It's a sign of how utterly frightened they are of democracy when politicians and pundits start lecturing us about the "real" definition of civil disobedience. This usually happens during the sanitizing rituals of the January Martin Luther King Day holiday, when King's revolutionary calls to justice are erased in favour of saccharine, self-congratulatory events wholly unconnected to the civil rights movement's multiple, powerful legacies.

But public cautions around "acceptable" forms of dissent began hatching in late 2016 when the Trudeau government announced support for a slew of harmful pipelines that, along with other environmentally destructive projects like B.C.'s Site C and Muskrat Falls, will inspire increasing levels of direct action.