The Canadian government has invoked the Emergencies Act. Do you know where your trucks are?
If you don’t, and you run a trucking company, you might want to check.
As Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said yesterday, “if your truck is being used in these blockades, your corporate accounts will be frozen. The insurance on your vehicle will be frozen.”
That seems clear enough.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the afternoon news conference at which Ms. Freeland spoke yesterday to announce the imposition of a public order emergency under the Emergencies Act.
He vowed the emergency will be used to end the blockades on the Canadian border and the occupation of Ottawa by participants in the so-called “Freedom Convoy” that was foolishly allowed to roll into town on Jan. 29 by a negligently inattentive Ottawa Police Service.
Most Canadians will heave a sigh of relief, even if Canada’s Conservatives try to spin this as an outrage against freedom without sounding too much like they’ve crawled into bed with a mob of people bent on wrecking the economy and holding citizens of the nation’s capital hostage in support of a large number of ill-defined and fundamentally anti-democratic goals, including overthrowing a recently elected government.
Newspaper editors itching to publish headlines saying “like father, like son,” as social media gadfly Nora Loreto suggested they probably would, were disappointed.
This was no just-watch-me moment like Pierre Trudeau, barely suppressing his fury during the October Crisis of 1970. Indeed, it was a pretty restrained performance in most regards.
Justin Trudeau said the measures adopted under the act – which was passed in 1988 by Brian Mulroney’s Conservative government to replace the War Measures Act employed by the PM’s father during the terrorist kidnapping crisis that roiled Quebec in 1970 – were confined to locations where disruptions are taking place and “reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address.”
Naturally, there will now be a great deal of criticism that Mr. Trudeau has overstepped his bounds, and plenty of more thoughtful analysis later. By and large, though, while the latitude granted by the law is great, the measures adopted seem commensurate with the crisis.
Conservative leaders who demanded a harsh response to the rail blockades in February 2020 with the claim they threatened the national economy seem to have been blithely unconcerned by the potentially far more serious economic impacts of the blockades of February 2022 – at least until they realized being seen serving coffee to a mob of lawless goons with sinister foreign connections squatting on Parliament Hill was not a good look.
Since foreign and domestic funds for the disruption came via crowdfunding platforms and used cryptocurrencies to evade measures to track spending on criminal activities, Ms. Freeland’s announcement of the emergency extension of those rules is likely to seem logical to most Canadians too.
“The illegal blockades have highlighted the fact that crowdfunding platforms, and some of the payment service providers they use, are not fully captured under the Proceeds of Crime and Terrorist Financing Act,” she said. “We know that these platforms are being used to support illegal blockades and illegal activity which is damaging the Canadian economy.”
This will also present interesting conundrum for the federal Conservatives and their United Conservative Party brethren in Alberta, since both parties have lately been touting the dubious benefits of cryptocurrencies, which seem primarily to exist to facilitate crime, create dark political money, and avoid paying taxes.
The government promised it would make the new regulations permanent by passing legislation when the state of emergency is lifted.
In a news conference on an unrelated topic yesterday, a seemingly rattled Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, just off his conference call about implementation of the Emergencies Act with the PM and other premiers, complained that “we don’t believe this is necessary in Alberta. It could actually be somewhat counterproductive.”
Having done nothing for more than two weeks while the Coutts blockade cost Albertans close to $50 million a day, he must know the revelation the blockade was harbouring a cadre of heavily armed men primed for a potentially deadly shootout with police makes him look derelict and irresponsible.
RCMP arrested 13 people and seized an arsenal of high-powered weapons and ammunition at the Coutts blockade Sunday night.
If Mr. Trudeau’s gamble that using the Emergencies Act will be enough to send the far-right insurrectionists home to think again pays off, Mr. Kenney may realize that even if his truckling to the blockaders gets him past his April 9 party leadership review it may not go down well with Alberta voters in his next electoral test, the general election expected in 2023.
And the Emergencies Act seems to be working in Coutts. Reports from the scene last night suggested blockaders were climbing in to their rigs and bugging off home as quietly as possible to await their personal visits from the Mounties.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kenney is not paying much attention to running Alberta these days.
Yesterday it was revealed that his chief of staff, Pamela Livingston, will be taking a leave of absence to work full time on the campaign leading up to the April 9 vote.
Out of time to stall, today Mr. Kenney will have to announce a date for the by-election in Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche in which former Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean has been nominated as the UCP candidate on a platform of unseating and replacing the premier. (The premier blamed the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus for the delay at his second news conference yesterday.)
Presumably this means we can expect more erratic nonsense like Mr. Kenney’s irresponsible diversionary effort yesterday to wind-up anti-vaxxers to head to the offices of the Alberta Federation of Labour and protest its support for keeping COVID-19 protections in schools until the fifth wave eases, and his bizarre claim Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek called him a “potlicker.” (Politicker, surely!)
