A trucker talks to supporters. After Ottawa Police handed out papers telling the truckers to leave or face arrest there was no movement on Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa. (Steve Russell / Getty Images)
Now that Canada’s “Freedom Convoy” has come to an end, we’re wondering: Was this protest really a working-class movement? As Jeet Heer explains on this week’s episode, the leadership and funding for the protest came from right-wing networks, and the “truckers” were mostly owners of trucking firms rather than drivers. Nevertheless, it was a movement that gained significant support, Heer says, and something left-wing political activists should pay attention to.
Also this week, Amy Wilentz remembers her friend and a hero to many: Paul Farmer. Farmer brought high-quality health care to some of the poorest communities in the world, beginning in Haiti. For more, read Wilentz’s obituary of the public health hero.
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Start Making SenseTwitterStart Making Sense is The Nation’s podcast, hosted by Jon Wiener and coproduced by the Los Angeles Review of Books. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts for new episodes each Thursday.
Jon WienerTwitterJon Wiener is a contributing editor of The Nation and co-author (with Mike Davis) of Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties.