Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

We’re not your lab rats any more: Convoy update III

Denyse O'Leary
February 10, 2022
Culture, Intelligent Design, Medicine, Naturalism
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Updates from February 24, 2022, forward may be found at We’re not your lab rats any more: Convoy update IV

So much news worldwide now. I’ll just keep adding to it, putting new items at the top so you can keep checking back. I will try to group them loosely by topic where possible. This post is stickied for now so news added on other topics is below this post:

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Canada February 23, 2022

Breaking: Trudeau has revoked the Emergencies Act:

Trudeau made his announcement while Senate was still in session to debate the use of the Act after the House of Commons voted on Monday to keep it.

Had the vote been rejected against Trudeau’s demands, the Emergencies Act would have been immediately ended. If it passed, it would have been in place for 30 days before returning to another vote in Parliament.

Conceivably, his handlers have told him that Hitler is not a good look and that the Convoy is not a good stand-in for the Reichstag Fire.

Developing …

Hmm: Government to Withhold Classified Information Justifying Emergencies Act From Parliamentary Review Committee — probably because it’s garbage. That may be related to revoking the Act, of course (assuming that’s what’s really happening).

Still developing…

Canada’s Trudeau Revokes Use of Emergencies Act

“There never was an emergency that required these extra-judicial powers,” said Alberta Premier Jason Kenney on Twitter.

“What a humiliation for those who were defending the indefensible 5 minutes ago. Alberta intends to proceed with an application for judicial review of the EA [Emergency Act] invocation to address this abuse of power.”

And, of course, Nova Scotia to Lift All COVID-19 Restrictions in March Thank a trucker and those journalists and others that the police horses trampled and the police beat up. After we are done thanking them, let’s go after the thug culture that made all that okay in Ottawa. Don’t let the perpetrators get away without an accounting. If so, they’ll all be back.

There are rumours of a run on the banks after Trudeau started freezing accounts: “Five of Canada’s largest banks mysteriously went offline this week after the government announced it was freezing assets of people supporting the Freedom Convoy, sparking rumors of a bank run or computer hacking.” That would make sense. People who had any reason to fear that the government was out to get them would want to have a big stash of cash. Note: Think about that when your own government starts to make noises about moving to all-digital currency…

—

Canada: February 22, 2022

For all you assorted Karens, male and female, who live to see the lockdown, smackdowns, and crackdowns (because what else have you got in your life?):

Thanks for making crystal clear who you are and what you stand for. We shall not forget.

It gets worse: This is what happens when the government pays media, as in Canada: Canadian journalists are enraged at foreign journalists reporting facts on the ground that they refuse to see:

The New York Times reported last weekend that police in Ottawa had arrested protesters at gunpoint, a claim that was quickly challenged and denounced by prominent Canadian journalists.

“This is wrong,” tweeted freelance reporter Justin Ling, who had been covering the police action from Ottawa. CBC News TV host Ginella Massa called the Times headline “false and incredibly dangerous rhetoric” and CBC radio host Piya Chattopadhyay asked “where are you getting this bs from?” …

Yet truckers were indeed arrested by police in Ottawa at gunpoint, says New York Times reporter Sarah Maslin Nir, who shares a byline on the contested piece with colleague Natalie Kitroeff.

“We saw these [arrests] transpire first hand,” Maslin Nir told Canadaland via Twitter DM, “and in addition have multiple interviews from people this happened to, including David Paisley, quoted in the article…what really is blowing my mind is the wave of JOURNALISTS saying we didn’t see what we saw.”

But, of course, Ms. Nir, they aren’t real journalists. If they were, they would want the story themselves instead of trying to suppress it to suck up to the government that pays them.

Also, these are the kinds of politicians you get if you don’t vote:

Lawyers Urge Parliamentarians Not to Pass Emergencies Act Motion, as Senators Debate the Matter Uselessly, probably: The Canadian Senate has little real power.

From the actual medical data stream:

Do Epidemiological Data Support the Case for Vaccine Mandates?

Discrimination on the Basis of Vaccination Status is Unjustifiable

The vaccines do not provide strong and lasting immunity and, consequently, do not stop transmission of the virus.

This allows vaccine-resistant variants to arise and incubate in infected vaccinated people as a result of the inevitable processes of mutation and natural selection. Because infected vaccinated people have peak viral loads that some research has shown to be equal to those of infected unvaccinated people, they transmit the virus efficiently. Because other vaccinated people have similar immune system environments, the vaccine-resistant or -evading variants arising in infected vaccinated people spread easily to other vaccinated people.

Omicron appears to be such a vaccine-resistant or -evading strain. Based on the information from Ontario, the effectiveness of the current vaccines against this variant is, for all intents and purposes, zero. Ontario’s entire population is now effectively unvaccinated. Moreover, it has become impossible to reach herd immunity even with 100 percent vaccination.

But it has certainly become more possible in Ontario to be injured by a police horse or pepper spray…

Punditry Glenn Greenwald lays out how Justin Trudeau’s actions are part of a broader plan to criminalize and crush dissent: For an admirer of Xi sand Castro, that is the route to a better society. Because “Once Western elites realized the depth of rage and contempt for them, they embarked on a strategy to criminalize dissidents and outlaw protest movements.”

–

United States February 22, 2022

Convoy! It looks like one is getting started in the United States:

At least they know what to expect from the government and the Karens. We’re told, Democrats overwhelmingly approve of Trudeau’s crackdown on freedom protestors, freezing of bank accounts: Poll

Meanwhile, at a university paper, a columnist has been fired for challenging a fellow columnist to debate mask mandates. Progressives don’t want to debate, they want to Cancel the debate. You heard that when it was just ivory tower stuff; now you are seeing it on the ground.

Another toxic environment classic: A physician who alerted the Maryland state medical board about controversial scientist Robert Malone’s alleged promotion of COVID-19 misinformation has been harassed online, faced a retaliatory complaint to his own medical board, and received complaints to his institution after Malone publicly disclosed his identity. Presumably, people have the right to be anonymous complainers if they are the COVID righteous.

On the other hand, one prof survived: Professor protested — but not canceled — for his COVID ‘scamdemic’ syllabus comments

Meanwhile, “A new study from Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Applied Economics supports what I and others have long maintained: lockdowns do not work, and their economic, social, educational, and psychological costs far outweigh any health benefits they might bring.” But, of course, the people harmed don’t matter and the elite who do matter can, famously, break the rules when they feel like it.

Speaking of which, “School Board Fireworks as Fearless Mom Shows Maskless Photos of Chairwoman and Almost Gets Arrested”

Notice all the empty chairs. That’s what’s REALLY wrong with this picture. Every one should be filled with a parent prepared to canvass the neighbours to vote for Recall of school board members.

—

Canada: February 21, 2022 pm

Emergencies Act — a form of martial law — now ratified in Canada: Voting Along Party Lines, Canada’s House of Commons Passes Liberal Government’s Emergencies Act Motion. He is talking in terms of keeping it for two to three months:

Predictably, Trudeau Doubles Down on Use of Emergencies Act After Ottawa Protest Cleared: “More than once, he referenced ‘misinformation and disinformation’ in society when discussing justification for his use of the act.” (His next target may well be independent media.)

