I wanted to do something personal for a change.
I wrote about being cancelled.
On the right side of the political line in the sand, we the fringe are highly accustomed to and getting comfortable with the constant bombardment of negativity fired at us from our sitting federal Liberal government. Justin Trudeau and his cabal have meanwhile managed to shock news outlets worldwide with their repelling rhetoric and hypocritical utter lack of self-awareness as they pummell home scornful speaking points on protestors who parked on Parliament Hill demanding freedom from pandemic restrictions.
The unacceptables now take it all in stride, knowing what he will say before he opens his mouth. His fall backs when under attack are now soothingly foreseeable.
Racist.
Antisocial.
Delusional.
Hateful.
Misogynist.
Violent.
Extremist.
Terrorists.
The list goes on. These are Justin and company's go-to descriptors; his standard speech fodder nowadays really. They are words I hardly ever find the need to utilize unless I am mocking their glaring and unrestrained over-application and use. He then always predictably - after deeply insulting citizens whom he knows absolutely nothing about - goes on to mutter about how he "has our backs". What a guy.
It's hard to be stunned by anything that tumbles out of his gaping maw anymore. His feckless words used to sting me, but no more. While on his European tour to do business with allies regarding the appalling and heart-wrenching situation in Ukraine, he even oddly managed to lump Canadians in with Russian disinformation campaigns, stating it was important to "work together on pushing back against misinformation and disinformation." He then went on to add the dig, "Obviously, in Russia, but also in our own democracies." He's in good company of course - recall that CBC News inexplicably managed to pin the trucker convoys on bad Russian actors completely out of thin air, and more recently as reported by Blacklock's, CBC had to pull not one but two inaccurate articles on the convoy, quite beautifully demonstrating just where rampantly running disinformation is flowing in our country.
The Jussie Smollett copycat hate-crime hoax of the century unfolded here during the protest which I promptly debunked with the kind assistance of Jonathan Kay, yet no charges have been laid to date after a story of truckers attempting to commit a mass-murder arson went viral on social media. Very few questions are being asked about the youthful purple-haired fellows that apparently tried to take out an entire apartment complex by setting it alight, irregardless of the fact that this crime was complete with multiple witnesses who say the arsonists cleverly self-identified and helpfully declared themselves to be "protestors". The story was gleefully spread by our elected politicians on prime time television, despite there being no absolutely no evidence that it was truckers at all. I must say, I saw a good many things during my time spent with the trucker convoy, but the telltale trademarked Kool-Aid coloured hair of a liberal activist is not one of them. Regardless, multiple Canadian journalists ran with the story of the mass murder plot apparently foiled by someone with connections to CBC (imagine that) and opted to not look too closely to massage their own confirmation bias. Don't ask too many questions. That gets you cancelled.
Trudeau meanwhile spent the last week or so sermonizing and smiling inappropriately during somber photographic stages set in front of men and women who may lose their lives in combat, speaking on the need to quell disinformation and strengthen democracies; the desire to crush authoritarianism and to fight for freedom; meanwhile the man had just slapped down the for-war-time-only Emergency Act to clear out Canadians in trucks, hot tubs, and bouncy castles so that he could go back to his occasional schedule of work. So beloved had our Prime Minister become internationally after this stunt that he had to sneak in through back doors to meet his worldly counterparts to dodge British protestors screaming "Fuck Trudeau" at the front gates of Boris Johnson's pad whilst other leaders just waltzed right in.
He is basically a misinformation spewing machine.
I however tried to give fair coverage to demonstrators whom I knew would not receive it otherwise. After a very successful first weekend which saw zero arrests as thousands of vehicles rolled into our capital and ten thousand people peacefully protesting for nothing except a restoration of the rights they were born with, we witnessed our legacy media quickly turn to slinging militia-style terminology around to please their masters. When they failed to get the violent insurrection show they wanted, they then petulantly headed out onto the streets to attempt to mingle, utterly confused as to why the citizens they happily slandered didn't want to speak with them. I pre-emptively tried to be a voice of reasonable representation for people I knew our left-wing politicians and bought off broadcasters would mercilessly dissect and pick apart regardless of their intentions. I did so because I believe we should all have a say.
I lost mine because of it, along with many others.
Big tech refused to explain their selective suppression of political dissidents as we got a pre-taste of what the Canada of the future might look like should Liberal censorship bills be passed. That silence spoke volumes.
Being cancelled does have its advantages. I myself was one the of the targets of the vitriol Trudeau routinely spewed out with a bewildered and wide-eyed "Who, me?" look plastered on his face. It was frankly somewhat of a relief to consider deleting all of my apps and simply tuning all of this venom out, but alas, I still have work to do.
Even government-friendly journalist Travis Dhanraj recently got a nasty little taste of cancel culture when he went off the PMO-approved script and inquired to Chrystia Freeland on the necessity and validity of this European respite given the just recently ceased state of "emergency" at home. The hostile look upon her face really said it all.
He was actually just doing his job. "Be careful," the look said. "The cancel mob could come for you too. Don't bite the hand that feeds you."
The backlash Travis received for having the audacity to push the boundaries that restrict a good portion of our paid state media was swift and brutal. "How dare you!" cried the Tru-Anons as they ripped into him over inquiring about this "essential" diplomatic trip with an itinerary that read like a sightseeing vacation. Such is the sad, sorry state of Canada.
As near as I can tell, Travis behaved himself and fell into line for the rest of the excursion.
Tragically, because of the utter lack of this rare breed of journalism (and who in the hell would practice it given the backlash?) I have been relegated to the interrogation of leftists and locked into a prejudiced corner of my creating in an attempt to make up for all that is lacking in the greatly-maligned institution we commonly refer to as "mainstream media".
Being cancelled also means you get to take a step back and assess the current state of affairs without being an active part of them. Perspective. Introspection is important. People like me, the independents, are now borne out of necessity - and not necessarily by choice - to counterweigh an MSM suspiciously and overwhelmingly supportive of those politicians that pay their bills, who also increasingly appear to parrot propaganda lines dispatched directly from the PMO. I would much rather not be here, trapped inside a box of my own extreme bias.
But, here we are.
Now that operation photo-op in Europe is over, and regardless of whether the war rages on in embattled Ukraine or not, we all know what time it is. Justin made it abundantly clear during his publicity stunt as he expressed his usual disdain towards opposition in what has become his modus operandi where his focus is and what his impending pressing agenda would be.
He is coming for free speech.
Andy Lee