Canada’s Corrupt Political Class

A new City of Ottawa memo is shedding more light on the early days of the truck convoy protest and when officials thought participants in the disruptive occupation were going to leave town.

The so-called Freedom Convoy, which occupied large swaths of downtown Ottawa for weeks, was dispersed by police from several agencies on Feb. 19, after protesters ignored many orders to leave.

Three days earlier, the councillor for Ottawa’s Rideau-Vanier ward, Mathieu Fleury, peppered the city with questions about its response up to that date.

A Conservative MP has accused a media outlet and a Liberal cabinet minister of spreading “misinformation” about loaded firearms being found among protestors when police dispersed the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa in February.

Conservative MP Dane Lloyd made the claim while questioning Ottawa Police Service (OPS) interim chief Steve Bell at a meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety on March 24. Lloyd made his statement in reference to an article published in the Toronto Star on March 19.

The article said: “Fears that there were weapons inside some of the trucks proved prescient: A police source said loaded shotguns were found.”

Brigitte Belton was never in any of the headlines, and when the “Freedom Convoy” press conferences were given, she flanked the speakers instead of taking the mic herself.

But, in what may come as just one little-known fact of many in the story of the convoy’s origins, there’s no doubt the 52-year-old from Wallaceburg, Ont., was among the first to get the headline-grabbing protest rolling — and that she helped keep it going.

She says it amazes her how the movement she started talking about to the selfie camera in the cab of her truck eventually spread to a surge of sentiment that has seemingly come to define populism in Canada today.

“I have never in my life protested ever,” Belton told the Star. “I never thought there was something so serious that I needed to risk my job. Risk my criminal record.”

HMA

If history is any guide, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau got the better of the deal he made with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, ensuring the survival of his Liberal government until June 2025.

It’s not surprising since Trudeau, as PM and the senior partner in the negotiations, was playing from a position of strength.

Singh’s hand was much weaker — as the junior partner — and it showed in the final agreement.

PANDEMIC HIRING BOOM: Federal government added nearly 20,000 workers in a single year

The Trudeau administration spent so much money during the first year of the pandemic that it was easy to lose track of the profound growth taking place in the size of the federal government’s workforce.

Employment across the country jumped more than six per cent year over year to 319,600 for all departments and agencies, according to data compiled by Treasury Board. That’s an increase of nearly 20,000 between the first three months of 2020 and the same period last year.

20 thousand more Liberal party voters robbing us blind.

To strike at the coalition of truck drivers demonstrating against his government’s vaccine mandates, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau ordered financial institutions to search customer records and sanction both the protesters and those who had given financial support to them. Banks investigated the accounts of anyone identified by the government as being a participant or a donor and froze them, all without warrants or court approval. This was a manifestation of expanding state power, which would have been unimaginable just a couple of years ago in a democracy.