Hopefully the big sums involved at least give confidence to the people involved in this civil disobedience that there is support for making them whole when it's over. It's been great to see this evolve from something the media pretended wasn't happening into an event dominating global headlines. It's almost a once in a lifetime opportunity to see peoples political actions make a difference.
Presumably the lesson that governments will learn from this is not to introduce rules which apply only to a group that has access to large vehicles. If the rule only applied to hospitality workers, for example, society might have been able to ignore their objections.
Perhaps some countries seeing this will now pass laws requiring that large commercial vehicles only be allowed to travel on routes pre-registered with the government, and automatically enforced using the sort of GPS tracking systems that are becoming standard in cars:
These campaigns are being funded mostly by American dollars. These protests are now a proxy war waged by American anti-vaxxers. Automotive plants are shutting down productions, residents are fed up.
These protestors had very little public support to begin with, but blocking major US-Canada land bridge is completely unacceptable. I couldnt give two shits if these people are made 'whole'
As a Canadian, this is an offensive comment that appears to assume we don't have any concerns of our own. Canada has some of the harshest (and most ridiculous) covid measures in the world, and a bimbo prime minister that has no interest in civil discourse about what measures the federal government should be able to impose on people and is only interested in securing his own power. Canadians are fed up and are protesting. We are definitely divided, like the US, and work-from-home elites (government is a massive employer, especially in Ottawa where the protests are happening) want to keep their heads in the sand and give away their freedoms in exchange for not having to go to work. Real people don't have that choice, and they are pushing back. Maybe this is aligned with some US interests, I dont know or care, but it's ignorant beyond comprehension to pretend that Canadians don't have an issue with the authoritarian policies of our government and it must be some "american anti-vaxxers" that are driving our rejection of government policy. Are they also responsible for the global rejection of covid hysteria?
I've seen some good media interviews with Pierre (I'm thinking of one of the flq related ones where the CBC was giving him a hard time and he argues circles around them). He was obviously intellectual and whether you agreed with him or not he thought about what he was doing. It wasn't genetic apparently. I think he would be embarrassed to see the shallow intellectual position his son has on anything.
> Canada has some of the harshest (and most ridiculous) covid measures in the world
And we have some of the lowest death rates in the world. Should we just condemn the vulnerable people to death because freedom is more important?
Can you give examples of these "ridiculous" covid measures? Sure for a few months, I couldn't go to the theaters or the gym but those are provincial mandates. If you want to protest those, go to Toronto not Ottawa.
If you want to talk about harsh/ridiculous covid measures, go look at the stunts they do China. Spewing hyperbole doesn't help.
> bimbo prime minister that has no interest in civil discourse about what measures the federal government should be able to impose on people and is only interested in securing his own power
Why should he negotiate with people whose demands include the removal of a democratically elected government (from a few months ago I might add)? You can't shut down cities and blockade roads just because the party representing your interests lost but I guess we haven't learned from Jan 6.
If the federal mandate (i.e. getting tested after the crossing border) is unconstitutional, the supreme court is down the road. But let's suppose this mandate is dropped, how can these unvaccinated truckers enter Canada when they need to be vaccinated to enter the US first?
This is a discussion about funding being cut off, which was sidetracked by the upstream comment suggesting that the protest is backed by American interests. The talking points you mention aren't really relevant here.
Doesn't seem too irrelevant. GP talks about this being an American right-wing funded proxy war and should be defunded. You claim that it's actually a legitimate protest and then I refuted your claim that the protests are in fact illegitimate and should be defunded as well.
> Can you give examples of these "ridiculous" covid measures?
Canada has the strictest and most absurd covid policies regarding air traveling in the whole G20. Everyone else has relaxed the measures in 2022, but us.
You must take and provide a negative PCR test at your arrival in Canada, even if you are double/triple vaccinated (with proof from vaccine passport). Other results than PCR are invalid and it must be less than 72 hours. You must also register this information in ArriveCAN system (https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/cor...) 72 hours prior to arrival or otherwise prone to penalty up to $75k or 14 days quarantine.
On top of that, you can be randomly selected for an additional PCR test at your arrival, which you must then quarantine yourself and wait for the results, which in some cases have been reported to take up to 6-10 days.
I think you'll find that most people understand there is a balance to be maintained; nobody wants to see kids die, either because of the virus, or because of the response to it.