And of course: Ottawa police block independent press from filming inside perimeter. Police prevented Alexa Lavoie from entering inside their perimeter to film, but granted exceptions to state-funded reporters. Lavoie was also reportedly physically attacked by Ottawa police

Not surprisingly, Ottawa Mayor Says Can Sell Protest Trucks Using Emergencies Act; Freeland Affirms Cities Have Certain Powers.

Emergencies Acts will be a boon to free-spending, cash-strapped governments because they will give them powers to seize and sell the private assets of persons who have transgressed whatever rules the governments make.

Expectedly: Lawyers Concerned About Ottawa Police’s Threat of Criminal Prosecution of Those ‘Involved in This Protest’

Unexpectedly: Group Involved in Ottawa Protest Asks Court to Halt Federal Use of Emergencies Act: “In submissions to the Federal Court on Feb. 18, Canadian Frontline Nurses (CFN) and its member Kristen Nagle are seeking an injunction to stay the Liberal government’s use of the Act and associated measures while their full case plays out in court… The group said they are opposed to unreasonable COVID-19-related mandates and restrictions that have been implemented by various levels of Canadian governments, and they want a court declaration that Ottawa strayed beyond its jurisdiction in declaring a state of emergency on Feb. 14, saying the move was unconstitutional.”

Punditry:

The Spectator sure got this one right: Trudeau’s totalitarian turn: The Canadian PM is desperate for his own 6 January moment

Judging by his behaviour, Trudeau has been hoping for some kind of violence ever since the truckers’ movement started. He needed something, anything that could serve as a Canadian 6 January moment so as to arrogate even more dictatorial powers than Canada’s existing state of emergency allowed. But despite constant provocation, truckers gave him nothing to work with. Even the efforts of Canada’s finest state-subsidised creative writers (the mainstream media) couldn’t spin this thing — in all its bouncy-castle, dance-party, hot-tubbified glory — into a believable insurrection.

As it happens, the Convoys will likely be punished, in part, all the more severely for not providing Trudeau with his glory moment. It’s all the working class are really good for in the elite view.

At Spiked Online, Brendan O’Neill focuses on another factor fuelling the government’s undisguised hatred of the Convoys: Woke activists who turned out to oppose the Convoy started shouting about transgender rights:

‘I don’t think they are at the right protest’, said one observer. Memes emerged, saying: ‘Truckers: Freedom for all! Counter-protest: Trans rights are human rights. Truckers: What??’ What indeed. And yet, at another level, at a deeper level, this weird, disjointed counter-revolt against the ‘revolting’ truckers actually makes sense. For what we had here was the shrill, noisy reassertion of high-status opinion against the supposedly low-status demands of the truckers for more freedom and better working conditions. This was the correct-thinking set staking its moral authority over the irritated truckers; the upper-middle-class guardians of approved ‘progressive’ thought pushing back against a pesky, old-fashioned, grassroots demand for liberty and respect. There was at least a semi-conscious element to this spectacular non-sequitur on the streets of Ottawa – the elite counter-revolters were essentially saying that identity is now more important than class, that issues like trans rights now thoroughly trump workers’ rights, and that being ‘left-wing’ no longer means supporting the masses against the state, but rather is about reprimanding the masses for their supposed wrongthink and siding with the state against the people…

In other words, that strange ‘trans rights’ counter-protest captured a larger truth about the truckers’ uprising. Which is that wokeness has enabled the Canadian state’s exceptionally intolerant and violent assault on this working-class uprising.

Indeed, O’Neill notes, it is largely progressives who have sanctioned state tyranny against the working class, with whom they no longer even try to empathize.

The Emergencies Act is shaping up as the beginning of a Chinese-style social credit system, says David Sacks,

Banks, according to this new order, have a “duty to determine” if one of their customers is a “designated person.” A “designated person” can refer to anyone who “directly or indirectly” participates in the protest, including donors who “provide property to facilitate” the protests through crowdfunding sites. In other words, a designated person can just as easily be a grandmother who donated $25 to support the truckers as one of the organizers of the convoy.

Because the donor data to the crowdfunding site GiveSendGo was hacked—and the leaked data shows that Canadians donated most of the $8 million raised—many thousands of law-abiding Canadians now face the prospect of financial retaliation and ruin merely for supporting an anti-government protest.

Already, a low-level government official in Ontario was fired after her $100 donation came to light. A gelato shop was forced to close when it received threats after its owner was revealed to have donated to the protest. On Wednesday, Justice Minister David Lametti went on Canadian television to say the quiet part aloud, namely that anyone contributing to “a pro-Trump movement” should be “worried” about their bank accounts and other financial assets being frozen.

When these protestors or those that supported them end up in financial hardship because they lose their job, business, or bank account, what will happen to those who try to help them? Will Canadian financial institutions be forced to play Six Degrees of Deplorables? The fear of being ensnared in the dragnet will surely have a chilling effect on the commercial prospects of those suspected of “unacceptable views,” creating a caste of untouchables whom no one will dare to transact with or help.

One hopes few delude themselves that once such a system is in place, it will stay with the Convoys. Many people disagree with the government on many things. The pickings will be rich, once they can be demonized.

Canadian journalist Jonathan Kay reminds us,

But Trudeau’s extreme rhetoric does have an audience. In fact, it’s very much in tune with the apocalyptic narrative about the protest that’s been crowdsourced over the last few weeks by thousands of influential Canadian public figures. Many journalists, in particular, have convinced themselves that the Ottawa protest signalled a sort of white supremacist political revolution. And it is this social panic, not the question of whether an increasingly discredited Trudeau cobbles together another minority government in the next election, that concerns me most…

In fact, as an eastern Canadian urbanite who’d initially bought into the idea that the convoy was basically just a means for western yahoos to spread an anti-vaxxer message, I was pleasantly surprised by how moderate and multicultural the whole thing turned out to be. In Toronto, the convoy’s supporters held a massive street rally that featured, among other amazing sights, Sikhs blasting Bhangra music while holding aloft Canadian flags and hockey sticks.

But the media people believe what they need to believe to justify their position, which is no longer conveying news to the people but helping the government shape a narrative it needs.

Kay offers some interesting embeds:

—

This vid says it all about their (in)ability of the government-funded media to even want to get the story:

More Kay:

Trudeau’s former right-hand man, Gerald Butts, told Canadians they were witnessing an “insurrection,” and then gushed enthusiastically over the doxing of those who’d given money to protesters. The claim went around that references to truck horns comprise a form of Nazi salute, since the term “honk honk” is a stand-in for “Heil Hitler.” (Naturally, a columnist wrote that we need to ban horns altogether.) Doctors tweeted out invented claims that protesters were running around attacking medical workers. An Edmonton journalist dramatically announced that he was taking the identifying corporate stickers off his car because he feared being set upon by feral yobs (though he couldn’t have been too scared, as he included photos of his car in his announcement). At one point, the CBC devoted a whole story to two Indigenous women who stayed inside their Ottawa apartments because they were terrified of going outdoors lest they be set upon by racist violence—this despite the fact that Indigenous drummers had led the Ottawa protest corps in a rendition of O Canada.