LOL – potlicker. Maybe bootlicker, for his continued kissing up to a bunch of anti-mask, anti-vax, anti-science and now anti-law protesters…
I’m fine with Trudeau invoking the Emergency Act. What was going on had created an emergency in Canada, not only economically but a health emergency for those living in Ottawa. For the past two years most of us have been adhering to the COVID game rules and surviving. Now suddenly we get a bunch of truckers without medical degrees insisting all covid mandates be rolled back. Like boys and girls, get a grip; I’ve followed the rules, got my shots, didn’t go to the mall, shops, parties, etc. and have not been ill. I don’t want to be ill. I don’t want to die and I don’t want a bunch of truckers trying to change things so I might get sick and die. So about all I can say is, thank you to the P.M. and his government and those in politics who supported this.
This saga with these truckers should have been stopped, before it got to this point. It certainly got really ugly. The UCP certainly weren’t helping matters, and nor were the CPC, with their support and doublespeak, regarding this matter.
I think asserting authority, in a measured way may do some good here. It must be a bit conflicting for Conservatives who admire shows of authority or force and perhaps a bit surprising for those protesters, who are slinking back off to where they came from. I don’t think they expected it would end this way.
History has an interesting way of repeating itself, but interestingly not exactly and with some important differences. The Emergencies Act is a better law than the War Measures Act, but it still does provide an important reset function for us, when needed.
Also, interestingly our omnipresent PM kept a low profile for much of this crisis, in which so much of the virulent animosity was personally directed towards him. I don’t think he is one to say just watch me, although I don’t think he likes to suffer fools gladly.
Maybe the biggest lesson here is for the US insurectionists who seemed determined to use Canada as their practice playground. It seems their clever tools to electronically aggregate and provide funds for potentially seditious purposes can be reigned in and managed by the state, just like traditional bank accounts.
In any event, I think the message to not mess with Canada has finally been put forth clearly. Now hopefully those running the US will eventually show some back bone and will also start to deal with their home grown trouble makers more seriously.
As for Kenney, he seems ready to give up the pretense of governing to focus on keeping power. Of course, he has been doing exactly that for some time now, but at least this late burst of candor is better than his usual bluster and bs. I believe Twain had a saying about being truthful to confound your enemies and astound your friends. However, as it goes against his character, Kenney must be a bit desperate to go for it.
The trucks are one thing, the Honkers being in the main not very bright rurals. For several weeks police have prevaricated in Ottawa and elsewhere, unwilling to drop their trucking confreres in the soup, apparently, resisting legal civilian orders to do their sworn duty and move those twits out. In Coutts, the Mounties sat on their duffs for two weeks until an unhinged nutbar took a run at them with a truck. THEN they woke up, because it was a direct personal threat to their own safety.
Alternative press in Halifax had already identified local corporate rigs parked in Ottawa a week ago and contacted the companies, who seemed shocked. Well, they have a bigger shock coming, according to Freeland.
Now what about the den of white bigoted supremacists directing this BS insurrection attempt in Ottawa, aided by ex Mounties and wacked-out JTF armed forces people? Do we know their names and addresses and bank account numbers? I sure hope so. The truckers got used by these fascists who are the people who need to be thoroughly punished.
I await further developments to see if law enforcement shows any signs of enthusiasm for now doing their jobs properly. As for the chorus of provincial premiers who deride the invoking of the Emergencies Act, there isn’t a competent one among them, so Canadians can disregard their bleating nonsense. Ford had to step up to the plate because it’s Ontario where the insurrectionists are concentrated for now. At least he didn’t besmirch himself with any foolishness like his idiotic Con premier counterparts, or Skippy, the yipping ninny. He knows this BS has to end, and soon. Or he’ll be out on his personal duff come the summer election.
What an amusing day of Canada’s first trip down the rabbit hole into fascism.
Well, definitely not fascism, as my first impressions were that the dark Alberta comedy has spread to Ottawa and beyond.
The nation’s capital is besieged by a motley gang of truckers, wannabe Davy Crocketts, and other yobs who dream of more freeDUMBs than they know what to do with. In response to the seemingly growing mayhem, PMJT invokes the Emergencies Powers Act and gets the job done, or so it appears.
I watched the news conference of this historic event and I could not have been more LFOMA. We have Trudeau, trying to look like a leader, but appearing more like someone called up from the Minors to play defence for the hapless Canadiens. It must be his mullet that gives me this impression, but his measured story time reading voice makes him seem like less of a clutch player. Like his father before him, Trudeau’s “Just Watch Me” moment seems to have fallen flat.
