Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been criticized by several civil liberties groups and politicians for invoking emergency powers to stop the protests across the country against COVID-19 restrictions.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has argued that the protests, which have snarled traffic in cities and at the border, did not meet the standard to have invoked the Emergencies Act.
Monday came and went, but some Ottawa residents remain frustrated at the backdoor deal made by Mayor Jim Watson, who feel he legitimized the organizers of the so-called “Freedom Convoy.”
Trucks and supporters still remain in downtown Ottawa and despite the deal, just a handful of trucks were escorted by police to a new location.
“It feels like he hasn’t shown up for residents, particularly not for those in the downtown core,” said Fae Johnstone, an Ottawa resident. “To see him now back channeling with folks that I would describe as white supremacists is really concerning to me.”
White Supremacists? She learned how to hate from Trudeauscu. Can we nuke Ottawa?
At this point, it is not entirely inconceivable that the Ottawa protesters will get their wish of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau being forced to step down before they pack up and head home. With public opinion firmly against the prime minister, his caucus, which is already beginning to speak out, may conclude that there is no other way out of this crisis, and start demanding he leave or actively push him out. That is not something to celebrate, as it would confirm that our institutions, from Parliament down, are so completely full of rot that normal governing has become impossible.
VANCOUVER — The Canada Border Services Agency says traffic is moving again south of Vancouver at the Pacific Highway border, while more protesters were arrested Monday night.
Surrey RCMP Cpl. Vanessa Munn said starting at about 8:30 p.m., police arrested 12 protesters, bringing the total number of arrests to 16 since Sunday.
Investigations into unlawful activity that is alleged to have occurred on Saturday during the blockade continue, police said.
Monday, FNC host Tucker Carlson called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act to respond to the so-called Freedom Convoy truckers’ protest underway in Trudeau’s country a “defining moment” in its history.
Carlson said Trudeau’s declaration was the equivalent of declaring Canada a dictatorship.
Trudeau brings martial law to Canada. pic.twitter.com/RsiTrChIMe
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 15, 2022
Peter Sloly has resigned as Ottawa’s police chief and will publicly announce he is stepping down after the Ottawa Police Services Board meeting today, according to sources that have spoken to CBC News.
Sloly has faced criticism for his handling of a truck convoy protest that has caused major disruption to Ottawa’s downtown core.
Canada’s government seems to care only about maintaining control and saving face
It was the hot tub that did it. Photos of convoy supporters relaxing in a hot tub on a downtown Ottawa street last weekend were splashed all over the news. Now Justin Trudeau is mad and he’s gone and invoked war measures, known as the Emergencies Act. He wants that hot tub off the streets, pronto, and he needs wartime powers to get it done. Civil liberties remain “temporarily” suspended… just for two weeks, while we flatten the protesters!
There are some concerns about the federal government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to end antigovernment blockades against COVID-19 measures that are being held across the country.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association says it does not believe the “high and clear” threshold needed to invoke the act has been met, noting the law states it can only be used when a situation cannot be dealt with using any other law in the country.
Ontario reports 19 more COVID-19 deaths; 1,550 hospitalizations
Ontario is reporting 19 more virus-related deaths and more than 1,500 hospitalizations as the province prepares to lift all capacity limits in indoor settings this week.
A Ministry of Health spokesperson says the latest deaths occurred over the past 24 days with one death yesterday, six on Feb.13 and four on Feb. 12.
384 people are in ICU with #COVID19. 79.5% of patients admitted to the ICU were admitted for COVID-19 and 20.5% were admitted for other reasons but have tested positive for COVID-19.
There are 1,593 new cases of COVID-19.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) February 15, 2022
Why is Canada’s Covid death rate so much lower than US?
Images of Canada’s paralysed capital and of pandemic-rules protests have thrust the country’s Covid response under the spotlight.
What started as a trucker-led movement to demand the end of a vaccine mandate has escalated to include all kinds of public health restrictions.
But since the pandemic began, Canada has fared far better than the US, despite similar income disparities, territorial divides, and comorbidities such as obesity and hypertension as its southern neighbour.
The protesters who used semis, farm equipment, campers, and other vehicles to block access to and from the U.S.-Canada border at Coutts, Alta., wound down their demonstration Monday night, with the last holdouts planning to leave the area Tuesday morning.
… “I feel a little defeated,” Isaac Peters said while sitting around the fires Monday night. The mood of the protest changed Monday after RCMP said it arrested 12 people after finding a weapons stash. The Mounties said this cluster joined the protest in its early days but were separate from the larger group. The situation prompted RCMP to suit up in tactical gear, Mr. Peters said, and openly carry large firearms.
A little earlier today, my colleague Nick Arama posted on a Washington Post editorial about the futility of mask mandates, see WaPo Finally Says It: ‘Mask Mandates Didn’t Make Much of a Difference Anyway’ If this sounds a little strange given the fights raging across the nation, and the so-called Western world, about mask mandates, it should. It should be strange, even by Washington Post standards.
OTTAWA – Federal opposition parties say Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act is a “proof of failure” in dealing with convoy blockades across the country.
Trudeau’s proposal was also quickly dismissed by the premiers of Quebec, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba. It received support from Ontario, where the blockades paralyzed a major U.S.-Canada bridge in Windsor and part of the downtown core around Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
From the perspective of freedom-loving citizens in this country, the trucker convoys and blockades protesting mask and vaccine mandates are a stirring spectacle of patriotism, civic responsibility, and true grit. They represent the offset to heavy-handed and arrogant government that is using everything in its power to suppress their efforts: threats, fines, police coercion, theft of property, and the manifestly illegal sequestering of funds donated to the truckers by private individuals. A conflict of this nature is often framed as the state versus the nation, the authorities versus the people. Whether it applies to the current situation, as we will see, is problematic.
An American tech billionaire, two NASA employees and Canadian civil servants are among a leaked list of nearly 100,000 Freedom Convoy donors, according to information released by hackers responsible for taking down the group’s crowdfunding site.