One gets the impression that the Woke don’t so much care about Indigenous people as that they hate working class people.

Canadian media figures were also complicit in spreading ridiculous hoax stories:

Kay concludes: “If those imaginary “insurrectionists” ever do show up, it’s hard to imagine they could do more to harm this country than the progressive hysterics who claim to be protecting it.”

Public intellectual Jordan Peterson and senior Canadian journalist Rex Murphy discussed the situation recently:

Canadian commentator Mark Steyn writes:

At the suggestion of some Steyn Clubbers, I caught this discussion between Jordan Peterson and Rex Murphy. I have been watching Mr Murphy on telly for almost as long as I can remember, but for the first time ever I barely took in a word he was saying because his ashen devastated face seemed to be telling the story just as profoundly. The programme was called “The Catastrophe of Canada” and it was etched into the visages of both guest and host. As I’ve been saying, and as Ms Freeland confirms, things are moving very fast.

—

United States, February 21 2022

Finally, an American gets it:

Trudeau’s dangerous not just because he’s abusing Canadians, but because he is providing the wish list for crackdowns by Democrats in the U.S.: “every single bank, credit union, investment broker and insurance provider in the country has been deputized to figure out if they have a blockader as a client, and to immediately freeze their accounts if so.” “The goal is not just to crush political dissent, it’s to crush the opposition’s spirit by depriving them of their livelihoods, ability to survive financially, and even taking their pets*.

(*Euthanasia was an implicit threat in that case because the Ottawa Humane Society has the power to do that with animals it gains control of.)

It’s not something about Canada. It’s something about who you and your neighbours vote for, if you bother to vote.

Now U.S. health bureaucrats are changing definitions to do damage control about the delay in children’s development due to the COVID crazy.

For the first time in decades, the CDC has changed many of the recognized milestones for childhood development in terms of speech and cognitive functions. These markers are considered important in terms of recognizing when children aren’t progressing quickly enough, suggesting the potential need to determine if some sort of impairment is being observed and if the child may require greater medical attention. The curious thing about the changes instituted by the CDC is that in a majority of the cases, they have lowered the standards rather than raising them.

Also: “One of the authors of this study, Jennifer M. Zubler, said that the changes were made to the guidelines ensure that it reflects milestones that at least 75 percent of children can reach. Since children are no longer able reach these previously attainable milestones, they have been lowered.”

Karen likes seeing toddlers in cute little masks, trying to form words when they can’t see anyone’s lips moving. That makes it all worthwhile, right?

A U.S. senator, Rand Paul, offers: “If I could, I would give the truckers some bitcoin.”

That bring us to another shift: Bitcoin is starting to seem like a reasonable idea to many (provided it can be made government-proof):

But some warn, Bitcoin can’t help: “In fact, the IRS is already imposing reporting requirements on crypto exchanges, demanding that users verify their identity or have their accounts restricted. Signed into law in November 2021, HR 3684 extends cash reporting requirements to digital currency exchanges, and those exchanges have already started to require increased compliance. In other words, if you aren’t operating directly on the blockchain, crypto is really no different than any other type of banking.”

Meanwhile, a change in political alignments: The Right Is Starting to Represent Workers Outside of Unions:

Rubio and Banks argue that many Americans don’t want to join a union, but do want a collective voice at work and should have a legal path to getting it.

Their argument prompted loud criticism from several prominent voices on the political left, who dismissed the proposal as a bad-faith effort to undercut American workers. This is odd, given that new options for voice and representation are exactly what workers say they want.

If so, it makes sense. Progressives no longer mainly represent workers; they mainly represent civil servants. Workers who want freedom will be seen and portrayed by leftists as “white supremacists,” even if they are, like the lady with the walker who got mowed down by a horse, Mohawks or belong to another Indigenous nation. The progressive term of art is “white adjacent,” meaning that they value freedom and human dignity as much as white people are, lamentably, supposed to do and feel that they have the right to demonstrate for it.

In the background, US Agencies Quietly Studying Reports of Post-Vaccination Neurological Issues

The last word this time out is from Canuck in the Coal Mine:

Or anyway, more practically, look to your defenses.

—

Canada February 21, 2022

The Convoy is going to peacefully (as always) withdraw from Ottawa rather than continue to expose people to being punching bags for police. Then there’s the government’s hit jobs:

The ruling class in Canada are hoping that people will somehow unsee this:

A U.S. House rep is introducing a bill to offer asylum to Canadian truckers. ““Just as we provide asylum for political prisoners, we should do the same for truckers who have been subjected to violence, had their property confiscated, and their bank accounts frozen by a government that is quickly becoming the embarrassment of the free world,” Herrell said in a statement on Twitter on Saturday.”

So “Karen”’s gloat in the combox below that the truckers might lose their licenses may not matter so much. Everyone needs truckers now. Most goods can’t be sent by the internet.

The Ottawa Convoy might want to consider the Victoria option. Jam the roadways waving flags. Every few times people do that, another one of Mask Karen’s Crazies gets relaxed. Yes, Karen is in catfits. But the guys who really make the decisions — and are indifferent both to her catfits and to citizens’ well-being — see votes going elsewhere, come next election. = Hmm. Maybe kids shouldn’t be made to keep the masks on outside at recess and forbidden from playing with those outside their Social Bubble… Will that pacify the gutter dwellers out there… ?

Meanwhile, as Canadian commentator Mark Steyn observes, “Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s ever more sinister and ghoulish Deputy Prime Minister (and simultaneous board member of Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum), is quite upfront about making “emergency” powers permanent:”

Chickens. Starting. Come. Home. Roost.

Karen has far more assets than some single mom in a smalltown. Any time Karen steps out of line, finding herself somehow on the wrong side of some insane Woke persecution or something… karma!

And:

Straight talk in the House of Commons about the real emergency now in Canada:

The real emergency is that Karen is out of control, there are millions of her, and she is bearing down hard on people who actually know how to live, given a chance.

Perhaps significantly: The willing self-degradation of government-funded legacy media, shown most ripely in this Convoy confrontation, may be filtering down to average people. Expect the internet-literate (an increasing number) to abandon the historic legacies even more as the problem becomes glaringly obvious: It’s one thing to be paid by a tycoon who doesn’t care what you write if you’re still profitable. It’s another to be paid by a government that does care and just expects you to write what Trudeau needs:

Punditry:

From the Wall Street Journal editorial board:

Mr. Trudeau justifies the “public-order emergency” by inflating the protest into a terrorist plot to overthrow government. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association disagrees and sued Thursday. It says the standards for an emergency—“threat or use of acts of serious violence against persons or property” that “seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians” beyond “the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it”—are not met.

Protests aren’t emergencies, and Western leaders had better get used to handling civil disobedience firmly without traducing civil liberties. Mr. Trudeau criminalized a protest movement, deputizing financial institutions, without due process or liability, to find and freeze personal accounts of blockaders and anyone who helps them. These extraordinary measures are a needless abuse of power. . . .