Then there’s Chrystia Freeland, dressed in a very-serious military-style black dress. Clearly, she’s been taking the same speech lessons as Trudeau has, but she presents a more enjoyable facade. Ever seen the classic American movie ‘Election’? It’s a very well done parody of image-politics, with Reese Witherspoon presenting an Oscar-worthy performance of over-achieving high school student, aspiring student president, and eventual leader of the Free World, ‘Tracey Flick’. This might be Freeland’s most favourite movie, because her mannerisms, her enthusiasm, her delivery, her whole package of behaviours is pure Tracey Flick. (I understand she’s even prone to excitedly jumping around, a la Flick.) It was Freeland who delivered the hammer of conditions and orders that will crush this apprehended insurrection. Judging by the early results, they are effective and diminishing the effect of some of the protests, thus far.
As for the other casts members in all this, it’s looking more and more like that so-called Resistance really is done. It was Doug Ford that is in full defence of these measures, because Ontario has taken the worst of the blockades. But it’s Jason Kenney, of course, who opposed the measures. Oh, he says this is an attack on ‘fundamental freeDUMBS, but it’s really about PMJT stealing his thunder, again. Kenney has nothing to be proud of, because the blockade at Coutts appear to have more than a few problems with aggressive rednecks, as well as some pretty shocking discoveries that an armed action was mere hours away from happening. There can be no doubt now that there will be a substantial trucker protest at his leadership review in April. Can’t wait for that one.
This whole brouhaha could be much ado about nothing. But the telling is weeks away. In the meantime, there’s a awesome war brewing in the Ukraine, and we should get to more of Chrystia Freeland’s Tracey Flick impersonation.
Just couldn’t resist talking about the solitary woman in this situations outfit because it’s sooooo relevant right
Freeland projects as, perhaps, the most competent and most trusted member of this government. Holding both Deputy PM and Finance slots, she is the real power in this group. Notice that PMJT hands her the hammer and she has no trouble presenting it. She does bring an element of fearlessness to her role that this government is not known for. Freeland’s relentless shelling of the CONs after she scored a new US trade deal, calling them out for ‘Monday morning quarterbacking” just pressed that much further what a joke that caucus is.
As for her ensemble, I must admit that her fashion choices are always appealing, and she knows it. Kudos.
Glory to heroes! Glory to Ukraine! Our enemies will die, as the dew does in the sunshine! The SS always looked sharp in their Hugo Boss number ones, so it brings a tear to the eye to see M. Freeland carrying on the sartorial tradition.
She always looks like casper the friendly ghost to me.
Not at all surprised she has a central role to play in the climax of this crisis
if she only wasn’t beholden to WEF…
It’s a rare politician who gives his opponents a gift like “potlicker.”
Say it loud, say it proud, say it to your mla repeatedly. Call an election now! Please for the love of all things logical tell your mla until you are blue in the face “call an election now”. Write them, phone them, anything just do it at a rate that would annoy a hyperactive child. Call an election now!
This message has been endorsed by reality.
Um, why? In case you didn’t notice, we just had a very expensive Federal election. Nothing changed. So unless you want a) a Liberal majority (unlikey), b) the Cons to get in power (worst possible scenario, considering the mouth breathers that make up that party) or c) the status quo…..so I’m not exactly sure what you’re driving at?
It sounded like the wheels were coming off the premier’s wagon yesterday, or the doors coming unhinged, “or something”, to use his own words. He swung erratically from dog-whistling to siccing the dogs on his critics. Send in the clowns!
You know what this means. He might have something to fear other than fear itself. Hackers have a list of donors to the GSG crowdfunding platform for the so-called truckers. They’ve made that list and they’re checking it twice, gonna find out who’s naughty and nice. So Kenney is off to the enchanted forest, aka “leadership review”, where he can listen to the musical stylings of Idina Menzel in Frozen II. Better there than in the public eye when the details of the hack start to thaw. But you know what they say, “Show yourself!” Watch the hack here:
https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/14/22933772/givesendgo-funding-freedom-convoy-hacked-donor-leaked
Thank you, defenders of democracy. Catch them all, if you can. It was past time for this foreign-funded coup to end. “Peaceful protest” they said (looks at image of guns and ammo). “False flag” they said. Face the music, lads and lad-ettes. Game over. This is real life now, with consequences.
Thank you, PM Trudeau, for doing what our premier refused to do. You saved us from Covid and now you’ve saved us from our sorry excuse of a potsticker, er, “potlicker” premier. He said it. I believe him.
There is a lot of explaining to do, by multiple levels of apparently complicit politicians and police forces in this province and country. So it begins.
“Potlicker” definitions seem to vary. A mongrel dog. A slur for Irish so poor they had to lick the insides of the pot after boiling potatoes. In the US South, a similar slur referring to the pot for boiling collard greens. Also, apparently, the cook’s helper in logging camps. It would certainly be a creative, albeit bizarre, epithet for Kenney.
