“Criminalizing Dissent”
Lawsuit Seeks To Untangle Links Between Biden Administration and Southern Poverty Law Center’s Listing on Moms for Liberty
Did the Biden administration coordinate with the Southern Poverty Law Center to designate Moms for Liberty an “extremist” group, and what kinds of communications have the FBI, the Department of Justice, and other federal agencies had about the parental rights group?
Those questions are central to a lawsuit filed last week by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project against a host of agencies in the Biden administration for their failure to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests regarding Moms for Liberty, its co-founders, and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Youths charged with hate-related offences after rebelling against groomer indoctrination in Kitchener, Ont
Youths charged with hate-related offences after Pride flag damaged in Kitchener, Ont
KITCHENER, Ont. – Police say four male youths have been arrested and are facing multiple hate-related charges after a Pride flag from an Ontario high school was lit on fire.
Waterloo Regional Police say the flag was damaged on the afternoon of Sept. 21.
Toronto Police need to explain second shutdown at Queen’s Park
For the second time in a week, major streets in the core of Toronto were shut down on Sunday.
Also, for the second time in a week, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) was not overly forthcoming in why those shutdowns were happening.
This is a case of the police serving as a private army to suppress citizen rights.
Ontario town proposes bylaw banning any communication that could ‘offend’ LGBT individuals
Just days after the Million Person March against LGBT propaganda in schools swept the nation, the town of Waterloo, Ontario, is considering a bylaw prohibiting any communication on municipal property that could make LGBT-identifying people “feel harassed.”
On Wednesday, September 29, Waterloo Regional Councillors will vote on a bylaw to ban any communication on publicly-owned property which could make someone who identifies as LGBT “feel harassed,” “offended” or “troubled.”
The creeping criminalisation of everyday life
Traditionally, states controlled the behaviour of their subjects through the creation of crimes. This often took the form of a prohibitive ‘thou shalt not’ or ‘if someone does X, they will get Y punishment’. From the earliest laws and codes, a crime was a prohibited act with a resulting punishment.
’Freedom Convoy’ did not get a heads-up about city injunction, court hears
OTTAWA — Evidence in the trial of two “Freedom Convoy” organizers suggests city staff did not give protest organizers or their lawyers a heads-up about plans to file a court injunction against demonstrators.
Canada Sentences Pastor to Prison for Protesting Coronavirus Lockdowns
A court in Alberta, Canada, sentenced Pastor Artur Pawlowski on Monday to 60 days in prison for a speech to Freedom Convoy truckers in February 2022 in which he supported their protests against repressive lockdown, vaccine, and other mandates related to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
Barber, Lich Trial: Quebec Officer Says Convoy Protesters Refused to Leave as Police Moved In
OTTAWA—Protesters at the Freedom Convoy demonstrations in Ottawa pushed back against police officers attempting to remove them and refused to leave, according to the testimony of a Quebec police officer at the trial of protest organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber.
“The reason that we were going slowly is because it was a heavy presence of demonstrators that prevented us from moving forward,” Captain Etienne Martel with Sûreté du Québec testified in court on Sept. 18.
Trial by social media: Court struggles under weight of ‘Freedom Convoy’ evidence
OTTAWA – As thousands of demonstrators clogged the streets around Parliament Hill in early 2022, many of them had phones in hand, taking video of the different scenes around them for almost three weeks.
For some participants, the “Freedom Convoy” protests had a festival-like atmosphere. For those who weren’t part of the fun, it felt more like an occupation.
Did feds rely on poorly sourced info to invoke Emergencies Act?
A team of stressed RCMP staff Googled news media articles to quote right back to news media after the public safety minister told reporters to direct their questions to law enforcement: Lawyer and investigative journalist.
OTTAWA, Ont. – A Freedom of Information request reveals that law enforcement may have used ambiguous information about Canadian Forces veteran Jeremy MacKenzie and Diagolon, which in large part, led to the federal government invoking the Emergencies Act, say two investigative journalists.
Through Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIPOP), independent journalists Caryma Sa’d and Elisa Hategan obtained 1,000 pages of internal RCMP documents on MacKenzie and Diagolon. The documents show that although the RCMP were investigating Diagolon, they didn’t consider them a group, a militia, or a security threat.
A long but revealing read examining how manufacturing hate to criminalize dissent became standard practice with the Liberal government, its media minions, their willing collaborators in law enforcement and the usual suspect NGO’s.
It is disturbing how easily an extreme left political vendetta can be palmed off as an anti-hate crusade based on the dubious “expertise” of a few self-appointed guardians of social cohesion.
These practices were first institutionalized in human rights commissions in Canada and have now spread throughout society to include professional licensing boards and our financial system.
Who can forget Freeland’s schoolgirl cackling on revealing the Trudeau government unpersoned trucker convoy enemies of the state?
And now for a little comic relief courtesy Rachel Gilmore.
https://t.co/0fwm7gaCpr pic.twitter.com/vUmNK6bizN
— Rachel Gilmore (@atRachelGilmore) September 13, 2023
David Krayden: Trial of Tamara Lich and Chris Barber Makes Our Country Look Authoritarian
I’ve started calling it the Freedom Trial. Yes, it’s the much-anticipated trial of Freedom Convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber. Both are on trial for a myriad of absurd charges: mischief, counselling others to commit mischief, intimidation, and obstructing police. These are the sort of legal entanglement usually reserved for people who get drunk and begin acting up in a most uncivil manner.
Freedom Convoy trial is about vilifying opponents of COVID mandates, lawyer says
Pro-medical freedom Alberta lawyer Eva Chipiuk has contended that the trial against Freedom Convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber is really motivated by a desire to have Canadians who opposed COVID mandates be “vilified” in the public sphere.
Lawyers for ‘Freedom Convoy’ leaders attempt to block Ottawa residents from testifying
The lawyers defending two of the most prominent organizers of the “Freedom Convoy” protests are expected to make their case today to block nine Ottawa residents and business representatives from taking the stand.
Tamara Lich and Chris Barber are on trial for criminal charges related to their role in the demonstration, which blockaded Ottawa city streets for weeks last year as protestors railed against COVID-19 public health measures.
Anthony Furey: Will Tamara Lich Receive a Fair Trial?
Will Tamara Lich receive a fair trial for the charges she faces in relation to organizing the Freedom Convoy? It would be nice to think that in a country such as Canada the question is a ridiculous one because justice here will always be fair.
Yet both the intense politicization of the events surrounding the convoy and Lich’s own experience the past year with the justice system indicate that the question of fairness is now basically a coin toss.