Weak responses to civil disobedience have hurt Canada for years. New gas pipelines are increasingly stymied by blockades, often by green or aboriginal activists. On Thursday men wielding axes attacked a pipeline drill site and its workers in British Columbia. That’s worse than anything the truckers have done. Via Instapundit

Perhaps the Wall Street Journal editors are politely pretending not to know that the axe-wielders are the militia of progressive government, thus largely exempt from crackdowns. The Convoy is a menace because it represents the dreaded insistence on accountable government.

From the New York Post: Justin Trudeau’s Canadian injustice is just a naked grab for power. Yes. And it’s not lost on the elite where you live, guys. Already, they are probably thinking about all the things they can make you do on pain of losing everything…

“You need not go to war. War is coming to you.”

—

Canada February 20, 2022

Victoria Convoy on February 19, 2022

Yesterday, I (O’Leary for News) went down to the local Convoy again here in Victoria.

For those just joining us, Victoria, the capital city of the westernmost Canadian province British Columbia (BC), is a small city on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, just off the coast.

I reported on the Convoy on January 5 from roughly the middle of the stream, then later on January 12 from where it first began to form way up at Douglas and Saanich (search on “Victoria” below for details).

Yesterday, I took a route that brought me right down to the Legislative Assembly, where the Convoy turns around and heads back up Douglas.

It’s a typical Convoy of the sort that is helping to force governments to abandon COVID Crazy rules across Canada. Take notes; you may need to do the same where you live.

As before, it was a huge parade of cars and SUVs draped in Canadian flags, honking horns, laughing and shouting. I saw only a few rigs. Makes sense; we can pack more people into cars and more cars into the same road space.

Many pedestrians were displaying or even wearing Canadian flags. One driver had painted her car to look like one. A clown, dressed in what appeared to be a flag, was blowing enormous bubbles out of a giant soap bubble contraption, to amuse children. Many drivers and pedestrians had brought their dogs.

A number of police were standing around chatting because there was really nothing for them to do. It’s not illegal to honk horns in general. (What if the Vancouver Canucks won the Stanley Cup in hockey? There’d be honking all night.) Nor is it illegal to display Canadian flags or create a traffic jam on account of numbers alone.

Note: The traffic jam was due to stoplights, not because the bumper to bumper traffic was doing an intentional slow roll.

I observed no hostility and the only bad language was on signs referencing Justin Trudeau.

Almost no one on the sidewalk offered any opposition and many people were smiling quietly to themselves.

Opposing views

The British Columbia government had, just days earlier, relaxed the ban on social interactions. So I got to hear some opposite views I don’t usually encounter. It was disquieting, to say the least.

Some expressed a great deal of anger over the idea that the Convoys want Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign. That, they felt, merits a harsh crackdown.

Well, the harsh crackdown is certainly happening in Ottawa (scroll down) but it’s not likely to make Trudeau’s position more stable. He has helped put his party underwater in the polls. Stories about people getting trampled by police horses will only help him with individuals whose support he could not decently want.

But wait. There’s a bigger point here. I can write to Trudeau myself and request him to resign. I can get (probably could get, at this point) 6,000 people to sign the letter. And — at least in Canada as I have known it for over 70 years — no one can do a thing about that, nor is it considered problematic or treasonable. Trudeau can ignore the letter, though he would be wiser to pay attention to the numbers.

The Convoy participants are free to do the same thing, individually or collectively.

And yet some people who have lived here all their lives are astonished to realize that?

In some ways, the Convoy is thus illuminating a historically significant divide between people who would settle comfortably into totalitarian rule and people who are used to traditional freedoms and will peaceably defend them.

Meanwhile, “On Wednesday The Mark Steyn Show delved further into Trudeaupian totalitarianism. Jacob Wells, founder of GiveSendGo, joined Mark to reveal that it was an individual with close connections to Canadian intelligence services who hacked into his site, and then made the names of donors to the truckers available to the media for doxing”:

Also from Steyn: “Freedom”‘s Just Another Word for …er, ” White Supremacism:

In any previous Canadian media environment, it would be the behaviour of the Mounties that would be abnormal and under scrutiny. But physical lockdown seems to have inculcated in the citizenry a psychological lockdown that will be far harder to lift. So, on the CBC’s Cross-Country Check-Up (a show once hosted by Rex Murphy), the word “freedom” is now suspect.

It’s suspect mainly among progressives and their followers, actually. Worldwide, the Canadian flag is becoming a symbol of freedom but — in a historically remarkable development— the symbol does not represent the government of Canada or its government-funded media minions but those of the people of Canada who oppose them.

And all we “convoy” Canadians ever say is, use our flag — if you want — for creative, non-violent demonstrations against the COVID Crazy. Please remember, many of your neighbours are still cowering in government-induced terror and be kind to them. They can’t help what they have been subjected to. We’ll deal with that later.

Our main point is, countries belong to the peoples of those countries, not to assorted pols, crats, tyrants, minions, etc., for whom the people are either lab rats or an impediment in the drive for absolute power and zero human environment footprint.

To sum up: Our flag’s appeal, as currently understood, is for those who do not share the progressive totalitarian vision of humanity.

Now some fun with Brit comic Russell Brand:

Exit: Here’s a disgusting attempt at National Geographic to defend masking schoolkids. Rethink your science subscriptions.

–

Canada, February 19, 2022 pm

Justin Trudeau’s idea of keeping people safe:

LEAKED RCMP MESSAGES: “Time for the protesters to hear our jackboots on the ground”

In what appear to be authentic screenshots of the RCMP Musical Ride team currently in Ottawa to assist in the crackdown on peaceful protesters in the capital city, members brag about using brutal force.

Over the last 24 hours in Ottawa, police have deployed pepper spray and canisters on demonstrators, arrested dozens and trampled two people with horses.

Rebel News’ Alexa Lavoie was brutally struck with a baton, shot at close range with a pepper canister which then broke, burning her face and eyes.

In the chat, RCMP Musical Ride member, Andrew Nixon sends a picture of a pint of beer hoping for his chance to abuse protesters:

I’ve always loved the Musical Ride but now think it should be disbanded. – O’Leary for News

Alberta to File Court Challenge Against Ottawa’s Use of Emergencies Act, Kenney Says

Here’s a live stream of a Convoy in Quebec:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHfrzKT2WIc

Leaving you with this thought from an American:

—

U.S. February 19, 2022

Montana attorney general launching investigation into GoFundMe for shutting down Freedom Convoy

The platform then state it would redistribute the funds, but did not provide automatic refunds to donors until widespread outrage on social media forced the company to revise its position.

[Montana Attorney General Austin] Knudsen told the publication that he wants to know why GoFundMe wanted to appropriate funds from donors without their permission and wants to investigate whether the company has done so in the past.

Yes, that’s what should attract the attention of investigators. When people have that cavalier an attitude to money given to them in trust, there’s a good chance that there is way more corruption underneath. Maybe not but… let’s see.

Meanwhile, Boston abruptly lifts vaccine mandate “Boston’s new mayor, Michelle Wu, took the city by surprise yesterday when she announced that Beantown’s requirement for proof of vaccination to enter most indoor businesses was being lifted “immediately.” This was particularly good news for bars and restaurants in the city which have struggled to enforce the mandate and seen their customer traffic (and profits) tanking over the course of the pandemic.”

Vaccine mandates are being abandoned “across America”:

But, and this is going to be one of the bigger challenges now: MSNBC Reporter Admits Democratic Base Doesn’t Want to Go Back to ‘Normal’:

A recent poll showed a whopping 65% of Democrats who believe it “too early to rescind mask mandates” as opposed to just 20% of Republicans who think that way.

Seitz-Wald is correct. Urban Democrats especially have taken mask-wearing to a whole other level, making the kind of mask you wear sort of like gang colors. That’s not an easy identifier to lose under any circumstances.

In fairness, not all are Virtue signallers; many have been just plain terrified for years by irresponsible context-free propaganda. Getting them out of the cult will not be easy.

Apparently, a writer lost a column at Forbes: for talking about Fauci’s salary: “It’s an unchallengeable fact that the Sun appeared over the horizon this morning. It’s also a fact that Dr. Anthony Fauci is paid more than any other federal employee, ever. Publish the former in Forbes, hey, no problem. But if your name is Adam Andrzejewski and you publish the latter fact on the digital pages of Forbes, you get terminated by spineless editors who fear offending the powerful in government.”

Hmm. Americans might be well advised to worry less about Justin Trudeau and more about what is happening where they live. It’s ripening; it’s just not quite ripe yet.

—

Canada, February 19, 2022

BREAKING: Rebel News journalist Alexa Lavoie attacked by Ottawa police: “Rebel News CEO Ezra Levant has spoken with Alexa and with legal counsel. We will sue the police on Alexa’s behalf.”

Disturbing live feed.

Breaking: Turns out the lasting image of the Freedom Convoy protest at Parliament Hill will not be bouncy castles but that of a woman with a walker being trampled by a police horse.

But that was not the only troubling incident.

Another saw a protester behind a police line repeatedly being smashed with an officer’s rifle.

And convoy organizer Benjamin Dichter also told the Toronto Sun “one of drivers had his truck windows smashed by Ottawa Police (with) guns drawn and (he was) dragged out of his vehicle by force.” – Joe Warmington

And yet, while noisy, they had never been violent.

Warmington, an actual journalist in a sea of poseurs, is making enquiries, noting “No matter how it’s spun at the end of the day, a majority of these protesters merely didn’t want to take a vaccine, parked illegally, honked their horns and disobeyed Trudeau. It’s not enough to hurt them.”

Yes it is, if you want an authoritarian naturalist atheist state.

Thank you, combox Darwinians, for making clear what sort of system you actually support.

—

Canada, February 18, 2022

Hundreds of Police Determined to Break Ottawa Protesters

Mounted Police Knock Protesters Down, as Over 100 Are Arrested in Ottawa

Ez Levant: The protesters are resisting passively.

They fired the Ottawa Police chief the other day. No reasons given. I think I know why — he wasn’t prepared to get violent against peaceful protesters

So the new chief will follow orders. He’ll do whatever needs doing.

Like cancelling Parliament.

How is this going to end? Well, the protesters are offering passive resistance. They’re not fighting. They’re doing it the way Mahatma Gandhi did it — just not cooperating. Just not obeying — but not resisting. They’ll be charged. They’ll be abused. And given how the courts have been these past two years, I’m sure this latest, most outrageous assault on our liberties will be upheld by the authorities — and the media party will write a false history of it, how Trudeau and his brave police saved the country from the bouncy castles.

Yeah. We went into a national emergency for that.

What’s the point of Parliament, if this was done without waiting? What’s the point of an opposition, if they agreed to flee when police told them to flee.

What’s the point of a media if they are cheerleaders of the regime.

The significance of the House of Commons fleeing the scene is coverred by Mark Steyn here:

Canada’s descent into banana republic (the banana being the one in Trudeau’s pants when he does his blackface “Day-o” routine) continues hour by hour: Today was the day the House of Commons was required by statute to give legislative endorsement to his “emergency” but instead Parliament is “closed” for a police operation related to the “emergency”. So implementation of Trudeau’s “emergency” has made it impossible to give legal approval of his “emergency”.

The Opposition voluntarily fled so it would appear that Trudeau does not need Parliament’s approval.

Meanwhile, Canadian columnist and commentator Andrew Lawton has been pepper sprayed

Bakery facing threats and harassment over leaked convoy donation:

Employees at a Burlington, Ontario bakery are being harassed online and at their place of business after it was revealed that one of the owners donated to the Freedom Convoy fundraiser…

“The staff on shift at the time were all young women, girls basically under the age of 25, so for a man to come in and aggressively verbally assault our staff members is shocking.” …

The owners’ donation to the Freedom Convoy was publicly linked to the business on Monday after hackers illegally obtained and leaked a list of all donors who gave through a GiveSendGo fundraiser… Anonymous Twitter accounts immediately began doxxing convoy donors, and prominent members of the legacy media and the Liberal Party of Canada were sharing the illegally hacked materials online.

No, it is not shocking. It is the laptop class’s Canada coming into full bloom. The big prize, of course, is the United States.

Seizing the Convoy’s pets is threatened:

My (O’Leary for News’s) experience with the Ottawa Humane Society is that, under normal circumstances, they try not to euthanise animals. But who knows where zeal to please the government may lead them, once animals are “relinquished”?

and

Convoy protesters link arms to prevent Ottawa police from arresting lone trucker.

Some commentators (and commenters) raise the fact that violent protest is tolerated in Canada. For example, ‘Masked and violent attackers’ armed with axes and flare guns attack Coastal GasLink drill site in BC. “The alleged attackers, whom the Royal Canadian Mounted Police say engaged in a “violent confrontation with employees of Coastal GasLink” also assaulted attending police officers, injuring one.”

Axe-Wielding Assailants: In Handling Long-Running BC Pipeline Protests Vs Ottawa Anti-Mandate Protests, the Double Standard Is Obvious “Millions of dollars in damage were wrought in the attack on the Coastal GasLink (CGL) site and a police officer was injured. Security personnel were threatened by axe-wielding assailants while trees were downed across the road and traps were placed in order to block police from attending the scene. With such a bold and dangerous attack, it is fortunate that nobody was killed.”

No, wait. It is not a double standard. The axe-wielders are the militia of the internationalist laptop class. The laptoppers don’t like oil even though Canada’s prosperity depends on selling natural resources. So their axe-wielders will be largely ignored and forgiven. It is only those who stand against the laptop class who are treated as a crisis.

While tens of millions of dollars from foreign sources have been pumped into environmental groups opposing pipeline projects, there has been no effort on the part of the government to track and seize those funds, much less the bank accounts of the donors.

Remember, it is an internationalist laptop class. They and their foreign friends like playing with Canada and Canadians. The Convoys have done the unthinkable in actually confronting them. And it won’t be the laptoppers’ fault if the Convoys and anyone who supports them doesn’t pay dearly.

Punditry:

An American observer at Reason comments:

Part of Canada’s problem is that the country has rarely seen large numbers of people take to the streets in opposition to government actions. As a consequence, officials and some members of the public are wigging out over what would cause people elsewhere to shrug.