However, Gondek clearly referred to “politicking” in her Tweet, so the mislabeling is in fact Kenney’s to own. Congratulations!
It’s also know as Pottaskefill, the fifth Icelandic Yule Lad. I can’t wait to see this ugly mug on a mug. It’s the way to “let kids be kids” in Iceland.
https://allthingsiceland.com/pottaskefill-fifth-yule-lad/
I am enjoying the excuses and whining of the cowardly Conservative domestic terrorists curently oozing their way out of Coutts. Drek Filedbro has published another excretory emission on his beg site today. Can we call the Western Stunted a “bleg”, a beg blog?
The heavily armed, peaceful protestors, seeing a competent federal government outsmarting their pea brains, lamented losing the encouragement and support of the Kenney Government Jason Kenney’s UCP Govermentchose to coddled these terrorists because they thought it would make the federal government look bad. Jason Kenney, noted potlicker, was heard saying, “Nothing like my politicking, eh Alberta?”
The furous back pedalling is very entertaining, now that these lunatics have to explain how the outcomes of their tantrums, which were painfully obvious to everyone but them, were not what they wanted, even though everything they did was calculated to lead to those outcomes.
While conservatives and anti-vaxxers apparently have the minds of children, I think the consequences are going to be adult, and the alt-rights are not going to like them.
I am LOLing
and I will enjoy watching the WEF picking apart the rest of your freedoms
after observing that you didn’t care about loosing half of the ones you previously had
Our senior friends kept saying at coffee that there had to be a lot more to these blockades than what was being displayed and the RCMP has proven it. They knew there may be weapons involved and handled it in a very smart manor. If they had gone in heavy handed I wonder how many of these ignorant bystanders, including farmers, who were dumb enough to support them, could have been caught in a cross fire. They have proven why we should not let Kenney kick them out.
ALAN K. SPILLER: You can just imagine how bad it will be if the head honcho of the UCP gets his way and creates a provincial police force for Alberta, and removes the R.C.M.P. The R.C.M.P are still investigating the leadership of the head honcho of the UCP. When this Liberal turned Reformer gets his own police force for Alberta, no one will be able to question what he does. It will be akin to a police state, or a dictatorship. The head honcho of the UCP will control that police force. We won’t be better off.
Let’s hope the people in Fort McMurray are smart enough to elect the NDP candidate and not this lying Reformer Brian Jean . It was his lies as leader of the Wildrose Party that convinced Albertans to elect Kenney instead of him as leader of the UCP. Neither of these Reformers are worthy of being our premier. They aren’t anything like the true conservatives we proudly supported under Lougheed and Getty.
While Brian Jean is more Albertan that Kenney could ever be, he is still an alt-right christo-facist egomanic.
ALAN K. SPILLER: I agree with you. However, these people are a very stubborn bunch. There was a UCP MLA, Laila Goodridge, I believe that is her name, who was the UCP MLA in Fort McMurray/Wood Buffalo. She quit the UCP, and then runs as a CPC MP, and they elected her, during the last federal election. The people in this constituency will still be stubborn, and they will support Brian Jean. They have a hard time learning their lesson.
Anonymous I have a nephew in Vancouver who is a city police officer. His wife is a female RCMP officer. They were in that shooting in Vegas that killed 68 people and weren’t injured. Those guns confiscated by the RCMP look like the same type that were used in the Vegas shooting and could have killed a lot of people, including farmers who were dumb enough to support them and could of been caught in a cross fire.
what kind of ballooney are you spewing?
I am a Canadian, not a righwing extremist, but I donated and so did my family and friends.
The truckers were the only people in Canada willing to sacrifice their comfort to tell the government off.
we are NOT in China, and we SHOULD be able to protest, and SHOULD be able to retain our freedoms.
Turns out Easy Kleen corporation, a recipient of government corporate welfare during the COVID pandemic, has donated $75,000 to the unlawful anti-vaxx terrorists. The lunatic alt-right owner, Brad Howland, famous for threatening to beat a school principal senseless, is not sure if any of that corporate welfare money from the federal government, that he now seeks to over throw, was used for his donation to terrorists.
Easy Kleen has an Edmonton location (Red Deer too, but… rubes) and I do recall seeing their corporate vehicles particpatnig in unlawful terroristic activity in Edmonton.
I wonder what Easy Kleen’s corporate neighbors are going to think about all the free speech protestin’ that will be occuring around their Edmonton lcoation all summer?
It’s amazing how none of these people can think ahead.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/o-canada-threat-case-results-in-discharge-1.809872
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-sussex-corner-business-convoy-donation-1.6351642
Cool Let’s hope people boycott his business and put him into a bankrupt situation.
