Last week, several media outlets including CBC and CityNews picked up a story about the ‘high-speed hooligans’ from H20i planning an event in Grand Bend. Townspeople sounded the alarm bells about street racers descending upon their sleepy, lakeside community.
One local named Drew Falcon even took to social media to warn his neighbours that their kids and pets were in danger, by taking a page from Donald Trump’s xenophobic playbook. Rather than telling Grand Bend residents that the motoring mob would eat their dogs, he claimed “these people” have been arrested for drunk driving, weapons charges, drug charges, and assault at H20i events and advised folks to get out of town.
Doom-merchant Drew sounded like a stock character in a monster movie when he wrote “Please, I can’t stop this event from happening … but I can warn the town before it’s here!” Gosh…some people are so gullible.
There was never any H20i event in Grand Bend. It was a fake-out prank played by some random car guy. He changed his handle to H20i_CA_24 and stuck an AI generated event poster on his Instagram page. The real event went ahead as planned at an undisclosed location. And now that car guys see how to push back against the authorities by misdirecting them, expect more of this next year.
The media are thirsty for sensationalism, so they jumped all over the phony story and alarmed people about imminent danger. The local municipality and law enforcement then spent tens of thousands to prepare for an invasion. This is called paranoia.
Grand Bend was sent into lockdown. Road closed signs were put on on residential streets (which were actually open) and local authorities pressured privately-owned parking lots to block entry over the weekend. The mayor boasted to media that the tallest speedbumps legally permitted had been installed to make the road into town as inaccessible as possible to lowered ‘tuner’ cars. That’s just intolerance.
The the OPP West Region launched the ‘Drive Smart: Keep It Safe‘ campaign last week under the auspices of clamping-down on street racing, conveniently ending the campaign when H20i was supposedly ending. The OPP set up a mobile command unit and stopped any cars driving into Grand Bend, even if motorists had not violated the Highway Traffic Act. Drivers could be detained, their cars inspected and massive fines issued for modifications such as a loud muffler. The police even had the power to impound a vehicle right on the spot. That sounds like authoritarianism.
Canadians are free to peacefully assemble. We have the right to be secure against unreasonable search. Police cannot take away personal property without clear legal reasons. But as soon as a threat to ‘safety‘ is mentioned, authoritarians wipe their jackboots with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms!
Regardless of what you think of H20i or tuner car culture, “those people” have the same rights and freedoms as any Canadian, and if so-called pillars of the community are willing to take unreasonable actions against a bunch of kids in cars, think of what authorities might do to you for questioning them or challenging their hold on power?
~ Chris #16 Demaras ~
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