Friday, March 29, 2024
Feature/ProfileOpinion/Column

Soviet immigrant explains food shortages: “All they have to do is stop the trucks at the border”

Tour operator Felix Shuster’s business has been shut down for two summers now. An immigrant from the Soviet Union in 1980, he never expected to see lockdowns and food shortages in Canada.      Photo: RWN

 

At an August 12th political event in Thornhill, Felix Shuster attended with protest signs, buttons, hats and strong opinions.

Shuster, a small business operator whose business who has been virtually shut down because of COVID lockdown, immigrated to Canada from the Soviet Union in 1980.

Asked how Canada in 2021 compares to the Soviet Union he left 40 years ago, Shuster replied, “Maybe, it’s worse. The Soviet Union took decades to create an authoritarian government; Canada, only  a few years.”

Perhaps, he thinks, this is because Canadians have lived such a comfortable life, they are “too easily frightened.”

Interestingly, his comments moved directly from authoritarianism to food shortages: “To make food shortages, all you need is two things: first, stop the trucks at the border. Second thing, advertise on TV and radio that trucks are not coming. People run to the stores and start clearing the shelves within one, maybe two days.”

Shuster’s advice to comfortable Canadians he sees as too willing to give up their rights and freedoms: “Do not comply,” he warns. “Peaceful non-compliance.”