For some reason, the Easy Kleen Edmonton office was not answering their phone.
Head office assured me they would pass on my message.
leftists vindictive? noooo….. that can’t be
Watching the news last night, the visual montage of the seizure of weapons at Coutts and the stammering lack of a ‘No’ from leaders of the occupation in Ottawa as to whether there were any weapons in their midst, made the feds’ Emergency Act seem reasonable. Yes, some provinces opposed, but the two most important ones to the feds (politically) on board: Ontario and B.C.
Today there were images from Coutts of the assembled block-a-deers in a farewell group photo, some dressed in hunting gear. Then came a video of the most pathetic and mournful version of “O, Canada” you could ever hope not to hear, with handshakes and hugs for the RCMP, returned with vigor. Last night’s images showed them gathered around their burn barrels, with stacks of logs, and yes, a fire ban is in effect.
Is it over? Not really. The female-folks packing up the food said it’s time to “regroup”, and save the horde of non-perishables for next time. As Arnie said in The Terminator, “I’ll be back.” Count on it. Lesson not learned. If they have to pay fines, etc., maybe they could start up a tourism company in Coutts, offering walking tours of the places where weapons were stored, the site of the great food cache of ’22, etc. Or maybe an annual historic recreation of their glory days that never were? They did not get whatever it is they wanted, which even they don’t know. Oh, well. They were getting pretty ripe and needed a shower anyways.
In recognition of both the Oscars and Olympics, I wish to nominate Jason Kenney for lifetime achievement in Big Air.
I must say that Jason Kenney seems increasingly unhinged, from reading some of the tweets that he posts. Sometimes I think that it could be someone else posting on his behalf. Twitterverse suggested perhaps Ben Harper?
Does this mean no more UCP MLA’s shmoozing with the protestors in Coutts, looking for photo ops?
Does this mean the Conservative MP’s will no longer be supporting the protesters, visiting them with coffee, hopping up on flatbeds for photo ops, and encouraging them to stay the course?
‘
Does this mean that Candice Bergen will be following in Erin O’Toole’s footsteps by flip flopping as much as possible?At least three times over the past three weeks.
It has been a terrible three weeks for Ottawa.
It has also been a terrible three weeks for the federal Conservative Party. Their divisiveness and disconnect from voters in on display for all to see.
They won 8 of 116 urban seats in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. Is there game plan to loose even more in the next election?
Now, now Brett. You be nice to Candy is Dandy Candy Bergen. She looks great in her MAGA hat, likely knows how to use a knife and fork at the dinner table and will keep the leader’s seat nicely warm until her party finds another sub-par replacement for the Scheer-O’Toole evangelistic team. Do you hear the trumpet call, Jason?
It is unfortunate that the damage and the threats of violence, combined with inexplicable inaction by the police to enforce laws and the active encouragement through dog whistles and other not-so-subtle communications by the Cons and others, reached such a pitch that it was necessary to invoke the Emergency Measures Act. I don’t disagree with the decision, but I do wish we did not have to pull this particular trigger.
Restricting rights and freedoms is never a good thing, if it can be avoided. But, using this act does set a precedent and makes it easier to invoke the next time for less serious reasons than caused by the convoy (I am not sure what to call the convoy – it is certainly not the “freedom convoy”, since they interfered significantly with the freedoms of many other Canadians; nor is it a “trucker” convoy, since the majority of truckers are double-vaxxed and apparently had no problems with the mandates).
That said, what choice did the government have? The police were not enforcing the laws to restore order and the flow of commerce. Initially, I thought they were using a light touch to allow the protesters to give voice to their concerns. But, I thought this light touch was only a temporary measure. As the protests dragged on and transformed into an illegal occupation and insurrection, the light touch was apparently a long-term strategy. To what end, I can’t say. I really don’t know enough about policing to have any insight into this at all. That said, it appears that others do, and they have expressed enough displeasure that the Ottawa police chief has announced his resignation. His behavior throughout this mess has always struck me as odd. I get that the police force was short of personnel, but his request for 1,800 extra enforcement officers was oddly specific. Combine this with the fact that he stated elsewhere he doubted he could receive this number to reinforce his ranks, and you have a real head scratcher here. He has reaped what he has sowed and is now gone with the ignominious cloud hanging over his head that he was incompetent and did far too little to maintain public order.
Bumbles and Moe, the two prairie stooges, along with Heather Stephenson, have said the Emergency Act is not necessary. Yet, in the case of Bumbles, he was speaking out of both sides of his mouth by providing dog-whistle encouragement to the anti-mandate views of the protesters, while at same time asking them nicely to leave. And, some of his caucus were openly showing support to the convoy. Still, the RCMP are supposed to be independent of politics, yet the lack of enforcement dragged on. Why? Perhaps the police needed time to investigate the hard-core gun nuts that were posing a real danger to the RCMP and civilians? But, could it be that the RCMP were being signaled by the provincial government to use a light touch? Regardless, it is apparent that the actions and talk of the provincial government were far too mild to be useful as any kind of deterrent and allowed the protests to grow.
