With protests growing around the world—whether it be in France against the vaccine passports or Australia against their never-ending lockdown—the situation looks dire. Yet, I feel it’s good to reflect that it wasn’t long ago that we’ve been through far worse. While governments of “free and developed” nations are sinking to lows we would have thought unfathomable, they aren’t as low as they have been in the relatively recent past.

For example, let’s compare a COVID-19 protest in Quebec to the famous Selma to Montgomery protest from 1965.

In December 2020, a beta reader for my forthcoming novel, David Hardat participated in a COVID-19(84) rally of about 1,000-1,500 people at Parc Lafontaine in Montreal. It was winter. In Canada. As you can see from the photo below it was, as David describes, a “very chill and peaceful” event.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t long before the police showed up (on bicycles!). Here’s what David told me in an email:

I wasn’t with the main group, rather off to the side… when four cops came towards me. All I hear was “Lui!” (“Him!”) and two of them were by my side. I resisted and one twisted my arm. So I followed them. (I’m a lover not a fighter.) The cops did nothing to me because two young teenagers stayed close and were filming the incident on their phones and asking if I was OK. 

They kept me outside in the snow with one cop as they were checking my identity…. During that time I witnessed them being nasty with anyone who resisted, kicking their feet out from under them and throwing them savagely in the snow. Men and women. Even a young mother, on the ground, being cuffed while her child was crying and screaming. Very surreal.

They gave me the infraction notice right then and there. $1,500 for not having a mask during a legal protest.  I contested the next day by email. 

As bad as this may sound, it’s really a minor annoyance that freedom-preservers haven’t suffered through before. Compare what’s happening today to what happened 56 years ago, in 1965, when people marched 87 km (54 miles) from Selma, Alabama to the state capital of Montgomery protesting voting rights for African Americans.

In this video, the late writer, Harlan Ellison, shares his experience at the Selma to Montgomery marches. Ellison may be best known for his short story “I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream.” He was also the screenplay writer behind one of the most popular episodes of Star Trek (“The City on the Edge of Forever”). He also believed in equal rights for all people.

On the first day of the march out of Selma, Ellison claims it was 962 degrees. Ellison had a tendency to exaggerate (he was a science fiction writer, after all).

“I shall not use the N word,” he says, “but that was the word that was yelled at us: N-lover! N-lover! N-lover! Everybody on the street. Fat women with asses the size of Lithuania, raising up their skirts to show us their spotted buttocks and calling us N-lovers ’cause we gave enough of a damn to want equal rights for people…. “

Today, you’ll get called a freedom-lover instead.

“Anyway, there were big mobs, carrying ball bats, crowbars, linked chains, tire irons…” continued Ellison, “no snow tires, there’s not much snow in Alabama. And they were all being kept back behind sawhorses by cops and National Guards… The interesting thing was, as they were standing at these sawhorses, they did not have the guns turned inward towards the crowd, they had their guns pointed at us. “

Ellison quotes Alabama Governor George Wallace as saying: “Well, shoot ’em down if we have to because they are nigger-lovers.”

The next day they arrived at Montgomery. “The town square had been cordoned off and there were machine guns on every rooftop, aimed down at the crowd,” Ellison continues. “And we marched on in. Just like they did at Tiananmen Square…”

Suffice to say, Harlan Ellison survived. Of course, many were killed, such as James Joseph Reeb, a white minister who was beaten to death by segregationists (according to Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography).

I say this not to belittle at all the brave actions of those protesting the COVID criminal coup. Certainly such risks still exist today. In Colombia, for example, 19 protesters have been killed by police and military (according to the BBC).

Nonetheless, the worst most of us must endure for speaking out is ridicule from people who claim to be following “the science” (yet have never read a medical study in their entire life). For most of us, court, no less jail, is unlikely. Going back to David Hardat’s story, here’s what happened to his $1,500-or-go-to-straight to-jail fine:

They sent me a notice on April 1st (a real joke) and stated that if I changed my plea and paid the fine I would avoid having to go to court and paying even more if I was found guilty. Nice try! I did nothing.

Later, I received an official letter from the Justice Department saying everything was dropped.

It just gives me a greater sense of strength and courage to be in their face if ever that happens again.

“Keep in mind that historically government overreach has been… something that has happened many times before,” says criminal lawyer Nicholas Wansbutter in episode 57 of Don’t Talk TV. “This may seem very unprecedented—and in some ways it is in terms of scope and in terms of the topic—but there’s been government overreach before. That’s why we have different branches of government, that’s why we have a judiciary, that’s why we have elections. So things can change, so long as you don’t surrender your rights. And when government goes too far, too fast, that can often backfire.”

In other words, don’t back down. We’ve been here before, it’s just life shaking us out of complacency—making us stronger and wiser.

Related content:

• Martin Luther King Jr. Online A collection of speeches, pictures, quotes, articles and videos of the civil right activist.
• Free Australia Rebel News coverage of the police brutality in Melbourne, Austraila.
• December 2020 Montreal Protest A video of the protest David Hardat participated in.
• DaveDoodlz Artwork by David Hardat.
• Le tribunal de l’infaux Dave Hardat’s recommended French-language resource for protecting one’s rights and freedoms against government abuse.
• Mandatory Jab: What Can You Do? Five practical tips for refusing the injection without losing freedom or livelihood from lawyer Nicholas Wansbutter.