Down With the Sickness: Canadian Politics 2022

Ontario and Quebec lock down while BC opens up.

Finding it hard to not agree with McKenna at this point tbh:

The lack of a more sophisticated understanding of risk by governments 2 yrs into the pandemic - especially now that we have tools in our toolbox like vaccines, masking, rapid tests, better ventilation - is brutal. Closing schools, stopping "elective" surgeries have huge costs.

— Catherine McKenna (@cathmckenna) January 4, 2022

I'm on a remote supply job right now, rotating coverage. I could write three or four hundred words on how painfully not-ready this school is to resume online classes.

Expediting the process to accredit internationally educated nurses (and other health care professionals) - I was wondering why this wasn't one of the first things they did:

NEW - Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca calls on Premier Ford to implement a number of measures including asking the federal government for military assistance for Ontario nursing homes and hospitals, recalling the Legislature, & get internationally educated nurses credentialled. pic.twitter.com/e63j9DgLAa

— Richard Southern (@RichardCityNews) January 5, 2022

Today's COVID-19 briefing in B.C. marks a significant shift in the province's fight against the virus.
Businesses and people know what to do to prevent spread.
Health orders are not the long term solution. #bcpoli
— Richard Zussman (@richardzussman) January 4, 2022
― symsymsym, Tuesday, January 4, 2022 7:32 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

do find this very funny. we had a bunch of restrictions when the daily case count was like 50. we also have a bunch of orders in place now. are they going to let them age out and not make anymore regardless? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

otoh I had covid a while ago, I now know so many people with it (none severely), for the first time in the pandemic. can't get too exorcised about this personally

exorcised? what was I thinking lol

I laughed when I saw that earlier today, was going to make a joke, but my own posts are littered with typos.

hospitalizations and deaths still flat or trending down in BC according to this (caveat: data 3 days old) https://bccdc.shinyapps.io/covid19_global_epi_app/

more recent data does show a rise in hospitalizations. hard to see a significant ICU trend at this point I guess

317 hospitalizations for #COVID19 in B.C. now, up from 298 yesterday and a 54% increase in the last week.

ICU cases down three, no deaths, and rolling average continues going up.

Today's chart. pic.twitter.com/mXetlDQRFv

— Justin McElroy (@j_mcelroy) January 5, 2022

thx! i'm constantly frustrated by how infrequently they update the data on hospitalizations on that dashboard (which i otherwise like a lot). i'm not sure where justin gets it. i was bummed when he stopped daily updating his covid by the numbers page on cbc

the jump in hospitalisations in quebec last week was pretty scary, but still no real ICU action there either

that's reassuring that there hasn't been an ICU rise there. big rise in hospitalization could still wreak havoc of course...I wonder what pctg of the ICU numbers are Omicron. Not that I expect that data to be available anytime soon

I would imagine there’s actually always an increase in those stats in Canadian hospitals this time of year. Seems the biggest problem (and probably why few are acknowledging it) is because healthcare staffing has collapsed to the point they can’t even handle normal numbers.

Libs plan to increase funding to CBC, with a goal of reducing private advertising, ultimately eliminating it during news and public affairs shows: https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/liberals-move-to-modernize-cbc-making-public-broadcaster-less-reliant-on-advertising

Recently, I looked into what came of the new francophone university in Toronto, which had been discussed in these threads. It seems... puzzling. It opened in September, with something like 130-150 students (my high school had 2000), 75% of whom were international students. It offers degrees in four disciplines, none of which sound like programmes I've heard of at any other university: Studies in Digital Culture, Studies in Human Plurality, Studies in Urban Environments, and Studies in Economy and Social Innovation. You can also take 'microprogrammes' that lead to 'micro-certificates'. Meanwhile, the province let Laurentian University, a bilingual and tricultural university located in a non-overpopulated and more bilingual (in the English/French sense) city, go bankrupt last year. (My bias being that my partner had been contracted to teach online courses at Laurentian just before that happened + I had a family member that taught there as a career when I was growing up.)

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1821979/uof-universite-ontario-francais-rentree-inauguration-etudiants-cohorte
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1812788/universite-ontario-francais-demandes-septembre

this was a pretty stupid thing to do: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jagmeet-singh-chair-gift-reimburse-1.6319704

If I'm understanding, Singh's wife was essentially being paid (in kind) to advertise the chair in the first place? Seems pretty dumb, if relatively small potatoes.

This take, which I'm seeing right wingers melt down about on Twitter, seems curious: https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-trudeau-made-trucker-shortage-worse-but-youll-pay-for-it

For one thing, as I understand it, the feds already backtracked on requiring vaccination for Canadian truckers returning from the US a week ago, which Lilley doesn't mention at all. Did something change?: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadian-truckers-stay-exempt-covid-19-vaccine-requirements-2022-01-13/

For another, the US is imposing the same rules at their border. But also, why would there be so many unvaccinated truck drivers in the first place, as to create the kinds of issues described here?: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-14/trudeau-plays-dangerous-game-demanding-vaccines-from-truckers
Isn't the US requiring vaccination in all larger trucking firms anyway?

I don’t think they actually did backtrack on that, though it was reported for a while. It was an “error”
https://ottawa.citynews.ca/national-business/ottawa-to-go-ahead-with-trucker-vaccine-mandate-after-stating-it-would-scrap-it-4952646

I’ll promote those monte chairs for free, lol. Splurged on one with the first kid 14 years ago, and it’s still well loved - in fact I’m sitting in it right now.

Ah, OK.

This is the dumbest shit: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/expect-large-police-presence-in-downtown-ottawa-as-trucker-convoy-arrives-1.5757761

Most infuriating:

Ottawa Public Health has closed two vaccination clinics in the Glebe and Lowertown in anticipation of traffic disruptions this weekend.

I hadn't realized Tories like Pierre Poilievre and Andrew Scheer are actually backing this nonsense.
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1996667971692

Thank you Truckers! Trudeau is attacking personal liberty and threatening everyone's ability to get groceries because of his overreach on vaccine mandates. He is the biggest threat to freedom in Canada.https://t.co/5b5k5ZjuY3

— Andrew Scheer (@AndrewScheer) January 24, 2022

isn't O'Toole meeting them too?

Think there's going to be a riot?

hm Erin kind of splitting the difference I guess: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/otoole-convoy-protest-meeting-1.6330575

Parliament Hill is a 10-15 minute walk from my apartment. I'm a little curious to rubberneck at this. Hope I'll still be able to get groceries today.

Curiosity got the better of me. I left my mask on, thinking it would be enough of a signal that I wasn't there in support. They had shut down much less of the downtown core than I'd feared. Until I got up to Queen St., there wasn't too much of a presence. White guys with beards, a lot of horns, and obv vehicles that take up space, a bunch of "FUCK TRUDEAU" signs and a lot of flags. At the same time, a protest where most people are staying in their vehicles is less impressive than people actually getting out there in person - and ironically socially distanced.

Also kind of silly considering the city is still mostly locked down and Parliamentary staff are afaik mostly working from home.

Users on social media have miscaptioned videos and photos claiming to show the "Freedom Convoy" protest in Canada over the government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for truckers. The thread below includes some examples. pic.twitter.com/oFdH68WztX

— Reuters Fact Check (@ReutersFacts) January 27, 2022

This is consistent with what I've seen so far - mostly honking SUVs, vans, cars, with the odd truck in there:

If its so big and so great, why all the fake shit? I’ve yet to see a photo of an actual truck convoy. Cars and SUV’s don’t really count.

— Vicki Campbell 🇨🇦 (@merry123459) January 29, 2022

This sounds like the supposed trucker protest in DC during the Obama years when one of the few truckers who actually showed up wailed into his CB “where is everybody?!”

From Reddit:

A friend in downtown told me that all the porta-potties are full of shit now. Can’t be used

There is no place to poop

Ugh, ok, downtown is way more clogged today. Still seeing more SUVs than trucks. Eventually I started giving the finger to anyone who honked or walked by with a sign or flag when I was stuck in stationary traffic around the corner from home.

Sorry to have infected your country with our shit.

they were honking up and down burrard street all afternoon. carhorn protests are really the most annoying form of protest

Hanging an upside-down flag on the Terry Fox monument really seems to crystallize everything these people stand for.
https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2022/01/29/terry-fox-statue-defaced-in-ottawa-sparking-condemnation.html

this shit is so enraging too: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ottawa-trucker-protest-forces-vigil-for-quebec-city-mosque-shooting-victims-to-move-online-1.5759847

This statistic is striking considering how white the protest is:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-almost-one-in-five-canadian-truckers-is-south-asian-but-many-dont-see/
xp

Ooh, that is enraging.

I passed the Vancouver protest earlier on when it was out in East Van - 1st and Grandview Hwy roughly. Surprisingly there were a lot of vehicles. Hundreds. Then the people on the street corners cheering them going past and waving PPC signs were mostly Asian. When I got home my next door neighbor was setting off to join them lol. Makes no sense.

o_O.

I have seen exactly one visible minority openly participating or supporting this here so far. But good to hear other perspectives - never good to stereotype.

Lot of Asian people in the neighbourhood, but still...

This video, shared by a supporter, looks, uh, consistent in demographics with what I've been observing around here:

Are you serious man pic.twitter.com/4m9qC7spBM

— David Laflamme (@davidlaflammme) January 29, 2022

also in beards

Sorry, don't want to misrepresent what was going on...the protest did look to be all white guys tbh but on the two or three main intersections along the way there was little crowds of people with canada flags and ppc signs and there were lots of non white people there. Probably faith groups from the suburbs?

Nice and quiet this morning

Today will almost certainly be the last 'big' day. An employee at the hotel I'm at say more or less *everybody* who checked in Friday and Saturday are checking out today.

Obviously, the long-haulers are going to stay nestled in their trucks when Parliament resumes Monday.

— Justin Ling (@Justin_Ling) January 30, 2022

Spoke too soon. Horns just started up again.

edmonton:

From CBC: Edmonton MP on Parliament Hill handing out coffee to protestors, with upside-down Canadian flag with swastika in background. Disgraceful. #FluTruxKlan #FluTrucksKlan #KarenKonvoy pic.twitter.com/RoU2tmh2Kl

— Barre Campbell (@bgrantcampbell) January 29, 2022

i'm just catching up with all of this and apparently there were more nazi and confederate flags being flown at these protests in various cities.

these people are so utterly confused. you can't even have a rational discussion with them

https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/sfql2g/nazi_flag_during_freedom_convoy_protest_at/

Yep, both pictures are from Parliament Hill here. The MP is Michael Cooper:

Conservative Member of Parliament Michael Cooper, supporting the anti-vaxx convoy being interviewed in front of a swastika.

Just a normal, peaceful protest. pic.twitter.com/Xou4sb9beu

— Chris Bittle (@Chris_Bittle) January 29, 2022

I can't make out what was written on the QC flag behind him. Can anyone read it?

I really wish the CBC would stop calling this a protest against Covid restrictions

Nothing says "grassroots campaign to end vaccine mandates" like professionally-made transphobia placards. Via @TheCanuckMD pic.twitter.com/G4DvflHSOI

— Michelle Cohen, MD (@DocMCohen) January 30, 2022

If there are any journalist lurkers here please read this thread

🧵Want to know how protests like today's #FluTrucksKlan benefit alt-right extremists? Here's some 101 on how hat operates.

First, they pick an issue that has reached a boiling point. In this case, it's the pandemic and health mandates. They know a lot of people are exhausted.
1/

— Mx. Amanda Jetté Knox (@MavenOfMayhem) January 30, 2022

At least they are reporting this: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/convoy-protest-border-lethbridge-alberta-1.6332936

Ugh. Hopefully it’s broken up a bit out there sund4r? I just drove a couple hours eastbound on the 401, and passed at least 100 westbound convoy vehicles (flag draped) that had to be headed home. Not nearly as many trucks as smaller vans and pickups though. Still seemed like a lot.

We got the thumbnail version in St. Marys: one guy standing at the town's main intersection, Unknown Comic paper bag over his head, anti-vaxx signage (and a People's Party sign hanging from a drainage pipe inside his car parked nearby). Thankfully, he wasn't looking to engage as I walked by; not something I'm particularly up for at the moment.

Took some pictures en route to the drug store: https://photos.app.goo.gl/v5VnPUWy2nkYoMyQ9

I wandered up Bank St. for a bit until the honking got to be too much.

Definitely a surreal weekend.

I love the "WE ARE THE FRINGE" signs. Like... okay, I believe you.

Friends, it's been a difficult 24 hours. Staff harassed for meals. A service user and security guard assaulted. Through it all, you have donated and filled our hearts with gratitude. Every cent will support people experiencing homelessness. Thank you. See our statement ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/TYHD8r8aLo

— Shepherds of Good Hope (@sghottawa) January 30, 2022

I've tbh been a little confused about how this is even legal for them to shut down the core of the city for days on end; this seems to suggest that it's not but police are scared of "confrontations" with the 'peaceful' demonstrators??

The latest Ottawa Police news release on the ongoing protest near Parliament Hill: pic.twitter.com/0WVS3oChuo

— Katie Simpson (@CBCKatie) January 31, 2022

The elementary school next door is closed because of this. Why is this being tolerated?

It's infuriating; it's also impossible to not be cynical about "why"

It's jaw-dropping, thinking about how many people were arrested during the G20 protests in Toronto or how aggressive the police response was to the Printemps érable in Montreal. They can't even give these people parking tickets?

OTM

Is a positive test even news anymore?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-protest-ottawa-1.6333316

Good piece about the explicit connections between this shit far right white supremacism: https://www.antihate.ca/the_freedom_convoy_is_nothing_but_a_vehicle_for_the_far_right

At what age does conspiratorial thinking set in? I mentioned to a grade 6 class today about Trudeau testing positive; "He's not really positive, he's just hiding from the truckers."

Not sure that's a conspiracy per se, although it may be an implicit admission that the protest is not so peaceful.

I destroyed one sign today and flipped people off while walking on the sidewalk. Starting to lose it. The city has basically isolated Centretown and handed us over to these nutters: https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/troster-trucker-convoy-ottawas-centretown-has-been-abandoned-to-the-mob

From a viewer just now: “I am disabled and live within blocks of parliament. I’ve been trying to get groceries for days now and because of the mess down here I am unable to have them delivered…I haven’t had food for days now” #ottnews

— Graham Richardson (@grahamctv) January 31, 2022

The idea that the PM would release false test results to dodge a difficult situation--not least coming from an 11-year-old--strikes me as very conspiratorial. I'm guessing the idea didn't formulate in his own mind.

Oh, tbc, it's bullshit and makes no sense anyway. Trudeau was hiding just fine before he got sick.

