In Canada, first the doxing, then the struggle session.
This week, one of the most popular small-donor fundraising sites for the Canadian truckers protesting the COVID vaccine mandates, GiveSendGo, was hacked. The names of donors were shared with the public. We know about this mostly because erstwhile news organizations, such as Reuters, have showered attention on the breach as if they were providing a public service.
Indeed, many of the same outlets that refused to report specifics about the Hunter Biden email scoop in 2020 (though the story was obtained in a completely ethical journalistic manner) or share specifics from the Democratic National Committee email hacks in 2016 (illegally obtained, but with high news value) have no compunction highlighting a site that takes aim at ordinary people who have done nothing but engage in political dissent.
In Canada, the doxing has already begun. Tammy Giuliani, a small-business owner who employs 40 people, was forced to shut down her gelato shop because of threats made against her employees after her $250 donation to the truckers’ cause was disclosed, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
The Citizen’s Blair Crawford doesn’t marvel at the fact that a person who lives in a (nominally) liberal democracy can be intimidated for engaging in political protest, but instead strongly insinuates that Giuliani had it coming: “Giuliani made her Feb. 5 donation on the second weekend of the demonstration, when Ottawa police were describing it as ‘volatile and dangerous’ and lawyers were seeking a court injunction to silence the constant blaring of air horns in the downtown core.”
So what? The police were wrong. The protests have not been “dangerous” to this point. A deep dive into the scaremongering tactics of Canadian authorities might be worthwhile for someone who isn’t merely a stenographer at the struggle session: “Never in our wildest dreams did we anticipate what has transpired over the past couple of weeks,” she said. “None of us anticipated what it turned into and we certainly don’t condone it.”
No one can blame Giuliani for engaging in a bit of self-flagellation to save her business. Giuliani, who claims she gives money to animal shelters, a soccer team and a choir (“We rarely say no”), was compelled to take out loans to stay open during the pandemic. It’s “a debt that will probably take seven years to pay off,” she told the Citizen. It’s not difficult to imagine why a business owner battered by counterproductive state-compelled economic shutdowns would oppose vaccine mandates. Nor is it difficult to imagine how disclosing her donations — and the subsequent media attention — is intended to chill speech.
At least one reporter for the Washington Post, already on the case, is allegedly contacting Americans who have contributed as little as $40 to the anti-mandate cause in Canada. How could the Post possibly know the names of donors if it wasn’t working off the list obtained through the hack? And how could it possibly care? That is, unless the goal is to Brendan Eich dissent.
Now, of course, this isn’t Canada. The government doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally seize the assets of political protesters as if it were a third-world autocracy. Yet this is what the hysterics surrounding the specter of “dark money” is all about. The fact that we aren’t obliged to publicly attach our names to all political donations is endlessly frustrating to those intent on smearing and intimidating their political opponents. Anonymous speech is as much a part of “democracy” as marching in the streets or writing a newspaper column. And in a healthy liberal media environment, reporters would be demanding answers from those abusing power, not working with them to inhibit political speech.
David Harsanyi is a senior writer at National Review and author of “Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent.” To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
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The left’s vicious, hate-mongering cancel culture is not restricted to America. With the complicity of both corporate and social media, the radical left is able to destroy the livelihood of anyone in any nation who dares to openly express opposition to its divisive, oppressive, and destructive policies or financially supports anyone who does. Both America and Canada are fast becoming socialist dictatorships. Canada may be lost but I believe we can still save America if we can give control of both the Senate and the House to Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections. It is critical that true patriots make their voices heard this November or we may lose our Constitutional Republic.
THEN WHY the hell can we NOT CIVILLY and/or even CRIMINALLY charge these media outlets, FOR INCITING THIS VIOLENCE!?!?!??!?! Why do they keep being above the damn law?
1. Primary all the RINOs
2. Make huge conservative gains in both Houses
3. Get an ultra-conservative Speaker of the House
4. Impeach both Biden and Harris at the same time
5. SotH becomes Prez
6. Appoint Trump as VP
7. Prez goes on extended vacation
8. Trump is acting Prez
9. No term limit on VP
10. Trump is acting Prez for next 20 years
IF i ADVOCATE for term limits for all,, I MEAN FOR ALL.. And that should include republicans, OR we are just as bad as they are, wanting power forever..
Justin Trudeau reminds me of mumbling fumbling gun toting Elmer Fudd on the hunt for his wracally wabbits who keeps making him look like a fool. The Truckers even have their own version of “What’s up Dox?”
Trudeau acts like Farmer McGregor, fencing off Parliament like Pelosi Fenced off our own Capitol and Farmer McGregor fenced of his garden to keep Peter Rabbit and his Trucking sisters Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail from harassing his garden of power base within the Trudeau Garden of Canadian good and evil,,,,and feed off the melonheads and bean brains that are planted within the Capitol. He fails to realize that hunger is a great motivator, and people, like rabbits will do what they have to, to eat and live free.
THIS IS why i say the truckers WOULD HAVE HAD A BETTER chance of making their point known, IF THEY JUST CUT OFF making any sort of delivery, PERIOD TO Ottowa or ANY OTHER CAPITAL.
See how swiftly they stick to their ‘guns’, and leftist rules, WHEN THE FOLK are starving?!
Just like these democrats I hope little Justin doesn’t get enough votes to paper his backside.
“No one can blame Giuliani for engaging in a bit of self-flagellation to save her business. Giuliani, who claims she gives money to animal shelters, a soccer team and a choir (“We rarely say no”), was compelled to take out loans to stay open during the pandemic. It’s “a debt that will probably take seven years to pay off,” she told the Citizen. It’s not difficult to imagine why a business owner battered by counterproductive state-compelled economic shutdowns would oppose vaccine mandates. Nor is it difficult to imagine how disclosing her donations — and the subsequent media attention — is intended to chill speech.”
I will say about Trudeau what I say about Biden: whatever ill fate may befall him can’t come soon enough—and ditto for his administration.
AND for all those banks and insurance companies, SHANKING OVER their customers who were participating IN THIS protest.. WE NEED TO KNOW THEIR NAMES… So we can punish THEM!
These patriots that suffered doxing should sue the MSM scumbags that did this to them.
I’d even go so far as to say they need to get CRIMINALLY CHARGED with incitement to violence.
I have heard unsubstantiated reports from elsewhere, that the Canadian version of the ASPCA has started, SEIZING pets, from those who are still at that protest…