“Criminalizing Dissent”

The Rouleau Commission has now heard sworn testimony that the Freedom Convoy was not foreign funded and did not constitute a threat to democracy and that the Emergencies Act was not needed or asked for by any police force. That reflects very poorly on the prime minister. The act’s invocation was the worst peacetime assault on civil liberties since Pierre Trudeau’s use of the War Measures Act during the FLQ crisis 52 years ago — when a Quebec cabinet minister was assassinated and a British trade commissioner held hostage.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau he felt Ottawa police and the mayor mismanaged the Freedom Convoy protest and reopening the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont., was the priority, according to a readout of a call the two politicians shared in February.

As part of evidence presented at the inquiry into the Emergencies Act on Tuesday, the readout shows Ford said “police are a little shy” and “if I could direct the police, I would” as he told Trudeau the Ontario government was looking for ways to give officers more tools to clear the bridge blockade

Was the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa a violent event? Was it violent enough to justify the use of the Emergencies Act?

And what is required to justify bringing down that huge hammer?

OPP Supt. Dana Earley says she briefly considered putting off an operation to clear a blockade of protesters at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont. fearing it might make the ongoing occupation in downtown Ottawa worse.

Earley is testifying before the commission investigating the federal government’s decision to use the Emergencies Act last winter to remove demonstrators who were protesting COVID-19 restrictions by blockading streets in Ottawa and multiple border crossings.

“It is not an ‘extremist’ movement,” Morris wrote in a separate memo to Cox. “It is not comprised of Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremists (IMVE’s). The actual leaders are not violent extremists with histories of violent criminal acts — although events do attract unpredictable and extreme elements. The absolute lack of criminal activity across Canada and the minimal violent crime throughout the event illustrate this.

“But now the public discourse is dominated by political figures and the media — and the commentary is providing a very different picture than what law enforcement collectively gathered. It is painting a different picture — it speaks to extremism, it offers parallels to terrorism, it speaks of sedition.”

I wish they would name the officials demanding the background checks.

The Ottawa cop who twice donated to the so-called “Freedom Convoy,” which occupied swaths of the capital for three weeks last winter and prompted the country’s first use of its Emergencies Act, has been docked a week’s pay and ordered to undergo a restorative justice process with residents affected by the protest.

Const. Kristina Neilson faced dismissal after professional misconduct charges were brought against her in September under the Police Services Act, but she ended up receiving a lesser penalty after pleading guilty to discreditable conduct.

OTTAWA — Canada’s spy agency warned the federal government invoking the Emergencies Act could further radicalize Canadians engaged in convoy protests, and push some towards violence.

The information is contained in an undated report from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) that was presented at the Emergencies Act inquiry on Monday. It surfaced during Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens’s testimony about the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge last winter, part of several protests against pandemic restrictions.

At the Public Order Emergency Commission hearings last week, a number of Freedom Convoy participants and the lawyer representing several of them testified that the far-left, anti-fascist group Antifa posed a risk to peaceful protesters while they were in Ottawa.

Tamara Lich, one of the convoy’s main spokespersons, said on the stand on Nov. 3 that safety at the protest was the “number one priority,” in particular “safety for the drivers, safety for the participants, safety for the public” and “things like keeping the emergency lanes open.”

A Federal Court judge has decided Ontario’s premier and a top minister will not have to testify at the Emergencies Act inquiry in Ottawa due to immunity provided to them by parliamentary privilege.

Federal Court Justice Simon Fothergill says a summons issued to Premier Doug Ford and deputy premier Sylvia Jones by the Public Order Emergency Commission is valid, but the pair can resist the summons by invoking their parliamentary privilege.

A former Mountie and member of prime minister Justin Trudeau’s security team denied an allegation he may have leaked the prime minister’s schedule in the months leading up to the self-styled Freedom Convoy.

An Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) “Person of Interest” (POI) document, dated January 30, 2022, said a former RCMP officer — whose name and photo are redacted — is “believed to have leaked the prime minister’s schedule a few months ago.” The OPP cited the RCMP on the allegation. The document does not say to whom the information was allegedly leaked.

Lots of folks hate Junior.

A wounded combat veteran who served in Afghanistan told the Public Order Emergency Commission on Friday that he was arrested, beaten, and “dumped” far from downtown Ottawa without charges by police during the clearing operation of the Freedom Convoy protest on Feb. 18.

“It really wasn’t that I wanted to come to Ottawa, it’s that I felt it was my duty and I had no choice [but] to be there,” said veteran Chris Deering while explaining why he had attended the protest.

If the convoy protesters built a medieval-style cathedral to their movement, Tamara Lich would surely get her own prominent stained-glass window, as their patron saint. It would depict a snow-swept downtown Ottawa street, with Ms. Lich, the self-described “mother hen,” surrounded by admirers offering tearful hugs and thanks for restoring their hope in a country that had gone badly awry.

… This week’s hearings into the February convoy of the clueless showed us what happens when the inmates run the asylum, when the customers run the diner. The fries are greenish and the gravy is lumpy with bugs.

It’s happening in many places, most dangerously in the U.S. where ex-President Obama campaigning for the Democrats in Arizona finally became explicit, which sadly is not his way.

If the Republican candidates win, Obama told a rally, “democracy as we know it may not survive in Arizona. That’s not an exaggeration,” he added. “That is a fact.”

Guess who…