One of the groups organizing the protest, Freedom Convoy 2022, has released a statement saying they have asked truckers to leave Parliament Hill to avoid further “brutality” by police. This will take time, said the “statement of intention.” It said they have communicated with Ottawa Police, “and we hope that they will show judicious restrain(t).” “The truckers are moving, and the use of more force will only be used to punish people, and not to preserve or establish order.”
You.
Had.
Plenty.
Of.
Chances.
To.
Leave.
If these snowflakes think that getting nicely led away after throwing smoke bombs at police constitutes “brutality”, I invite them to participate in any left-wing protest in this country. Fucking wimps.
Watching some of them, near the police line, being interviewed and airing their grievances about how awful this is, is extremely irritating and frustrating.
Additionally, and rather bizarrely, compare the levels of violence and destructiveness of this to typical Stanley Cup riots.
Those who have been arrested should be summarily sentenced to cleaning up their shite from downtown Ottawa. And maybe also to volunteering at the homeless shelter that they mobbed at the start of all this.
There were lots of protestors looking for photo ops with a line of police wearing sunglasses and blank expressions. You think that is the case in Paris when the riot gendarmes are called in?
Still, when they said “things will look very different this weekend in Ottawa” I wondered if the Senators were playing. They did have a good team in 2006, but usually…
Um… do these people not know that “First Amendment” is something in the United States and not Canada? If I recall, the equivalent Canadian document is the Charter of Rights of 1982. Or was it '86?
It’s likely that most, if not all of them do not . Tamara Lich, of the Western Canada Separatist party in particular is particularly stupid, and has not the faintest idea of what is going on here. Just completely out to lunch.
And that’s part of the propaganda I mentioned. these guys release a memo that will make the police look bad, because “We offered to leave quietly, and the meanies wouldn’t let us!!!”
Meanwhile, back in reality, these “organizers” don’t have any actual control over anyone in the protest, so no protestors are going to leave “voluntarily”. In fact, if you look at the livestreams, the cops have left them routes open to the south, that they could use any time to just walk away from this, and virtually none of them are using this opportunity.
It’s just the real behind-the-scenes organizers exploiting their useful idiots to enhance their own brand at others’ expense.
Reality has nothing to do with these folks, who want Canadian courts to grant them First Amendment Rights, who think that the federal government has jurisdiction over provincial health orders or who think that the Omicron Covid variant was made up in a laboratory in Winnipeg.
The authorities are avoiding kettling and allowing (and have allowed) those who wanted to to leave. On one hand I can understand the rationale but, on the other hand, ISTM there would have been good reason to arrest and apprehend as many as possible.
I am sure this is true of SOME people there, but to suggest everyone there wanted to “install” a new government is absurd. Most just wanted pandemic restrictions ended and would doubtless have thought they’d won if that had happened.
Lich is a grifter. Maybe she’s shilling for US money.
After the fiasco at the Toronto G20 convention, no. They want it OVER.
The spokespeople for the morons were sure talking a lot about that. Lich is a Western Separatist for God’s sake. Was Trudeau supposed to enter into a special summit with her to discuss terms of separation?
And most of those twits did not realize that most of the pandemic restrictions were put in place by PROVINCIAL Health orders. Or that the UNITED STATES had closed their border to unvaccinated truckers. Was Trudeau supposed to head out to the streets and explain these basic facts to the morons one by one?
I don’t think we can really talk about what “most” of these people want. Look up some of the videos of them talking, and it’s just a hodge-podge of various wackadoodle beliefs. Sure, some are just “end the vaccine mandates for truckers so I can work”, but the rest? Anywhere from “End the mandates” to “make vaccines illegal” to “make masks illegal” to “charge public health officials with murder” to “Trudeau must resign” to “Trudeau must be executed” to “The entire House of Commons must be disbanded, and we must be put in charge”. Oh, and with just a sprinkling of “I’m the real Queen of Canada, Bow Down Before Me and Let Me Have A Rental RV!”
So just to make it clear… It’s basically Trudeau’s fault that he did not sit down and have a heart to heart chat with folks who were flying a "Fuck Trudeau flag, or these people:
Days before the so-called Freedom Convoy reached Ottawa, starting a weeks-long occupation of Canada’s capital and triggering a string of copy-cat blockades, the federal government was warned that violent extremist groups were deeply involved in the protest movement.
Intelligence assessments – prepared by Canada’s Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (Itac) and seen by the Guardian – warned in late January that it was “likely” that extremists were involved and said that the scale of the protests could yet pose a “trigger point and opportunity for potential lone actor attackers to conduct a terrorism attack”.
You know what? Hell no.
We don’t talk to, or negotiate with mentally ill people at best (Romano Diludo), or terrorists at worst.
Sorry. But no.
And Candice Bergen’s pressure on the liberals to extend an “olive branch” and all the stupid selfies should torpedo the conservatives’ credibility, but probably won’t.
The crowd was the “fuck you, I wont do what you tell me” movement with a bouncy castle. Summoned to this plane by shit for brains grifters and malcontents, cheered on by privileged people, bored with their lives and having too much money. Addled brained morons that think not walking around naked is fine, but a mask in public spaces in a pandemic is a Canadian version of trains to Auschwitz.
Personally I can’t get over (and I bet he can’t either) how little blow back Ford has taken. His whole first 6 months was stomping around going on about cities being creatures of the Province and I can make them do what I want. Have Ottawa come under a half witted occupation and suddenly it’s “I’m waiting for the mayor”.
I am honestly hoping some investigative reporter writes a book about all this because it was such an epic, epic failure at so many levels and I don’t think you could explain it in any less than 400 pages.
Pat King on YouTube the other day as the arrests began -
“Anybody out there, carry a white flag. A white flag means officers cannot arrest you, under duress, under surrender. You’re not surrendering, but they cannot touch you if you’re holding a white flag. It’s international law. So, if you’re out there with a white flag, they have to walk away from you guys.”