Now, correlation does not imply causation. However, at the risk of falling into the post hoc ergo propter hoc logic fallacy, could it be that the part of the reason that the protests are quickly diminishing at the Coutts border crossing is the invocation of the Emergency Act and that its powers would be used to heap some serious punishments on these miscreants? I know the organizer of the protest at Coutts provides an alternative explanation about not wanting to be associated with the hard-core gun nuts, but I don’t believe that is his only explanation. I think the protesters realized that, now that the feds were involved, things were about to get a whole lot more serious. And, they would not get a get-out-of-jail card so easily if they continued to disrupt the freedom and livelihoods of many Canadians by continuing their illegal occupation.
This certainly does not look good for Bumbles. He can take no credit at all for helping to get rid of the blockades. That credit is going to belong to the RCMP and federal government. I hope Skippy, Bergen, and these other moronic Cons that encouraged and enabled the illegal occupations and blockades are looking on with some trepidation. I also hope voters realize that we should not elect politicians, such as Skippy, who will allow a fringe mob representing a minority of population to dictate public health policy or any policy for that matter.
“… the terrorist kidnapping crisis the roiled Quebec in 1970…”
Tyop, I believe.
Any word on who’s paying Pam Livingston’s salary while she’s off serving Jason Kenney’s personal ambitions?
Lars: Fxied, Tahnk yuo! All we know for sure is that Ms. Livingston is taking a leave without pay. I’m sure she is being well compensated for her work by someone, though. DJC
Regarding the CONs in this brave new world we’ve been thrust into, they seem to be wildly befuddled.
You have Candice Bergen, still playing the Convoy’s Molly Pitcher, carrying their water regardless of how dumb she looks doing it.
And you have Skippy Pollivere appearing on noted alt-right podcasts defending the Convoy. (and I guess by extension the blockades)
If this is all about being seen looking and doing all kinds of crazy, they are scoring high points with the yobs and goofballs.
As a die hard Alberta NDP supporter and a die hard federal Liberal supporter (used to be fed NDP but, sorry Jagmeet, you lost me. Good luck with the tiktok voters), I whole heartedly endorse Pierre “check out my lumber” Pollivere and encourage all my CPC friends to vote for him. Or Maxime. Yeah, that’s it, Maxime!
A bit oblique, but does anyone here know where to find information on how an Emergencies Act was implemented during the Calgary floods of 2013? There was something similar enacted, but it must have either been by the municipality or the province. What sort of extraordinary powers were granted and how long were they in play? I figure these are the minds to tap for that sort of information.
The 2013 states of emergency were declared under Alberta’s emergency management legislation, which deals with things like flood and fire response, and allows the province to take over emergency responses from municipalities when circumstances require. The federal Emergencies Act is a different kettle of fish with sections dealing with the federal response to various kinds of emergencies defined as public welfare emergencies, public order emergencies, international emergencies and war. The Government of Canada website notes: “… when necessary for dealing with a public order emergency, the federal government can issue or adopt temporary orders and regulations:
– Regulating and prohibiting public assemblies, including blockades, other than lawful advocacy, protest or dissent,
– Regulating the use of specified property, including goods to be used with respect to a blockade,
– Designating and securing places where blockades are to be prohibited (e.g. borders, approaches to borders, other critical infrastructure),
– Directing specified persons to render essential services to relieve impacts of blockades on Canada’s economy, with compensation,
– Authorizing or directing specified financial institutions to render essential services to relieve the impact of blockades, including by regulating and prohibiting the use of property to fund or support the blockades,
– Measures with respect to the authorizing of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to enforce municipal and provincial laws by means of incorporation by reference,
– The imposition of fines or imprisonment for contravening on any of the measures declared under this public order emergency.”
DJC
Thanks kindly for taking the time, Dave.
Gosh the Conservatives no longer have a place to hide – it is just amazing the depth of stupidity and lack of everything else.
Sometimes I wonder if I am actually in Canada. It all sounds like a very Banana Republic or better a Republican Banana story
Kudos to the writer who described the last of the “protestors” at the saloon in Coutt’s ….(parafrasing ?)
The last dejected few, sitting around the campfire on their stumps, “discussing” their future plans ….
“LIGHTBULB”!!!! Hey ,I’ve seen this movie, before , it’s called –Blazing Saddles “… just about fell off my chair laughing, ….so who gets to play ‘Wando’.