“By the standards of mass protests around the world, the ‘Freedom Convoy’ snarling Downtown Ottawa ranks as a nuisance,” The New York Times editorial board pointed out last week. “The number of protesters, about 8,000 at their peak, is modest; there have been no serious injuries or altercations, the truckers stopped blaring their horns after residents got a temporary court injunction against them.”

But that’s not how the country’s government sees it. After first going into hiding while issuing snarky communiques about the “unacceptable views” of Freedom Convoy protesters opposed to vaccine mandates and lockdowns, Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time ever against those he not long ago characterized as a “small fringe minority.”

Maybe. But some think that if Americans try convoying for freedom from mandates, masks, and lockdowns, they will face the laptoppers’ goon squad too. We shall see.

At Spiked: The truckers’ protests have exposed liberals as authoritarians and leftists as enemies of the working class:

It’s a terrifying development for a country that calls itself a democracy to use such excessive means to quash dissent. Even going by Canada’s own laws, Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act is surely unconstitutional, as it requires a ‘national emergency’ so serious that it cannot be resolved by any other means. Trudeau has not met with the truckers even once to attempt to defuse the situation, so how could he possibly know that he couldn’t resolve the emergency any other way?

Actually, It’s been a long while since leftists represented the working class. Mostly, they represent civil servants. Huge political realignments may be expected in decades to come.

At Spectator:

An op-ed in the Washington Post about the Canadian truckers’ protest tells us that the idea of freedom is “White” with a capital W and that the truckers’ belief in freedom is “a key component of White supremacy.” This is about as sensible as saying that the idea of gravity is “English” or that the Post reports the news. True, Newton’s apple fell in England and the Post looks like a newspaper, but gravity is universal. The same goes for stupidity, though that takes many forms, and for the impulse to be free, though that too takes many forms, some of them stupid.

In fairness to the author of the op-ed, “a white PhD student at private Ivy League university,” it has likely never occurred to him that the Canadian proletariat (who are mostly white, now that he mentions it), should expect to be free, like he is. So he interprets the story in the only way he knows how. And the problem isn’t the stupidity, actually, it is the viciousness.

At The Stream: “Enough Already With the Swastika Comments” The swastikas were, of course, intended as an insult to Trudeau’s government (a poorly chosen tactic on the part of those who used the emblem):

But that didn’t stop the Foreign Policy website from claiming, “Not unlike the U.S. Capitol riot, the movement has attracted a diverse array of self-described patriots waving Canadian flags alongside Confederate battle flags, swastikas, symbols related to the Quebec sovereignty movement, and QAnon conspiracy banners.”

What a misleading and exaggerated picture, whether or not one supports the Convoy. A much different picture is painted by Pastor Jim Garlow here, as Christian truckers were singing Martin Luther’s famous hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”

Flag of Quebec.svg

Note: It’s possible that the people at Foreign Policy, who face no penalties for getting it wrong, assumed that the Fleurdelise flag of Quebec or various fleur-de-lis emblems for an explicitly separatist emblem.

Nigel Farage’s view:

At The Stream: When Trudeau said he admired China, Canadians should have believed him.

—
United States February 18, 2022

Capitol Girding for Potential Trucker Protest at State of Union “In a statement Friday, the Capitol Police said local, state and federal law enforcement agencies as well as the District of Columbia National Guard are “aware of plans for a series of truck convoys” arriving in the city around the time of Biden’s March 1 address and are coordinating security planning.”

Given current economic woes, the administration should probably welcome the distraction but that would depart from the Narrative.

EXCLUSIVE: ‘The People’s Convoy’ Heading to Washington, Organizers Unveil Their Plans “At the start of the convoy, an estimated 500 to 1,000 trucks will gather [at the Barstow area in California] and depart eastward for Kingman, Arizona. The next morning, they will depart from that location and head east on Interstate 40 toward Lupton, Arizona. On Feb. 25, they plan to arrive at Glenrio, Texas… Multiple groups will be joining the convoy as they drive toward the capital.”

Punditry:

When spreading ‘misleading narratives’ becomes a crime:

Meanwhile, south of the border, President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security has issued a “National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin”, suggesting that if a citizen opposes mask and vaccine mandates, they may be a “domestic violent extremist”.

According to the bulletin, released earlier this month, the United States is experiencing a “heightened threat environment”. It warns that “threat actors seek to exacerbate societal friction to sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions to encourage unrest, which could potentially inspire acts of violence.”

In describing the sorts of “false or misleading narratives” that could motivate people to commit violent acts, the bulletin lists “widespread election fraud” at the 2020 election, and the perceived harms of “5G cellular technology”.

The DHS dispatch likewise cautioned that “COVID-19 mitigation measures — particularly COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates — have been used by domestic violent extremists to justify violence since 2020 and could continue to inspire these extremists” to carry out attacks.

Americans may be closer than they think to where their cherished civil rights are confetti. It’s not just Canada.

All Sides Alert compares positive media responses to the George Floyd riots with negative responses to the Convoys. Most interesting.

Rod Dreher, author of Live Not By Lies, offers

I’m at Day Two of a conference at MCC in Budapest. At lunchtime, I was talking with an American journalist. When I mentioned that the Canadian government has threatened to freeze the bank accounts of protesting truckers, her jaw literally dropped. And now, the Trudeau government is using emergency legislation to cut even people who are indirectly involved with the truckers’ protest — such as those who donated to them — from the financial system. You may not be able to buy, sell, or access your money, apparently, if you are in any way suspected of aiding the truckers. From the CBC:

“Under the regulations, the banks have a “duty to determine” who among their customers is considered a “designated person” who should be denied financial services. The regulations stipulate it is up to the banks to “determine on a continuing basis whether they are in possession or control of property that is owned, held or controlled by or on behalf of a designated person.”“ “Banks will be working with law enforcement to decide who should be “de-banked.””

“When are we going to face that we are headed towards totalitarianism?” she said.

“Well, I wrote a book about that,” I said.

He gets what time it is: “Every single day there is another sign that we must, must, must start preparing ourselves for the day when they will come after us, simply for dissenting. ”

Fun:

Man Donates To Truck Convoy Under Name ‘Hunter Biden’ So Washington Post Won’t Dox Him

—

Canada February 17, 2022 pm

Update: Ottawa police arrest convoy organizers. Freedom Convoy Organizers Chris Barber and Tamara Lich Arrested in Ottawa. Meanwhile, Civil Liberties, Constitutional Rights Groups Launch Legal Challenges Against Ottawa’s Invocation of Emergencies Act

Ottawa now has armed checkpoints:

“The secured area includes almost 100 checkpoints that will have police presence to ensure that those seeking entry to that secure area for a unlawful reason, such as joining a protest, cannot enter the downtown core,” acting Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell said Thursday.

Canada’s capital, operating under the Emergencies Act, now has ‘no go zones” similar to a police state. Authorities set up checkpoints with armed police officers in downtown Ottawa on Thursday — from Highway 417 (Queensway) to Parliament Hill, where dozens of trucks have been parked for three weeks.

Also, Police Issue Arrest Notices to Protesters Blockading Canadian Capital

The reaction from protesters was that they seemed to be underwhelmed by the threats—as many of the pieces of paper were immediately crumpled up and tossed away.

