In this episode, we discuss the top 5 protest moments of the past decade, and why they are the most impactful. We also have a contest where you get to vote on your favourite clip of the decade!
00:02:08.060Hey, you don't fucking touch her. Don't touch her. Don't touch her. You're the one who's touching her. Don't touch her. Don't move where I'm walking. And you don't come and harass us. I live here and this roadway is against the law to block. In Canada, it's against the law.
00:02:29.240Are you trying for this? Let's not engage. Let's not engage. Free, free, free Palestine. Free, free, free Palestine. Free, free, free Palestine.
00:02:49.240Come on over here. Come on over to the sea. Come on over here. Come on over here. Come on over here. Come on over here. Come on over to the sea. Come on over here.
00:03:09.920These are our roadways for safety and to get to our jobs and to go to the TPC.
00:03:17.500I would love to accompany you so you're safe. Let's go.
00:06:31.020And in fact, on this particular video, I got a message from someone indicating that the police chief had seen it and wanted more details about when it was recorded.
00:07:13.720And I think it really captured the essence of what it is in that moment and sort of a voice of dissent and how she interacted with protesters and then with police.
00:07:28.160Yeah, I certainly sympathize with that lady, you know, screaming, I live here.
00:07:31.900I live here and just being mobbed by by all those people shouting, hello, Akbar.
00:09:29.220Oh my God, this video, every time I watch it, it really gets me.
00:09:33.220You know, I've become very suspicious of somebody walking around with a finger like this these days.
00:09:37.220But beyond that, how can it be considered a protest to be in a residential neighborhood walking up and down the streets?
00:09:45.220So the context for this video is it was shot at Bathurst and Shepherd, which were two years after October 7 was the site of a weekly Free the Hostages rally.
00:09:59.220A year into that, the demonstration drew counter-protesters.
00:10:06.220And after the pro-Israel Free the Hostages rally wrapped up once the hostages were released, the counter-protesters continued to show up.
00:10:16.220And my speculation is that they got bored standing on the corner with no one to yell at across the street.
00:10:23.220And so they started venturing into the actual residential areas for a couple of weeks before police put a stop to that.
00:10:33.220To answer your question, how is this considered a form of protest?
00:10:38.220Talking to the protesters themselves, they genuinely see themselves as spreading some sort of awareness.
00:10:49.220They think it's a targeted message and, you know, they have every right to express themselves, you know, regardless of the demographics of the neighborhood or perhaps because of the demographics of the neighborhood.
00:11:05.220As I mentioned, police eventually did enact a strategy to prevent them from turning down residential sidewalks.
00:11:15.220This particular clip was especially chaotic because not only did you have the pro-Palestine protesters led by someone cosplaying as a Hamas fighter.
00:11:27.220You also had these Baptist counter-protesters following them and preaching Christ.
00:11:37.220So the whole thing was really just a cluster.
00:11:41.220And then, of course, police sort of following along on their bicycles and their cruiser, kind of hapless to it all.
00:11:50.220And this clip, again, it really resonated with people.
00:11:55.220It's been referred to pretty widely in editorial pieces.
00:11:59.220And at one particular committee, I think it was the Justice Committee, not 100% sure,
00:12:06.220but an MP used this image kind of in his social media posting about questions that he asked.
00:12:16.220And he grilled the deputy police chief about why this was allowed to go on.
00:12:21.220Yeah, and we've seen a few of those protests in residential neighborhoods since.
00:15:18.660There was nothing that provoked Fred Hahn into behaving the way he did.
00:15:23.500Apart from, I guess one could argue, he has been a central character in many of my protest videos over the years because of the high-profile nature of his job.
00:15:37.140And something sort of seemed to trigger him on this particular day, this resulted in a police report being filed.
00:15:47.340And Nigel, singing his heart out, is another character who has featured pretty regularly in my footage.
00:15:58.700And apart from his connection to the education and union sectors, he's also a board member with the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
00:16:11.040Yeah, he came to my attention initially in that capacity and has also been a very volatile figure.
00:16:19.000For someone who you'd expect to have some level of media training and just common sense, both Nigel and Fred consistently behave in ways that are just shocking.
00:16:36.220Or would be shocking if, you know, I wasn't jaded by all of the things I've seen.
00:16:43.100Certainly very emotional, very reactionary and emotional.
00:20:05.380Okay, well, we've made it to number one, and I really, really, really hope that this particular clip is the clip that makes it to your number one,
00:20:14.640because it absolutely went everywhere during the election season.
00:20:54.520When I initially posted it, I took a screenshot of the video, and my caption was something to the effect of elbows and or fingers up.
00:21:05.160I didn't make any value judgment on this man.
00:21:08.680I didn't say anything about him or what had preceded this or… It was just an image. And that took off in ways that I was not prepared to sort of see. It became a meme.
00:21:23.420People repurposed it in all sorts of ways.
00:21:27.160Not just a meme, the meme of the moment.
00:21:30.120The meme of the election, I think. And, you know, I won't overstate, but certainly it was a defining image of the election.
00:21:38.080And I think it resonated with people because just that smug face and the gesture and the grin, you know, it really encapsulated, I think, how people were feeling about the election and sort of the demographics of the election.
00:22:00.580What was interesting to me is how outlets like the CBC ran cover for this guy.
00:22:10.820And without reaching, like, they didn't reach out to interview me about what happened or how this clip came about.
00:22:17.620And they sort of did a fluff piece. You know, poor guy. He became a meme. He was being harassed. And, you know, he was provoked into this. And none of that is true.
00:22:30.220Right. I have footage from what was happening before, which is there were protesters at this Mark Carney event.
00:22:36.940But the double middle fingers were directed at my cameraman. And that was because, you know, there's this stigma that has taken root against anyone who identifies as independent media.
00:22:51.740You're assumed to be fake news, even if what we're showing is just raw footage.
00:22:58.280And certainly that's what I strive to do with minimal commentary and just let people sort of see and make things, you know, make up their own minds.
00:23:07.760And listen, we're all responsible for how we behave in public, especially when there's cameras around.
00:23:12.820And when you behave poorly and people pick up on that and it goes everywhere, it is your responsibility for your own behavior.
00:23:19.620Perhaps you shouldn't be behaving like that in the first place.
00:23:21.960I want to just add one thing that you didn't mention about this clip in this event.
00:23:28.600You showed up at a Pierre Polyev rally with a Brampton boomer cutout.