Funny...On a related note, a different kid in the same class, when I brought up Hiroshima on Friday (in connection to Jackson Pollock), said the Japanese deserved the atomic bomb. Flabbergasted, to say the least.

Uh, are your students' parents parked around here rn, by any chance?

The minute they get their licenses...

O'Toole may be getting ousted?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/erin-otoole-leadership-review-caucus-1.6334491

(xpost) I misread your post--parents, yeah...I don't want to characterize the whole school, I've been there a lot this year and most of the kids are just fine, but obviously a few of them are getting very creative history lessons around the dinner table.

No paramedics were hurt following an incident on Parliament Hill where rocks were thrown at an Ottawa ambulance vehicle during the third day of the “Freedom Convoy” protest.

Darryl Wilton, president of the Ottawa Paramedic Association, confirmed the news to CityNews on Monday, January 31, adding that one of their paramedics had also been subjected to anti-Asian racial slurs during the same incident as he checked on the status of the vehicle.

https://ottawa.citynews.ca/local-news/rocks-hurled-at-ottawa-ambulance-at-downtown-truck-convoy-5011107

clem how did you respond to the 11yo?

Pretty sharply both times (again, two different kids). I let the kid on Friday know how cruel he was being, even if that wasn't his intention, and with the kid today, I basically said "That's absurd." It's a bit of a balancing act to the degree that any kind of engagement with these topics is, in the abstract, better than no engagement, so I tried to stop short of "You have no idea what you're talking about so just shut up." They were all respectful when I talked about Jackie Robinson today (birthday), so I'm sure it's just random nonsense they're picking up from home.

i have to say i do view clemenza's student's viewpoint as conspiratorial. an increasing amount of people on the right are taking advantage of trudeau's low approval rating by blatantly making up lies about him and the people around him.

have a look at this CBC piece from today:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/adam-scotti-accusations-protest-1.6334213

this is a CPC MP posting on facebook. sure, she removed her post but this just flames so much conspiratorial thinking. while there's no direct link between what that news piece says and trudeau avoiding the protests, it's very obvious we're seeing a nascent US-style conspiratorial and hate culture in canada, which is so extremely demoralizing. i'm starting to believe we truly are the US on a delay

once this "seed" is planted in chamber, we will see all kinds of people fill in the blanks with wild ideas when posts are removed or conservative MPs are viewed as being "silenced"

in terms of when would conspiratorial thinking set in, i'm still a relatively young person with no children, but i believe this kind of thinking is embedded in subtle ways as an infant, to the point where it is difficult for a child to even identify her or his own thoughts as conspiratorial unless exposed to a variety of ideas and challenged intellectually. once rationality is thrown out the window, they're pretty much a lost cause, but i tend to give educational institutions a lot of credit. also, unfortunately, and i think this overlaps with some conservative viewpoints sadly (especially from the US, where a lot of this is coming from), i do believe that lack of government transparency also gives way to this kind of thinking and i believe most governments we've had have failed us in this regard. i wouldn't be surprised if our government is one of the least transparent, as are the corporations that have established themselves here

there is a reddit post that describes all the horrible things that have happened at these protests:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments/sh62nr/convoy_megathread_27/hv0k0xk/

I thought conspiracy theories usually involve multiple powerful parties colluding in secret to enact a hidden agenda? Not sure who the conspirators are in a 'theory' about a politician telling a lie (something that politicians do); it just seems baseless and unlikely in this case. Or is the idea that the health care system and media are also in on the conspiracy?

Anyway lol Saskatchewan

"I asked … why you can't start ticketing [ on Queen Elizabeth Driveway ], it's far enough away. And they said they'd get on their CB [ radio ] and there would be another 20 truckers there smashing down the barricade."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-protest-convoy-length-ticket-tow-mayor-1.6333497

Are these people under the impression no one remembers stuff like this? https://thetyee.ca/News/2019/12/20/RCMP-Planned-Snipers-Wetsuweten-Pipeline-Protest/

(tbc I'm not advocating the Ottawa police start sniping people)

Reading about this and the border crossing blockade, I'm reminded of how many liberal/progressive/etc people told me they couldn't support police abolition, because without cops there'd be no one to defend them from armed right-wingers. Turns out you don't even need a gun or a militia just some big cars and they're powerless. Of course the answer will probably be "we need to give the police military-grade vehicles" (which they will never use against white people)

Not important, but I'm trying to sort this out in my mind...When you refer to JFK conspiracists, you're not saying they're part of the original plot, but rather that they, under the influence of other like-minded people, have come to construct and believe far-fetched narratives about Kennedy's assassination (or Q people obsessed with Hillary and pedophiles and Pizzagate). That's why I call that kid a nascent conspiracist: prompted by his parents or the internet, he's propagating some scenario where the truckers are being ignored by a PM who's hiding out under the false pretense of COVID. And I'm sure that's only one part of a bigger and wilder story about how the protestors are being undermined.

Well, both of those are theories about conspiracies: Oswald didn't act alone but was a pawn in a conspiracy involving the people within the CIA or Castro or KGB colluding; that the Clintons, Obama, George Soros, and Bill Gates are secretly meeting to worship Satan and traffic children or something. Maybe there is a wider narrative about a conspiracy to suppress the truckers and protect Trudeau but "he's lying about the test results to avoid dealing with them" doesn't sound like a conspiracy to me on its own. Never thought "conspiracy theory" referred to a conspiracy among the people who are developing the theory.

Anyway I do get that there's a little bit of a difference between sending the RCMP or military out to a protest blocking pipeline access roads in the middle of nowhere and authorizing them to use force to remove protesters vs sending soldiers or snipers out to an urban downtown core with 50,000 civilian residents and risking the incitement of violence from people who are already using their trucks to ram through barricades. This does seem to be the angle that Watson and Sloly are taking and maybe they're right - it's true that no one has been seriously injured or killed so far. However, if that's true and "the threat of violence has been too great" to enforce the law as per Watson, can we stop treating this event that is "unique in nature, massive in scale, polarizing in context, and dangerous in literally every other aspect" in Chief Sloly's words*, as a peaceful demonstration and officially recognize it for what it is, namely, terrorism? Let's not let Tories get away with endorsing it without being clear that that's what they're endorsing.

*around 13:40 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kycmhtiyou0

well put Sund4r. Perhaps it's worth distinguishing the Alberta border crossing blockade from the Ottawa occupation. The former is such a direct threat to state power I am reeling a bit at how chill the coverage of it is

What a clusterfuck. https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/rcmp-enforcement-possible-as-coutts-border-blockade-reaches-fourth-day

i hear you guys are having truck demon issues
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VLHXe5Ub488/WxH55FOOR3I/AAAAAAAAAZI/ERB_VQXIkzIv3r7wDtEX5Gg5mn-FWQMJQCLcBGAs/s1600/MO+first.jpg

There are a couple of guys here who'd sometimes get extremely upset when I'd post something jokey in the American politics thread--it was like I'd breached some unspoken but sacred line, and I needed to be called out on how awful this was. I'm 100% fine with your post; it just reminded me of how weird that was.

That’s the most Canadian way of saying “Dick move, forks.”

Not at all! That's my point--such posts are fine. It's bizarre to get complain about them.

("get upset" or "complain"; "get complain" a little weird)

So a couple of things I'd noticed (and that came out in the photos I took) were: i) a lot of Christian and Biblical messages on signs and sides of vans ii) a lot of QC flags, French signs, and QC accents with no evidence of separatist sentiment - a lot of the people with QC flags also had Canadian flags; some signs were even bilingual. (Bernier/PPC stuff was v popular otoh, which is virtually unheard of in Ottawa.) A friend in Mtl sent me this article, which goes some way to explaining both phenomena: https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/2022-02-02/recherche-sur-le-complotisme/la-pandemie-a-cree-des-ponts-entre-le-quebec-et-l-ouest.php . It's about a report by researcher Martin Geoffroy and his research team on the "ethnography of conspiratorial thought" during the pandemic - where he notes that far-right nationalists in QC, typically loath to unite with anglos, have actually found common cause with Western separatists and reactionaries in their opposition to sanitary measures. He compares the decentralized structure of the movement, reflecting both the diversity of goals but also a strategy that makes surveillance or governmental influence more difficult, to the Black Panthers in the 60s. They identify the components of the coalition as belonging to two broad categories: a political far right 'matrix' (further divided into "sovereign citizens", white identitarians, and survivalists) and a spiritual/religious 'matrix' who are united by their opposition to mainstream science and rationality (broken down into the New Age network, some of whose views he thinks border on eugenics, traditional Catholics, and fundamentalist Protestants).

The scary part is the possibility that someone like P01l13vr3 could harness this kind of coalition to win government.

Dans le groupe associé à l’extrême droite, Martin Geoffroy inclut les groupes identitaires, comme les Farfadaas, qui participent au blocus dans les rues d’Ottawa. Ces groupes sont nés de l’opposition à l’immigration, mais ont reformaté leur discours avec la pandémie. Leur objectif n’est pas d’influencer les décideurs publics, mais plutôt de « transformer la façon dont les citoyens eux-mêmes perçoivent le monde », note le rapport de recherche du CEFIR.

Okay, I was curious about that Farfadaa group. I saw a bunch of them on the Ottawalks livestream (Saturday, I think), but there was almost nothing about them online. Figured they'd be something like this.

o'toole out
(wow)

seems bad tbh

yeah—i mean i think o'toole had a legit chance to be prime minister (in a relatively centrist mode)

whereas now whoever replaces him will likely lurch the party to the ugly right, which gives more voice to canadian trumpism and strengthens trudeau

neither situation is particularly good for a listless NDP, but i would have favoured the one without an energized alt right

I don't follow closely enough to answer this: was he on his way out already, or did the last week's events precipitate this? If the latter, that would seem like a problem.

he was under threat since the election, where he was perceived to have underperformed

but the critique even then was coming mostly from the trucker-style conservatives

o'toole seemed like he genuinely wanted to renew the conservatives as a "modern" tory party, similar i think to Boris Johnson's vibe. the kind of party that would take some action on climate change (not enough), would probably have done something like CERB (not enough), but more "responsibly" and pro-business/anti-tax/anti-woke than the liberals

i think it woulda worked! a kinder stephen harper kinda thing. canadians (sigh) like that.

but now they'll be riven by ugly forces for a while and promote bullshit and radicalize even more people

Farfadaa group

Does their name have something to do with leprechauns or...?

A bunch of grade 7/8 kids at my son’s school, staged a protest today against covid safety measures like recess zones etc. Can’t imagine where they got the idea.

wow that's pretty infuriating given how much authority you constantly submit to as a student (like "recess" is what they have in prison you dolts). At least the justification is transparent when it's covid safety!

Haven't been to a school yet that strictly monitors that kind of thing once outside--maybe we should, but it's pretty difficult. And for what it's worth, my old school (a K-8), and many schools, had recess zones before COVID: you try to keep young kids and older kids separate, so the young kids don't get trampled running in the middle of a soccer or football game. (Not applicable if your son goes to a middle school.)

CBC reporter summarizing Ottawa Police Chief Sloly's statement:

To sum it up:
Thousands more Convoy protestors expected this weekend.
Convoy being funded by American$
Counter protestors are also going to show
Ottawa Police can't handle this occupation on own
Mayor says need provincial and federal help
Military may need to be called in

— Judy Trinh (@judyatrinh) February 2, 2022

We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas

many xps but i share your derision and frustration with these truck demons, they seem dickish and i'm not trying to add additional dickishness to the equation

Just got an email from my local hospital saying that they are CANCELLING THEIR URGENT CARE CLINIC on Saturday due to expected trucknutz in the neighbourhood...

Wtf? Are you in Ottawa?

Trawna.
Hospital's near Queen's Park....

Yeah there is some convoy tronno copycat protest this Saturday. Their plan is apparently to meet up at a bunch of malls and travel from there. I mean, have any of these people ever actually been to the Yorkdale parking lot on a Saturday? Good luck w that!

I was thinking of driving into the city tomorrow to see the Poly Styrene documentary at the Bloor, but thinking about this thing, I think I'll skip it--have a feeling getting anywhere downtown will be an ordeal.

Good move, she has a big trucker constituency who are sure to be congregating at Bloor and Bathurst.

You gotta get into the city first...Gardiner, Lakeshore, they'll both be bad.

I know it's not the biggest issue but can I just mention how unsettling the constant horns are when you're actually trying to drive and are used to a horn being a signal that means "pay attention!" or "watch out!" Not to mention that when someone was charging towards me bc they were going the wrong way on a one-way street, I couldn't even be sure my honk would be understood.

Apparently Ottawa is planning to quell the noise a bit this weekend by installing signs at the city limits saying “WELCOME TO OTTAWA - HONK IF YOU LOVE TRUDEAU”

Haha

The Ottawa Police Service and its partners are implementing a surge and contain strategy in Ottawa’s downtown neighbourhoods to further protect neighbourhoods, restore order and prevent unlawful activity.

In connection with ongoing demonstrations, Ottawa’s downtown residents and businesses continue to be severely impacted by unlawful acts, including harassment, mischief, hate crimes, and noise violations. We know that additional demonstrators are coming, and we are significantly increasing our policing resources to respond.

To prevent and reduce the impacts of demonstrators entering the downtown core, and to improve neighbourhood safety, the Ottawa Police Service is implementing the following measures – effective immediately

Major deployment of police officers in the downtown neighbourhoods: There will be approximately 150 additional uniformed and non-uniformed officers dedicated to only patrolling and addressing unlawful and threatening conduct in the most impacted neighbourhoods including: Centretown, Sandy Hill, Lowertown and the Byward Market. This includes working with City and NCR officials to prevent unlawful and unsafe use of public space by demonstrators.

Expand and harden perimeter of the demonstration red zone: The Ottawa Police Service and City of Ottawa will be utilizing concrete and heavy equipment barricades to create no-access roadways throughout the downtown core. The City of Ottawa will be releasing a map of impacted roads later today. Protestor vehicles will be directed to designated parking zones outside of the downtown core. Illegal parking by demonstrators will result in by-law enforcement, removal and impound. If necessary, interprovincial bridges, highway off ramps and/or roads will be closed.

Enforcement directives: The surge of police officers will result in enforcement to restore public safety. This includes increased investigation enforcement and charges for all criminal acts related hate, harassment, assaults (including spitting), intimidation, and mischief.

Enhanced intelligence operations and investigations: National, provincial and local intelligence agencies have increased efforts to identify and target protestors who are funding/supporting/enabling unlawful and harmful activity by protestors. Investigative evidence-gathering teams are collecting financial, digital, vehicle registration, driver identification, insurance status, and other related evidence that will be used in criminal prosecutions. Every unlawful act, including traffic violations, will be fully pursued regardless of origin.

The primary focus of each of these measures will be on the unlawful behaviour connected to the ongoing demonstrations (including parallel and counter demonstrations).

We strongly urge all demonstrators and those engaging with demonstrators to act lawfully, peacefully and respectfully.

Guess we'll see how it plays out this time.
https://www.ottawapolice.ca/Modules/News/index.aspx?lang=en&newsId=0f31ea4e-110e-434c-b817-04c3d23f1ede

Protestor vehicles will be directed to designated parking zones outside of the downtown core. Illegal parking by demonstrators will result in by-law enforcement, removal and impound.

Does that mean that the convoy has to stay moving in order to remain downtown?

Incidentally, here's a story about a 4yo with brain cancer who missed his chemo appointment bc of the occupation, at the height of which every bridge between Ottawa and Gatineau was blocked: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-truck-convoy-protest-child-health-care-delay-cancer-cheo-1.6338038

Jmm, I'm hoping it means they will have to park their vehicles and actually march or stand on their feet on the Hill like normal demonstrators do.

I really feel for you being right there sund4r. I’d imagine it’s all super unsettling, like your house has been robbed.

thx

seriously, constant horn honking would drive me to murder

Former President Trump throws support (again) behind Ottawa protest, describing it as standing up to “harsh policies of far left lunatic Justin Trudeau”. Trump lashes out against Facebook and GoFundMe.

— Katie Simpson (@CBCKatie) February 4, 2022

Why Gofundme? Did they pull support?

I mean, have any of these people ever actually been to the Yorkdale parking lot on a Saturday?

True enough. Stay away from Sherway, too, convoy people.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/trucker-convoy-gofundme-suspended-after-reaching-10-1-million-1.5765794

btw https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/mps-agree-to-call-gofundme-to-testify-over-trucker-convoy-fundraiser-1.5766591

The Gofundme page was started by two right-wing extremists who are not truckers themselves aiui.

Thanks Sund4r, I guess we'll see how that shakes out...

https://www.antihate.ca/the_freedom_convoy_is_nothing_but_a_vehicle_for_the_far_right

Seeing "Let's Go Brandeau" on some signs. That's at least two layers of inanity.

I often have the news on in the next room while I'm at the computer. I even find the honking in a news story really annoying.

GoFundMe says the Freedom Convoy 2022 fundraiser “is now in violation of our Terms of Service (Term 8, which prohibits the promotion of violence and harassment) and has been removed from the platform.”

— Sarah Sears (@iamSas) February 4, 2022

That probably isn’t actually net good news - because it’s galvanizing, and is definitely going to intensify the American attention and interference that’s already been happening. Already saw an avalanche of inflammatory tweets that were basically raging like “they stole your donations and gave them to BLM instead!” Seems weird or foolish that the Ottawa police are on there almost taking credit for it too.

Hopefully someone there is smart enough to give a bunch of it to the Terry Fox Foundation

Didn’t Ottawa police reported the violations to GoFundMe?

Yeah, it's blowing up right wing Twitter. On the other hand, it also means that they're no longer raising millions of dollars. I might take that deal!

Has anyone ever seen police respond this way to a crowd?

Wondering why there were no cops at the 100+ person street party with a DJ on a truck at Rideau and Sussex last night?

The protestors chased them off.

Here is video from one prominent protestor from last night #cdnpoli #ottnews #TruckerConvoy2022 https://t.co/W80MUSmYEF pic.twitter.com/7Jl9ttbeJ7

— Mackenzie Gray (@Gray_Mackenzie) February 5, 2022

I figure odds are about 65-35 this will backfire on the Tories and strengthen Trudeau's Liberals. I don't think the average suburban Canadian voter wants to ally themselves with this sort of thing. I'm not ruling the possibility of a genuinely scary pan-national hard right coalition developing successfully out of this, though.

I'm still a little baffled as to when mainstream conservatives decided they were cool with terrorism and insurrection in their own countries.

Baffled is the word:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/bergen-pushed-o-toole-to-back-convoy-saying-there-are-good-people-on-both-sides-sources-1.5768337

Isn't the most obvious answer the correct one: with Trump (Jan. 6, earlier, at some point)?

genuinely scary pan-national hard right coalition

I had the idea that one of the things working against this was the PPC hating the Conservatives as much as they hate the other parties.

...but a similar coalition happened when the Reform Party essentially took over the PCs, so who knows.

^^^

Glad I stayed clear of the city: going by the news coverage, sounds like there's a second jammed-up area at Avenue and Bloor, and they closed a Gardiner off-ramp an hour ago. CNN is giving Ottawa lots of coverage, which I'm sure just encourages them.

Isn't the most obvious answer the correct one: with Trump (Jan. 6, earlier, at some point)?

Right. I'm just trying to get my head around how a Chamber of Commerce type or a moral traditionalist looks at that and thinks "OTM".

Ottawa Police Chief Sloly: This is a siege. This is something different than I have ever experienced in my life … it’s not a demonstration, it’s not an occupation.

— Sarah Sears (@iamSas) February 5, 2022

I went to check out the City Hall counter-protest briefly. It was pretty small, just a few hundred people, with a few dozen OPS standing between the crowds on Laurier. I think the cold was keeping many people from sticking around.

Woot woot 👏 https://t.co/LTaVaTO1Zn

— NanaK (@NanaKCanada) February 5, 2022

I enjoyed seeing the counterprotesters in downtown vncouver this afternoon

I went to check out the City Hall counter-protest briefly. It was pretty small, just a few hundred people, with a few dozen OPS standing between the crowds on Laurier. I think the cold was keeping many people from sticking around.

Didn't know about this; will go to one if I hear about it.

Darn, I should have texted you. Next time. I found out about it on the Ottawa subreddit.

I hope no one gets hurt, but the Vancouver bikers story was really cheering to read about.

Just read this in a CBC story: "But acting Deputy Chief Trish Ferguson said both laws and judgment have to be considered, as police believe that situation could become dangerous quickly."

Ah, so when the police attack land defenders and people concerned about the homeless, it's because they're certain those people pose no threat but they prefer to use overwhelming violent force anyway—very cool!

State of emergency declared:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/convoy-protest-ottawa-sunday-impasse-1.6341548

I was going to pick up some some food at Orange Julep here in Montreal and when I approach the place I start hearing all these car horns going and I am dreading running into a bunch of these trucker protesters who decided to stop here to eat or whatever. I was so relieved when I start seeing a bunch of Senegalese flags (who apparently just won the African Cup).

Hate this fucking guy: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/race-for-the-next-conservative-leader-begins-as-poilievre-announces-his-bid-1.5769778

He's been a nuisance since his mid-20s, when he was the MP for my parents' riding. Currently, he's the only Tory MP in the city of Ottawa, which makes his wholehearted endorsement and advocacy of this siege especially despicable. His riding consists of a couple of affluent exurbs plus all the rural/semi-rural towns and villages that were amalgamated into the municipality under Harris, which I'm sure contain plenty of people who've long dreamt of terrorizing Centretown and Lowertown.

And tbc he is driven and ambitious, more confident than the last two Tory leaders, more bilingual than any Tory leader since Mulroney, and could have a credible chance of becoming PM.

Ok if Charest counts as a Tory leader, replace "Mulroney" with "Charest" there.

And the only thing preventing us from that outcome rn is Justin Trudeau's skill at avoiding ethical scandals

arson, even?

I've been hesitating to post this publicly, but I feel I must for the safety of downtown Ottawa residents. Here are the facts:

Last night two arsonists brought a full package of firestarter bricks into our building's lobby at 5AM. The building is located at Metcalfe & Lisgar. 1/

— Matias Muñoz (@TiMunoz) February 6, 2022

Holy shit

In case you’re wondering why #centretown residents and the rest of urban Ottawa are losing our minds…my watch was showing dB readings hitting 105 dB at Bank & Queen. This occupation has ZERO sympathy from us anymore. #OttawaOccupation #GoHomeConvoy #ottcity pic.twitter.com/6aWZXYTN2H

— Sean Flynn (@sfyro) February 6, 2022

Had to close the bedroom window yesterday bc my wife felt like she was choking on diesel fumes.

(The worst of it has been contained to some blocks away from where we are, though.)

someone is keeping track of all the businesses associated with the truckers convoy occupation

https://convoytraitors.ca

I was wary of trusting that thread StanM posted, but goddamn:

Arson investigation: We are asking for help to identify two individuals as persons of interest in an arson investigation.

The incident occurred in the early morning hours of Feb. 6 at a building in the 200 block of Lisgar St. @CrimeStoppersOT https://t.co/Cd84K1g2sq pic.twitter.com/OW6H1LeW5K

— Ottawa Police (@OttawaPolice) February 7, 2022

Still not determined that the arsonists were with the convoy but yeah, guy wasn't making up video footage. The OP in StanM's thread used to be a part owner of a cool venue where a lot of improv gigs took place btw.

While there were a lot of predictable "antifa false flag" responses, my favourites were the ones that were positive that they couldn't be with the occupation since one of them appeared to have purple hair (?) in the original images:

There's no way the dude with purple hair is part of the trucker convoy. This is lib theater designed to create chaos and to force arrests.

— Lili von Shtupp (@LvS_Redux) February 7, 2022

I love all the people replying "have you tried just talking to them?" Clearly the people who are occupying the capital city for a week with "FUCK TRUDEAU" painted on their vehicles are just there to start a dialogue.

In addition to nearly 300 RCMP officers, tactical police troops, joint intelligence and operational teams and community liaison teams, the federal government is convening a table with relevant federal and municipal partners to further strengthen our response to this situation.

— Yasir Naqvi 🇨🇦 (@Yasir_Naqvi) February 7, 2022

Right. I'm just trying to get my head around how a Chamber of Commerce type or a moral traditionalist looks at that and thinks "OTM".

Meant to respond to this the other day...I don't think it's yet reached this point here--maybe I'm wrong--but in the States, as a zillion people before me have pointed out, the Chamber of Commerce and moral traditionalist Republicans who bowed to Trump were afraid of losing, of getting primaried, etc. If you're talking about office-seekers/holders, that is--or do you mean non-politicians?

Well both insofar as the office-seekers are presumably trying to appeal to voters.

not to get too trenchant on here or anything but I think chamber of commerce/moral traditionalist types have been supporting violence that serves their interests for a long long time

Usually on the side of the state, though, right? Or perhaps against regimes viewed as radical in other countries?

I guess I was thinking of things like the riots during reconstruction or the tulsa black wall street massacre. those are american examples but canada has a rich history of anti-immigrant rioting as well (ie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Oriental_riots_(Vancouver)

I think a lot of business interests have endorsed these kinds of attacks either tacitly or openly.

Ah, OK, yes. I do feel like supporting the use of force in a citizen uprising against the authority of the established government seems like a new one for conservatives - I thought this is the sort of thing conservatism was founded to oppose.

Michael Chong still seems to think so. Wonder how long he'll remain in this party:

The blockades in Ottawa and at the border must end.https://t.co/kgyJmzCaTe#cdnpoli

— Michael Chong 🇨🇦 (@MichaelChongMP) February 8, 2022

I do think that if the Cons try to go full GOP right now they’d be back down to 15-20% in the polls. If they can big-tent the PPC and the Harper-cons, though, they might not need the red Tory vote to gain power & keep shoving that Overton window rightward.

But if Trudeau could put aside his ego for a minute and step down as Lib leader before the next election - or even if he’s chucked on an ouster - we might be spared these goons a while longer.

I thought Libs are still ahead and Trudeau is still generally well-liked (though I've seen a poll saying Freeland is even better liked)? Most recent poll I saw: https://www.thestar.com/politics/2022/01/25/tories-gain-support-but-otoole-lags-trudeau-singh-as-best-choice-for-pm-poll.html

Why does he keep describing the pandemic as something that "sucks" btw?

I do feel like supporting the use of force in a citizen uprising against the authority of the established government seems like a new one for conservatives

I guess the conservative riots were targeted at racial groups that were perceived as threatening their privilege and economic interests, and in the case of reconstruction were tied to a government viewed as illegitimate.

I think many Canadian Chamber of Commerce-rs see the entire suite of pandemic rules and social programs as threats to capital and to their own power, ie ability to order workers around...and I think that's led to a lot of tacit and less tacit support of the convoys.

https://readpassage.com/p/the-trucker-convoy-is-not-a-workers-revolt/

Quiet!: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/meet-the-21-year-old-woman-who-got-the-honking-to-stop-in-downtown-ottawa-1.5772637

props to her for not only filing the suit but coming forward like this, she probably knows by now these assholes are already and will continue to make her life a living hell

Yeah kind of hilarious that while everyone (including the police and city council) sat around asking "how tf is this legal?", it took a 21yo to actually bring that question to the courts.

Ambassador Bridge shut down: https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/trucker-convoy-day-12-in-ottawa-as-local-transit-riders-call-for-action-protesters-paralyze-windsor-detroit-bridge

Most Canadians opposed to convoy: https://www.cp24.com/news/almost-2-3rds-of-canadians-oppose-trucker-convoy-protest-poll-suggests-1.5772347

Heard those poll numbers on the radio this morning. The one I really liked was, "Fifty-seven per cent thought the convoy was not about vaccine mandates but 'an opportunity for right-wing supremacist groups to rally and voice their frustrations about society.'"

It's like the old Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland films: "Let's get together and put on a grievance."

every time i think Jason Kenney can't be a more vile, slimy piece of shit, he slithers even lower

That’s his M.O.! “When they go low, we go lower.”

Did not know this:

Kenney has a personal tie to the issue, fighting in San Francisco in the 1980s to overturn a law extending hospital visitation rights to gay couples — a move aimed at preventing people from visiting their dying partners.

https://globalnews.ca/news/8606228/kenney-apologizes-covid-19-vaccine-comparison-aids/

A real charmer.

so canada doesn't have a national guard or anything like that to get these assholes to move on? is the city really being held hostage by a few hundred right wing dipshits?

i mean i suppose i should know this! but in america, they will send people to kill you if you sit in the park for too long so this is kinda unimaginable. if this was happening in jersey, it woulda gone waco already.

Army aren't been sent in and cops are being softly softly. These are decisions, obviously.

I think half of Canada would love a "just watch me" moment from Trudeau the younger here, but it would also probably be a boon to their cause, massively televised state repression would be quite the spectacle

In case you didn't get the "just watch me" reference, forks: https://www.cbc.ca/history/EPISCONTENTSE1EP16CH1PA4LE.html

Worth remembering that PET was dealing with kidnappers and murderers and even then only invoked the War Measures Act on the request of the Premier of Quebec. And it was probably still an overreaction. (I had thought most people agreed but then I saw some people basically calling for this on social media.)

Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario, has been pretty quiet about this. Ottawa is a little tricky since it's on the provincial borders and a good portion of the National Capital Region is in Quebec, also some land is under the jurisdiction of the National Capital Commission.

As mentioned on TVO's The Agenda, one fear may be the risk of explosions and fire if e.g. guns are fired around tanker trucks filled with diesel. Many tow truck drivers also seem to be siding with the occupiers. Obviously the police should have been more proactive when these people were arriving in the first place. Quebec City and Toronto seem to have nipped their convoy protests in the bud.

They are managing to progressively contain this thing. Horns have been greatly reduced. They're still blockading Kent St north of Somerset and I imagine are still camped out near the Rideau Centre.

Maybe this will turn out to be a model on how to resolve these things without deaths or serious injuries idk. I actually don't fault Trudeau too much. Refusing to negotiate or engage while avoiding an overreaction to what should have been mostly dealt with under traffic and noise laws seems like the right move to me.

ya, but now they're blocking highways and boarders crossings.

Oh yeah it's o_O that the international border blockades have been tolerated at all.

I think the winningest move here would have been to defuse and have actually backtracked on the mandate for truckers weeks ago, because it’s looking like a pretty stupid hill to die on right now. The mandate from the states makes it redundant even? I don’t think any of it was ever going to create the supply chain shortages these cranks are actually causing now though.

fwiw i think forks is wrong about how this would be different in the us (except for the windsor situation, because Economy)

I think the winningest move here would have been to defuse and have actually backtracked on the mandate for truckers weeks ago, because it’s looking like a pretty stupid hill to die on right now. The mandate from the states makes it redundant even? I don’t think any of it was ever going to create the supply chain shortages these cranks are actually causing now though.

Disagree here, even if just on the principle that this sort of action should not be rewarded; also don't think we should leave our ally to handle mandating and enforcing this unilaterally. (What would we do if Biden also backtracked?)

I agree that none of this should be rewarded. It’s more that some of the measures seemed somewhat counterproductive to begin with. The end of all mandates is obviously the end goal anyway, and since it seems like we are in the home stretch it seems colossally dumb to give those who have been fighting that success all along, a fomenting point and a way to take the credit for it all ending.

fwiw i think forks is wrong about how this would be different in the us (except for the windsor situation, because Economy)

― mookieproof, Thursday, February 10, 2022 10:32 AM (thirty-three minutes ago)

yep. Malheur was occupied for 5 weeks

Heard there were 5,000 layoffs from one company (think I heard that right) because of the blockades--surely going to win lots of public sympathy from that.

Some good bits on CNN and MSNBC (even the Freedom Caucus's Joe Scarborough):

CNN fact checks some of the false information spreading on social media about the Canadian trucker protest @ddale8 joins The Lead pic.twitter.com/fMss9aOWiW

— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) February 10, 2022

NOW - MSNBC host says Canada's trucker convoy is a "cult."pic.twitter.com/vOjZSLHZoE

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) January 31, 2022

It’s more that some of the measures seemed somewhat counterproductive to begin with. The end of all mandates is obviously the end goal anyway, and since it seems like we are in the home stretch it seems colossally dumb to give those who have been fighting that success all along, a fomenting point and a way to take the credit for it all ending.

I guess I don't really see the issue with a vaccine mandate at the border, although I haven't seen the studies on this one in particular. I need to get shots if I fly to some countries. Kids need to get shots. I want to see an end to lockdowns and, eventually, mask requirements.

Christ, these people are full of shit; https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-federal-conservatives-call-for-an-end-to-all-blockades-after-first/

Didn't they just replace their leader over this?

frankly, it's almost reassuring the degree to which capital still controls them (compared to the GOP)

https://theline.substack.com/p/dispatch-from-the-ottawa-front-sloly

a friend of mine texted the group chat that link and i gave him shit (perhaps a bit too much) for linking to Jen Gerson's blog (i despise her) but either way, i hear Matt Gurney's not exactly a peach either

I’m not so savvy on the Canadian media landscape, so I’m not sure who’s bad and hated (besides the obvious: Rex Murphy ouch)

https://www.macleans.ca/politics/relax-doug-ford-will-be-fine/
https://readpassage.com/i-hope-jen-gerson-predicts-ill-go-broke-and-unloved/

Now I can feel part of things:

https://www.sarniathisweek.com/news/local-news/st-marys-expecting-convoy-style-protest-friday

I booked off work anyway because of expected bad weather. My wish would be that the entire town stays indoors while they throw their 45-minute tantrum.

from this morning:

CBC Radio Ottawa now reporting protest vehicles being sent to block the airport. MPs, including those who support the occupation, might not be heading home for the weekend. Not sure how many hotel rooms will be available this weekend. Perhaps downtown residents can take them in?

— Greg MacEachern (@gmacofglebe) February 10, 2022

While in my calmer moments I broadly agree with Coyne's assessment re how to respond to the occupation, I don't really know what he's talking about here - and I keep seeing this claim or versions of it:

the Liberals, the Prime Minister in particular, by using the vaccine mandate as a wedge issue, and vaccine refuseniks as objects of scorn;

When did he/they do this? How?

maybe making vaccine mandates an election issue? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58264006

he could have just passed his preferred federal vaccine policies instead of tying them to his re-election. not that this whole coyne critique matters much to me personally, but there has been some cynicism in Trudeau's approach.

I don't really see how seeking an electoral mandate for it made it a wedge issue, and even less how it showed scorn or condescension (the other critique I keep hearing) towards the unvaccinated. I certainly don't see how that is at all equivalent to "the Conservatives, their probable future leader in particular, by supporting and encouraging the lawlessness in Ottawa".

yeah I wouldn't say that at all of course. I haven't read the Coyne article, there's no equivalency in my mind. But Trudeau didn't need an election to pass any vaccine mandates, the election was called to avoid WE scrutiny.

The narrative on the right is that JT is “dividing Canadians”, that he’s a Communist (lol) and that he’s dragging the country off a cliff. They’re painting him as an existential threat.

This criticism (divisiveness and scorn towards the unvaccinated) is not just coming from the right:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-mp-politicization-pandemic-1.6343730
https://www.hilltimes.com/2022/02/09/quebec-liberal-mp-robillard-also-breaks-ranks-questions-trudeau-governments-handling-of-pandemic-sides-with-lightbound/343476

What are they talking about? Is there an actual instance someone can point to of Trudeau "demonizing" "people who question existing policies "?

Coyne is also not a Tory (or any) partisan by any stretch.

Coyne? He’s always been pretty right wing.

Yeah definitely small c conservative, no? A moderate, "sensible" type of voice

He's definitely a neoliberal/free marketeer on economics and a hawk on foreign policy but he's not a partisan for or against any political party is what I meant. He slams Tories as much as Liberals or New Democrats for violations of ethics, Parliamentary procedure, or what he considers good policy principles. So e.g. he strongly supports the Liberals' carbon tax as a good market-based solution; opposed Harper's convoluted tax credits, culture war dog whistling, and restrictions on academic freedom; and favours electoral reform. The National Post comments sections typically rage against him for being a Liberal shill, which is lol. He usually votes for a third- or fourth-place party as a protest (Green last time, NDP in 2015, Liberal in 2011). If he's making this criticism of Trudeau, he probably believes it as opposed to just parroting a rw party line.

you could have just said he's a centrist instead of typing all those words

Haha, well, a lot of centrists have wishy-washy moderate positions on everything and value compromise and pragmatism. Coyne is an idealist with strong principles (one of the few people I think of as actually a 'classical liberal') that lead him to a set of strong but idiosyncratic opinions that don't line up with any party or leader, making him cynical about all of them.

Ford has declared state of emergency.

Nice of him to take a break from his skiing trip to finally do something.

Swear to god, my town's Facebook group is the government response in miniature. We're arguing about a post where someone suggests everyone in town just stays away for the 45 minutes they're supposed to be here--basically, what if they threw a blockade and no one came? I'm all for the post, but we're deadlocked; a couple people feel it'll spark anger on the other side. Don't want to upset the truckers, or the people who support them.

even less how it showed scorn or condescension

Soooo tired of this talking point about "elite condescension" or whatever. This apparently rampant paranoia among reg'lar conservative folks that somebody at a cocktail party somewhere is looking down on them. It seems to drive so much right-wing resentment politics. (Maybe it's really a fear that people at cocktail parties don't think about them at all.)

Freedom convoys to take place in Paris and Brussels. Our greatest cultural export!: https://www.francetvinfo.fr/sante/maladie/coronavirus/convoi-de-la-liberte/convoi-de-la-liberte-en-france-les-premiers-manifestants-vont-converger-vers-paris_4955439.html

Paris is at least mobilizing 7000 cops to keep the convoy out. And I agree tipsy, developing a political stance in reaction to "feeling patronized" is such a precious snowflakey thing to do.

These Fords are really something huh

It’s so rare that the entire narrative of a press conference is demolished with two questions: pic.twitter.com/7dnixNzchF

— Jonathan Goldsbie (@goldsbie) February 11, 2022

They were blasting "For What It's Worth" just now while doing "what do we want? FREEDOM!" chants. I do sort of have to admire their joie de vivre at times. Guy even wished me a nice day when I gave them all the finger.

Lol that video

"For What It's Worth"? Points for that from me, anyway. The St. Marys convoy went through 40 minutes earlier than they said it would, so I just caught the tail end turning the corner. Big surprise, quite anti-climactic.

Maybe next, the truckers will "Go and Say Goodbye".

More to that - as much as I hate these people and their 'cause', I do have to hand it to them that they're doing it right:

Protesters built a professional stage today at the corner of Wellington and Metcalfe where they are now having a concert. This is after Ontario Premier Doug Ford introduced tougher fines and possible jail times for protesters behind blockades. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/XFS3baAkNF

— Stephanie Taylor (@StephTaylorCP) February 12, 2022

add "hauling out a professional stage" to the list of working class bona fides, in addition to "taking weeks off to drive across the country and stay in Ottawa"

very working class so struggling

Yeah obv not. The whole thing is absurd and I probably hate it more than anyone. Just giving them props for remembering to dance in their revolution or whatever.

I keep thinking of the Community scene: "you built a bar - for which you needed lumber!" At this point, it's just hilarious that no one thought to intervene at any point in the process of constructing a professional concert stage on Parliament Hill.

Soooo tired of this talking point about "elite condescension" or whatever. This apparently rampant paranoia among reg'lar conservative folks that somebody at a cocktail party somewhere is looking down on them. It seems to drive so much right-wing resentment politics. (Maybe it's really a fear that people at cocktail parties don't think about them at all.)

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, February 11, 2022 12:40 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Otm

A major backer of the convoy is making headlines: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-02-11/la-fi-tesla-race-discrimination-lawsuit

this seems like the kind of thing that will spread across the world like q anon. why? because you can't ban dumb ideas
freedom convoy

So I guess they're no longer even trying to disavow any connection to this known overt white supremacist who wants to preserve "Anglo-Saxon bloodlines".

Our latest dispatch from Ottawa's nightlight

Convoy organizer and newly minted Wellington St. VIP Pat King came to enjoy Ottawa's Second Hottest Club.

King danced a jig on stage, while fireworks went off in the crowd in the background #cdnpoli #ottnews pic.twitter.com/uZwIl1aAP0

— Mackenzie Gray (@Gray_Mackenzie) February 12, 2022

And their voices rang/With that Aryan twang

for reference:

King dives head first into the Great Replacement/white genocide myth. It's all a conspiracy, see. Because whites have "the strongest bloodlines."

He calls it the "anglo-saxon replacement" so antifa can't get mad at him.

Who is behind it? Muslims and the UN. /2 pic.twitter.com/mLhpCpjQiV

— YVCE 🧛‍♂️🧛‍♀️🧛‍♂️🧛 - ARCHIVE (@VestsCanada) August 10, 2019

This thread is broken in Zing for iPhone.

lol I tried to post a link to that bottom video of Pat King on FB and it got blocked (for obvious reasons).

Just participated in this march:

Counter-protest on Bank Street #Ottawa pic.twitter.com/1GylFqYRDq

— 𝙱𝚛𝚞𝚌𝚎 𝚅 𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚠𝚊𝚢 (@BruceVConway) February 12, 2022

that looks like way more people on their feet than any of the protests I saw here

Over 2000 by the Citizen's count: https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/trucker-convoy-counter-protesters-demand-action-from-police

The Winnipeg police arrested a pair of people today. Counter protesters. Who are also native. For blocking the road. In front of the trump trucker tantrumers.

Link?

Ambassador Bridge cleared: https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/police-begin-second-push-to-clear-protesters-at-ambassador-bridge

Ottawa residents starting to do the police's job: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/counter-protesters-block-convoy-vehicles-on-ottawa-streets-1.5779659

"Members of the so-called "Freedom Convoy" occupying the nation's capital have attempted to hijack a symbol and slogan representing survivors of residential schools and Canada's efforts at reconciliation."

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/truck-convoy-members-try-to-hijack-symbol-and-slogan-of-residential-school-survivors-1.5779154

also, here is a live feed of the surrey border, which protestors are trying to get to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBDD3j5so0g

i really hope they cross into the US

is there a third option other than a show of force or this, negotiating with these assholes?

I dunno, but this is not it

#BREAKING: Mayor @JimWatsonOttawa’s office has released correspondence w/ convoy organizers who have agreed to conditions for them to exit residential neighbourhoods in #Ottawa in the coming days.#Cdnpoli #Onpoli pic.twitter.com/8hY2jEN2lW

— Travis Dhanraj (@Travisdhanraj) February 13, 2022

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/two-members-of-military-counter-terrorism-unit-under-investigation-for-allegedly-taking-part-in-convoy-protests

Idk man if ur rollin w dudes flying swastikas pretty sure show of force is ok

Yeah, there could be a wrinkle I'm missing but it's incredibly frustrating to see Watson doing this at this point. Between this and LRT, it's a damn good thing he's not running for re-election. Is Lich their leader then? Why weren't they arranging with her for a permit and police escort for a demonstration over two weeks ago then? Why didn't he ask her to get these people to stop blaring horns and spewing diesel fumes at that time?

A massive victory for residents today as they slowly allow occupiers to leave one at a time to the chant of “don’t come back.” The departures are on residents’ terms. pic.twitter.com/HnWhGKzpzW

— Jeff Leiper (@JLeiper) February 13, 2022

^ I live a few blocks from there. Apparently the counter-protest was organized by a local dog-walking group. So awesome.

That’s amazing

I didn't even think of the impact the honking must have had on dogs!

Our cat was totally freaked out the first few days.

Lmao givesendgo’s been hacked and also the names of everyone who’s donated has been leaked go to their site nowwww before it’s gone loooool

shocking turn of events re: Watson negotiating with the doofuses

The media lies to their viewers. No "deal" has been made. End the mandates, end the passports. That is why we are here. #Freedom #Truckersforfreedomconvoy2022 #FreedomConvoy2022 https://t.co/5uTEnm0wZ7

— Tamara (@Tamara_MVC) February 14, 2022

Making them strike their flags and ganking their fuel supplies is a nice touch

All convoy trucks at the Bank & Riverside blockade have now been sent on their way away from downtown, only after they were made to remove racist decals and flags from their vehicles. The people of Ottawa have won the Battle of Billings Bridge. #OccupiedOttawa #ottawa #ottnews

— Dylan Penner (@DylanPenner) February 13, 2022

The other condition convoy drivers had to comply with before they were allowed to leave the blockade was to discard their jerry cans of fuel. The people have done far more to cut the fuel supply of the occupation than the police or any level of gov. #BattleOfBillingsBridge

— Dylan Penner (@DylanPenner) February 13, 2022

Meanwhile

PEAK KELOWNA #HonkHonk pic.twitter.com/Q4L1CXnT5C

— Chris Walker (@ChrisWalkerCBC) February 12, 2022

Fuck this guy:

Actual quote from @JimWatsonOttawa on @CBCNews: "I admire the gutsiness of the people who are standing up to those who want to break the law in our city but it takes scarce police resources away from those central communities that need that coverage and protection …” 1/2

— Sam Hersh (@SamHersh01) February 14, 2022

I mean, they could always do this:

Police asked to fill in at offices, retail work while Ottawa residents do their job for them https://t.co/5MOTlx8JTZ

— The Beaverton (@TheBeaverton) February 13, 2022

Maybe someone needs to tell Watson that a condo development project is being threatened?

So Emergencies Act.

the attack of the Ram Ranchers:

Anti-mandate protesters are holding a twitter space “emergency meeting” in response to the state of emergency.

One who was at the Windsor/Detroit border blockade tells a story of how their communications were infiltrated, leading to organizational collapse...

— Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) February 14, 2022

Freeland's announcement - applying money laundering and anti-terrorism law to crowdfunding sites, giving banks the right to freeze assets being used towards illegal blockades, freezing insurance of trucks and accounts belonging to companies whose trucks are being used - sounds otm and a recognition of what this actually is.

In other news, at least one Ottawa towing company was threatened into not helping the police remove trucks: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ottawa-towing-company-threatened-into-not-helping-police-with-trucker-convoy-chief-1.5776591

Weapons, ammo, body armour seized in AB: https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6351112

I just took a walk tonight and Kent St. is still definitely blockaded and diesel-drenched, also Bank north of Laurier. (Heard a lot of honking too.)

Sloly (Ottawa police chief) has resigned

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/sloly-ottawa-resigns-behaviour-leadership-1.6352295

I'm assuming that the timing is a reaction to the Emergencies Act and Trudeau's statement from yesterday.

It's a start, although this whole fiasco suggests that the problems go deeper than the Chief himself.

Can I just recall Clive Doucet's mayoral campaign in the last election where he presented a credible, experienced progressive alternative to Watson and got 20-25% of the vote (admittedly high for a non-Watson candidate)?

I've been disappointed with our MP Yasir Naqvi (whom I voted for last time). I haven't seen evidence of him doing much, while our NDP MPP Joel Harden has been out there organizing, informing people, putting himself out there leading groups at the Billing Bridge standoff. He called much earlier on for the province to cancel licences and insurance policies of vehicles that are involved. Honestly, what's the point of having an MP in the governing party if they can't get action taken swifter for a crisis in their community? If anything, it seems like it was the economic impacts of the border blockades that moved the federal government to act.

One of my Facebook-poisoned cousins has gone full convoyer. Apparently he was out honking in BC on the weekend. It's going to be super fun seeing him again.

yeah the passivity of the ruling federal party in the face of a protest making life in their city of residence intolerable is shocking, now that you mention it

but pretty pathetic for Ottawa MPs in particular of coursse

every last one of whom is a Liberal, aside from Poilievre; ditto every Gatineau MP iirc

one day I would love someone to explain to me why some ontario cities vote liberal federally and some vote (or used to vote!) NDP

Ottawa and Toronto are comparatively affluent and educated multicultural cities, with an especially high number of immigrants in Toronto's case and a high level of bilingualism in Ottawa's case, which are traditional Liberal bases. Obviously Ottawa is also home to a large number of federal public servants, who tend to have Liberal leanings for obvious reasons. The NDP tends to have a stronger base in poorer areas, cities with large unionized blue-collar workforces, and First Nations communities, so they traditionally have more of a stronghold in cities like Windsor, Hamilton, and Oshawa, and in Northern Ontario. (The more bilingual parts of Northern Ontario lean a little more Liberal.)

Ottawa Centre goes between Liberal and NDP. You typically see NDP signs more in the lower income parts of Centretown or in the neighbouthoods closer to the two universities and a sea of red in the bourgeois residential areas around Island Park ime.

It's my off the cuff explanation anyway.

thank you! that is exactly what I wanted to know, I'm ignorant about the demographics

I see Sloly is spelled Sloly--listening to the radio on the way home I was thinking, "Couldn't possibly be Slowly, could it?"

To those in Ottawa: is he being made the fall guy, or is this deserving?

It was/is a policing failure and he was Chief of Police so idk whose fall he would be taking tbh. This, from CTV News's chief news anchor, sounds consistent with what Sloly himself was saying in the regular livestreamed board meetings, and it was the wrong approach. It seems fairly evident that the trucks should have never been allowed to enter the city's core in the first place, something that could have been achieved with simple roadblocks, as regular residents figured out:

Peter Sloly firmly believed in waiting out the protesters. As they were digging in, he told people around him that a stronger enforcement move by @OttawaPolice could lead to a January 6th style confrontation and that lives would be lost #ottnews #OttawaOccupied #onpoli

— Graham Richardson (@grahamctv) February 15, 2022

Well, for some percentage of the country, I'm guessing, he'd be seen as taking the fall for Trudeau and/or Ford. I'm not at all saying that's fair--that's why I'm asking--but that would be the perception, I think.

No one except residents, Harden, and downtown-area city councillors has come off very well afaic. That's why I said Sloly's resignation is a start.

But if we consider what Windsor's police force, who serve a smaller and poorer city, were able to do on the Ambassador Bridge, and look at the trucks that are still blockading our downtown, it's clear that something went wrong at the level of policing.

Among the signs I photographed last night: "IT IS NOT KNOWING THAT YOUR DOOR IS ALWAYS OPEN AND YOUR PATH IS FREE TO WALK ON" (Glen Campbell??) - on the side of a truck that also has a large poppy with "they deserve more than one day"; 'BE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY - REMEMBER YOUR OATH" draped along the fronts of several trucks parked on Wellington at Bank. This whole thing remains surreal.

I went as far as Sparks St. this afternoon. Wellington in front of Parliament looked like it was still a shitshow.

It’s strange to walk downtown and feel like people I pass are mentally filing me as protester or not protester. I feel like I’m getting a lot more cautious looks than normal. I'm definitely doing it too.

oof, this hurts

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/threats-close-stella-luna-gelato-cafe-after-owners-name-appears-in-givesendgo-data-leak

wow imagine if Martin Luther King got arrested https://t.co/VYJSyj1NKX

— David Weigel (@daveweigel) February 15, 2022

is tammy giuliani any relation to rudy? pretty disingenuous statement in any case

I don't support the threats to Stella Luna at all but Karen gave a substantially larger donation AFTER the GoFundMe had been shut down and her first donation was returned, in the second week of the occupation. She clearly knew what she was supporting; her claims to the contrary make no sense.

Happy Goat is in the same block and has much better coffee and snacks. I'm not a huge ice cream guy but there's gotta be better.

she just loves giving to charity!

I liked the pistachio gelato. :(

Mooshu seems to have found itself on the right side of history.

The backlash against Stella Luna on social media was swift and intense, with many pointing out that a rival creamery, Mooshu Ice Cream on Bank Street, had to close because anti-mask demonstrators threatened its staff.

Threatened and assaulted, from their story, a day before Stella Luna lady made her larger donation: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/moo-shu-ice-cream-employee-assaulted-ottawa-1.6341207 . They reported a hate crime.

I actually missed this part on first read - Karen donated to the convoy despite the fact that they were harassing her employees!:

Giuliani said the demonstrators had caused problems at her shops too, entering without masks and trying to force confrontations.

“I notified the staff not to get into any confrontation. I said, ‘Your job is to serve food and drinks, not get blasted by someone trying to make a point.'”

is givesendgo leak still available somewhere?

Four AB protesters charged with conspiracy to murder RCMP officers: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/coutts-protest-charges-laid-court-appearance-bail-1.6352482

Wow

https://www.castanet.net/news/Penticton/359896/Protesters-showed-up-at-Southern-Okanagan-Secondary-school-Friday

“She was arguing with [ Navrit ] about the protest. The way it escalated was that the lady in the video said something like ‘those truckers bring all your goods over, so you better care,'” said Kai.

Navrit responded to the woman in the video by saying, “You think I care?” and the woman responded with “Well you should care, I have a right to be in the country, do you?”

Navrit, a young Punjabi woman, questioned the woman’s comment, and asked “Are you telling me to go back to my country?”

The woman said “yes” and began yelling at Navrit for calling her “racist."

The two went back and forth yelling at each other, until the blonde woman called Navrit a "stupid c**t."

At one point, one of the students yells: "you're literally arguing with children."

Full thread from CBC journalist on the incident, with a link to his interview:

CBC has learned that aggressive protesters were allowed to confront children on school property in the South Okanagan after police and school officials failed to intervene. The result was a racist verbal attack on a student.

— Chris Walker (@ChrisWalkerCBC) February 15, 2022

Why the hell were they protesting a school?

This is messed up:

I had to read this paragraph literally three times. This poor kid. https://t.co/XaTTqCu4Fo pic.twitter.com/VFBVeTBhem

— Amarnath Amarasingam (@AmarAmarasingam) February 16, 2022

Jesus. Hopefully that child's mother (I'm guessing/hoping the wording "and his wife" is intentional) isn't a chump

i wonder if that's the same guy i read about a few weeks ago. couldn't give enough of a shit about his own kid to get vaccinated and thinks he's the victim. these people are all pieces of shit. that's why they're harassing kids at school, because they're cowardly pieces of shit that need to bully someone smaller than them. fuck all of those pieces of shit.

I heard a sound bite from a protester the other day on the radio who referred to "Justin Trudeau or whoever is pulling his strings." Like, wtf? "Pulling his strings"? Like, who, Big Pharma? The Jews?

Hm, so Menard has so far been very good on this. (I found out about the march last weekend because of him - and he's not even my councillor.) He does think that Sloly is being made a scapegoat for Watson's failures, although he also thinks Sloly should have resigned.

URGENT #Ottnews! Watch out for the Mayor today. He and #WatsonClub want to force the takeover of OPSB. He has taken ZERO accountability for the total loss of control of our city and instead legitimized occupiers, and scapegoated the first Black Chief of Police. #OttawaOccupation

— Shawn Menard (@ShawnMenard1) February 16, 2022

Pictures from Monday night: https://photos.app.goo.gl/me1ZPuN8cEhBDg5m9

From Jan 30, the first weekend: https://photos.app.goo.gl/me1ZPuN8cEhBDg5m9

they need the conspiracy aspect to feel special and smarter than everyone else. like Tom Hanks in a mashup of The Da Vinci Code and Dukes of Hazard.
xpost wow wtf

My ward's councillor Zooming in to today's City Council meeting from Kent St (a few blocks from my apt):

As the mayor lies to council about the success of his capitulation deal, councillor @cmckenney is joining the meeting live from occupied Kent pic.twitter.com/5ONUbo4KhF

— Kiavash Najafi (@KiavashNajafi) February 16, 2022

Last night's city council meeting was some Game of Thrones shit.

Ottawa sits under three states of emergency (municipal, federal, and provincial).

At a city council meeting tonight @cmckenney tells Mayor @JimWatsonOttawa “I have lost all confidence in you as a Mayor.”

He responds “thank you,” and calls the next councillor to speak.

— Marieke Walsh (@MariekeWalsh) February 17, 2022

Watson - who has been a disaster through this whole fiasco - wanted to replace the entire police oversight board w people loyal to him. Two members resigned in protest, incl the 1st black councillor. Council totally divided into urban vs suburban/rural factions. A lot of tears and furious recriminations. At least they kept an overtly racist piece of shit from the piece of shit suburb where my parents live off the board.

For more background on how Watson and his team have been operating, look at the LRT disaster - the city built a commuter system, replacing many v functional bus routes, that has been completely ineffective, with trains regularly derailing and not even built to handle snow. Turns out SNC-Lavalin had got the bid without even meeting minimum technical requirements. Diane Deans, who tried to raise questions about the technical evaluations in council, is the councillor who was just removed as chair of the police board.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/how-we-got-to-snc-lavalin-decision-1.5459189

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/mayor-watson-backs-trillium-line-procurement-after-documents-reveal-weaknesses-with-snc-lavalin-proposal

Did you see this clip? https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments/su8e9k/catherine_mckenney_joined_todays_city_council/

According to the comments, Watson has a habit of misgendering McKenney

*commuter train

I posted another clip from when they Zoomed in from Kent St. but that's a good one. They'll have my vote for mayor in the fall. Idk if they can win.

Amazing moment when Menard quoted Barrhaven councillor Jan Harder on crime from 09: "The problem arises when a large group of -- I'm going to say it -- non-whites comes into our community looking to cause trouble."
Her response was to essentially invoke procedure and say something to the effect that those comments were in a police report, which was why she hadn't been formally asked to rescind them at the time, without giving either an explanation or apology. I was just glad Watson's cronyism wasn't strong enough to get her on the board in place of Meehan.

Oh shit, reading the news now, looks like Meehan also resigned after I stopped watching. Hope Harder doesn't get on there despite losing that vote.

66% national support for Emergencies Act, acc to Maru opinion poll (don't know this firm): https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a17333eb0786935ac112523/t/620d9994ac49674e50dd99d6/1645058455817/Emergencies+17+02+22.pdf

A coworker stormed into my office today raving about Trudeau - he’s freezing the bank accounts of anyone who donated to the protest - I hate his fucking guts - if I had nothing to lose I’d drive across the country to shoot him, etc. I listened in stunned silence.

Windsor mayor received a bomb threat from a woman upset about pandemic restrictions. Multiple people arrested on conspiracy to murder in relation to the Alberta border blockade. & so on. What is it about Trudeau and about the pandemic that is driving otherwise normal people into this frenzy - that they’d rather commit murder than get a perfectly good vaccine and/or wear a mask? My hippie ex has travelled from Montreal to Ottawa to live among the protesters, constantly posts about how it’s nothing but peace and love and that the media is the enemy of the people. I think we’re in the middle of the early stages of a mass delusions/madness of crowds type event here. Or in the beginning of the middle stages? I wonder, as Germany collectively lost its mind in the 20s and 30s, did it feel like this? I’m genuinely weirded out & somewhat frightened by all this.

On an Ottawa downtown street corner. pic.twitter.com/q8Ye42zDOD

— Jorge Barrera (@JorgeBarrera) February 17, 2022

I feel like loudly ranting about shooting the prime minister in the middle of your workplace would result in, at the very least, a sit down with HR.

What is it about Trudeau and about the pandemic that is driving otherwise normal people into this frenzy - that they’d rather commit murder than get a perfectly good vaccine and/or wear a mask

I would venture that part of it is the same as in the US, that rich liberals in power cause cultural reaction in ways singular to them.

The other bit is that so much of the fraud of modern life has gotten a certain subset of people having such a reduced horizon that only feelings of personal comfort in that moment is the priority. So anything that could possibly intrude on that, be it quarantines or disrupted supply chains or being told to wear a mask or even encountering people different from yourselves, causes anguish and reaction that has to go somewhere.

"Canadian style tyranny" pic.twitter.com/oOWUimVNfl

— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) February 16, 2022

What's particularly galling about the claims of "tyranny" and "dictatorship" is the extent to which the occupation and blockades have been tolerated and accommodated so far.

On that note, though, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber were arrested:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/tamara-lich-chris-barber-arrested-ottawa-1.6355960

I'm on Zoom right now with three friends, and we're killing ourselves over "Canadian-style tyranny."

Polite tyranny: "Look, you have to do what I say...I'm really sorry; I know you're not happy about this."

Self-deprecating tyranny: "As a tyrant? I don't know, I guess I'm okay--not the best, but not the worst."

i'm sure a good 2/3 of americans would appreciate the tyranny of public health care and mat leave.

ha ha - also that is hilarious, clem!

"I'm really sorry; I know you're not happy about this" was pretty much the letters the Ottawa police force handed out... "we apologize, but hugging is frowned upon because social media."

Nice discussion of it from a leftist canadian podcast: https://thebottlemen.podbean.com/e/highway-to-hell-part-1-ft-matt-christman/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbfBzWJVbX4

Haha I didn't think mayonnaise is more popular in Canada than the US? I hate it anywhere.

trudeau has just personally frozen your bank accounts.

Looks like things are getting heated at Rideau and Colonel By.

Yeah we just went out to the nearby rec centre. Cops and checkpoints everywhere. They haven't cleared the roads up here at all, maybe to keep people moving slowly? I gathered that the suburban streets are different.

I'm just watching a livestream. A group of protesters is facing off with police at that intersection.

Stream here: https://www.twitch.tv/themayor_mccheese

It's nice to know Mayor McCheese is keeping an eye on the Canadian Hamburglar there.

He just mentioned "the Battle of McDonald's last week" (??)

Whatever I saw either in person or on video still looked exceptionally respectful, especially compared to the police response at G20 or Mtl student protests. I genuinely wonder what the people crying "tyranny" think would happen if people blockaded the streets of DC, London, or Paris for three weeks straight.

xpost Maybe referring to the McDonald's in Windsor, right near the Ambassador Bridge onramp and the University? It's been ubiquitous in the background on TV news coverage the past few weeks (alongside my old residence building)

https://images.app.goo.gl/QRFk1DHwAApqDpwR6

Damn
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna15632

I quit

you're gonna have to describe vividly with words.

CTV feed rn showing them towing an RV from the parking lot of the Rideau/Sussex Chapters, which brings me joy. You know how hard it usually is to park there??

And they're out! We toasted it with a fine rum.

apparently they are using their kids as a a shield between them and the police?!

Think it's finished? I think the police line is slowly pushing towards Parliament and thinning out the crowd, and many of the truckers have abandoned their vehicles.

Oh yeah we were just toasting the removal of that RV.

lol, gotcha

Apparently they're building snow walls.

more importantly: which rum?

Oliver & Oliver Puerto Plata Club

I just walked over to Kent St. Still completely blocked up.

This is so fucking surreal. Fox claiming that Stella Luna is under attack by 'government forces'.

In case anyone was maybe still considering their support for Stella Luna, the owner went on Fox News.

So. #OttawaOccupied #ottnews #cdnpoli https://t.co/wV776TpO8J

— Bad + Bitchy Podcast (@badandbitchy) February 18, 2022

o_O

Esoteric Canadiana from a friend: "I did see one funny post on Facebook tonight: 'Bye Bye Mon Convoy.'"

haha

A conservative Christian FB friend of mine posted a link to some religious "liberate Canada" website yesterday, with this accompanying text:

Pray for Canada! They no longer have freedom, and the dictator infringing on their liberty has clearly chosen the side of evil.

So, Canadian friends — sorry for your freedom, R.I.P. :(

If this means right-wing americans never dare set foot in Canada again, I'm ready to call the convoy a win

So fox is apparently telling their drones that the police tramped someone to death for loving freedom.

Are we the new Venezuela in conservative fantasies?

Yes, including Canadian rightists.

The screengrab of Tucker’s “Canadian-style tyranny” is of course hilarious, but did you know there’s a long, long screed about it? It’s truly bonkers. https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-how-long-until-canadian-style-tyranny-comes-to-america

The false story of the woman being trampled to death by a horse was retweeted by Ted Cruz before the original Fox News reporter backtracked on her statement (without deleting her first tweet):

This…is…horrific. https://t.co/2mf6XBfH02

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 19, 2022

The Reports I was given earlier yesterday from sources on the ground that someone may have died at a hospital during the trampling was wrong.👇someone was taken to a hospital with a heart condition -not due to trampling.I want to clarify this again and apologize for any confusion pic.twitter.com/FVC2sTeeZy

— Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) February 19, 2022

You could hear that false story spreading through the crowd last night on one the streams.

Kent and Laurier last night: https://photos.app.goo.gl/89Toy1GQ47hThSB2A

And just now: https://photos.app.goo.gl/AQmzFtYFcY3gT5WR9

I had almost given up on it happening.

I am introducing legislation that would temporarily grant asylum to innocent Canadian protesters who are being persecuted by their own government. We cannot be silent as our neighbors to the north are treated so badly. 3/3

— Rep. Yvette Herrell (@RepHerrell) February 19, 2022

lol

can't we just make the asylum permanent?

Looks like it's been officially recorded:

Protestors have put children between police operations and the unlawful protest site.

The children will be brought to a place of safety.

— Ottawa Police (@OttawaPolice) February 18, 2022

Take 'em to a residential school.

Jesus

I mean, taking them somewhere safe seems like the best thing they could do.

Sorry, I got a little too "give em a taste of what they applauded when it was First Nations kids"

Yeah not a single child deserves this.

Apologies, poor taste.

I'm 1000% anti-convoy, of course, but thinking how appropriately surreal it would be if they turned up in the midst of this:

https://www.blogto.com/film/2022/02/handmaids-tale-filming-downtown-toronto/

I'm sure the security would be unbreachable.

Emergencies Act passes Commons vote:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-emergencies-act-vote-1.6359243

My social media experience over the last couple of days: https://www.thebeaverton.com/2022/02/person-who-does-not-live-in-ottawa-sympathizes-with-protesters/

I hadn't known this weirdo Valley MPP actually asked people to flood police phone lines.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/calls-to-arrest-randy-hillier-mpp-after-involvement-ottawa-protest-1.6359028

randy blocked me on twitter which seems to be his standard response to anybody disagreeing

and then there is this: “Conservative senator apologizes for berating Ottawa residents in late-night protest rant”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/senator-michael-macdonald-apology-1.6359573

relieved to learn that this is a different randy hillier than the one who played defence for the penguins in the 80s

Dude got booted from the provincial Cons like 10 seconds into covid. He’s a royal selfish piece of shit.

Jean Charest and Harper-stanning National Post writer Tasha Kheiriddin planning to run for the federal Tory leadership: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1863855/jean-charest-course-direction-parti-conservateur

An "anyone but Pierre" movement seems to be gathering steam among moderate Conservatives.

And while I'd prefer anyone but Poilievre myself, and Charest would be a much more acceptable moderate in ideological terms, I'm amazed he can still have a career in politics after the inquiries into corruption during his Premiership.

Damn, this is cringey

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/opinion-canada-needs-you-mr-charest-1.5790873

Lol, "we need a bilingual pro-environment, pro-trade, pro-universal health care federalist leader but, um, not Trudeau."

Charest is currently a consultant for Huawei on the Meng Wanzhou case and for its 5G network plans in Canada.

That seems like a problem.

I’m idly tracking coverage of Pat King’s bail hearing and can’t get over the fact that the person offering surety is named Kerry Komix.

In his submission to get Pat King released, the defence lawyer mentioned the COVID risk in jail for King is a lot higher than if he were out on bail and in the home of his surety.

I will note one of the goals of the protest was to try and end all COVID restrictions #cdnpoli

— Cormac Mac Sweeney (@cmaconthehill) February 22, 2022

Weirdly, Pat King was referenced during the County Commission meeting I'm covering right now in Tennessee. It's a small world! (Of crazy people.)

I would like more context on that one!

Was distressed to learn that King is a Sault Ste. Marie native like myself :(

...

An important message from the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General pic.twitter.com/GuMoolupXY

— GG Rideau Hall | GG Citadelle (@RideauHall) February 22, 2022

pff. she even got any power now with the queen dead?

So lonely on a limb

what's the scene in Ottawa?

A lot quieter and clearer; we still need to go through police checkpoints when we re-enter the red zone (in which we live) but it's more possible to go in and out than it was on Friday.

And it looks like people were taking the 'Memorandum of Understanding' seriously and jamming the GG's phone line for a couple of weeks now! This was from Feb 4: https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/governor-generals-office-inundated-by-protest-supporters-demanding-the-pm-be-fired

little do they know that william lyon mackenzie king gave FDR a secret code that supercedes both the two-line-pass rule and the trapezoid

I would like more context on that one!

So the Pat King reference was to him supposedly winning a court case "proving" that COVID doesn't exist. (Not actually what happened, of course: https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-alberta-case/fact-check-alberta-court-case-not-linked-to-lifting-of-covid-19-restrictions-idUSL1N2PE0EX)

This was in yet another public forum at a public meeting full of anti-maskers. Another one of them ended her remarks about the local mask mandate by yelling "Justin Trudeau is a nazi! Go truckers!"

On the plus side, she probably couldn't have named a Canadian prime minister — or a Canadian — six months ago.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-our-shared-reality-and-the-knowledge-that-undergirds-it-is-being/

The blockades that paralyzed Ottawa and various border points have been removed, at least for now. But the blockades are merely the symptom. The disease is disinformation.

We are discovering for ourselves what until now we had observed at secondhand: large numbers of our fellow citizens can be made to believe almost anything...

It was possible for a reasonable person to worry, circa December, 2020, whether the vaccines developed in such relative haste against the coronavirus might pose some risk to human health. Fourteen months and 10 billion safely delivered doses later, it is not. Valid health exceptions are well known and accommodated; unanticipated adverse events are vanishingly rare.

And yet thousands of people were persuaded that vaccines, and vaccine mandates, pose such a monstrous threat to their health or freedom as to justify occupying the national capital and menacing its citizens, in defiance of the law, for weeks on end. Hundreds were willing to risk arrest rather than obey a police order to disperse. This is not normal.

Opposition to vaccine mandates was not by any means the only idea behind the occupation, or the strangest. Protest leaders appear to sincerely believe, inter alia, that vaccines contain RFID chips, that the governor-general can rule by decree, and that Canada has a First Amendment. This is a movement in opposition not merely to vaccines, but to science, authority, expertise of all kinds: in a word, knowledge.

It is really striking to me how different it feels talking about this online now compared to events from 10-15 years ago. When I look at a forum I used to read in the Harper era, I recall that, while I would disagree strongly with people there, the norm was that they would back up their statements with widely recognized credible sources and we could usually agree on a baseline of facts. Now it's overrun with people insisting that a choppy, clearly manipulative video proves a woman was trampled by a horse and the MSM are lying when they say otherwise, that little girls in BC are having their bank accounts frozen by Trudeau's tyranny, that the protests were completely peaceful (even though four people were arrested on conspiracy to murder and 13 on weapons-related charges), never with citations. Or from friends of friends or distant family I keep hearing things about how video evidence proves that Trudeau has openly admitted he pays the media for favourable coverage, that he personally paid Ford $1M and thus all lockdowns and mandates that appear to be under provincial jurisdiction come directly from him (the head of a minority government!), that the protesters did nothing illegal and were just here for hockey and bouncy castles, that a short first-person clip from a pseudonymous Youtuber showing a police officer arresting him is proof that freedom of the press has been repressed. It sometimes feels impossible to even talk to people when their baseline conception of reality seems that distant.

Yeah, and the immediate, out-of-hand dismissal of information from any credible source — the mainstream media, scientific experts, universities, etc. Like, they won't even engage with the information because anything from those sources is automatically suspect. And when you've ruled those out, all you're left with is random YouTubers and disinformation campaigns.

Two days after passing the Commons, Trudeau revokes the Emergencies Act: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/immediate-emergency-situation-is-over-pm-trudeau-revokes-emergencies-act-1.5793047

Tipsy: yep

Classic power move

When Pearl Harbour happened the meetings stopped. C’mon people, stop pretending. War has started.

— Bob Rae (@BobRae48) February 24, 2022

kinda feels nice to have the US media paying attention to something else now (absolutely nothing else feels nice about this situation)

Those seem like strong words, coming from Bob Rae, of all people. Pearl Harbour is not a light comparison. Wonder what this means for us.

i like Rae, but can't say I agree with him there. also surprised to hear that coming from him.

PAT KING DENIED BAIL

Kerry Komixxxxx must be devastated that she can't throw 50k down a well and then replenish it with givesendgo funds

Hm, I actually appreciate that they're protesting in an appropriate and comparatively respectful way now: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/anti-mandate-demonstration-marches-to-parliament-hill-one-week-after-removal-of-convoy-protesters-1.5797402

Otoh, DC's getting their own convoy, although it sounds like they've prepared:

Preparations are being made in Washington for the expected arrival of the convoy and other similar protests in the coming days. The Pentagon said it had approved 400 National Guard troops from the District of Columbia, who would not carry weapons, to help at traffic posts from Saturday through March 7.

