The economic attack on Canada by the operators of trucks now blockading three major border crossings to the United States and occupying Ottawa is certainly causing more damage to the national economy than the sporadic land-defender rail blockades in 2020.
Things have gotten so far out of hand that the governor of Michigan, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, called on Canada yesterday to get off its collective duff and reopen the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit.
Gov. Whitmer called the closing unacceptable, noting that it is was “having a significant impact on Michigan families who are just trying to do their jobs.” She didn’t bother adding that it’s hurting Canadians, like the Ontario autoworkers whose plants are being shuttered by parts shortages, presumably because she figures our leaders ought to be on top of that.
But she did say it’s “imperative that Canadian local, provincial and national governments de-escalate this economic blockade.”
Meanwhile, Canadian Conservatives who were shrieking that rail blockades in 2020 would bring Canada’s economy to its knees have not had much to say about the economic crisis created by the blockaders, who seem to imagine they can be part of a coalition government to oust the federal Liberals elected less than five months ago.
That’s probably because so many Conservative Party of Canada MPs and provincial Conservative politicians are at least complicit with the illegal blockades, and a few appear to be actively involved.
To be fair, in the past few hours Conservatives have started changing their tune and calling for the blockades to end.
“It’s time to remove the barricades and the trucks for the sake of the economy,” said interim federal Conservative Leader Candice Bergen, who was photographed in the first hours of the occupation cheerfully breakfasting with “Freedom Rally” activists.
Well, as pollster Angus Reid observed yesterday on Twitter, the Conservatives must be “starting to see the political cost of supporting these blockades which block the free movement of people and goods.” After all, he said, “CPC supporters are most likely to call for law & order. What we’ve seen for past couple of weeks is exactly the opposite.”
But the CBC reported yesterday that Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s Conservative government was continuing to refuse to participate in meetings with federal officials on how to deal with the continuing blockades.
The Ontario government did persuade a court to freeze access to millions of dollars donated to the blockaders through online crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo. The supposedly Christian U.S. fund-raising site defiantly vowed to ignore Canadian authorities.
As for other Conservative provincial leaders, Gov. Whitmer would be within her rights to call Alberta Premier Jason Kenney “brain dead,” as he once insulted her over her environmental views, for sitting on his keester while the blockade at the Coutts border crossing continues day after day.
But she’s probably not all that worried about the impact of the disruption on Montana, let alone Albertans, seeing as the Treasure State has its own governor, Mr. Kenney’s pal Greg Gianforte, who can speak up if he wishes. We Albertans will have to deal with Mr. Kenney ourselves.
Meanwhile, you have to wonder how Canada’s multi-billion-dollar security and intelligence agencies managed to miss the convoy coming down the pike.
We Canadians pay about $1.5 billion every year just to operate the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Communications Security Establishment, plus another $3.4 billion for the RCMP, and God only knows how much for oxymoronic military intelligence and numerous smaller agencies.
Yet not one of them apparently had a clue this was about to happen.
It didn’t take CBC reporter Judy Trihn long to put it together that the convoy includes many former police officers and soldiers, including a former member of the prime minister’s security detail and a former military intelligence officer, whose tactics have helped entrench the trucks in downtown Ottawa.
So what were CSIS and CSE looking for when they weren’t looking for domestic threats to Canada’s national security?
As for our hapless prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and his deputy, Chrystia Freeland, apparently they were too busy running Ukraine to pay attention to what was obviously about to happen in Canada.
That’s not as bad as serving coffee to people whose activities meet the legal definition of terrorism in Canada’s Criminal Code, as many Conservatives were doing, but it’s still not a good look.
With the potential economic and democratic impacts for Canada becoming obvious, why is the federal government so reluctant to deal firmly with the problem before American politicians start demanding all auto industry jobs be relocated inside the borders of the United States to avoid disruptions by Canadian conservatives?
“The one thing that couldn’t be more clear is that we have to bring American manufacturing back home to states like Michigan,” Democratic Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin said yesterday. “If we don’t, it’s American workers … who are left holding the bag,” said the former CIA analyst.
And surely it must be excruciatingly embarrassing for Mr. Trudeau and Ms. Freeland to know that their senior security officials are now getting calls from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security offering a hand with the problem on the border and suggesting Ottawa get cracking to end the blockade.
