Canada's Missing Protests

In Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, thousands have been taking to the streets to protest the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Canadians might wonder why recent events in Nova Scotia, Canada, did not likewise drive people into the streets.  Back in April, a denturist named Gabriel Wortman, disguised as a police officer, began shooting people at random. Instead of putting out an emergency alert in the style of measures against COVID-19, the RCMP opted for Twitter, not universally used in Nova Scotia or anywhere else.  

The RCMP's deadly delay prompted no mass protests across Canada

The delay allowed Wortman, heavily armed and driving a fake police car, to continue the shooting spree that would claim 22 lives. The RCMP's deadly delay prompted no mass protests across Canada demanding police reforms and accountability. It was not the first time the vaunted RCMP would act in bizarre fashion.  Back in 2008, Timothy McClean, 22, departed the summer fair where had been working and boarded a Greyhound bus for Winnipeg. Sitting next to him was Vince Weiguang Li, a software engineer who came to Canada in 2001. Li suddenly brandished a knife and began stabbing McLean in the chest before beheading the victim and showing the severed head to terrified passengers.  When the RCMP showed up, they did not break into the bus and take down the killer. Instead they waited outside while Li effectively cannibalized McLean. According to news reports, the victim's eyes and part of his heart were not recovered, but police found McLean's nose and tongue in Li's pocket.  In Winnipeg and across Canada, people did not take to the streets to protest this grotesque lapse by the RCMP. Neither did protests take place when Li was set free in 2017, less than 10 years after he murdered, dismembered and cannibalized Timothy McLean. Last year in Windsor, Ontario, police claimed to have found the man who killed six-year-old Ljubica Topic in 1971, a cold case nearly 50 years old. Police claimed DNA had finally identified the killer, who was deceased, but declined to release the killer's name, claiming that would violate the dead man's privacy rights.

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The Prime Minister's racism failed to spark public protests, but when it comes to blatant racism it's never too late

That was nonsense, and there was no valid reason to keep the identity secret. Even so, the RCMP, Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey and Premier Doug Ford did not demand the release of the dead man's identity. The police had probably not identified Ljubica Topic's killer, but the prospect of fraud did not fuel public protests in Windsor or Toronto.  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who felt compelled to speak out on a hijab hoax in Toronto, was silent about the news of the cold case. In 2017, Trudeau gained fame for awarding $10.5 million to Omar Khadr, a Canadian-born al-Qaeda militant who killed an American soldier, Sgt. Christopher Speer, in a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan.  In 2019 it emerged that Prime Minister Trudeau was fond of appearing in blackface and covering the "Banana Boat Song." The Prime Minister's racism failed to spark public protests, but when it comes to blatant racism it's never too late.  In Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, Canadians can protest in the streets all night long, perhaps singing, "daylight come and me want go home." Protest is always more valid when it targets people and events at home, rather than some other country.