About 50 tactical vehicles were also approved to be placed at traffic posts. In addition, up to 300 National Guard troops from outside of Washington will assist at traffic posts if needed.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-truckers-plan-pandemic-protest-inspired-by-canadian-counterparts-2022-02-23/

downtown vancouver this afternoon will apparently be hosting a rally for ukraine and an antivaxx rally a couple blocks from each other. should be interesting!

hopefully one wildly outnumbers the other.
there was just a bunch of the anti-vax/anti-maskers having their usual weekend stroll down young street shouting "freedom" with zero idea of how especially stupid they sound right now under the current circumstances.
if they really want to fight for freedom, someone should airdrop them into Kyiv.

The U.S. convoy is supposedly stopping through here later this week for a three-hour rally at a truck stop. I guess I'll go just to have a look.

Randy Hillier has been tweeting up a storm of anti-Ukraine material.

I generally take a large shaker of salt with any communique from @georgesoros if this fellow is supporting the Ukraine govt, you know it is totally corrupt https://t.co/kV8Wize8Ix

— Randy Hillier (@randyhillier) February 26, 2022

He also thinks more people will die from the vaccine than in this war.

I fell down a Twitter rabbit hole. I have to say that I did not envision living to see right-wingers in the English-speaking world come around to hating the West and idealizing Russia and Hungary.

Edgelord contrarianism taken to its logical extreme.

Rearguard action against The Enlightenment they've been fighting for 300 years.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2022/02/28/province-to-propose-new-gig-worker-laws-that-mandate-minimum-wage.html

Although this is a good step, it sounds like a more timid version of what Wynne's Liberals were trying to do when the Tories defeated them in the first place.

Breaking: Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says the federal government is preparing to send a third shipment of lethal weapons to Ukraine as its military continues to fend off better-armed Russian forces. #cdnpoli

— Ashley Burke (@AshleyBurkeCBC) February 28, 2022

Seems like two shipments already went from Trenton in February - remarkably low key reporting on it really. I only knew because it was reported in the local paper out there (that I follow on fb).

Thought Rae's speech at the UNGA last night was p good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOIF2IhofIU

1. This is a good & balanced report on Chrystia Freeland's twitter account posting a photo of her with a scarf that was an emblem of the UPA, a Ukrainian fascist paramilitary group once aligned with the Nazis. https://t.co/zYoZ9PH6sh

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) March 3, 2022

the same colours have for centuries been linked to Ukrainian history and culture, explains Jars Balan, director of the Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Centre at the University of Alberta. The UPA did fly a red and black flag, he said, but the same colour scheme appears in literature and art from the 12th century on.

“Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko, the most important poet to rise from Ukraine in the 19th century, incorporated those colours in a number of his works. They are the colours that are used in the embroidery of the Poltava region of Ukraine, which is the wellspring … of the Ukrainian literary language,” he said. “The colours were adopted in 1941, and during the Second World War by the UPA, because they were drawing on this tradition and Ukraine’s struggle for independence.”

Per Anders Rudling, an associate professor in the history department at Lund University who specializes in nationalism, has a different interpretation,

“Red and black are the colours of the Bandera Wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The flag symbolizes blood and soil, and was adopted by that organization in 1941, along with an explicitly totalitarian program. The black-and-red banner is a symbol intimately connected with the most radical Ukrainian right-wing tradition.”

Without having any independent knowledge, Balan's counterexamples seem pretty weak. Heer is probably right that Freeland should just acknowledge the mistake and apologize. I don't think anyone seriously believes that she is a fascist.

I mean, maybe Bernier does but he would do so regardless.

It’s gross that our cons only talk sense quietly when they think the unreasonable parts of their party aren’t paying attention. She should be screaming this from the rooftops.

Rob, tweet was the final straw in the decision to publish this. https://t.co/9A6CkfBbPP

— Michelle Rempel Garner (@MichelleRempel) February 24, 2022

I've read a million insane tweets about WEF without knowing it was referring to Davos

I had to dig into the whole Great Reset thing when I was sending a friend info to debunk some idiotic Russell Brand video. This Naomi Klein article is a really good response imo: https://theintercept.com/2020/12/08/great-reset-conspiracy/

It’s absolutely absurd but I find I can no longer dismiss it. A horrifying number of previously normal people that I know personally or observe in the community have somehow accepted it as the truth. It was a big motivator in the convoys and they are so proud of themselves because they are fighting some great evil. Makes me want to jump off a cliff.

In other news, Hillier has thrown in the towel. Must be legal issues catching up to him - he had to “protect” his tweets a few days ago.

That Michelle Rempel piece is well-argued, credit where it's due. Thanks for linking that

though yeah she probably could do more than make a substack

When the "Great Reset" talk started circulating, I went and looked at the official website and all I could think was, have these people never been to an industry conference? They always have big vague dumb names like that, it's all this lofty speak and then a long list of corporate sponsors. And she's right that the ideas in it are just reheated center-left talking points, there's virtually nothing new in any of it.

though yeah she probably could do more than make a substack

Considering that her party spent two weeks backing the convoy protests and even replaced a leader who didn't support them enough, yes. But yeah, it did clarify where all this random stuff I've been hearing is coming from.

it'll be a hard pass for me on Michelle Rempel for Jen Gerson

ffs

Yeah, you’re right. I was very angry when I first encountered it, but after thinking a bit, her saying it anywhere at all must take a lot of nerve. She must know measured reason won’t change many of their minds. It’s good to see there’s integrity in her. On the other hand, proves to me that there is full awareness of the consequences of feeding this beast, so we’ll see if it shows up in her future actions.

I recently had a local storeowner - a guy I'd chatted with before - ask me out of the blue if I'd heard of the Great Reset and Klaus Schwab. (He brought it up because he was having internet trouble and implied that it might be because of pro-Reset hackers trying to shut down his tweets.) The big thing he brought up that the Reset was trying to do was.... replace meat with lab-grown meat. I'm not exactly clear on why lab-grown meat, if it's viable, is supposed to be worse than killing animals.

There was a bunch of that talk at the Ottawa protest too.

Haha I sometimes have that block with conspiracy theories. The first time I heard about the Illuminati plan to establish a global atheist socialist New World Order, I wondered "this would be bad because...?"

Sometimes I think the worst part is that opposing the tin foil hat stuff positions a person who wants balance, to uphold things that actually are not that perfect. I think there are lots of legitimate conversations to be had about the official response in the past few years, but they are next to impossible to have.

(That first time was when a couple of guys gave their final presentation in my OAC World Issues class, where they explained every one of the global problems we had covered that year with the NWO conspiracy, seemingly completely sincerely. By the end of the presentation, most of the class seemed convinced; even the teacher defended the merits of their argument, although he may have just been trying to be supportive. I suppose it shouldn't really be a surprise that these ideas become more widespread when Facebook is easier to access than the Globe and Mail.)

I know, Kim. It's frustrating to end up having to defend the mainstream media, government, and even big business sometimes.

Ontario provincial voting intentions from Léger / Postmedia:

🔵PCPO 39%
🔴OLP 27%
🟠ONDP 27%
🟢GPO 3%

-> https://t.co/cIuGNkaxNo

[Léger, Feb. 25-27, 2022, n=1,001]#onpoli pic.twitter.com/5OAcRo5mK5

— Philippe J. Fournier (@338Canada) March 4, 2022

Btw my point was actually that Rempel-Garner has an extra-strong responsibility to proclaim this more publicly, even if it means having to leave a party that she herself acknowledges is encouraging this damaging conspiracy theory.

any chance ontario moves to proportional representation in the next couple months?

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-leaders-of-truck-convoy-protests-sought-overthrow-of-government/

Statement from Trudeau's national security adviser justifying the Emergencies Act

no mask mandates in BC, announced yesterday and started today...feels weird!

Being inside in public without a mask feels like getting away with something.

Re the Rempel-Garner piece, the frontrunner in the leadership for her party, less than a year ago:

The globalist World Economic Forum—which Trudeau, Freeland & Carney so adore says, "You'll Own Nothing. And You'll Be Happy."

Maybe that's why government is inflating home prices. pic.twitter.com/bDOe0AXxbx

— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) July 17, 2021

A bit lol to see his supporters being outraged by this piece cautioning against trolling and conspiracy theories, even though Poilievre isn't named, nor any other candidate: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-a-message-to-conservatives-smarten-up-serious-times-need-serious/

Haha is that Rempel Garner in the background of that clip?

Cautious good news (337K new jobs in February, pushing unemployment rate down to 5.5%, below pre-pandemic number): https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-jobs-february-1.6381234

mark mckinney on kids in the hall could have done a great polievre

Lol yes

Bruce McCulloch (aka Gavin) would be the better fit

pic.twitter.com/jDQtGm0Qpo

— Richard Whittall (@RWhittall) March 13, 2022

one hour after my post, wth

Haha

This piece suggests a plan to further privatize health care in Ontario: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/03/15/doug-fords-government-is-quietly-privatizing-health-care.html

And it's overtly on the table in QC: https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2022/03/12/la-caq-proposera-que-le-prive-prenne-plus-de-place-en-sante

Who the fuck looks at the US health care system and says “yup, that’s what we need more of here”?

More pertinently, what do Conservatives see when they look at the US health care system? What tint of spectacle makes that pile of shit look like a rose to them?

Federal - Reportedly, the Liberals and New Democrats have reached a tentative agreement that would keep the government in place until 2025, for exchange on NDP policy priorities.

— Polling Canada (@CanadianPolling) March 22, 2022

The agreement would see the NDP back the Liberals in confidence votes. In return, the Liberals will follow through on some elements of national pharmacare and dental care programs — programs that have long been promoted by the NDP.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeu-jagmeet-singh-working-together-1.6392756

That sounds great tbh.

wow I love this

my hope for the last two federal elections was Liberals needing support from Jagmeet to stay in power, and the math never quite worked out. Wish the NDP held out for proportional representation of course

Plus ca change plus c’est la meme chose pic.twitter.com/V776bqWNtx

— James Cameron (@lumin8) March 26, 2022

"Third party", geez

Randy Hillier facing nine charges: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/mpp-randy-hillier-surrenders-to-ottawa-police-to-face-freedom-convoy-related-charges-1.5837294

Liberal-NDP deal: By 2 to 1 margin, the public thinks it will be good rather bad for Canada.

Plus the latest vote intention, gov't approval, and leader impressions

More here: https://t.co/IFcxa09c1v pic.twitter.com/S7hrfwpib1

— David Coletto 🇺🇦 (@DavidColetto) March 28, 2022

I thought about posting this to the "shit that looks like the Onion" thread but decided it was too niche & unamusing. Still this is utterly deranged reporting: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/hungary-ukraine-refugees-1.6403263

Hungary faced criticism for anti-immigrant policy. But it's opening its doors to Ukrainian refugees

what do you mean?

Hungary's explicitly, unmistakably racist double standard wrt to refugee admission being reported primarily as a feelgood story about how welcoming they're being strikes me as bizarre and repulsive. Yes it does quote a few dissenting voices, but the headline captures the overall tone aptly imo. What is the purpose of this story?

Maybe it's just another banal example of how "objective" both-sides reporting can be dangerous, but it reads like PR for Hungarian fascism

Oh I see, for some reason I thought you were criticizing the article for the exact opposite thing.

it feels like someone wanted to write about both individual Hungarians' acts of generosity and Orban's double standard and mashed it into one article. this paragraph isn't great!

"I saw these children flooding from Ukraine with their mothers … and I really felt I had to do something," said Eszter Zombory-Balogh, 38, who is currently hosting eight Ukrainian refugees in a vacant apartment owned by her father.

"Hungary is not internationally seen as a refugee welcoming country because of our government. But this case is, I think, is different because …they are like us."

ah ok, phew, for a second I worried I'd read it in some uncaffeinated haze and misconstrued things. And yeah that part was where I hit the "wtf am I reading?" point

yeah I'm pretty uncaffeinated here too! my take is the writer didn't mean to write a defence of hungary's racist attitude to refugees, but as you say the human interest details make the point of view incoherent at best

Can the National Capital Region just get its own jurisdiction already now that even Ford doesn't recognize Ottawa as part of Ontario?

I am honoured to welcome Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon on her first official visit to our province.@GGCanada #GGSimon is a role model to so many people across Canada & I look forward to seeing her important work continue during this vital time for our country. pic.twitter.com/BSgDmjUnxB

— Doug Ford (@fordnation) March 31, 2022

Ha, OK, it seems odd that you can say how someone who already lives in a province is "visiting" that same province, whether 'official' or otherwise, but it does look like she used the same language herself so I guess I just didn't know the political terminology: https://www.gg.ca/en/media/news/2022/governor-general-undertake-official-visit-ontario

Last night I had a triple generation encounter with my least-favourite family: while walking by Douglas B. F*** Park in Etobicoke, I received a phone call from Premier Doug F*** asking me to put a sign for Michael F*** on my lawn. The PCs regularly come third in my riding, I hope splitting between the NDP and Liberals doesn't let this guy win.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/woman-with-disabilities-nears-medically-assisted-death-after-futile-bid-for-affordable-housing-1.5882202

A 31-year-old Toronto woman who uses a wheelchair is nearing final approval for a medically assisted death request after a fruitless bid to secure an affordable apartment that doesn't worsen her chronic illnesses.

The looming approval for death surprisingly, makes her grateful. "Relieved and elated," Denise said in an interview with CTV News. "I was scared that they weren't going to say ‘yes’," she said...

...Her story is disturbingly similar to one reported by CTV earlier in April. Sophia also suffered from Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. She received a medically assisted death in February, after fruitless attempts to get an apartment away from smoke and chemicals in her building. Denise said she started the paperwork on her request for MAiD in the summer of 2021, long before Sophia's story went public...

The larger issue of the purpose of medically assisted death in Canada also comes into play, say disability rights advocates. Initially approved by the Senate as a way of alleviating the suffering of those near death, it was expanded in March 2021 to those with chronic illnesses and disabilities.

"We've now gone on to basically solving the deficiencies in our social safety net through this horrific backdoor, not that anybody meant it that way, but that's what it's turned into," said David Lepofsky, disability advocate and Visiting Professor of Disability Rights at the Osgoode Hall Law School.

"With the right support, I have no doubt people with disabilities can live well in society. We all want people with disabilities to know that their lives have value," said Kobluk.

Voted

Yup.

Harden was good during the protest, imo. Felt like an easy vote.

Didn't realize there was a Nate Silver-type site that tracks this:

https://338canada.com/ontario/

God, not even close.

Yeah, we’re fucked.

Fuck

My wife is working at a poll tonight on behalf of the NDP, who are the incumbents here.