That might not be an offer a Canadian prime minister wants to take if we expect to maintain the appearance of sovereignty, but if we intend to restore order ourselves it suggests there might be some urgency to the matter.
If the Trudeau Government is still wondering how to deal with the situation, New Zealand offers a hint. It took the country’s police only three days to shut down the Parliamentary precinct and start evicting copycat protesters.
Faculty strike begins at University of Lethbridge
Negotiations between the University of Lethbridge broke down yesterday morning and the institution’s faculty members walked off the job at 11 a.m.
“Our members have been in negotiations for over 600 days, and have seen minimal movement at the bargaining table regarding outstanding key issues such as working conditions, collegial governance, and equitable pay and benefits,” the University of Lethbridge Faculty Association said in a statement.
Yes, the Federal Conservatives are probably starting to regret their earlier enthusiastic support of the protesters. What they may have initially thought was an easy way to embarrass the Liberals has already cost them one leader. Golden boy Polievre better watch out, he may have already flown too close to the sun on this one. The public mood is starting to shift as the protesters have overstayed their welcome and have also taken things too far
Lest the other parties celebrate the Conservatives bad situation, this is not helping them either at this point. In fact, the Liberals position is quite dicey at the moment. There is not much time left to sort this mess out. The Americans are getting very concerned and are asking nicely now. They will not be patient for long before they act, if Canadian authorities can not or will not. They might yet teach us a thing or two about order and good government in this situation.
I suppose blockading Ottawa was a bother, but stopping international trade, this is now like a declaration of war by these home grown terrorists supported by US insurgents. At this point they have gone to far, it will not end well for them. All that remains to be seen is who will deal with this – the Feds, Ontario, the US or perhaps a combination of all of them, and how. I would not be surprised if licenses are permanently revoked and vehicles impounded, never to be returned.
Fortunately, or not, for Kenney the Alberta US border is not quite as critical to the US. However, that probably means the Feds or the US are not going to fix the mess here for him. The Feds priority will be Ontario trade routes, so they will may just leave Kenney to continue to stew in his own mess.
Lastly, it is not good that our own security intelligence and federal law enforcement did not see this coming or failed to deal with it. So, I expect there will also be some personnel changes at high levels after the immediate crisis has been dealt with.
I notice that Pierre “Skippy” Polievre has gone into full gaslight mode. Here is part of a conversation he had with a journalist from the National Post:
“But let’s be honest, if Canadians are being inconvenienced, or in any way suffering from these protests, it is because Justin Trudeau made these protests happen and his intransigence is keeping the protests going.”
Skippy later goes on to say that Trudeau imposed a vaccine mandate “as a vindictive wedge strategy to divide Canadians and demonize an apparently unpopular minority of unvaccinated people to his own political advantage.”
That is some gaslighting chutzpah on display here. Skippy and the looney Trumpista, Bergen, along with the failed CPC leader Scheer and other CPC members were actively encouraging the protests and stoking the flames of division. The insurrections did not need any other agency, such as Trudeau, to foment this divisive farrago. The CPC, GOP and other agents of discord and disinformation were sufficient.
Yes, indeed, Skippy may have flown too close to the heat on this one. Trudeau no doubt needs to wear some of the blame for his annoying virtue signaling and lack of sympathy and empathy for the ordinary folks who have been misled or who are genuinely fearful of vaccinations, but not to this extent. I think Skippy is going too far by half. Perhaps he is worried that his strategy to appeal to only a vocal, looney fringe might not be working out for him as he had hoped.
Insofar as various levels of government did not see this cluster happening, it’s apparent that the continued hot potato game aspect of this whole mess has a lot to do with the presence of children at these protests.
I’m sure the obvious reason to have children at the protests was to ensure that the police do nothing. It’s a using children as human shields, which organizer/claimed mastermind Tom Quiggan taken enthusiastic credit for. He claims to be a foreign policy terrorism analyst, so he must love it when a plan comes together. And Ontario has brought Child Services into the mix to likely do nothing. All this means is that there’s the real potential for a Waco like situation to explode. And given the Foxnews hyperbole that’s been thrown into the mix in abundance, the possibility that all this will end badly is very real. That’s why the CONs exited this stunt as fast as they did.
Using their own children as shields.
The time honored tactic of abject cowards throughout human history
Protests are supposed to be disruptive and noisy to get people’s attention. And, people have a right to protest. But, surely, there are limits. When the protests interfere with the movement, economic well-being, or safety of others for more than a day or two, they need to end or dial down their negative impact on others.