The notice was not the only move made by authorities against the protestors.

With an estimated one in four of the 500 or so trucks and vehicles in the occupied zone containing at least one child, the emergency act—just declared by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government—has made it illegal for children to be there.

If the government chose to end the COVID crazy, they’d all just drive away…

Former top Toronto cop Bill Blair is tipped to superintend the crackdown.

Meanwhile, in Parliament, Jewish Tory MP Demands Apology After Trudeau Says Her Party Stands With People Waving Swastikas

“I am a strong Jewish woman and a member of this House, and a descendant of Holocaust survivors, and it’s never been singled out and I’ve never been made to feel less, except for today when the prime minister accused me of standing with swastikas. I think he owes me an apology, I’d like an apology, and I think he owes an apology to all members of this House,” she said.

Trudeau won’t have to apologize for that any more than he need worry about damaging his reputation by repeated bouts of blackface. The rules are different for the Woke.

Even so: Parliament Jeers Prime Minister Trudeau During Speech About “Emergencies Act “

The National Post is liveblogging the debate on continuing the emergency:

Senior commentator Rex Murphy offers a thought on Trudeau’s motive for invoking the Emergencies Act even though most provincial premiers have stated that it is unnecessary: “Has he even talked with the drivers who came across this wide country in the deep of mid-winter? Does he ever hear what he himself is saying? Better still, did he watch the widely shared video of the protesters in Coutts when they ended their demonstration, with protesters and police hugging each other?”

—

No, because the prolonged COVID crackdown is Trudeau’s Reichstag Fire — the event he needs to crush opposition to his rule, even though almost nothing is happening like he claims.

—

Glimmer: Laura Rosen Cohen exults at fellow Canadian Mark Steyn’s site:

Justin Trudeau has actually caused some pretty positive things to happen. In being so terrible, he has brought together Canadians of all races, creeds, religions, sexual orientations and dispositions. He has brought together Albertans with Quebecers! I mean, the guy’s a miracle worker! And he has also done the truly impossible, something I never thought I would experience in my lifetime: he has made me agree with Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

Like I said last week, we are seeing the beginning of the end of the Covid era. However, there is a battle we still need to win and that is about mask mandates – particularly for children. As you can imagine, I have some thoughts on this, so let me know what you think.

The truckers are keeping their cool, G-d bless each and every one of them. And I hope that Tinpot Tantrum Trudeau has overplayed his hand. Things will likely get even crazier this week so keep all of us Truckistanis in your prayers. Have a good week and I’ll see you in the comments.

Debanking proceeds apace:

CONFIRMED: Bank accounts are being frozen under Justin Trudeau’s Emergency Economic Measures Order “Shaun Zimmer recently travelled from Winnipeg to Ottawa to show his support for the trucker’s convoy, and now he no longer has access to his funds.”

Banks Have Started Freezing Accounts of Some Involved in Protests, Canada’s Deputy PM Says “The RCMP have started sharing names of individuals and corporations, as well as their cryptocurrency wallets, with financial institutions to freeze the accounts of some people involved with convoy blockades and protests, federal ministers say.”

Canada’s Justice Minister Threatens to Seize Bank Accounts of ‘Pro-Trump’ Convoy Donors

“A lot of folks said, ‘I just don’t like your vaccine mandates and I donated to this, now it’s illegal, should I be worried that the bank can freeze my account?’” Evan Solomon, host of CTV’s Power Play, asked Lametti on Feb. 17.

Lametti answered that yes, some donors’ accounts would be targeted.

“If you are a member of a pro-Trump movement, who’s donating hundreds of thousands of dollars and millions of dollars to this kind of thing, then you ought to be [worried],” Lametti said in response.

It’s a curious threat. Lametti may have more trouble freezing the accounts of Americans.

Ottawa’s Power to Freeze Protesters’ Bank Accounts Under Emergencies Act Sets Dangerous Precedent: Critics “Freezing protesters’ bank accounts ‘a form of social death,’ one expert says”

Yes, and that’s the intention. The people gloating over Trudeau’s actions will likely find that he and his successors will use emergency powers to debank them when they disagree with the laptop class about one of its next unfathomable Crazies down the road.

Ottawa’s Power to Freeze Protesters’ Bank Accounts Under Emergencies Act Sets Dangerous Precedent: Critics “Freezing protesters’ bank accounts ‘a form of social death,’ one expert says”

Yes, and that’s the intention. The people gloating over Trudeau’s actions will likely find that he and his successors will use emergency powers to debank them when they disagree with the laptop class about one of its next unfathomable Crazies down the road.

Fired: Vancouver-area radio loses popular host Kid Carson after speaking truth about Freedom Convoy


Despite Carson knowing that speaking out in support of freedom on Z95.3’s Kid Carson Show would mean his contract with the station wouldn’t be renewed, and thus his days in mainstream radio would be numbered, Carson says he’s “received thousands and thousands of messages of people just saying thank you for saying it somewhere publicly, in mainstream media where it hasn’t been spoken about.”

Wethinks that the station he migrates to will do well out of this. The station he left can be stuck with the Correct.

Meanwhile, “A group of leading scientists, doctors, and policy professionals has declared Canada’s COVID-19 pandemic officially over as of Feb. 16.” Of course the viral epidemic is declining. That always happens with these things. But the Crazy isn’t over until the very concept of human dignity is simply not understood.

Fun:

Trudeau is not having much luck teaching Mounties to goose-step:

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues his effort to impose authoritarian rule in Canada, he is beginning to face some challenges. “The Royal Canadian Mounties are just not that good at goose-stepping,” said a disappointed Trudeau. “For some reason, it doesn’t come naturally to them, which is such a shame since goosestepping is very intimidating to racist, homophobic insurgents calling for ‘freedom,’ whatever that is.”

Goosestepping is really hard on horseback:

—

United States February 17, 2022

EXCLUSIVE: Former Harvard Prof. Martin Kulldorff: ‘Science and Public Health Are Broken’ “Dr. Martin Kulldorff is one of the most qualified public health pandemic experts in the United States. To the narrative-shapers, he’s a pariah… ”

Kulldorff said he attempted to publish a paper both in U.S. medical journals and mainstream newspapers stating that while anyone could contract the virus, the focus should be on protecting the elderly and those at high risk. His paper was knocked back from all directions.

“I was able to publish in Sweden, in the major daily newspapers there during the spring of 2020, so that was not a problem,” he said. “But the United States was not allowed to have a debate, which is very troubling.”

A public enquiry is needed in order to establish why a clearly reasonable perspective was anathema.

Could this situation play a role? A whistleblower talks:

FDA Executive Officer Exposes Close Ties Between Agency and Pharmaceutical Companies: ‘Almost a Billion Dollars a Year Going into FDA’s Budget from the People we Regulate’

At Nature re Omicron:

Studies have shown that the variant can outwit immunity induced by vaccination. Now Abu-Raddad and others are revealing how well Omicron can evade antibodies produced during previous SARS-CoV-2 infections. “The ability of Omicron to infect people with either vaccine- or infection-derived immunity is a key part of what made the recent surge so large,” says Marm Kilpatrick, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

We’re told that vaccination makes the symptoms of COVID that one gets anyway less severe. We must hope that that, at least, turns out to be true.