I usually think of Eric Grenier as the Canadian Nate Silver: https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/elections/poll-tracker/ontario/

PCs are probably cruising to a win provincially but Harden is also going to win this riding easily. We've been volunteering with his campaign as he actually got results for our own concerns during the pandemic and I agree he was great during the occupation. More effective in Opposition than a lot of MP/Ps are in government (including Naqvi federally). Horwath herself a major disappointment, though.

And why are the Liberals running on bringing back Grade 13?? Every other province and state functions fine without it.

I expected a Tory win. I didn't expect them to gain seats. As the little local victories go, Harden won by a wide margin and the NDP flipped the suburban riding of Ottawa West-Nepean, which had been held by a Tory and which is the kind of seat they need to start winning if they're going to have a chance at winning an election. Grits still don't have official party status.

This isn’t just the lowest turnout in Ontario history. It’s close to being the lowest in Canadian history — behind only Alberta in 2008 (40.6%). https://t.co/1GEfCtYRKW

— Andrew Coyne 🇺🇦 (@acoyne) June 3, 2022

Heard that on the radio. He got 40% of the 42% of the province that voted--a big majority with 16-17% support. It's not like he's actually popular.

Harden was good during the protest, imo. Felt like an easy vote.

So he actually won the most votes of any candidate (and apparently a higher share of the riding vote in any federal or provincial election since 1968).

.@JoelHardenONDP was the ONLY candidate across Ontario to break 30,000 votes this election.

This is what a grassroots, democratic model of organizing can do.

Time to bring that model to every NDP riding association across the province.

— Sam Hersh (@SamHersh01) June 3, 2022

This made me wonder if he's planning on a leadership bid:

Shortly before NDP leader Andrea Horwath announced she would step down as leader of the party, Harden said it was time for new leadership.

"I want to congratulate Andrea for leading us four times into four election campaigns. I was asked in French if I think we need a change in leadership, I do!" Harden said.

I think everyone (including Horwath) thought they needed a change in leadership tbf but yeah, it seems natural that the thought would at least arise now. Some discussion of it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments/v422f5/joel_harden_was_the_only_candidate_across_ontario/

Tbh, his constituency work has been so strong and I would worry a bit about losing that if he became leader.

After killing his mother, Ryan Grantham started driving to Ottawa with guns, Molotov cocktails and camping supplies to assassinate Trudeau before he had a change of heart and turned around. Definitely one of the stranger episodes in Canadian political history: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/barbara-waite-ryan-grantham-squamish-bc-homicide-guilty-sentencing-1.6486914

Not really politics, but the entire country's semi-paralyzed at the moment by a nationwide Rogers outage. I'm posting from a library that uses a different local provider--at home, no internet/phone/TV.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/rogers-outage-cell-mobile-wifi-1.6514373

Internet is working for me, but no phone or texts at the moment.

Videotron is fine -- have we seceded and I missed it?

also, I ofc get what you mean clemenza, but I know a few people who would vehemently disagree that this isn't really politics!

Definitely political from a monopoly standpoint, isn't it? This really shouldn't be allowed to happen. (Says the guy whose internet/phone/TV is provided by Rogers.)

Quadro is pretty common where I live, so there are least three places in town where I'll have Wi-Fi access until this is resolved, including, I discovered today for the first time since I moved here, a park at the end of my street.

Heard on the radio that the communications minister (or whatever--might have even been an opposition critic) is calling for refunds. "Dream on" is my first reaction. Businesses should definitely get some compensation--the local restaurant I went to for dinner had closed down for the day. (Not really sure why they couldn't deal in cash; everywhere else seems to be open on a cash basis.)

Yeah we lost all Internet and mobile service on Friday. Seems ludicrous that so much of the country, including essential public services, depends on this shitty private company. Why are telecommunications and media so monopolistic/oligopolistic in this country? We're switching our mobile service away (to a different corporate oligarch).

Why are telecommunications and media so monopolistic/oligopolistic in this country?

usual answer is big country + low population requires large fixed costs for poor unit economics so it's only worth it for a few large firms to enter

but it does seem like things could be significantly less shitty with the given constraints

Yeah, or at least, if that's the case, that there should be a public utility in the market as well. This is the case in Saskatchewan, where it seems to work OK. Are the US companies prohibited by law from entering the market or does it not seem worth it to them? Seems like that would shift the unit economics if we're talking about a US/Canada market, as opposed to just Canada.

I found myself reading about both Anne Frank white privilege discourse and the KHive this morning and realized I probably need another Internet outage already.

As far as politics goes, has anyone seen any movement on anything the Liberal-NDP accord promised?

solidarity with this brave bee:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-swallows-bee-1.6549613

yeesh

Yeah, at least we have three more years before a general election. Poilievre's acceptance speech was dishearteningly effective imo, striking all the right notes for his audience: starting off with a couple of minutes on the Queen (who, paraphrasing, was the "most powerful woman in the world, though she might have recoiled from the title") culminating in a "God save the King"; hammering home how his victory is a victory for YOU and your ability to hold on to YOUR paycheque vs "Liberal inflation" and the dishonest claim that Trudeau has doubled the debt, adding more than every previous government combined; and, in French, saying that Quebec should be a model for the rest of the country in how it "stands up to wokism" and unapologetically fights to preserve its heritage and culture (at a time when Legault has been talking about restricting immigration in order to protect Quebec's culture from "violence and extremism").

I thought this, from a couple of weeks ago, was pretty thorough on some of the issues with the looseness of Canada's euthanasia/MAiD laws, with a number of disturbing examples: https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-toronto-7c631558a457188d2bd2b5cfd360a867

— Unlike Belgium and the Netherlands, where euthanasia has been legal for two decades, Canada doesn’t have monthly commissions to review potentially troubling cases, although it does publish yearly reports of euthanasia trends.

— Canada is the only country that allows nurse practitioners, not just doctors, to end patients’ lives. Medical authorities in its two largest provinces, Ontario and Quebec, explicitly instruct doctors not to indicate on death certificates if people died from euthanasia.

— Belgian doctors are advised to avoid mentioning euthanasia to patients since it could be misinterpreted as medical advice. The Australian state of Victoria forbids doctors from raising euthanasia with patients. There are no such restrictions in Canada. The association of Canadian health professionals who provide euthanasia tells physicians and nurses to inform patients if they might qualify to be killed, as one of their possible “clinical care options.”

— Canadian patients are not required to have exhausted all treatment alternatives before seeking euthanasia, as is the case in Belgium and the Netherlands.

La déprime.

Yeah what I gathered of the CAQ campaign this time was despicable anti-immigrant scapegoating. That it's paying off so well is depressing, as you say. I'm a bit shocked they're even leading in Hull.

Jmm, have you been following the Ottawa municipal campaign? Catherine McKenney, my leftist nonbinary councillor who has been v good at hammering Watson's crowd for their terrible handling of the convoy occupation and the transit fiasco, actually has a pretty solid lead in the polls for the mayoral race but the many undecided voters could shift things:

Our newest polling in the Ottawa mayoral race has McKenney sitting 14-points ahead of Sutcliffe

But a quarter of voters are still undecided!https://t.co/bu9mXmKEMC

— Mainstreet Research (@MainStResearch) September 15, 2022

Greg 'Jreg' Guevara, a Youtube comedian I already enjoyed, has been running a hilarious satirical campaign to separate from Canada, build a wall around the city and declare Frenglish the national language. It still manages to be less of a shitpost than the actual governance of the city has been for the last four years. Really enjoying his debate contributions.

Yesterday's Quebec election result was expected but nevertheless depressing.

It's also crazy that we now have five different parties with 13% or more of the vote. I would have thought this was maybe the PQs last election, but they somehow managed to get the most charismatic party leader I've seen in a long time and somehow ran a nearly flawless campaign and all of a sudden they are back in the mix. I could totally see them winning the next election in 4 years with this guy once everyone is tired of the CAQ/François Legault.

so this notwithstanding business is some bullshit.
i would expect the province run by cons to fuck with the union and daring them to strike etc. i don't like it – but expected.
but busting out section 33 at the drop of a hat is fucking insane. i am worried too many parents will start blaming teachers and believing the dishonest bs making the rounds.
but my naive hope is these really shitty, heavy handed measures will have more blowback for that piece shit ford and his clowns than they anticipated

I wish there were a better name for it than the notwithstanding clause.

The Fuck Your Rights and Freedoms Clause maybe.

^d'accord

might be my Toronto bubble speaking but from what i see, most parents see it for what it is (Ford and Lecce's fault)

I drove past the picket lines in Sarnia yesterday and it seemed most everyone was honking in support. Pretty sure everyone knows it’s Ford (not that things like this ever stop him getting re-elected)

i am worried too many parents will start blaming teachers

Started under Mike Harris, and I don't know that it's ever stopped. I always say that parents like their own school and their child's teacher, but broadly speaking, most say (or vote like) they don't like teachers. Just my impression.

Afaik this strike doesn't have anything to do with teachers? At least locally, it's support staff, such as custodians, who are striking. Kids still have some online classes.

OK yep:

Many schools are closed as a result of the job action by the union, which represents custodians, administrative staff, education assistants, bus drivers and librarians.

d'accord

While I strongly dislike Quebec's use of the notwithstanding clause to override Charter rights, I can recognize that they do it on issues of principle, such as secularism or protecting the French language, that are important to those leaders and their constituents and that extend beyond a current dispute. Ford's use of this for, essentially, the sake of convenience in steamrolling over contract negotiations is both incredible and vmic for a leader who has demonstrated few principles other than expediency. Coyne suggested a fairly radical solution for the feds that I am tempted to agree with in this case: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-what-ottawa-should-say-to-the-provinces-see-your-notwithstanding/

Nothing to do with teachers, no. But I've heard people on call-in shows say that the teachers are using this showdown for their own nefarious ends later in the year.

Strange, but the board I supply for now, none of the support staff is CUPE. So we're not affected at all. The boards that have brought back online, that really puts those teachers in an awkward spot; they're essentially undermining all the support staff by teaching online. I know they don't want to, but they have to.

Well, that was quick. I honestly think Ford would nationalize the banks and convert all schools to kibbutzim if the polls and his donors appeared to favour it. (Now if only we can get the public and donors to mobilize for health care and home care...)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/cupe-strike-labour-board-ruling-expected-1.6642824

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/11/07/an-enormous-embarrassment-for-stephen-lecce-and-doug-ford.html

i'm not going to call this a "victory" until there's a fair deal in place

Last-minute deal: surprised.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-education-worker-negotiations-1.6658097

Amazing!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-mayor-john-tory-statement-1.6745144

(No posts in two months? Was Canada shut down?)

"Tory will also be remembered as a mayor on the move." lol.

The scandal no one could have predicted.

Except for maybe the Beaverton; who fucking slayed me with this headline:
“John Tory’s career inevitably cut short by his raw, unstoppable sexual magnetism”

I hope our next sober, asexual mayor gives an ounce of a shit about the unhoused

Couldn't believe the picture they had of Tory on the front page of the Star today. He looked like he'd aged 40 years--he looked like a corpse.

Is there any reason to believe that this clears the way for a more progressive mayor? I wouldn't be surprised if we get another Ford (maybe literally).

read a few rumours this weekend that Doug is stepping down as premier to run for mayor (unlikely) and that Michael is running (more likely)

Ford must be reveling in this. Tory, on his radio show, was (correctly, I'd say) really hard on both Fords when the crack story broke. Whatever public front they've put up the past few years, pretty sure they despise each other.

about time that michael york was suitably honoured

https://i.imgur.com/BPWIn7D.jpg

any other Torontonians paying attention to the mayoral by-election? are there even any Torontonians here other than Simon (does he count if he doesn't post anymore) and I?

anyway I'm volunteering for the Josh Matlow campaign though I can't wait until all of this is over

what do people in the city think of Chow?

can't speak for anyone else but she seems to be doing well in the polls (which lol are like a thousand or less respondents each, fuck polling seriously) so she's coasting by on name recognition basically since she's put out like two policy positions while Matlow's put out like 10+ costed, detailed positions

it's a bit annoying

at any other time, ofc I'd be voting Chow and she'd still be better than the last how many years of conservative mayors but still, it's a bit depressing that Matlow's not doing better in the whatever polls are being made public (even though it's still early)

and yes, I know Matlow "plagiarized" his platform (i.e. his policy writer came from last year's Penalosa campaign and basically reused it) who fucking cares except a few people on Twitter who ended up being used by Nick Kouvalis and Ana Bailao good job y'all

Matlow and Chow both seem fine and clearly several orders of magnitude better than my councillor, Bradford. Rest of the field seem like they’ll just roll over for Dougie. Or worse.

oh god, Bradford Bradford (that's his actual name, look it up), what a fucking clown, never seen a guy so transparently craven

Saunders might be worse than Rob Ford and Tory combined, truly nightmare scenario mayor

until tonight (when I just saw a video of Danielle Smith comparing the vaccinated to those following Hitler's orders), the video Saunders posted about naloxone might have been the most evil video I've seen in Canadian politics

sorry, so many thoughts about Toronto politics

Vancouver mayors are pretty crap, but they'd be a lot worse if the entire Lower Mainland voted

Alberta election day is tomorrow; please send us sane vibes.

As someone who moved out of AB years ago and who still has family and friends there, wishing you all the best but honestly expecting the worst from years of conditioning (living in AB)

it's just so great that it can get worse than Jason Kenney.

sending good vibes from BC

Rachel Notley did threaten to cut off all our gas once, but y'know, bygones

tbh I can barely muster up the enthusiasm to tell my family and friends to vote for the NDP - I know D. Smith is evil and blah blah blah etc but it's such a bummer to see how centrist the ANDP have gotten, I realize they have to pander to the O&G folks to win but most of them aren't going to vote for y'all anyway and you're alienating a large part of your core with your pipeline-fucking bullshit

why is it so slow

I think Elections Alberta is using new tabulating technology and at some point, only 72 or something out of 250 machines were working

Or so I heard

Anyway lol lmao

As someone who moved out of AB years ago

As someone also in this position - 15+ years gone and no plans to move back - I'm surprised how annoyed I am at the result. Like, it shouldn't be much of my business by now, but I still care, I guess on behalf of friends and family who are still there.

TO by-election lawn sign report: Biked from the Beaches to Port Credit and back this evening. Mostly Chow signs along with a hilarious amount of Gongs. Not too surprised to see Bradford signs south of Queen here as it’s his ward and all but also saw a goodly amount of Chow and a few Matlows (huzzah!). No Saunders anywhere, guessing he is focused elsewhere.

I was in North York a lot this past week cause my parents were in town and they decided to stay in that area (I was born and raised there), sorry for sounding like the typical downtown Torontonian but shit, that area might as well be a different city/country

barely any frontrunner signs except a few Bailao signs, mostly Gong and Heather He (who? and who????) signs