'Blockaded by an angry, loud, intolerant and violent crowd': Federal officials say 'unlawful' Ottawa occupation needs to end
Category: News & Politics
Via: tessylo • 2 years ago • 11 commentsBy: Elisabetta Bianchini, Yahoo News
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
'Blockaded by an angry, loud, intolerant and violent crowd': Federal officials say 'unlawful' Ottawa occupation needs to end
"Many of the actions that have taken place over the course of this demonstration have been unlawful and frankly disrespectful to the rights and freedoms of all Canadians," Bill Blair, emergency preparedness minister, said on Monday. "It is well past the time to bring this protest to an end."
Canada is a peaceful nation…and we look after our neighbours, and we treat each other with respect in this country. We do not threaten or intimidate our fellow citizens, we do not desecrate the National War Memorial, we don’t dishonour statues dedicated to national heroes and we do not tolerate individuals who wave flags riddled with symbols of hate and discrimination. Bill Blair
Blair said the federal government is proposing to convene a trilateral table with provincial and municipal partners to keep the "lines of communication open" during this "fluid and dynamic" situation.
"Many residents have been effectively held hostage in their own city, blockaded by an angry, loud, intolerant and violent crowd," public safety minister Marco Mendicino said. "While everyone believes in the right to free speech, this convoy has crossed the line of acceptable conduct towards fellow Canadians many, many times."
"It would be a terrible precedent to say that if you show up to the nation's capital with heavy equipment and blockade the capital city that you can force reckless change in our public policy. It’s been surprising that some who say they believe in law and order seem not to get this point."
Dominic LeBlanc, intergovernmental affairs minister, added that the prime minister has been "actively engaged" in daily briefings and updates from senior officials in the national security and intelligence community.
"No words can accurately describe the agony of what my community has gone through," Ottawa Centre Liberal MP Yasir Naqvi said. "For residents of downtown Ottawa, this continues to be a horrific experience."
"The protesters actions have not been peaceful or lawful. Members of my community have been harassed because of their skin colour, yelled at for wearing masks, subjected to hurtful and racist symbols, torturous honking, and there are accounts of assault...and over the weekend there was an attempt to light on fire an apartment building."
In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and minister Mendicino, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson has asked for for assistance in securing 1,000 regular officers, 600 public order officers, 100 investigative officers and 100 civilian staff, in addition to supporting resources for digital, social media and financial forensics.
"I would also encourage the province of Ontario to draw on lessons learned form other provinces on how to use their road safety authorities to contain unlawful activities by commercial trucks," Alghabra said.
Canadians continue to react to the ongoing occupation in Ottawa, particularly now that demonstrations in Vancouver, Quebec City and Toronto largely only took place over one day this weekend.
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"Many residents have been effectively held hostage in their own city, blockaded by an angry, loud, intolerant and violent crowd," public safety minister Marco Mendicino said. "While everyone believes in the right to free speech, this convoy has crossed the line of acceptable conduct towards fellow Canadians many, many times."
"It would be a terrible precedent to say that if you show up to the nation's capital with heavy equipment and blockade the capital city that you can force reckless change in our public policy. It’s been surprising that some who say they believe in law and order seem not to get this point."
What's "unlawful" about it? People have a right to be angry, and protests are meant to annoy people. Just ask Antifa and BLM
They're not protesting - they're invading - squatting - occupying.
Bunch of whackjobs and thugs.
There are lots of laws both here and in Canada that restrict parking or stopping vehicles in the roadways and the truckers should be fined and towed. If they want to get out of their trucks and walk en'masse blocking the roadways with a human protest then they should but because its clear they don't have enough people to block much traffic and get any attention they had to use their 6 semi's to do it illegally.
These truckers are fucking idiots protesting an insignificant inconvenience yet most conservatives here are taking their sides and comparing it to the protests over unarmed black men being murdered by police. That's the equivalence to some right wing conservatives, fighting the inconvenience of wearing a mask or getting vaccinated is far more important to them than the problem with unarmed black men dying at the hands of police.
It's in violation of the Critical Infrastructure Act. The law originated in Alberta and I'm not sure if it now takes in the other provinces of Canada, but in Alberta, the protesters can be jailed for the current blocking of border crossings and highways in Alberta.
Can you say BLM and Antifa!
Have a question for you, do these police just jump out of their cars and start murdering black men or is there a reason why they were there in the first place.
what canadian towns did they burn down on FOX News? /s
5G and QAnon: how conspiracy theorists steered Canada’s anti-vaccine trucker protest
Thousands of demonstrators have successfully occupied Canada’s frigid capital for days, and say they plan on staying as long as it takes to thwart the country’s vaccine requirements.
Related: Ottawa protesters defy growing calls to end occupation of capital
The brazen occupation of Ottawa came as a result of unprecedented coordination between various anti-vaccine and anti-government organizations and activists, and has been seized on by similar groups around the world.
It may herald the revenge of the anti-vaxxers.