You are correct, DJC, that this so-called “freedom convoy” is having a profoundly negative and damaging effect on our country. The responses of police forces, politicians, and various levels of governments have been extremely disappointing. The provincial governments, for example, have lots of tools they can use to deter these protests from continuing to have such a disruptive effect, for example, by denying driver’s licenses and commercial vehicle licenses to those participating in the protest. Why aren’t the provincial governments using these tools right now? Also, the police could have simply started to enforce the law sooner. Instead, we find that individuals with police and military training are providing advice to the protestors themselves to help the protest magnify their impact.
As for the CPC and the Liberals, they both should have recognized early on that this was going to be a major problem for the country, and they both should have dialed back their rhetoric and statements. It was foolish and negligent for Candice Bergen and Skippy to provide the full-throated support for the protest at the beginning; likewise, it was stupid for Trudeau to take such a hard rhetorical line against those who are simply vaccine hesitant. Yes, condemn white supremacists all you like, but extend some understanding and sympathy for those who, through no fault of their own, are fearful of vaccines and themselves victims of pernicious misinformation campaigns.
When the worst of this ends, there will no doubt be lots of investigations and recriminations. Also, I think it is likely that some new laws will be introduced, and current ones updated. Some might be good, for example, laws that limit the ability of crowd-funding sites to collect and distribute funds in some circumstances, such as bypassing political funding laws or funding illegal demonstrations. Or, we might get some very punitive laws that clearly subject vehicles to impoundment and forfeiture if they are used to obstruct commerce or movement as part of a protest. Others might not be so good, such as those that are modelled on Alberta’s Critical Infrastructure Act, which is likely unconstitutional.
Of course, it might have been helpful from the outset of this pandemic had various levels of governments communicated more clearly their plans for ending or continuing mandates. For example, they could have clearly established a reward system for compliance and predicated certain actions based on clear metrics, such as rates of vaccinations, rates of transmissions, rates of hospitalizations, ICU capacity, levels of virus detected in sewer water, and so on. The mandates and restrictions are wearing on people. But, possibly even more wearing on people is the uncertainty. People have no idea when the restrictions and will end and what the criteria are for their removal. Combine this with governments such as AB and SK’s that make stupid, purely political decisions to lift mandates early and then subject their populations to whiplash with a return to restrictions and mandates when the virus surges again, and you have a perfect storm for widespread discontent.
“Meanwhile, you have to wonder how Canada’s multi-billion-dollar security and intelligence agencies managed to miss the convoy coming down the pike.
We Canadians pay about $1.5 billion every year just to operate the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Communications Security Establishment, plus another $3.4 billion for the RCMP, and God only knows how much for oxymoronic military intelligence and numerous smaller agencies. ”
I am warming up to the concept of ‘defund the police’.
To be fair to CSIS, we elect the politicians who give them their marching orders. If CSIS has spent most of its time and money keeping us “safe” from environmentalists, that’s ultimately our fault as citizens.
I think if one wanted a police or intelligence service that was not a den of fascists, you’d have to build it that way from the ground up.
It is more than beginning to look that way isn’t it? My grandparents left Northern Ireland in 1927 because of religious strife which resulted in many people being killed and/or maimed. When I visited there in 1999, there were still telling folks like me that if I wanted to visit the Catholic area, to get a Catholic taxi driver or if it was the Protestant area, get a protestant taxi driver. That mentality is still going on!!
The only difference I can see, here in Canada, is that we are heading towards a political war. Same shite, different pile.
These pretend conservatives and Reformers are good at flip flopping on issues. The damage from this truckers protest is already being felt. Did they not see that would be the case to begin with? It should have been put to an end quickly, and with military intervention.
The use of understatement in speech and in writing is effective and commendable David. I hope it’s okay fill in some missing information and let readers know that Members of Parliament Michael Cooper and Blaine Calkins posted photos of themselves serving coffee to those who would use sedition and insurrection to bypass democratic processes. Both appeared to find it challenging to contain their exuberance and promoted the occupation during its first of soon to be three weekends.
The dark money bankrolling these events seems to originate from deep pockets. We all, including the duped and manipulated protesters, deserve to know the sources and the intent.
What if Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta had Liberal or NDP Premiers, instead of Trumpist Republican (aka Conservative) Premiers?
