For many, freedom is a malleable term — one that's open to interpretation.
That flexibility, in part, has fuelled its growth among certain groups, said Barbara Perry, director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism at the Oshawa-based Ontario Tech University.
It's also a term that has thrived among far-right groups, said Perry, one of a number of experts who say
the presence of far-right groups in Canada is growing.
As seen among some protesters currently opposing vaccine mandates and other public health measures, freedom signals a desire for freedom from government intervention or overreach, Perry noted.
Convoy protesters are calling for an end to all vaccine mandates, as well as other pandemic-related restrictions. Canada Unity — one of the main organizing groups behind the protests — says on its website that it's committed to "upholding freedom of choice" for Canadians.
Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, says the way many protesters frame their calls for freedom renders the word meaningless — and what they're really asking for is a shift in government policy that could potentially have a negative impact on others.
"When they're yelling they care so much about their freedom, they're taking freedoms away from other people who don't have the same kind of agency and choice that they do," he said.
To see the word freedom bandied about as part of these protests points to a broader circulation of what Elisabeth Anker calls "violent" forms of freedom.
"Freedom is a slippery concept," said Anker, an associate professor of political science at George Washington University and author of
Ugly Freedoms, which examines the history of how freedom, as a concept, has been used in American society.
"On the far right, [individual freedom] is often translated into somebody who refuses to be bound by norms of equality, treating all people equally or norms to remedy inequality, whether that's trying to remedy racial discrimination or gender discrimination."