The so-called “freedom convoy” – which departed for Ottawa on 23 January – was the brainchild of James Bauder, an admitted conspiracy theorist who has endorsed the QAnon movement and called Covid-19 “the biggest political scam in history”. Bauder’s group, Canada Unity, contends that vaccine mandates and passports are illegal under Canada’s constitution, the Nuremberg Code and a host of other international conventions.
Bauder has long been a fringe figure, but his movement caught a gulf stream of support after the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, announced last year that truckers crossing the US-Canada border would need to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19. The supposed plight of the truckers proved to be a compelling public relations angle and attracted an array of fellow travelers.
Until now, a litany of organizations had protested Canada’s strict public health measures, but largely in isolation. One such group, Hold Fast Canada, had organized pickets of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s headquarters, where they claimed that concentration camps had already been introduced in the country.
Related: Ottawa protests: how did the rallies against vaccine mandates begin and what’s next?
Another group, Action4Canada, launched legal challenges to mask and vaccine mandates. In one 400-page court filing, they allege that the “false pronouncement of a Covid-19 ‘pandemic’” was carried out, at least in part, by Bill Gates and a “New World (Economic) Order” to facilitate the injection of 5G-enabled microchips into the population.
Both groups are listed as “participating groups” on the Canada Unity website, and sent vehicles and personnel to join the convoy.
Other organizers joined Bauder, including Chris Barber, a Saskatchewan trucker who was fined $14,000 in October for violating provincial public health measures; Tamara Lich, an activist for a fringe political party advocating that western Canada should become an independent state; Benjamin Dichter, who has warned of the “growing Islamization of Canada”; and Pat King, an anti-government agitator who has repeatedly called for Trudeau to be arrested.
Since they have arrived in Ottawa, the extreme elements of the protest have been visible: neo-Nazi and Confederate flags were seen flying, QAnon logos were emblazoned on trucks and signs and stickers were pasted to telephone poles around the occupied area bear Trudeau’s face, reading: “Wanted for crimes against humanity.”
The official line from Bauder and his co-organizers, however, has remained focused; in a Facebook live broadcast, Bauder instructed his supporters to “stop talking about the vaccine” and instead stick to message of “freedom”.
Such strict message control has attracted mainstream support. Numerous members of the Conservative party, Canada’s official opposition, have come out to meet the protesters. Elon Musk and Donald Trump have both endorsed the convoy. Fox broadcasters Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson have provided glowing updates on the continuing occupation.
Bauder vowed the convoy would camp out in Ottawa until their demands are met, insisting to his followers that a “ memorandum of understanding ” would force the government’s hand, possibly even triggering fresh elections, if enough people sign.
A Canada Unity organizer went further, saying it would require the Senate to “go after the prime minister” for “corruption” and “fascism”. There is no legal basis for those claims.
King has laid out a more direct plan of action to the occupiers: “What we want to focus on is our politicians, their houses, their locations,” he said in a January Facebook stream. If political pressure doesn’t work, King said, blocking major supply chains “will be later on”.
Soon after, the head of security for parliament issued an extraordinary warning to members of parliament to avoid the protest entirely, for their own safety.
The occupiers have deliberately made life difficult for anyone in Ottawa’s downtown core. Trucks have been laying on their air horns throughout the day, often well into the early morning hours. An Ottawa court granted an injunction on Monday afternoon, ordering that the honking must cease.
In the shadow of parliament, a flatbed truck was converted into a stage – functioning as a speaker’s corner during the day, where far-right politicians and occupiers took the microphone to decry Trudeau and Covid vaccines. At night, the stage functions as a DJ booth for raucous dance parties.
Related: US anti-vaccine mandate campaigners aim to mimic Canadian convoy tactic
Technology has made the occupation even easier: drivers share information on routes and the best ways to evade police barricades via the walkie-talkie app Zello. Organizers in other cities use the secure messaging app Telegram to share information, coordinate messaging and plan solidarity protests.
The occupiers now have the resources to stay for an extended period of time: they have raised more than C$6m (US$4.7m) through various crowdfunding platforms, in cash and bitcoin, despite having been booted from GoFundMe’s platform after raising over C$10m.
The Ottawa occupation is proof that a few thousand determined protesters can overwhelm police and shut down major cities with enough vehicles and coordination. Solidarity convoys have shut down the busy Coutts border crossing between Alberta and Montana, strained police resources in Toronto and Quebec City, and activists as far away as Helsinki, Canberra, London and Brussels have taken note. On the convoy channels, protesters warn this is just the beginning.
hmmm, so the people who are saying this protest is wrong and needs to end and the truckers need to have their vehicles towed and they need to be arrested... what were they saying about CHOP in Seattle back in 2020? There were businesses and residents in that area who were basically held hostage during that time also.
Did they ask them to “please” go home? I hear Canadians are a very polite people. Maybe that’s all it takes.
In all seriousness, blocking the roads is bullshit. I say it when conservatives do it and I say it when liberals do it. Demonstrate all you want, but let ordinary people get to work, school, the store, or - God forbid - the hospital.