Within the past few weeks, new COVID-19 protocols have come into effect, and the Toronto police have since arrested three anti-mask protesters. In the summer of 2020, the police evidently cracked down much faster on the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement than they did on the anti-mask one. Anti-mask protestors are endangering the lives of people all over Toronto, Canada, and the world. So, why are they receiving less attention from the police than Black Lives Matter protestors? Underlying systemic racism might be the answer, and when you line the two groups up against each other, race (and morality) is what stands out.
The police charged three protesters at Yonge–Dundas Square and Nathan Phillips Square, two with “Common Nuisance” and one with “Assault Police Officer and Obstruct Police.” In addition, the police handed out eighteen Fail to Comply charges. These three protesters represent the first stand-out arrests at an anti-lockdown protest since such protests began. One other Toronto anti-mask protester was arrested in October—but at the Moncton Airport, not an anti-mask rally. The arrest at Yonge–Dundas Square, filmed and posted online, was carried out peacefully by a large number of police officers.
In an initial comparison of the anti-mask arrests with the Black Lives Matter arrests, the biggest stand-out is police reaction time. Lockdown, social distancing measures, and masks all came into effect around April of 2020, and with them came the anti-mask protests. It is now January 2021, almost ten months after the first protest occurred in Toronto. Conversely, the BLM arrests took place a month-and-a-half after the first protest. Additionally, police were already on the scene of the BLM protest to keep the peace, but Toronto’s BLM Twitter page claims the police “arrested three people who were just sitting in a van after you tried—and failed—to kettle everyone.” The anti-maskers arrested were actively engaged in their charge when they were arrested and had been for quite some time.
The motivations behind the two groups stand at opposite ends of a spectrum encompassing a fight for freedoms and liberties. One group is fighting against the systemic racism permeating our country in the hopes of bringing about the liberation of the Black community from centuries of oppression. The other group is fighting a piece of cloth. A piece of cloth that’s saving lives. The crucial moral difference between the Black Lives Matter protesters and the anti-mask protesters is that the BLM protesters are fighting the past to protect the present, and to ensure a future of equality and liberty. The anti-mask protesters are endangering their own lives, the lives of their fellow protesters, their family’s lives, and even the lives of mask-wearing citizens who don’t want to catch the novel coronavirus and risk only further aggravating an already out-of-control pandemic.
The anti-mask protesters and the BLM protesters continue the fight for their respective causes, but one group is far more justified than the other. That group is Black Lives Matter. Seeing action being taken against the anti-maskers now, almost a year into the pandemic, when police officers tackled the BLM protests from the start, is disgraceful. Hopefully, these first anti-mask arrests will pave the way for greater accountability for those who willingly endanger fellow Canadians. If racial justice is more of a threat to Canada than those ignoring a pandemic, then our country has failed to protect the right people.
However.. after much reconsideration your views are supported and since it is black history month it is a topic that should be shown to the world to raise some awareness. Not just focusing on the fact that this is about the anti-maskers but about the way people are treated in different situations and highlighting that of the BLM movement.
Meh … The only real difference is that BLM protests sparked widespread looting and torching of public buildings, which had nothing to do with rights. Also, you’re considering only one case. Hundreds of anti-lockdown protesters have been arrested in Brussels and elsewhere. You should also consider fines, not just arrests. And then there’s the fact that some people might prefer to risk their lives than to live under a lockdown, because they would rather have a short and meaningful life than a long and pointless one.
In addressing the statement of “some people might prefer to risk their lives than to live under a lockdown”, it must be pointed out that needlessly risking one’s life for zero probable cause leads to living a ‘short and meaningless life’ in fighting for something that has absolutely no significance. There is also a difference between a cause/movement and fighting against local legislation. The BLM movement is a cause targeted in uprooting deeply woven systemic racism, and has a point and is meaningful. On the other hand anti-mask protests are subjected on trivial and banal matters that don’t undermine any specific group in society. There is absolutely no harm being done to target a specific demographic of people in wearing mask, yet systemic racism – is well, racist.