Rockin’ in a woke world

Behind fresh stock market records, falling interest rates and your romping B&D portfolio lurks darkness.

Let me give you some examples from my own hood. (These days I’m squatting in a 206-year-old pile of bricks in Niagara. I shared some of these thoughts in my local newspaper column.)

Days ago a bunch of dudes with muscles and white masks marched on the General Isaac Brock monument and managed to make national news. These are the Second Sons Canada, mentioned here a week or two ago, a quasi-militia bunch with chapters across Canada who chose my town in which to have their national shindig.

It’s a man-only organization dedicated to ‘patriotism’, which is the new catch-all buzzword for white, Christian, conservative and pissed. They like General Brock because he beat back the Yanks in the 1812 war, but also because they celebrate 19th Century values. You know, like when women were women and men were men (only better).

Local leaders, in rote, condemned the Sons for being racist, and were appalled they had chosen this hallowed, tourist-drenched ground on which to march, chant, drill and scare the visitors.

But it’s worth noting there is a deep vein of right-wing sentiment in this community, like almost everywhere else, and the Sons are just the latest visual made-for-TikTok version of it. Recall that the monumental Freedom Convoy, which shut down Ottawa for three weeks in an anti-vax, trash-government rage, had a major rallying point here, just off the QEW.

Then there’s Tamara Lich. This charismatic firecracker of a woman, now a felon, was a leader of that trucker mayhem – recently convicted and soon to be imprisoned for her actions. Her sentencing hearing is October 7th. The woman has a history of feeding far-right causes, including a separatist movement in Western Canada. Oh, and she’s a rocker, too. No surprise her marquis concert also happened just down the road – to a packed audience – as she belted out “Rocking in the Free World”.

The Central Community Church, a massive evangelical Christian outfit with a sprawling complex beside our local Harley-Davidson dealership, was one of the few locations agreeing to screen the controversial pro-trucker film, ‘Unacceptable’. That drew a capacity audience a year after the feds had used emergency powers to defeat the convoy, pretty much sealing the fate of Justin Trudeau.

No judgment here. Just the facts. My town has a big mess of people you might call maple MAGAs. They’re predisposed to the politics of Trump, irritated at immigration and link economic injustice plus loss of influence to the creep of ‘wokeness’, gender confusion, over-population, DEI policies or leftyism. This, they say, is patriotism. Canada first.

As we all know, recent days have been ones of anguish, grief and pure anger for American conservatives. The assassination of Trump confidant, militant Christian and youth activist Charlie Kirk on a Utah campus is consuming that country. The guy was lionized by supporters, which included the president. He awarded Kirk the highest civilian honour, posthumously, while his casket was picked up by the VP and flown home on a presidential aircraft. His funeral on Sunday will be a national spectacle. His widow emerged in mere days as the unbowed champion of his far-right conservative cause, Turning Point USA.

Kirk was a man known for his unrepentant anti-Muslim, anti-trans, anti-gay and unapologetically pro-Jesus comments. His influence was legion, in person and on social media. He promoted free speech while seeking to have opponents silenced. Tragically, that happened to him. Now free speech is being squished from the Oval Office down as authoritarianism rises. And America is a lit fuse.

So why am I writing this?

Because, clearly, the same sentiments exist here in this bucolic garden of a country. In my hood, and yours. No sweeping them away. What’s motivating the Second Sons and the Tamaras needs to be learned. Dissing them as lowlifes and bigots doesn’t work.

Not if we hope to keep the bullets on the other side of the river.

About the picture: “Here’s a good pic for the blog,”Tom writes. “River had his first porcupine encounter and it did not go well… once we saw quills inside his mouth it was off to the emergency vet…the vet said that River was the 3rd pin cushion that day!…not sure how you tolerate the comment section but I am glad that you do… Keep the sane advice coming.”

To be in touch or send a picture of your beast, email to ‘garth@garth.ca’.

Source: https://www.greaterfool.ca/2025/09/19/rockin-in-a-woke-world/