I’d venture to say none of these blockades would have lasted any more than a few days.
Trudeau is a Prime Minister and not a Premier. The only way the feds will get involved in provincial matters is if a province requests help, which they can do, but won’t. None of these premiers will ask for federal help in an official capacity, because it would prove they have lost control of their province.
Kenney didn’t have to appease the terrorists at the Coutts border crossing, he could have asked the federal government for help, but he didn’t, and for obvious reasons.
These terrorists are all Conservative (aka Trumpist/Republicans) and therefore Kenney’s, Fords’, Moe’s base. None of these terrorists are Liberal or NDP voters.
What do you think would happen if Trudeau invoked the Emergency Act, formerly known as the War Measures Act? I know what would happen and so do you David.
I don’t know what would happen; Please tell us what you think.
Read again. I just said what would happen.
A valid point, what exactly has Canada’s security state been up to this past few weeks ?
Very good question. I’ve read several articles in the past few years about how the demographic at highest risk to engage in violent terrorism is radicalized far right white men. I think canada’s security institutions, from the RCMP to CSIS and beyond, didn’t fully accept that as real.
Maybe the people running CSIS and the RCMP are far right and white? It used to be just men but nowadays there may be a few women who are more than just window dressing.
I hope it’s not that bad. I suspect it’s not so much “they’re far right” but that “they’re very comfortable with the rhetoric and values of the far right” and or “They just never thought white people would behave this way. ”
Neither of those alternatives are good mind you. Just less bad.
Sedition
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-46/section-59.html
or Treason
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/section-46.html
also could apply.
I suppose they are hoping for a pardon like the Wheat Board protesters got from a previous law-and-order government.
I was wondering if those Wheat Board protesters were the genesis of this “Truckers freedom Convoy”.
Lots of grain carrying Super B train trucks and farm equipment evident in the Western Canada blockades, perhaps belonging to Maverick Party member, God fearing, freedom loving antivaxxer farmers upset about having to get vaccinated to cross into Montana or North Dakota to deliver their grain or legumes…to get a little better price, or to bring in Yankee corn for feedlots that are starved for feed.
These guys crashed the Canadian Wheat Board and they just might wreck Canada as we know it.
Ms. Whitmer shows us what it means to be a leader. Alberta must face reality. We have no leader. We have a petty despot and coward, which is a whole other thing.
The conservative premier of this province, who is not a leader, needs to heed the advice once thrown in the faces of ordinary Albertans: look in the mirror. This province is falling apart, and he is the one dividing it.
To what end? Does he think he’ll get an invitation to go hunting with Governor Gianforte? Maybe he’s hoping he can drive Albertans into the same desperate situation of subsistence living that is a way of life for so many Montana residents. They’re proud people, but pride doesn’t pay the bills. No worries: the wealthy governor has a charitable foundation for that.
Maybe he thinks that a radicalized religious minority holding a province hostage will strengthen his power. Those Coutts border blockaders called for his party to desert him. They want him gone.
This is his moment to save the day. But wait — he’s too busy fanning flames. Soon after his “Covid is over” speech, he released a video statement falsely claiming the the PM was introducing compulsory vaccination for interprovincial trucking. Then he gave his “don’t you dare” speech to teachers, neither of which were in a “face the people” format. He hides, and sends missives on social media. Both of these acts had negative impacts. The highway re-closed yet again, and teachers are furious.
He’ll never gain the confidence of the border blockers. You have to be born into those circles. If he only knew that this is the same area where large measles outbreaks occurred in 1997 and 2013, he’d realize that these people have immovable beliefs, and he won’t be the one to change them. I think the next border blockade will be in Abbotsford. Along with Coutts and Emerson, this seems logical. The same belief systems are in place. Few raised in these systems ever leave them behind.
We hear chants of “freedom” in Coutts, but the opposite is happening in Lethbridge, where the university is installing security cameras (witnessed but not acknowledged by the university) and stormtroopers — I mean security forces (you cannot be a stormtrooper in Lethbridge without a police takedown) in preparation for lockout today. It’s unfortunate that this means students will also be locked out of the Student Union food bank, and that students who work on research for professors will be laid off, but hey, isn’t it great that professors have set up an emergency fund for students?