> Can you give examples of these "ridiculous" covid measures?
You mentioned the chief one yourself -- people are threatened with losing their livelihood if they don't comply; the ability to work are travel are guaranteed in the charter of rights and freedoms (and the only surviving signatory of that document is suing the government). Many people have been coerced into receiving the vaccines who did not want them.
The measures are not proportionate with the severity of the disease. Everyone was willing to do two weeks to break the curve, but no one signed up for two years of it.
There's no question that China has been insane with their response to Covid.
> > bimbo prime minister that has no interest in civil discourse about what measures the federal government should be able to impose on people and is only interested in securing his own power
> Why should he negotiate with people whose demands include the removal of a democratically elected government (from a few months ago I might add)? You can't shut down cities and blockade roads just because the party representing your interests lost but I guess we haven't learned from Jan 6.
Mr. Trudeau is the prime minister of the entire country, not just the people who voted Liberal. It is his duty to consider what the people have to say. A competent politician would've address people's concerns before they resorted to civil disobedience. Mr. Trudeau says everything is on the table to solve this problem -- everything, that is, except listening to the electorate.
The truckers are not interested in politics. They're not all represented by one party. Indeed, they have the most support from the farthest right and farthest left parties (ie. PPC and Green parties), neither of which have any power.
How many people need to support a position for it to be worth hearing? Do we not make efforts to protect people with extreme minority positions?
> If the federal mandate (i.e. getting tested after the crossing border) is unconstitutional, the supreme court is down the road. But let's suppose this mandate is dropped, how can these unvaccinated truckers enter Canada when they need to be vaccinated to enter the US first?
There are a number of lawsuits in progress from months ago (ex. https://www.mounties4freedom.com). It is surprising how long they take to be heard. It is true that some of the mandates come from the provinces, and some from the USA. The prime minister can address the mandates he has control over and that would help significantly towards defusing the situation.
Yeah, imagine what it's like when your friends and family make comments like this or wish death on you for wanting to have the freedom to choose if taking something is right for you or not. For the record, I'm vaccinated and donated in Canadian dollars.
You're not going to force people to take endless boosters and discriminate against them if they don't. At least not without violence. Which if you use, you will lose even more people.
The resistance has just begun. Extortion works both ways it turns out.
> This web survey was conducted from February 4 to February 6, 2022, with 1,546 Canadians and 1,005 Americans, 18 years of age or older, randomly recruited from LEO’s online panel.
Why are the opinions of Americans used to represent Canadian support?
How much would the support change after they know of the actions taken after Feb 6 like the border and airport blockades?
Or the convoy protestors flooding 911 line in Ottawa with fake calls.
Or the convoy protestors honking _all_ night the first week of the protest. Imagine a resident with a newborn or baby downtown.
Believe it or not, I actually support people's right to choose, with certain conditions/exceptions. However, their actions are out of line and out of hand now.
There was a satirical article talking about how the government wants protesters to stop shutting down the city, so the government can shut down the city. There are lots of potentially legitimate criticisms of how the protestors are choosing to demonstrate (though personally I think they've been very effective). "Disrupting the economy" is a ridiculous criticism in light of the fact that the government is doing exactly that.
> Know this! Canada has absolutely ZERO jurisdiction over how we manage our funds here at GiveSendGo. All funds for EVERY campaign on GiveSendGo flow directly to the recipients of those campaigns, not least of which is The Freedom Convoy campaign.
but it seems the Superior Court of Justice disagrees with that legal theory.
Canadians courts have ignored the government breaking law, and ignoring the Charter of Rights and Freedoms the last two years. Legal theories are meaningless paper. These Judges only stand for their pay cheques it seems.
I have no opinion about the politics of this protest.
However, it seems to me to be a tactical mistake. In the city it is very difficult, if not impossible, to stop truckers from getting fuel, food, and bathrooms. They can create a public problem by blowing horns and blocking business.
On a bridge the police can easily keep anyone from supplying any of these items.
It is also likely to violate traffic laws leading to arrests, fines (possibly per day fines), higher insurance premiums, and loss of CDL due to the violations. Further, due to the linear nature it makes it easier to divert the trucks one at a time and impound them until fines are paid. You only need two tow trucks to clear the
blockade. Any truck that appears to threaten violent action is easily stopped by putting a hole in the radiator.
It seems a tactical mistake to "line up" in a protest.
