On February 4, a car plowed through a group of demonstrators against Covid restrictions in Winnipeg, Canada. The driver fled the scene, leaving four adult males injured.
Videos taken by surveillance cameras and bystanders show the moment of impact. The white Jeep Patriot speeds up past the trail of cars and aims directly at a group of protesters. One of the victims can clearly be seen being driven over, as the Jeep’s operator indiscriminately steers into others.
Thankfully, no one was killed in the incident. Winnipeg police apprehended the suspect, a 42-year-old man from Headingley, this past Sunday. He faces 11 counts of assault with a vehicle with failure to stop at the scene of the crime.
Although the police were able to quickly detain the suspect, why isn’t there major media coverage of this? Where’s the legacy media calling out violence aimed towards peaceful protesters? Corporate media would be talking of nothing else if this happened at a Black Lives Matter protest.
Yet apart from Fox News, local Canadian news outlets, and some British publications, there isn’t much talk of this violence at all. CNN published an article about the growing Freedom Convoy, offering only a brief summary about the Friday evening hit-and-run.
It seems as if once again large news corporations want to sweep the incident under the rug, much like they did with the Waukesha Christmas parade hit-and-run hate crime that killed seven and injured more. Notice that legacy media isn’t talking about that anymore?
Commentators on the left never waste an opportunity to bring up the Charlottesville, Virginia car attack, a horrible assault that killed one and injured 35 others. It seems as if whenever freedom-loving patriots congregate, leftist media eagerly reminds the world of the dangers of supposed emerging fascism and alt-right conspiracy theorists, while dodging the true issues at hand. Here, those issues are the right to bodily autonomy and the Covid-19 response’s gross abuses of governmental authority.
It is not convenient for the media to address the Winnipeg violence with the respect and depth it deserves. It doesn’t serve their agenda. Why shed light on a serious crime against peaceful Freedom Convoy supporters when you can just cry wolf and falsely equate them with Nazis and white supremacists?
Government elites fall directly into the latter camp: decrying the movement whenever and however they can. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the movement a “small fringe minority” that spreads hateful rhetoric and doesn’t speak for Canadians, yet the movement is growing every day with supporters from all parts of Canada, with Americans now joining in.
In fact, the Convoy inspired sister movements around the world, such as in Helsinki, where truckers are protesting rising gas prices and vaccine mandates. So much for being a “fringe minority.”
If Trudeau is such a champion of peace and civility, why didn’t he condemn the actions of the 42-year-old driver who appears to have aimed to seriously harm and even kill peaceful protesters that Friday? Perhaps he was too busy fleeing to an “undisclosed location” to make any remarks. Trudeau still has yet to address the demands of the Freedom Convoy and has remained in hiding since the demonstrators moved on Ottawa from Vancouver at the end of January.
Even if the public peacefully protests and makes its concerns known through justified means like boycotts and public demonstrations, corporate elites and government officials turn a blind eye. Why? Because the growing popularity of the Freedom Convoy throws a wrench in the leftist narrative that it is a movement of white supremacists looking to harm innocent Canadians by refusing to take a vaccine that has been shown to not curb the spread or transmission of Covid-19. So what is this game they’re playing at?
It seems the consensus on social media is that those in the convoy are self-interested rebels with no consideration of the greater good. Although they had many chances to address the Friday evening attack, media outlets chose instead to cherry pick information, focusing on anecdotes, such as isolated instances of vandalism or racial slurs, in order to paint the truckers and their supporters in a deplorable light.
Interestingly enough, the truckers have repeatedly voiced their dedication to protesting peacefully, and have consistently distanced themselves from fringe individuals who carry swastika signs and try to deface property. The media is clearly conflating the actions of select individuals with that of the group, something a 4th grader could point out for its gross oversimplification.
If those who oppose these truckers and their deeply held belief in self-autonomy insist that all the demonstrators are violent due to unsubstantiated reports of a few instances, should the same case not be made of them? Four people almost lost their lives to a crazed driver who appears to have deliberately chosen to ram his car into peaceful demonstrators. Aren’t all pro-mandate supporters the same, then?
Of course not, and it would be insane to entertain that notion. Yet the legacy media and opponents of self-responsibility and autonomy have no shame in using that smear tactic whenever it suits them.
This is why the truth needs to be let out. If leftist media stays silent, it is our responsibility to ensure that what is happening here is amplified for the world to see and hear. Do not let the elites memory hole this attack; do not let them sweep it under the rug like they have done for so many others. If the tables were turned, they would never let you forget it. So why should you?