It’s almost Alberta Spring. The border blockers are restricting the movement of food and other goods. Freedom for them means freedom to cause millions of dollars in economic losses every day. Freedom for us means shortages and job losses. If the blockade doesn’t do it, Covid will.
Premier BUD is on course for his Airplane! Alberta moment. Can someone please rescue a province before we crash?
P.S. Who’s brain dead now? Asking for a province.
The problem with modern conservatives is that they actually believe garbage like this:
https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/republican-senators-move-to-bar-federal-funds-for-crack-paraphernalia/
I think there is criticism too be leveled at the voting public as well. How many teachers unions have gone on strike, claiming that they were not able to do their jobs well? How have we reacted to their loss of the right to strike? We spend a lot on educating, but the system is designed to suit the needs of employers, not society.
Loss of licences, fines or jail time. Let truckers and other working people get back to work. In peace.
I only disagree with you in the fact that the US who spends trillions on intelligence and army did not do any better just recently during January 6th, so their offer for help is to me the usual American propaganda. In fact I think January 6th has damaged the American reputation way more than this is damaging Canada’s.
I believe that the adventurous attitudes from Russia against the Ukraine and China against Taiwan were clearly partly a consequence of America’s display of weakness in their internal affairs.
So apart from that, great post and at times made me laugh especially your reference that Justin Trudeau and Freeland did nothing because they were busy running the Ukraine.
Freeland seems to feel more Ukrainian than Canadian and that kind of attitude has always baffled me.
Justin of course the perennial feminist extra large when it comes to women outside of Canada, just plunges with gusto to get some brownies. Also he is so enamored with himself that anything on the international stage he just cannot pass the chance to be recognized as ‘THE BEST’.
Of course our native women murdered to the 1200 mark do not feel the same way about him or any other Canadian prime minister that seem to ignore our first nations intentionally.
I believe this is more than just a protest and I bet that the US is behind this 100% but trying to play the same game they always play in international matters. No wonder they are never trusted anywhere other than by us nice Canadians. Well that might change soon as well.
The tiny protest that couldn’t….
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22926134/canada-trucker-freedom-convoy-protest-ottawa?ICID=ref_fark
This could have been easily prevented but has become a tough nut to crack. Nobody joined the Canadian army so they could point guns at civilians. Or at Canadians. Our armed forces are struggling with lack of equipment, lack of strategic vision, and a growing cultural disconnect best revealed by the ongoing allegations of misconduct against senior leadership. The only reason our armed forces function at all is because the people in the forces make it work. Somehow.
If we invoke the Emergency Measures Act and bring in the army I think we may be dealing a serious blow to an already weakened organization. I really don’t want the Canadian army being used against Canadian citizens, even the worst of its.
On the other hand, sure is infuriating watching this whole spectacle. If you’re in Ottawa and just want somebody in government to show up and do their damn jobs, I get you.
I wonder if to Jason Kenney is Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) still “brain-dead”? Judging by her swift response to the tomfoolery going on, I’d say she is in extreme control of her faculties.
As for Kenney, he seems to have become so befuddled to the point he’s barely functional. While Dog Ford, another populist, realized too late he had to take action, his press conference seemed to sound more like a plea for understanding than a forceful better-late-than-never response to the blockades. Oh, and he was out at the cottage snowmobiling.
These absent and often partying populists leave the whole matter to Governor Whitmer and DHS (and likely the State Dept, the DoD and the NSA) to give them the brutal shove into action. As well, Michigan’s solid Atty General Dana Nessel (Democrat and a lesbian, just to rub it in the CONs’ face) seeing the likely (certain) involvement of Michigan’s own anti-government domestic terrorist Incel boys, just spoiling to get into this, applied to the US DOJ to move toward with action against anyone blocking the bridge as a domestic terrorist. Looks like Canadian rednecks may be seeing the inside of GitMo if they’re not careful and GTF off that bridge. How’s that for brain-dead?
Doug Ford’s pleas for understanding and reconciliation are fine, but the blockade (his base) are likely to double-down in their own stupid game of chicken. We’ll have to see if Ford has the brass to beat up on his base when they’re being jackasses.
Check this nonsense out…..
From: https://westernstandardonline.com/2022/02/city-of-edmonton-employee-says-woke-managers-driving-vax-passport/
Here is a direct “quote” from the article’s anonymous source:
“(City management is comprised) of Rachel Notley (era) government employees, they are congregating. They are being hired en masse, and this is why I think they have this provincial view (to expand the vaccine passport program).”
