it says it can do. Period.
And a lot of us wish they would.
There are a bazillion other stupid conspiracy theories and bits of misinformation out there, but that could take a book. So let's just accept that your protest is out of line. You don't have 18 wheels to stand on. You are violating their laws by deliberately blocking their traffic and causing havoc in their capitol. Some of you are shoving people to the ground simply for sensibly wearing a mask while they are in the presence of others. Who knows what else you've been up to - besides no good.
So here's a suggestion, heartfelt from an American who's totally embarrassed and fed up with their misbehavior, to any Canadian in charge who wants to put a firm end to this chaos and criminality. Throw the book at them all. Heck, not just the book, throw the whole damn encyclopedia, the dictionary, the thesaurus, and the whole rest of the library at them. Be sure what you're throwing is the hardcover version. It lands much more resoundingly.
Start by arresting them all. No room in jails? Open air cages are good enough for the people they don't like in this country, particularly illegal immigrants, and go ahead and crowd them together with just a sheet of mylar to protect them from the elements. Give them a teensy taste of reality, eh? Charge them with assault and everything adjacent you can pile on. Pile on al lthe fines you can: illegal parking, obstruction of traffic, impediments to businesses, commerce, government business, even obstruction of anybody needing to get to a hospital and all the damages caused by the delays, including expected payments from lawsuits. Still have anti-profanity in public laws on the books, maybe from a hundred years ago that nobody's looked at? Did they spit on the sidewalk? Toss out pee bottles? Drop a used tissue? Littering carries fines.
Then physically remove those trucks. It's reported that the towing companies refuse to get involved for fears of retaliation. Fine, how about military vehicles? And armed accompaniment. Get out those tanks and force the rigs off the road and into some parking area where fees for parking are mandated, and charge for the costs of getting the vehicles there. Any assault on your military personnel becomes their crime by extension of causing and promoting the problem, aka aiding and abetting, so charge that too.
For all those drivers you've incarcerated, charge them for the privilege like we do with some jails where they must pay (by work) for their meals, bed, guards. (Didn't know we did that? Be poor and get arrested for non payment of fines and watch it add up.) With all the charges and fines, the truckers will likely be your "guests" for a while, and the pile of fines only increases at time goes on. Many will likely lose their jobs for non delivery of their loads, even lose their trucks for non payment of their truck loans. Tsk tsk. Can't pay their mortgage? Awwwww, crocodile tears. Actions have consequences.
While you've got them there, just vaccinate them all. Charge them for it of course, despite your wonderful medical system. Figure out how to do the same for any medical expenses they incur, particularly if they contract covid. More so for everybody to whom they've spread it. I hear a typical covid hospitalization down south of your border costs an average of $50k a day. Of course if they have recently clogged your hospital system by spreading covid all over, well, I guess you can triage by citizens first, eh? I mean, prisons have their own medical facilities, right even if they don't necessarily include ventilators and those revolving beds to facilitate easier breathing and avoid bedsores, right?
I suppose you eventually you have to send these yahoos back to us. Sigh. But hey, no hurry. Drive them to the border and let them walk. By this time those trucks will have been sold to cover their costs, eh? And the exercise will do them some good. And hey, it may even have stopped snowing by then.
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