Item

A different kind of anti-mask rally

Title (Dublin Core)

A different kind of anti-mask rally

Description (Dublin Core)

This post is pretty important to me, in a lot of ways, mainly because of the fear it’s evoked in me, or anger, both probably. This is an advertisement for the ‘Walk for Freedom’ event, to take place outside the legislature building of Edmonton, in Alberta. This is supposedly an anti-mask, anti-lockdown movement however it would be incorrect to assume that this movement only had once face. In reality, the Albertan anti-mask movement has large components of white-supremacists, fascists, Nazis who have been seen at several previous anti-mask rallies throughout the province. During these events, local businesses which enforce social distancing, those with masks and reportedly visible minorities are subjected to verbal and physical abuse. Organizations such as the Proud Boys, The Sons of Odin are all present at these events and eagerly recruit pandemic skeptics into their groups by binding the cause of ‘freedom’ to that of bigotry and hatred. I know my description of this event seems bad enough, and may have your head scratching with how I’m essentially saying this rally is going to be full of neo-Nazi’s and white supremacists, but I just want to point out the most glaring issue present within this advertisement. Those people marching, that photo is from the ‘Unite the Right’ march in Charlottesville in 2017, they actively chose that image – and the historic fascist imagery of a torch march to be the face of their movement. Essentially, this isn’t very tongue and cheek anymore; there is going to be a fascist march on my province’s capitol. Already, counter-protestors are organizing to show up and face these people in the streets. It’s even more concerning when police and governmental figures are not saying a word about this march, we have no idea if they’re prepared for what’s supposed to come. I could go on for pages, but, I’m just scared. Alberta desperately wants to be like its southern neighbor, we elected a man who markets himself as a fiscal conservative in the shadow of Donald Trump, who has a history of advocating for restrictive policies directed towards the LGTBQ+ community and we had people take to the streets as the American capitol was stormed. They were waving American flags and thin blue line American flags, it’s just insanity, I don’t understand these people. I’m adding this to the archive because I just want to try and illustrate the tone of politics in Alberta, in regards to our pandemic skeptics. From my perspective, the anti-mask movements down in the states appear to be relatively simple, entitled and ignorant people marching for their ‘rights,’ mistaking inconvenience for oppression, I’m aware there is also a stark politicization of masks down in the States. However, here there’s a more sinister tone to it – it’s become embroiled in conspiracies of a ‘great reset’, anti-Semitism and infiltrated by organized Fascist movements to gain larger bases. I feel as if I’m rambling, but there’s just so much to say – I hope it doesn’t turn into anything as similar as America’s January 6th or Charlottesville, I hope people don’t show up.

Date (Dublin Core)

January 29, 2021

Creator (Dublin Core)

Padraic Cohen

Contributor (Dublin Core)

Padraic Cohen

Event Identifier (Dublin Core)

HST580

Partner (Dublin Core)

Arizona State University

Type (Dublin Core)

photograph
text

Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)

English Social Issues
English Conflict

Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)

Canada
anti-masker
Alberta
unrest
Freedom march
anti-maskers
rally
protest
anti-lockdown
Proud Boys
Sons of Odin

Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)

Alberta
freedom march
anti-masker
fascists
Charlottesville
fear
antifascists
Canada
unrest

Collection (Dublin Core)

Social Justice

Linked Data (Dublin Core)

HST 580 Professional Experience/Archives course

Date Submitted (Dublin Core)

01/29/2021

Date Modified (Dublin Core)

01/31/2021
03/03/2021
05/03/2022
08/02/2022
09/15/2024

Date Created (Dublin Core)

01/29/2021

Item sets

Covid 19
Arizona State University

This item was submitted on January 30, 2021 by Padraic Cohen using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://www.covid-19archive.org/s/archive

Click here to view the collected data.

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