Being a observer of body language ,has anyone else noticed the resemblance of the way Skippy stands to dtjr.—- wannabe? And as a woman, Candasp B reminds me of a certain customer my co-worker and I used to have to put up with in Calgary — one particularly day, she was being more condescending than usual, to us and the other girls with her, and T kept trying to take her drink order,was being ignored,and finally & firmly said ” would you like a drink, or should I bring your usual saucer of milk “…I was lucky because I could leave the room ( mascara ruined)..everytime Candasp speaks, flounces back down into her seat ,that line comes to mind.
A LITTLE BIRD …everytime a man has to mention a “woman’s” outfit, it’s- because– he can’t bring himself to say she’s doing a good job, surprised he didn’t mention her ” sensible shoes.
And as far as the press conference with Kenny, in the midst of all the things going on ,he was going to be talking about what?? Some kind of job creation program,— whoever is available to print off the signs at short notice must be doing well.
It’s a pet peeve of mine, while there are many reasons to discuss Ms. Freeland , her outfit isn’t one of them
Hey, Team Freedom! A quick analysis of your “season” as it winds down.
You are using the same empty rhetoric as a team that went 12-70. Only your die hard fans believe your lame excuses. But the reality is no playoffs, lots of finger pointing, trying to find some positives in having little talent, poor leadership, a lack of fan support, no clear goals, and having to resort to goon tactics and tough talk to try to show you are relevant. “We played hard, we gave it our best effort, we didn’t back down, and wait until next year!” In the meantime, your coaches and GM are distancing themselves from your putrid production, the discipline committee has suspended your goons, fined the team, and is considering other sanctions for your embarrassing performance that disgraced the league. A waste of time and money for all involved. Your American owners are not happy. And the refs were terrible.
So go home, say a little prayer, and maybe Mom and Dad will take you for a slurpee. It’s time to take up a new sport.
“Mr. Kenney may realize that even if his truckling to the blockaders gets him past his April 9 party leadership review …”
I see what you did there. “Copy that”.
Cryptocurrencies the CPC and UCP have been touting “seem to exist to facilitate crime, [for example, to] create dark political money, and avoid paying taxes.” There, that’s better.
K-Boy is already “derelict and irresponsible.” The police seizure of weapons and ammo from blockaders at the Coutts/Sweetgrass border-crossing simply proves he more than looks like he is.
No precise date when K-Boy’s chief of staff will start her leave of absence to do some career counselling with the premier: he’s taken leave of his public responsibilities to work on saving his UCP leadership from negative review on April 9. Wow!—that’s over six weeks away! Intense!
This personal homework will certainly include manipulating his next electoral problem—no, not the one soon counting down in sub-annular increments to the spring of ought-23, but the one soon counting down in sub-lunar units to the Ft Mac-Lac le Bichtumen bye-lection. Albertans will be comforted to know that while their premier is busy salvaging his own butt in the Alighieri-like inferno of whatever psephological perfidy kamikaze cryptocurrency can buy, they’ll be getting back even more of their equalization payments by way of the feds riding the Emergencies Act into Coutts.
Finally! A bit of good luck, at last! The G-men will absolve K-Boy of distraction from auguring the papyri of his Conservatives’ conundrum lining the bottom of the political chamber pot and easily deciphered through the crypto-crunching seeing-stone (‘Ah, yes!—,’ the squinting K-Boy descries, “Good fortune in avoiding all rhetorical questions about applying the same stricture to armed, belligerent, protesting truckers that you once recommended for unarmed, peaceful indigenous protesters. No Blame.” Of course [face-palm slap]! Ms Livingston, write that down before I—’
‘—uh, sorry, Mr premier, I was busy working on the UCP bye-lection and the Ft Mac review—what was that again?…’
‘—before I lick—…oh, dang!…— never mind! Ms Livingston: make a note not to talk to any news media.’
‘Yes, sir… Shall I put it with the other ones?…‘)
‘Ms Livingston?’
‘Yes, Mr premier…?’
‘Do you think we could use Omicron to make postponements or cancelations?’
‘Like, for what, sir?’
‘Well, like the review—say, just for example…’
‘…uh—well, no, sir, that’s for the party to decide.’
‘Well, what about the Ft Mac by-election? Could we delay that, say, because of Omicron?’
‘Wellllllll, uh, not while you’re eliminating Covid protocols at the same time, sir.’
‘Well, then, what about the general election, like, say there’s a new variant and ICUs are overflowing or something…?’
‘Perhaps in an emergency, sir?’
‘Exactly! Look up what comes after Omicron in my dictionary of Liturgical Latin.‘
‘…Omicron’s Greek, sir—‘
‘—Whatever! We hafta get out ahead of this!’
‘Yes, sir! I’ll make a note right away, sir—shall I put it with the others?’
