New fencing has been erected on the Parliament Hill side of Wellington Street, right next to where ‘Freedom Convoy’ demonstrators have been camped out for three weeks.
It’s the latest sign that police action to break up the downtown Ottawa occupation could be imminent. On Wednesday, police handed out notices to demonstrators warning them to leave the area or face arrest.
Groups of Ottawa police officers could be seen arriving downtown Thursday morning in the vicinity of the protest red zone.
Ontario reports 37 more COVID-19 deaths; hospitalizations continue to drop
Provincial health officials reported another 37 virus-related deaths and under 1,400 people in hospital with COVID-19 as capacity limits were lifted in most indoor settings today.
A Ministry of Health spokesperson said 36 of the latest deaths occurred over the past 27 days with one death on Feb. 16, nine on Feb. 15 and six on Feb. 14. One death happened more than a month ago.
356 people are in ICU with #COVID19. 80% of patients admitted to the ICU were admitted for COVID-19 and 20% were admitted for other reasons but have tested positive for COVID-19.
There are 2,327 new cases of COVID-19.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) February 17, 2022
Ontario further lifting capacity limits on businesses, gatherings
Capacity limits are lifting in more Ontario settings as the province continues to roll back pandemic restrictions in light of improving COVID-19 indicators.
Starting today, restaurants, gyms and cinemas that must screen patrons for vaccination against COVID-19 have no limits on capacity.
Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar has come out defending an Ottawa shop owner who made a donation to the Freedom Convoy in Canada.
Omar said journalists should not be reporting and publicizing the names of people who made ‘insignificant’ donations.
Omar tweeted in response to a newspaper editor from the Ottawa Citizen who had shared a report about Stella Luna Gelato Cafe in Ottawa, which was forced to close down after receiving continual threats.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, likely seeing the terrible optics after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau implemented the Emergencies Act, has started backpedaling on vaccination as the way to end the restrictions in Ontario.
For over a year Ford has been pushing for mass vaccination as the only way for life to go back to normal in his province, while also standing firmly by Trudeau on his attacks on the Freedom Convoy and use of the Emergencies Act.
Suddenly after witnessing the terrible international media coverage of Trudeau’s use of emergency powers on the night of the 14th, Ford woke up the next morning and started questioning the logic of vaccination for stopping the spread of the virus.
… A letter sent to banks names fewer than 20 people the national police service has identified as being involved in illegal acts related to the demonstrations, according to a source who has reviewed the document. It describes the RCMP’s “first disclosure of information” to financial institutions and includes pictures and summaries with details about the people, some of whom are identified as main organizers of the protests.
The Globe and Mail is not identifying the source because they are not authorized to discuss correspondence with the RCMP.
A separate letter to several cryptocurrency exchanges obtained by The Globe notes that the RCMP and the Ontario Provincial Police are investigating cryptocurrency donations in relation to illegal acts falling under the scope of the Emergencies Act.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the ongoing convoy protests a “threat” to Canadian democracy in a letter justifying emergency powers to the country’s premiers.
The letter, released by the federal government late Wednesday night, said fatigue and frustration with COVID-19 public health measures and vaccine mandates are “no longer the motivation of many of the (protest) participants and organizers.”
Ottawa‘s interim police chief says officers will clear the streets of people who oppose the government and COVID-19 restrictions in the next few days, warning they are ready to use methods people are not used to seeing in the capital.
Steve Bell made the promise to Ottawa city council at a virtual meeting yesterday after taking on the interim role following the abrupt resignation Tuesday of former chief Peter Sloly.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sparked anger on Wednesday when he accused a Jewish MP of ‘standing with people who wave swastikas’ after she criticized his handling of the Freedom Convoy truckers’ anti-vaccine protests.
Melissa Lantsman, a 37-year-old Conservative MP for the Toronto suburb of Thornhill, confronted the prime minister in Parliament about the draconian Emergency Act, which he invoked on Monday for the first time in 50 years in a bid to end 19 days of chaos.
