“China eats weird animals disease”

Corporate media outlets like The Atlantic and The New York Times have been telling us for years now how Hungary and Poland are incubators of authoritarianism that represent an existential threat to democracy. But it turns out we should have been worried about Canada and Australia, of all places.

If you had told me 18 months ago that Australia, a democratic country that once seemed to exude rugged individualism, would devolve into a Covid police state that imprisons its citizens in quarantine camps and deploys riot police to crush lockdown protests with brute force, I wouldn’t have believed you. But here we are.

A Liberal MP is speaking out against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and provincial governments’ pandemic policies, and politicians’ handling of the ongoing trucker convoy protests.

Joel Lightbound, the Louis-Hébert, Que. MP, held a press conference on Parliament Hill on Tuesday morning saying that he thinks those concerned about COVID-19 policies have “legitimate concerns” that should not be dismissed.

Citing the impact on Canadians’ mental health, families becoming divided, and people losing their jobs over decisions to not to get vaccinated, Lightbound said he thinks political leaders are “unwilling to adapt.”

MP @JoelLightbound is a hero. He wasn't afraid of the party leader or damaging his career. He put people before politics.

I hope that @JustinTrudeau will not remove Joel from caucus like @fordnation removed me for opposing the lockdown. Listen to this gentleman. #onpoli #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/XdiOjqu8Ls

— Roman Baber (@Roman_Baber) February 8, 2022

As the disruptive protest in Ottawa drags into its second week, some residents of the downtown core say they’ve been living a nightmare, under siege and terrified to leave their homes — except to seek refuge away from the epicentre.

For 10 days, downtown residents have been subjected to relentless honking, random fireworks and choking diesel fumes from trucks parked near their homes. They’ve expressed outrage over the open display of hate symbols, and some say they’ve been subjected to racial, homophobic and transphobic slurs. Others claim they’ve been attacked for wearing masks.

Many residents say they’ve felt let down by all levels of government and police since the protest convoy arrived Jan. 28.

OTTAWA – All tow-truck companies on contract with the city have refused to haul away the big rigs that have gridlocked Ottawa’s downtown for the second week in a row, the city’s manager says.

Steve Kanellakos said the consensus among many of the of the companies seems to be that they don’t want to do the work because the heavy truck industry is such a large part of their livelihoods and they don’t want to damage that part of their businesses.

CSIS briefing notes show the agency believed a threat would come from “an extremist lone actor” against a high-profile target. Instead, we have a blockade of the capital by a group of angry truckers

Intelligence agencies constantly look for threats to Canada’s security, but newly released documents show they never imagined a swarming takeover of central Ottawa.

Briefing notes and Power Point slides from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) identify enemies such as ISIS and al-Qaida, and the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Brigade, Blood & Honour and the Base. “There is a continued threat of a violent attack in Canada with little or no warning,” they say.

Yea, they’re just like al Qaeda.

Ottawa has more government presence than any other city in the country, including federal, provincial and municipal police and politicians galore. And yet, no one is doing anything effective about the determined demonstrators who have set up a semi-permanent camp in the capital and have no intention of leaving.

Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly says protesters are countering any police actions to bring an end to the “Freedom Convoy” demonstration that has occupied the downtown core of the nation’s capital for 11 days, with no signs of ending.

Speaking on CTV News at Six Monday evening, Sloly said demonstrators are adapting quickly to any enforcement efforts, such as disallowing fuel containers into the downtown core.

Tucker Carlson has slammed the response to truckers protesting against vaccine mandates by Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and other officials, with the Fox News host claiming the demonstrators are being treated like terrorists.

Trudeau has accused the truckers of ‘blockading’ Canada’s democracy after they paralyzed Ottawa’s business district for over a week by blocking the roads.

And members of the Freedom Convoy protest have been arrested and charged with hate crimes, while Go Fund Me cut off funding for the protest organizers after determining that their efforts violated their terms of service.

Canadian liberals: quell the insurrection!https://t.co/ykMOHXmyJJ

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 8, 2022

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.

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.

A core group of protesters in the nation’s capital continue to defy calls for the trucker convoy to go home as Ottawa remains under a state of emergency.

At an “emergency press conference” held by some of the protest organizers, a spokesperson proposed the truckers would be willing to “sit down with” and form a coalition of opposition parties with the Governor General of Canada, in an apparent variation of the Canada Unity MOU that was circulated prior to the convoy’s arrival in Ottawa.

The group said they have booked a room at a local hotel in Ottawa to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Tuesday, who has thus far declined to meet with or acknowledge the convoy’s leaders, nor has he displayed an inclination to negotiate.

It is getting very rich, this protest. Rich and raw. Very much so; as each day passes and the protest deepens and extends to areas beyond its initial phase, the country is witness to a depth of division not seen in decades. The prime minister is nowhere to be seen, nowhere to be heard.

It must be very disconcerting for the public servants of Ottawa to come face to face with the people they rob blind.