Another gem:
“The employee said city management openly expresses “disdain…for any councillor that even smells or sniffs like a conservative” and refuses to consider input from taxpayers with “contrary political ideology.””
In conclusion:
“The worker said it is becoming increasingly difficult to work within the increasingly hostile administration.
“It’s just really hard to be in the matrix. It’s really hard to be here and to do your job.”
Amber Gosselin is a Western Standard reporter.”
Unfortunately, that media organization does not answer fair questions from the interested public.
Official response to so-called “Freedom Convoy” or “Freedom Rally” demonstrations (FC/Rs) is measured and incremental, and so far the closest they’ve come to gunplay was fireworks set off by extremely fool-hardy envelope-pushers (prob’ly “extremists”).
More importantly, the muster of FC/R opponents has become (more) irresistible, dwarfing whatever copy-cat sympathizers Canadian FC/Rs have provoked around the (Western) world while physical erosion of blockades is becoming measurably apparent to news media and the public eye. Put another way, sympathy for law and order and citizens negatively affected directly (noise and hooliganism) is not only getting bigger than it always was, it’s overwhelming superiority is getting more apparent and reassuring.
We can understand—sympathize —that those who are directly threatened find little comfort in their frontline circumstance and that the perspective from cheaper seats better sees that making martyrs of the protesters can and should be avoided. And the speed (or the lack) of resolution will never be condoned by those who demand immediate reaction against reactionaries or criticize that these blockades were allowed to happen in the first place, despite the Charter rights guaranteed to everyone everyday, not some people on some days justified by self-appointed cherry-pickers. (BTW, the FC/R-sympathetic protest in New Zealand was not a blockade and, until police manacled downed protesters and dragged them away by the dozens, was entirely pedestrian. Ottawa tolerates continuous pedestrian protest, as anyone who’s been on the Hill can attest of virtually daily bellowing of dissent, sandwich-boards afoot, but not traffic-jamming gear-heads.) Close observers are joined now with those much more distant—indeed, even extra-nationally—in declaring that FC/Rs have become detrimentally excessive, which is but one metric of incremental resolution. Every day it advances.
Don’t assume security intel agencies were taken unawares just because protesters haven’t been waylaid by plainclothes and bundled into unmarked cars to compensate for supposedly pusillanimous local constabularies (like at ostensible BLM protests in Portland, Oregon in 2020 which lasted for months, over 970 arrested, countless injured and at least one death). Like FC/R organizers, official responses smack of careful calculation. Even before the 2017 conviction of Christopher Hayes for uttering online threats against our Prime Minister, journalists and anti-hate orgs have been collecting data from increasingly incautious, far-right agitators and organizers —and if they can do it, bet that security agencies have at least that much on file, the conviction precedent obviously germane to the present situation with its calling-card accusations and threats that easily trump Hayes’ Sask-basement twittery.
Tactical calculation usually depends on the element of surprise, the kind that FC/R organizers have impetuously blown a long time ago; experts use more discretion and that shouldn’t be mistaken for ineptitude or cowardice.
Partisan calculation, on the other hand, is tricky: it has to be both discrete to surprise and overt to persuade. Partisan games are generally ill-received by Canadians—which is probably why JT was hooked off the stage after his initial attempt to look like he’s in charge, armed only with the seat of his pants (which always seem to be too short in situations where he’s typically too superficial). The assessment is corroborated by the extent the harebrained Poilievre goes to equate the standoff to JT’s alleged egotism and anger, and goad the now-completely manipled PM who doesn’t need to say anything to make the CPC look bluff. For example, it’s unlikely that Pierre le Puke will cite Governor Whitmer’s veiled warning—even if it’s embarrassing to the Liberal government: it’s beyond any CPC MP’s capacity to forecast advantage to themselves since Gretchen’s not really a fan of dying brains—even small ones. Trudeau doesn’t even need to pay out the rope his would-be CPC executioners are hanging themselves with: they have it by the semi-truckload just outside the Commons.
Meanwhile Candy Bergen wants FC/Rs to “come together” and then have breakfast when most astute politicians would sooner chew their limb off at the crotch if they awoke to find it draped around a follyamorous tag-team of big-headed jerks off on a binge of Jan 6 free love. Come to think of it, didn’t the D’ohFo just leave his own appendage twitching on the pillow of bromance, finishing K-Boy’s sentences with $100K and a year in stir for blocking critical infrastructure?
