Dear Lowertown Community Association: Let me give you some advice.

It's not like we couldn't see this coming -- as a result of an increasing number of Lowertown residents being outraged over what is so obviously a Freedom Convoy-related group setting up a base of operations in the Byward Market with the express goal of enabling further protests and disruption of the city, The United People of Canada (TUPOC) have announced they are establishing a "private security force" to deal with potential harassment, but here's the snippet from that recent announcement that I want to talk about:

"We look forward to an opportunity to make a presentation at an upcoming meeting of the Lowertown Community Association [LCA] ..."

No. No. Absolutely not. Let me implore the LCA to agree to nothing of the sort, but let me explain what the LCA should do.

The LCA should contact TUPOC, and offer the opportunity to attend a public meeting of the LCA, where TUPOC would be invited to answer direct and specific questions from the LCA, and nothing more. That's it -- TUPOC's participation would be limited to nothing more than replying to questions from the LCA (and possibly members of the public); they would not be given any opportunity to take the stage, or give a vacuous and self-serving presentation, and they would not be given the freedom to control the narrative of the meeting in any way.

More importantly, when making this offer, the LCA should send a tentative list of questions they will be wanting answers to; the purpose of that will be to short-circuit the inevitable weaseling of, "We don't have that information, but we can get it to you." No. Let TUPOC know exactly what you will be asking, and give them plenty of time to collect that information. And here's how to deal with what will assuredly happen next.

TUPOC will almost certainly say that this arrangement is biased and unfair, because it prevents them from presenting their side of the story, to which there is a deliciously direct response. TUPOC can be reminded that it has a web page, and a Twitter account, and a Facebook page, and it has been interviewed by the CBC, and CTV, and (I think) the Toronto Star. For the last several weeks,TUPOC has done little but present their side of the story, so if those folks agree to attend a (time-limited) LCA meeting, they will do it with the understanding that their participation will be limited to sitting there and responding to pointed questions, nothing more.

In the end, TUPOC will probably not agree to those conditions, but that's the chance you take; the public meeting should go ahead, anyway, and it should be made clear TUPOC was given the opportunity to attend, and they refused. Plain and simple, TUPOC has had ample opportunity to bloviate about themselves all over social media and the airwaves; now it's time for them to agree to address the questions others want to ask.