Drawing the line
With blockades of bridges, borders and city centres dominating the news these days, I am thinking much about lines — where to put them, how to draw them, and when to walk them. We each have our limits. Some of us wake up one day with ‘enough!’ as our impetus for saying, This is where I draw the line. I must act. Our life experience informs our politics and, in turn, those politics shape how we draw that line — privately, with an X on the ballot; or loudly, by joining a public protest. I’ve done both, but on Saturday when a friend asked if I was going to the counter-protest at the Manitoba legislature, I said no. While I supported the idea, I wasn’t going to engage in this debacle that way. I have marched for issues clearly defined. I have voted for politicians who speak to my values and my priorities. But the ragtag bunch of individuals digging in for so-called ‘freedom’ speak neither to my values nor my priorities: their demonstration of ‘freedom’ looks too close to populist ana