The demise of the Conservative Party of Canada is glorious.
I do believe you are about to see the dollars make sense. Is it too late? Well, we’re stuck here so let’s just find out! https://youtu.be/LyPFQKpRnd0?t=4
The PM has again ruled out use of military force. I wonder then how exactly he proposed to enforce the law?
As I said. It’s up to the provincial premiers to decide and not Trudeau.
What do you think the function of municipal police, provincial police (OPP) Mayors and Premiers is? The buck stops there.
Alas, the insurrectionists form a large part of the Conservative base, and these incompetent and corrupt Conservative Premiers don’t want to alienate members of their own base.
I have read the emergencies act. I do not think that the federal government is required to wait on the provinces.
“not one one of them had a clue this was going to happen”. Yes that’s true. They don’t have a clue. Early on, as this was being organized I noticed when the press interviewed truck drivers of colour, mostly South Asian descent, they said they hadn’t been contacted by the protest organizers. Our “security” people usually are focused on people of colour not white people and perhaps the colour on my t.v. is off, but most of those “protestors” look pretty white to me. CISIS, the RCMP, politicians, etc. don’t see people of European descent as “dangerous” to our country. Well they are and can be.
”Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins, if the law be transgressed to another’s harm; and whosoever in authority exceeds the power given him by the law, and makes use of the force he has under his command, to compass that upon the subject, which the law allows not, ceases in that to be a magistrate; and, acting without authority, may be opposed, as any other man, who by force invades the right of another. This is acknowledged in subordinate magistrates. He that hath authority to seize my person in the street, may be opposed as a thief and a robber, if he endeavours to break into my house to execute a writ, notwithstanding that I know he has such a warrant, and such a legal authority, as will impower him to arrest me abroad. And why this should not hold in the highest, as well as in the most inferior magistrate, I would gladly be informed.”
https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/hollis-the-two-treatises-of-civil-government-hollis-ed
I have been told more than once that I’m a windbag and I love the sound of my own voice. I’ve never thought that either was even remotely true. It’s just that good ideas, ideas that free all men, and women from the shackles of ignorance, ideas that are promulgated by thinkers across the ages and from cultures around the world, ideas that may have originated as painful confusion in my own head but were developed and proved by the eloquent proclamations of giants before me, these ideas take time, and effort, to lay out in speech and writing.
So, to my many detractors, I say, if you think I’m difficult to listen to, try digesting some of John Locke’s ideas. John Locke was the founding father to the Fathers of Confederation in Canadian history and to the Founding Fathers of American history. He was one of the original architects of what we call today the rule of law and what we know of freedom. He is worth listening to. And the above was the way articulate and educated people spoke.
The quote and the thought is chiseled into the lintel above the doors into the Department of Justice Building in Washington.
Basically what Locke says and what we need to remind ourselves of is this:
“Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins”. The equality of all citizens under the law is a lynch-pin of the modern notion of the rule of law in a democratic state.”
https://oll.libertyfund.org/quote/john-locke-on-the-idea-that-wherever-law-ends-tyranny-begins-1689
We, men and women of good character, of which there are very few in Alberta, but there are some, there are enough, need to light a fire for good, clear thinking. Despite appearances, I know there are women and men of courage, of generosity, of good-will and of clear-headed thinking here; I read their thoughts and musings regularly right here. Most are not as verbose and meandering as me, some are downright articulate and erudite, some others are even more difficult to read than Locke, but all are good people.
You must be terrified at this disease sweeping the land, even more pernicious and ultimately more lethal than Covid. This disease of populism and singular desires and singular rights, of getting what’s mine and what I’m owed and f**k you very much! This disease is carried today under the banner of conservatism and it leans heavily on the past practices and organization of what used to be Conservative political thought. But like so much else about this disease, that too is a lie. It is not. It is greed and anarchy; every man, and women for herself.
We cannot live like this, we cannot succeed as a successful people, as a Nation like this. Every person must stand up for lawful order and good government. Even if it means some personal sacrifice to an immediate desire or even a longer term goal. The community, the lawful, rules-bound community is more important than the immediate individual whims. The strictures and habits and processes to avoid tyranny of the many are far more important than immediate individual desires because that is precisely what guarantees the individual the freedom to ultimately do what he or she wishes.
