Adina Bresge, The Canadian Press January 31, 2022
[A]s of Sunday afternoon, there were no arrests related to incidents of physical violence during the demonstrations, a police spokeswoman said, though a statement issued that evening said “confrontations and the need for de-escalation has regularly been required.”
This has prompted many media reports to describe the protests as “peaceful.” Activists and academics on social media have taken issue with this characterization, saying it undermines the fear, damage and disruption the protests have wrought...
McKenney, who is non-binary, said they aren't sure they would be safe venturing downtown.
“There's no doubt that there is a large element in this convoy, that is part of a movement, that is extreme and that is xenophobic...
Josh Greenberg, professor of communication and media studies at Carleton University, echoed many of McKenney's concerns...
“By what common understanding of the term does what we are seeing on the ground, on TV, in our social media feeds qualify as 'peaceful protest?”' he wrote. “Is it merely the absence of physical violence and injury? That's not unimportant but is insufficient as a definitional threshold.” ...
Fareed Khan, founder of Canadians United Against Hate, described the protests as a threat to political stability and “peace-loving” Canadians...
He said some protesters have refused to wear masks in indoor venues, and suggested the mass gathering could become a COVID-19 “superspreader event” that would have deadly consequences far beyond those who attended it...
“This smacks of racism and white privilege,” he said. “If you had a Muslim, or a brown person, or an Indigenous person who organized such an event and called for unseating the government of this country, security forces would have been down on them like a bag of hammers.”
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