It looked like some semblance of order was on its way to being restored in the nation’s capital after Mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency over #FreedomConvoy2022 on Sunday noting the “serious danger and threat” posed by protesters.
But there were still trucks blocking streets downtown by Monday as Watson called on the Trudeau government (again) to appoint a mediator to negotiate with the occupiers and presumably bring an end to the lingering siege on the city.
Someone should tell @JimWatsonOttawa that the occupiers want to overthrow the government. And that it’s the cops who refuse to police his city that is the problem. They don’t like the chief – or his efforts to diversify the force, among other things – and they want his head. Simple.
Indeed, it appears that more than a few police officers from other forces were taking part in the protest in Ottawa. Among them were cops from the group Police On Guard For Thee, which had speakers in Ottawa, including one officer who sent a video message on Twitter (in full uniform) to express her support for the “truckers” and their supposed fight for “freedom.”
The premier – that would be Doug Ford – who has been strategically staying as far away as he can from the debacle, has washed his hands.
He was supposed to send reinforcements to Ottawa. He offered in a tweet on Sunday as the you-know-what was hitting the proverbial fan, that the province has “provided the city of Ottawa everything they have asked for and will continue to provide whatever support they request.”
Some 1,500 OPP officers were supposed to be on the way. But the city of Ottawa reports that they’ve only received about 100 of the promised complement.
It’s been a shit show on all fronts since the so-called Freedom Convoy rolled into Ottawa last Saturday. From the demonstration itself to the limp response (bordering on complicity) of police and political buck-passing by city officials and the premier.
Just how fragile is our democracy? Ottawa provides the perfect example.
After appearing to move on protesters and telling them on Sunday night that jerrycans with fuel to refill trucks would be seized, police were letting people walk right through police lines with fuel by Monday afternoon.
It’s a moment to take notice of the dispositions (political and otherwise) of those hired to preserve democracy and fill our law enforcement ranks. Clearly, it’s an issue over-policed communities have been raising as part of the movement to defund police. It’s now hit home for residents in Ottawa who have had to go to court to seek an injunction against the disruptive behaviour of protestors.
The convoy ostensibly organized to protest vaccine mandates has turned into a putsch to overthrow the government. Organizers have drawn up the legal paperwork and delivered it to the Senate and Governor-General, apparently oblivious to the fact we had an election in September – or how the parliamentary system works. The self-proclaimed “Queen of Canada,” who last time she came out in public ordered her subjects to “kill” parents who want to vaccinate their kids, has also shown up to offer her blessing to the coup.
On Sunday, two of the alleged protestors were caught on camera trying to start a fire in an apartment building where reportedly residents who had earlier been in a confrontation with them live.
It was a reminder that there are darker forces at work behind the protestors standing up for “freedom.”
Some of those forces are linked to groups that advocate homegrown terrorism. Some are linked to U.S. money. All of them have been shamelessly embraced by Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition – that would be the Conservative Party of Canada – which has gone into full-on Trump mode after giving the guillotine to Erin O’Toole last week – and his ill-fated attempt to take the party to the political centre.
Conservative MPs have not only encouraged the disorder – they’ve shown up with coffee and donuts to feed the angry rabble – they’re also reading lines word for word from the Trump playbook. Interim party leader Candice Bergen, she of camouflage-patterned Make America Great Again cap, is speaking in Trumpian tongues.
According to a report first published in the Globe, the Manitoba MP advocated in caucus against asking the protestors to leave Ottawa, invoking the “there are good people on both sides” line used by Trump. That was after an activist was mowed down and killed during the alt-right gathering in Charlottesville in 2017.
Amid the chaos on Sunday, Pierre Poilievre, the party’s very own Bob Roberts – and never one to miss an opportunity – announced via video on social media that he was running to be “Prime Minister of Canada” as if he’s already won the party leadership. Maybe he knows something we don’t.
Indeed, some party strategists have suggested just handing him the title instead of having a race so as to get on with the business of capitalizing on the current wave of anger over COVID-19 restrictions. Poilievre and the Conservatives are now openly calling for all restrictions to be lifted. The Conservatives are setting themselves up to be the Republican Party of Canada, fuelled by the separatist forces out West that have now converged on Ottawa.
As fatigue over pandemic restrictions turns to burnout, the call to lift mandates is increasingly finding favour. Public opinion polls in Canada seem also to be heading in that direction. The problem is that pandemics have a mind of their own, and all it would take to get us back where we started in lockdown – and hospitals on the brink – is for another variant to find its way over here. Then what?
It’s clear now that there was substantial U.S. money behind the convoy. GoFundMe’s decision to freeze and then refund the $10 million raised by organizers – that for failure to meet its service requirements against harassment and violence – has exposed a money trail that leads to the GOP and the Trump Organization, complete with fake and suspect donors.
For example, when Donald Trump Jr. publicly condemned GoFundMe’s decision, the Governor of Florida and Attorney General of Texas both called for an investigation of the company, the latter calling GoFundMe a “BLM-backing company.” Louisiana and Virginia are also reportedly following suit with their own investigations of GoFundMe.
That was hot on the heels of a statement issued by Donald Trump himself calling Justin Trudeau a “far-left lunatic” over COVID restrictions.
Trump forces are openly sowing sedition – we’ve seen it before – and signalling a plan to put their financial might behind the Conservatives to help replace Trudeau as they concoct their own return to the White House in 2024.
The world is shaping up to be an entirely different and more unstable place by then with Putin in all likelihood in Ukraine and Xi right behind him.
Indeed, the protestors occupying Ottawa brought out the horses on Saturday, riding two around the capital. One rider waved a Canada flag and the other a “Trump 2024” flag. Not quite the cavalry, but if it’s beginning to feel like the situation in Ottawa has turned Canada into a third-rate republic about to be invaded by the U.S., it’s because it is.
The country we know – or thought we knew – is being put to the test.
