In January 2022, vaccine exemptions for Canadian and American cross-border truckers ended, leaving about 15,000 Canadian truckers who regularly cross the border in the performance of their jobs suddenly unemployed.
Their response was heartening. Thousands of truckers joined “Freedom Convoys,” shutting down border crossings and finally ending up in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, where they virtually occupied Parliament Hill.
Justin Trudeau’s appearance at the inquiry into the invocation of the Emergencies Act won’t move mountains, or even votes. Those who hold him personally responsible for the decline of Canadian civilization will keep sticking pins in his likeness; those concerned that his government’s response to the Freedom Convoy will normalize the use of emergency powers will still argue that the Liberals overreacted; the two-thirds of the population that believes the declaration of a public order emergency was necessary will remain unconcerned about possible rights and freedoms abuses.
I couldn't have said it better myself. Trudeau only got his job (in fact any job) because of his father's name. pic.twitter.com/9euxJUubos
— Martyupnorth's fact-checking twin brother® 🚜 (@Martyupnorth_2) November 26, 2022
Convoy den mother Tamara Lich sat where she always does, in the front row of public seating right behind the lawyers stacked three tables deep.
Two seats over was convoy lawyer Keith Wilson. When the trucks rolled into Ottawa last winter, he was the one who introduced Ms. Lich to Canadians at a press conference, describing her as “the spark that lit this fire.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau falsely denied Friday he ever called unvaccinated Canadians “names.”
He was either lying or unable to remember his own words. In fact, he called them “racists and misogynistic.”
Governor General Supported Shutting Down Convoy’s Online Crowdfunding: Emergencies Act Inquiry
During a phone call in early February with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Gov. Gen. Mary Simon voiced her support of the online crowdfunding platform GoFundMe shutting down its Freedom Convoy fundraising campaign, which resulted in most of the $10 million donated being refunded to the original senders.
Simon also said she believed the convoy to be funded by “some international money.”
Freedom Corp lawyer:
“When did you and your government start to become so afraid of your own citizens?”Commissioner Roleau:
“If there’s any more trouble, that side of the room is going to be expelled. Is that clear enough?”#POEC #POECommission pic.twitter.com/OBAeLFCSWO— Thunder Bay Ed (@ThunderBayEd) November 25, 2022
OTTAWA – The extraordinary controversy created by one of the lawyers representing some Freedom Convoy organizers at the Emergencies Act inquiry took more strange turns on Thursday.
Lawyer Brendan Miller was served Thursday with a libel notice by Brian Fox, a public relations executive that Miller had accused of parading a Nazi flag at the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa, allegedly to discredit the protest.
The inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act is in its sixth week, which, it may be useful to note, is about five times longer than the act itself was in force.
Hold in mind that the act was actually only half-passed. It got through the Singh-Trudeau House of Commons. How could it not, Jagmeet Singh and Justin Trudeau having exchanged the political equivalent of lovers’ vows — in greeting card lingo pledging “to be there for each other” any time scandal or Pierre Poilievre’s troops got close to presenting a real challenge.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau justifies invoking the Emergencies Act because of the "weaponization of vehicles", "cars ramming into police officers", "trucks used as potential weapons with their presence" and "the use of children as human shields deliberately." pic.twitter.com/qKL8OMDDLH
— True North (@TrueNorthCentre) November 25, 2022
Among the zaniest nuggets of news to fall out of the Emergencies Act hearings this week was a text-message exchange in which exasperated federal cabinet ministers discussed mobilizing Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) tanks against last winter’s truck convoy protests centred on Ottawa. On Feb. 2, less than a week after the trucks showed up in the capital, Justice Minister David Lametti urged the public safety minister, Marco Mendicino, to act fast.
OTTAWA – The RCMP pushed the government to keep the Emergencies Act in place for up to three weeks after it had been invoked arguing it was needed to prevent new blockades from starting.
The RCMP’s timeline came in a “key messages” document prepared for RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki when she spoke with cabinet members on Feb. 20, six days after the act was first invoked.
Some premiers and an industry executive asked the federal government to end its COVID-19 vaccine mandates that sparked the convoy protests across Canada in winter, with some saying the mandates didn’t prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“I know it sucks politically to back down and reverse course but does it really pay to carry on the policy in support of a mandate for a vaccine that doesn’t prevent the spread of omicron and which seems to be vanishing naturally anyway?” said Alan Kestenbaum, an executive from steel-manufacturing company Stelco, based in Hamilton, Ont., in a text message to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on Feb. 11.
In true headliner fashion, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is up last at the inquiry examining his government’s use of the Emergencies Act to quell the protests that roiled the country last winter.
By this point, the weeks of testimony from cabinet ministers, police and government officials, bureaucrats, municipal leaders, furious citizens and aggrieved convoy leaders has formed an ever-narrowing corridor. Most of the thousands of questions that might have been asked about what happened and why have either been answered or batted aside.
Anyone remember the Charter of Rights and Freedoms?
Not so long ago, the Charter — as the shorthand for it goes — was looked upon as Canada’s most important, close to sacred, document — something like how the British think of the Magna Carta, or the Americans of their Declaration of Independence.
The “Freedom Convoy” blockades at the Canada-U.S. border risked causing “irreparable harm” to the trading relationship with the United States, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland warned on Thursday.
Testifying before the Public Order Emergency Commission, the finance minister said her concerns went far beyond the immediate economic harm the protests against COVID-19 public health measures was causing to Canada.
Absolute Horseshit.