Remember to balance the ‘freedom to’ with the ‘freedom from’. One man’s freedom from is another man’s freedom to.
Mister, We could use a man like Pierre Trudeau again. Those were the days . . .
With apologies to the TV show, “All in the Family “
France has gendarmes. Here’s what they did.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/12/covid-pass-protesters-convoy-paris-police
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/france-paris-covid-convoy-protest-1.6349552
Analysts from France to New Zealand are blaming this on Canada. Seems to me we need to set the record straight and do more to expose where the money came and who organized the organizers.
One article made the claim that our national flag has become a symbol for the anti-vaxx, anti-mask movement around the world. Really? Who co-opted our national symbol in a matter of weeks? It certainly wasn’t the Coutts border blockers. They don’t even know the difference between provincial and federal powers. They’re also unfamiliar with the concept of elections. No, it wasn’t them.
In the realm of rumours, as this situation continues, a “Tuber” personality (Beau of the Fifth Column) has raised the concern that American sovereignists (or their adherents from north of the border) are involved. This includes a swearing-in as self appointed law enforcers, with powers of arrest. This is the movement that predated the “Tea Party Conservatives” as an outgrowth of the incidents at Waco, Texas or the individual named Randy Weaver. At the time of the posting, I haven’t seen any other reporting of this concern. I perceive there is an inclination within the organizers of the ongoing events, but that may be from personal prejudice.
In the recent past we have all seen criminal prosecution trials that were inconclusive due the prosecution dropping charges. The fact that the technical means to gather evidence, would leave these technologies exposed to counter measures as evidence was presented to achieve a conviction. This was made abundantly clear when the wide spread arrests occurred during international prosecutions involving major narcotics trafficking and other violent crimes. This involved a set of compromised devices spread liberally amongst individuals involved.
Law enforcement essentially gave those people, the fiber strands with which they wove the rope, that they hanged themselves .
Every day I am astounded by the degree of ignorance, hypocrisy and naiveté expressed on this site. Canada is not a sovereign nation in any respect. The economy is rolled into various supranational organizations and agreements. The military is not even subject to the control of the executive and legislature, which is why there were Canadian commandos operating in Iraq in 2003 while the Federal Government feigned adherence to the rejection of the war by the population.
We are spied upon by the Five Eyes, a conglomeration of intelligence agencies from the Whiteman Anglo colonial-cum imperial apparatus.
The military apparatus is entirely integrated into that of the United States and the vassal NATO organization.
Here’s an example of how we can expect “help” in a civil emergency, you know, like Covid or Truckergeddon:
“U.S. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, and Canadian Air Force Lt.-Gen. Marc Dumais, commander of Canada Command, have signed a Civil Assistance Plan that allows the military from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation during a civil emergency.”
https://www.northcom.mil/Newsroom/News/Article/Article/563556/us-northern-command-canada-command-establish-new-bilateral-civil-assistance-plan/
There has been a nexus between what is essentially a global counterinsurgency launched by the US National Security State in 1947 and the tech and bio-tech industries, from its outset. The people who brought us the Phoenix Program, in which CIA will cop to 20 000 murders in South Vietnam, (likely more like 90 000), and MK Ultra, are the partners in the new bio-security state. The US, UK and Israeli security personel pass from the public to private sector and back again at will.
When Gladio was uncovered in 1990 in Italy, it was stated that every NATO country ran a parallel operation. That means Canada. This was a supranational, extra-governmental program that used fake terror attacks to justify greater state controls.
If you don’t know what Gladio was, or the Phoenix Program, or MK Ultra were, or what the Five Eyes, or Palantir or In-Q-Tel is, then you can’t even begin to make an informed comment on what is happening.
Surprised that Trucker Qaeda has former cops and military in its ranks? You must not get out much. Golden Dawn in Greece was practically the Hellenist Policeman’s Benevolent Association.
This, more than any other historical event in the last eighty years, exemplifies the relationship of the Canadian citizen to the Government of Canada, and that of the Government of Canada to the US military-industrial complex:
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/brainwashed-mkultra
For decades the refusal of the Canadian Government to cooperate with MK Ultra victims in Canada in their pursuit of reparations was a mystery, until it was revealed that the Canadian Government was up to their eyeballs in the atrocities committed in Montreal.
Time to wake up, folks.