As the Loud Truckist Noise in Ottawa carried on this week it was perhaps understandable that certain of the civic leaders in the nation’s capital and quite a few otherwise respectable members of the Canadian establishment would become a bit unhinged. By now, the rest of us should be sufficiently entertained by the flights of rhetoric that have been coming from all quarters about what it all means, and what to do about it, to come to some decision about whose shouts we like the most.
After publicly supporting the anti-vaccine mandate activists protesting in Ottawa in recent weeks, interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen said Thursday it’s time for the convoy and other protesters blocking two major border crossings to end their demonstrations and go home.
Bergen, who has called the convoy a “passionate, patriotic and peaceful” group of Canadians concerned about freedom at a time of COVID restrictions, said the protesters have made their point to parliamentarians and the Conservative Party will take up their fight in the House of Commons instead.
Frustrations and conflicts tied to the trucker convoy in Ottawa are spilling over onto new fronts Thursday, with police reporting “a concerted effort to flood” 911 lines, protesters mobilizing at the local airport and hackers taking aim at city council.
Earlier in the day, city officials had warned of traffic disruptions at the city’s international airport as the trucker convoy encamped across the city enters its 14th day, and some members appeared to be encircling the airport.
Hundreds of the GoFundMe donations to the Ottawa convoy protest came from donors who said they were located outside of Canada, according to an analysis of data collected by CBC News.
The analysis of a sample of more than 6,600 comments made on the GoFundMe crowdfunding page before it was shut down shows that 573 donations amounting to more than $33,378 came from people who said they were located abroad.
More than half of those donors — 322 — said they were located in the United States. Collectively, American donors contributed $21,101, or 63.2 per cent of the money donated by people who said they were located outside of Canada.
Truckers and supporters said Wednesday they are proud to have their children with them at the protests that have shut down parts of Ottawa for nearly two weeks, saying they are there for their children’s futures.
Even on a relatively quiet morning, children could be seen Wednesday amid the giant trucks that have been parked throughout downtown for 13 days — crawling through the makeshift playground set up on Wellington Street, walking through the crowds on Parliament Hill, being pulled in wagons and pushed in strollers. During the weekend, there were bouncy castles and games of street hockey.
Ont. reports 44 more virus-related deaths as number of COVID-19 patients in hospital dips below 2,000
Provincial officials added another 44 virus-related deaths to Ontario’s COVID-19 death toll today as the number of people hospitalized with the virus dipped below 2,000 for the first time in more than a month.
Officials say the 44 deaths logged today occurred in the last 24 days, including four on Feb. 9, nine of Feb. 8, five of Feb. 7.
445 people are in ICU with #COVID19. 76% of patients admitted to the ICU were admitted for COVID-19 and 24% were admitted for other reasons but have tested positive for COVID-19.
There are 3,201 new cases of COVID-19.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) February 10, 2022
Ford pushing to speed up Ontario reopening plan: sources
Premier Doug Ford is pushing for new regulations that would speed up the pace of Ontario’s reopening plan, multiple sources tell CTV News Toronto.
The province is currently slated to lift capacity limits in indoor settings that require proof of vaccination as of Feb. 21 en route to removing all capacity limits by March 14.
However, there has been growing pressure from some local politicians to move up that timeline with Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown telling reporters on Wednesday that he believes there are “real consequences” to waiting.
For nearly two weeks anti-vaccine mandate demonstrators and their big rigs have entrenched themselves in Ottawa’s parliamentary district and its neighbourhoods.
Despite a strategic strike by police to cut off supplies to truckers encamped in the city’s downtown core, protesters appear to still have the upper hand on police.
It’s a success that experts partly attribute to the deep knowledge of law enforcement and military tactics that exist in the convoy’s organizational structure.
The Canadian military is looking into whether a special forces soldier whose house allegedly has a large banner supporting convoy protesters displayed outside has violated any rules.
Canadian Forces members complained that the soldier, who is with the Joint Task Force 2 counter-terrorism unit, should not have such a symbol displayed outside his home in Stittsville.
Since the freedom convoy has rolled into Ottawa, the Conservatives have ousted their leader, Saskatchewan has announced an end to all Covid restrictions, Alberta has ditched its vaccine passport, and Quebec has abandoned its tax on the unvaccinated and started to phase out its restrictions. Whenever any of the politicians behind these moves have been asked, they’ve said the convoy has nothing to do with it, but that honking you hear in the distance begs to differ.
An article posted to the Chinese-language website of the military-linked lab, which many public health and intelligence officials believed to be the source of COVID-19, details how researchers sought various avian influenza viruses (AIV) that had “zoonotic potential with human infections.”
Leftist Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced jeers and insults in Parliament on Tuesday as he once again faced questions regarding his derision towards citizens who oppose civil rights violations tied to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
Liberals are downplaying MP Joël Lightbound’s claims that they are fanning the flames of division during the pandemic, as they double-down on partisan rhetoric towards the new Conservative leadership team.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning, Liberal MPs said that they respectfully disagreed with MP Lightbound, who remains a caucus member, on the negative tone that changed towards unvaccinated Canadians before and during the federal election.
Quebec Liberal MP Robillard also breaks ranks, questions Trudeau government’s handling of pandemic, sides with Lightbound
Three-term Quebec Liberal MP Yves Robillard says he wants Chief Government Whip Steven MacKinnon to apologize to him for dropping him from the House National Defence Committee and sending an email to all Liberal MPs about it.
Restrictive Covid measures have stirred another wave of anti-establishment revolt.
When Joe Biden was elected US president, it was supposed to mark the end of the great populist revolt of MAGA-hats and Brexiteers. Normal service, if a little battered, was to be resumed.
Yet a year later, normal service has not resumed. Major world cities are now wracked by protest movements outside the mainstream. And they are often met by repressive police violence.
The convoy is despised by those who should support it
They call it “The Honkening”. Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, is currently being besieged by a novel kind of protest. Honkening is a fairly appropriate name for what’s going on. Thousands of truckers have driven to the capital, and barraged the city with the noise of truck horns creating a cacophony of sound. Elsewhere, on the border between the United States and Canada, truckers, farmers and cowboys have blockaded traffic.
As the protests enter another week, Ottawa’s mayor has declared a state of emergency. Jim Watson described the truckers — ostensibly protesting against Canada’s harsh Covid mandates — as “out of control”. Watson sees anarchy; the truckers fulminate against Covid authoritarianism. But this battle is really about working-class discontent.
Hereditary rule is the most risible – and the most loathsome.
In the dead of winter, thousands of Canadians have been streaming into Ottawa, led by a massive convoy of truckers protesting draconian Covid mandates that have harmed their ability to earn a living. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused to meet with the protesters and slammed the freedom convoy as “an insult to memory and truth.” Fils Justin thus invites memories of himself and Trudeau père.
