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Mark Bourrie's avatar

I read parts of this out loud to my wife, who knows the inside of government better than anyone. This is a great piece of journalism. Substack has given you the space and the freedom to really shine as a writer and analyst.

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Applied Epistemologist's avatar

The biggest problem was that the authorities had no openly announced, widely agreed, strategic goal. You can't have good internal communications when people have no idea what they are trying to accomplish.

Was the goal to let the truckers protest in front of Parliament, for an extended period if they wanted to, could afford it, and had the support, while managing impacts on local residents?

Was it to shut down and clear all protests after a minimal proforma opportunity to "have their say"?

Or was it to smash them, punish those who had the temerity to speak out, and ensure that nothing like this ever happened again?

The fact that support for the truckers was growing rapidly (as more people came to Ottawa and donated) raised the stakes and created panic among authorities.

It's not up to police to decide the goal - that's for politicians. Who hid.

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