‘Yes!’
‘Then we’ll need another chamber pot, sir—this one’s full.’
‘[slurp-slop-ptuie—] just gimme a minute…’
Is farm gas still available? There seemed to be a few tractors, combines, grain trucks, grain B-trains and cattle liners involved some of the protests. I wonder if blocking critical infrastructure is a claimable farming fuel activity?
Heh, reminds me of my better-half’s experience getting pulled over and inspected for “purple” or “farm gas”—which, naturally, her 3-ton truck was running on—because she and her then-husband had a registered livestock farm.
Not that I have any personal knowledge about illicit (non-farm) use of discounted farm gas, but I’ve heard it was commonly used in our island communities where it was called “marine gas” (not to be confused with the potable “boat gas” of various recipe) back in the day when the saving was sufficiently substantial to risk using it in one’s non-farm, terrestrial vehicle (not an issue anymore for pricing reasons).
But, honestly, I’d never heard of anyone being inspected for illicit use of farm gas—as common as I’ve heard it was—until my squeeze told me her story (while I contemplated filling up my jerry can for the boat I was thinking about buying).
Turns out her husband was running in a local election on a far-left platform—that is, as a guaranteed also-ran to make a point. Also turned out that police thought it might be fun to suggest his then-wife was using the truck for political, rather than farm, purposes and therefore breaking the law (with respect farm gas) sufficiently to warrant an embarrassing screed in the local rag’s regular Police Beat column, conveniently in a pre-election issue. (She was actually going to the feed wholesaler’s for a block of moo-salt.) Anyway, she assured everyone involved that she had absolutely no interest in being a politician’s wife and never attended or endorsed any of her husband’s campaign engagements. We still get a good laugh about the whole silly thing—some 45 years later.
But your point could really stick it to many protesters misusing the farm gas they’re certainly running on.
I think law enforcement’s intent has been, all along, to avoid justice by the billy-baton and to punish offenders by a thousand smaller irritants—misdemeanours, mostly—which may inflict anything from irritating inconveniences for a long time to come (at the current rate of judicial hearing) to more painful matters of licensing and insuring work vehicles. Even if the verdict amounts to a slap on the wrist, just getting there might be punishment enough. Charges might run from littering to uttering, the latter definitely warranting the employ of legal counsel at not-insubstantial—indeed, punishing— cost.
Good eye, Pointedsticks.
More hilarity and the hypocrisy hits overload. When the Mounties make a weapons seizure, it’s even money that the person with the weapons is an informant, and the same odds apply to whether or not the weapons have come from the Mounties. I find this “sinister foreign connection” hilarious, given the historic accusations of red-baiters and just generally confused conservative peopple concerning “outside agitators”.
https://clip.cafe/the-graduate-1967/i-just-like-know-what-boys-are-up-to/
Now when it comes to terrorists, perhaps the reason Li’l Magus was reluctant to “take matters in hand” is because he knows the real thing when it comes to terrorists and toppling elected governments.
“Then Freeland put out a video calling on Venezuelans to rise up and requested an emergency video conference meeting of the Lima Group. Later on April 30 the coalition issued a statement labeling the attempted putsch an effort “to restore democracy” and demanded the military “cease being instruments of the illegitimate regime for the oppression of the Venezuelan people.””
https://yvesengler.com/2022/01/17/when-will-canada-admit-its-venezuela-coup-failed/
And yet, automatic weapons and plate carriers are constant features of far right protests in the states, where it’s now been shown the majority of the funds came from.
Just because the RCMP isn’t trustworthy doesn’t mean there wasn’t a bunch of maniacs with assault rifles who wanted a show down with the aforementioned RCMP
The EPS / RCMP has raided three different groups within the Edmonton area within the last year and half finding much the same style weaponry and tactical gear, as well as first responder uniforms which is incredibly troubling.
So you think its a good idea to not talk to protestors and just enact a war measures act?
Arresting peaceful protestors and allow with green terrorist’s to attack a work camp in BC.
That’s the government the NDP is keeping in power.
Yeah Brett because the Ottawa police force and the RCMP ARE THE SAME thing and they’re incapable of enforcing the law multiple places at once.
Accusations without proof are called slander, and you should be more careful about how you phrase things.
They have been talking to these folks for weeks now, at some point someone has to do more than talk to a bunch of Facebook ravaged conspiracy zombies
I know I’ve said this multiple times but give me a break, we have eyes, we aren’t stupid.
Little Bird: Defamation law, which encompasses libel and slander, is a complicated field, and an individual victim of the defamation must be identified for a suit to succeed. Thus Mr. Larson is safe in this case, as am I and everyone else in the chain of publication. Else his comment wouldn’t have been published, which does happen from time to time for various reasons. DJC