Trudeau responded with scorn to her complaints, saying: ‘Conservative Party members can stand with people who wave swastikas, they can stand with people who wave the confederate flag.
Trudeau just called a Jew a Nazi.
You can't make shit up.
I expect he will accuse a black member of being a KKK member next.
Not black like Trudeau dresses up as by the way. A real black person. pic.twitter.com/5bVMLn5yIf
— Cory Morgan (@CoryBMorgan) February 16, 2022
Famous journalist group Project Veritas has released yet another expose against corrupt agencies lying within the federal government. In a blockbuster investigation, the group caught FDA Executive Officer Christopher Cole’s lips flying loosely on a plethora of topics including his personal views on children taking the Covid-19 jabs, future plans to force annual Covid-19 shots on the American people for the rest of time, and massive corruption in the FDA that many have speculated about.
Canadians who are old enough to remember when Justin Trudeau was born will recall that at the time his father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, explained to the fawning press that he had named his newborn son Justin because — wait for it — Justice. And throughout his life, JT has tried to live up to that name by always making it about Just-him.
Canada truly has become a tyrannical hellhole. Crackdowns on those who refuse to line up for the COVID-19 vaccine have led to the Freedom Convoy. Rather than listening to the convoy protesters, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has decided to double down on authoritarianism.
Canada’s Trudeau is not an original thinker; he’s a follower. He pretends to be Black, Indian, or a cowboy. He admires dictators (Castro) and dictatorships (China). That’s why I wasn’t at all surprised to recognize that both his rhetoric regarding the truckers and his response to them perfectly echo the Democrats’ rhetoric and response to the January 6 protesters. But this isn’t the first time Democrats have inspired dictators. Back in the 1920s and 1930s, Hitler looked to the Democrats’ eugenics laws, especially in the American South, to craft the Nazi’s eugenics laws.
I don’t want to clutter this post with pictures of Trudeau in blackface, pretending to be an Indian in India, or sauntering around in his little cowboy hat. But it is important to remind you of his respect for both dictators and dictatorships.
Of course celebs don’t wear masks – Covid rules are only for the little people.
The mask has slipped. Literally and metaphorically. On Sunday, at the Super Bowl, in an LA stadium heaving with people, there wasn’t a mask to be seen among the celeb set. The kind of self-righteous maskholes who have derived enormous pleasure over the past two years from telling the plebs to mask up went maskless to the game. Maybe they held their breath for three hours? There was actress Charlize Theron, not a stitch of cloth on her face, despite LA having a mask mandate. This is the same Charlize Theron who once Instagrammed a pic of herself in a fancy mask alongside the words ‘Don’t be an ass #wearadamnmask’. You see, it’s only you, the little guy, who has to wear a damn mask, not people as important and beautiful as Ms Theron.
… Right now, the people who donated to the truckers via GiveSendGo, a platform built by conservative Christians to do crowdfunding that could not be canceled, are having their names and data leaked all over the Internet so that CBC, the Canadian public broadcaster, and private citizens can harass them, and presumably strip them of their livelihoods — a repeat of the witch hunt that happened after Proposition 8 in California.
Where was this urgency to disrupt and end the scores of church burnings across Canada last year? It was nowhere. Prime Minister Trudeau called the arsons “fully understandable.” The supposed justification for these rages — supposed mass graves at Catholic schools — could not be found or substantiated upon investigation.
Civil liberties were suspended to protect foreign investment
… The Canadian people’s rights and civil liberties have been weighed against the “rights” of American capital, and have been passed over. At the time of writing, banks have been granted the ability (free of liability) to freeze the bank accounts of those under mere suspicion of involvement in the protest movement — with no need for a court order. In addition, emergency orders must adhere to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but only according to Justin Trudeau’s interpretation. After two years of severe and unjustified infringements on freedom of association, assembly, religion, expression, and equality under law, many Canadians are now doubtful as to whether they are still citizens of a liberal democratic state.
