Why the Trucker’s Convoy is an Assault on Liberty

James Peron
The Radical Center
Published in
5 min readFeb 13, 2022

--

First, an apology for my recent absence. A few days ago I had a pretty bad fall and smashed my face into the concrete. It meant a ride in the ambulance, time at the the E.R. and lots of rest. The problem was severe swelling around the eye making reading and working almost impossible—even walking was risky because I couldn’t see well. I’m operational again, I just won’t be going anywhere while the eye is massively swollen and purple.

Consider these mothertruckers and their “protest” in Canada. Like petulant children they are throwing their toys out of the cot wailing and screaming for attention. But we should consider a few facts about these protests.

First, many of them are driving other people’s trucks. As I see it that makes them guilty of theft and, given the value of the trucks in general it would be grand larceny.

Consider the shock when business owner Daniel Miousse, discovered one of his employees, and one of his trucks weren’t on the job, but off in Montreal in the baby protest. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported:

“One of our employees took our truck since, I think, last Wednesday,” said Miousse, who is currently in Florida. “I was very upset. So I sent four people Sunday morning to get our truck back.”

He said he plans to fire the worker.

“I need to see him and ask him some questions. Why he didn’t ask anybody in the company?” said Miousse.

Seaboard Transport signed contracts with private owners and pays them to work exclusively for Seaboard. The trucks add Seaboard’s name to the sides, making it appear to be a company truck. The trucker is a contractual provider exclusive to Seaboard so the company was surprised to find trucks with their logo being used contrary to the contract. Sharp Transportation Systems found their logo on trucks in the protest as well—again without their knowledge or consent. Another transport company complained “one of the trucks with his company logo was flying the flag of a far-right, extremist organization.” He told CBC: “Of course it bugs me. There should be no racism. There is no spot for it. There’s no room for racism whatsoever.”

In addition, I saw trucks that had loads of goods on them in these protests . I know those goods don’t belong to the truckers. They are moving them for others — that’s their business. This means they have stolen other people’s property. Once again that is grand larceny and everyone one of them with other people’s trucks or goods should be charged as criminals. I would also revoke their licenses as truck drivers entirely. This is major theft in the name of “liberty.” What a joke!

In addition the truckers and their loud supporters are harassing residents with constantly blaring truck horns through the night or even threatening people with violence who complain. Global News reported, “The councillor, whose ward includes the majority of the protest sites, says they’ve heard from hundreds of residents in the past five days who reported harassment on the street, property damage and other disruptions to their home life.” One councillor reported garbage, urination and defecation in the public streets by protestors.

Resident Tim Abray was outside his building when he went to take a photo only to have “truckers” descend on him and forcibly be stopped by these “liberty-loving” thugs. Abray tweeted, “So, for those of you with any doubts about the nature of this “protest”: it’s turning into a violent occupation. I went for a walk in my own neighbourhood, taking some pictures of the current state of things… and ended up being assaulted by so-called freedom fighters.”

Many residents have been isolated in their homes unable to travel to get to their jobs or do basic shopping. Businesses have been closed down and some residents are now afraid to go out of their apartments. Some residents have started escort services so people needing to run an errand don’t have to be on the street alone. Those trapped at home have to endure the constant blaring of truck horns making sleep almost impossible.

Thousands of residents have joined protests demanding the protesters “truck off” and stop the constant harassment that is making their lives impossible.

Finally, there is the problem of them impeding the liberty of others. They have blocked other people in and stifled their freedom of movement. They have harassed residents who live near their protests. The idea they support liberty, while actively attacking the freedom of movement of others, is nonsense.

Once again we have the lunatic Right attacking the lives, liberty, and property of others in the name of freedom. They are not libertarian by any means, they are toddlertarians, whiny little children who think liberty is “what they want, when they want it, no matter who they hurt in the process.” They don’t support a concept of rights, they are advocates of privileges for themselves at the expense of everyone else.

The libertarian concept is not the freedom to do whatever you want! It never was. It was always freedom to do what you want PROVIDED you don’t violate the rights of others. Liberty is always fenced in by the equal rights of other people.

But this “convoy” of tempramental tantrum tossing toddlers is not enhancing liberty but restricting it. They are blocking their fellow citizens from going about their business unmolested. How do they obtain “freedom” to restrict the free movement of others? They don’t. They don’t have rights to work for companies that only want vaccinated employees. Their stupid theories aren’t labor contracts binding on others without their consent.

If some socialist or communist group stole millions of dollars worth of the property of others — trucks and the goods they were transporting — the whiny Right would be weeping and wailing, not applauding. As I see it these truckers are a criminal conspiracy and should treated as such. They sure as hell aren’t heroes by attacking the rights of others.

SUPPORT THIS PAGE AT PATREON

Your support to fund these columns is important, visit our page at Patreon.To make a one time donation sign up before the 1st and after the 3rd of the month cancel it.

Follow our daily comments at Twitter. If you are looking for discounted libertarian books visit our Freeminds website. If you wish to subscribe, free of charge, to this page you can have all new essays emailed to you. Just sign up here.

--

--

James Peron
The Radical Center

James Peron is the president of the Moorfield Storey Institute, was the founding editor of Esteem a LGBT publication in South Africa under apartheid.