The mask Karens have finally found meaning in their lives, taking out their bitterness on everybody:

In general, the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic empowered large numbers of truly awful and unhappy people to unleash their most obsessive health-related neurosis onto the general population and expect others to comply with their every hypochondriacal whim. It emboldened miserable and terrified masses of people and gave them public license and approval to scold strangers for not covering their faces, to normalize dystopian “public health” rules that had no basis in science and to generally consider themselves exceptionally good people for doing so, and certainly they were better than you and knew better than you what was good for your health. Their lives became meaningful in direct proportion to the number of rules they imposed upon themselves and demanded of others.

And especially on kids:

Cruelty to children has been rebranded and normalized by the credentialled “public health” masses in lockstep with an increasingly corrupted medical and educational establishment. Cruelty to children is fashionable and positioned as virtuous. And while adults now dine and conduct their daily business in regular fashion, go to the Super Bowl (70,000 fans), and live the good life, a hard core of despicable humans still insists that children must remain masked, seemingly indefinitely. And the proponents of masking children deliver their imperatives with such stubborn, sneering insistence and such glee, that one can only wonder if this obsession has crossed the rubric into sociopathic fetish territory. Follow the (political) science, they said.

Meanwhile, In Leaked Audio, CDC Director Walensky Privately Confirms She Won’t Relax School Mask Guidance. But at least governors can overrule her.

Meanwhile, Francis Collins, formerly of NIH, has been appointed one of two people to replace science czar Eric lander: “Biden names Francis Collins and Alondra Nelson to act as White House science leadership.” Recall “NIH Director Francis Collins Resigns After FOIA Disclosure Showed Wuhan Lab Gain of Function Funding” Keep an eye on this file.

And Anthony Fauci won’t commit to any particular number as to when the Crazy should end:

White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci was interviewed by ABC News’ Linsey Davis on Wednesday and was asked how we’ll know when the pandemic is over.

Unsurprisingly, Fauci refused to define a threshold.

“In those months ahead, our country, right now, at least, is still seeing about 147,000 new cases of COVID per day,” Davis said. “But what would that threshold be in the future for you to say, okay, the pandemic has passed?”

“You know, there’s no magic number,” Fauci replied.

A defining social rift of our time is that there are people who really get off on the Crazy and then there are people who want to live again.

Fun:

Indisputable, Irrefutable, Unquestionable, Unchanging Science Changing Again

—

Canada, February 16, 2022 pm

Trudeau Mum on When Emergency Measures Will Be Debated

3 Maritime Premiers Say Emergencies Act Unnecessary, Joining Prairies and Quebec in Opposition to Measure “The premier of Nova Scotia has joined the leaders of two other maritime provinces, along with those of Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Quebec to oppose the Emergencies Act invoked by the federal government.” They say they don’t need additional powers (so they wonder why Trudeau wants them).

Alberta, Saskatchewan Premiers Co-Sign Letter With 16 US Governors Calling on Feds to Drop Vaccine Mandates for Truckers

Civil Liberties, Constitutional Rights Groups Say Standard Not Met to Invoke Emergencies Act. “In a reaction to Trudeau’s announcement on Feb. 14, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) said the government “has not met the threshold necessary” to invoke the act, since the protests do not seriously threaten the ability of the government to “preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada” as stated in the act.”

The province of British Columbia, which has kept quiet about all the above, has just relaxed restrictions on social gatherings and capacity limits. Masks and vaccine passports will still remain in place (For now… they must drag it out… more flags, more cars, trucks, and horses, more honking needed, wethinks.) Note: The rally at the B.C.–Washington border crossing is now ended but it may start up again if B.C. fails to stay on track.

In other news, Ottawa is dropping the pre-arrival COVID test for fully vaccinated travellers and Quebec has announced plans to end the COVID passport system.

Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau has announced plans to seize bank accounts of customers without any due process. “He’s weaponized banks against his vague list of his own personal political enemies. This is an unprecedented political risk to the most stable banks in the world.”

Now, back to the convoys:

Firearms May Be Planted in Ottawa to Discredit Protest, Convoy Organizers Warn “In a video posted on social media on Feb. 14, Daniel Bulford, a former RCMP officer who is helping the protest organizers with security, said they have received information from sources they consider to be “reliable” that the weapons may be planted. The information, Bulford said, correlates with the more than 2,000 firearms that were stolen in Peterborough, Ont., on the morning of Feb. 13… Bulford urged demonstrators to inform the police immediately if they witness any suspicious activities. ” (Just what were 2000 weapons doing in a trucking yard in Peterborough (about 200 km from Ottawa) anyway?)

Public Safety Minister Doesn’t Substantiate His Claim Ottawa Protest Tied to Extremist Group “Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino claimed today there are links between the individuals arrested on serious criminal charges in Coutts, Alberta, with the leaders of the protest in Ottawa, but when pressed on the nature of those ties he did not substantiate them… When pressed by reporters on the nature of the group in Coutts and the alleged ties to Ottawa, Mendicino responded these questions should be directed at law enforcement.” (Well then, shouldn’t he just keep quiet?)

Over in Coutts, Alberta: Three Coutts protesters charged with conspiracy to commit murder “The RCMP described them as a small cell within the peaceful protest. Since this development, the truckers who were then blocking the border have since left after releasing a statement.”

The standoff at the Alberta-Montana, Canada-U.S. border crossing has come to an end. “A pair of the protests spokesmen spoke to Rebel News’ Sydney Fizzard last night, telling him that following the arrests of 11 people involved at the Coutts border blockade, those still remaining at the crossing would be leaving to maintain the peaceful nature of their demonstration.” They are, of course, urging everyone to start protesting peacefully somewhere else.

The donors to the Freedom Convoy at GiveSendGo are getting doxed and terrorized

Commentator Mark Steyn:

Among the guests on Wednesday’s Mark Steyn Show was Jacob Wells, whose GiveSendGo began collecting donations for the Canadian truckers after GoFundMe decided to steal the money. As you know, GiveSendGo got hacked, and the names of donors were passed on to Justin’s court eunuchs at the CBC and elsewhere. When I asked Mr Wells if he’d identified the hacker, he responded that it was a person with connections to Canadian intelligence agencies.

On the leaked list of donors, I saw two hundred names I knew and then stopped counting: friends, readers, viewers, listeners… It’s five years since I first posited my “last photocopier in the woods” scenario, but the schedule is being accelerated: I thought Justin Trudeau was Al Jolson, but it seems he’s Idi Amin.

From Wall Street Journal

On Feb. 5, the owner of Ottawa’s Stella Luna Gelato Café made a $250 donation to the protest. When this became public, callers threatened to throw bricks through her store window. She ordered the shop closed. On Tuesday she recanted her support for the truckers to the Ottawa Citizen newspaper.

Twitter users are posting names, jobs and locations of donors—from corporate executives and civil servants to masseuses and taekwondo instructors. One account doing the “doxxing,” itself anonymous, clarifies: “If you disagree with the views of businesses listed here, do the Canadian thing: Do not patronize them, or write a sternly worded letter. That’s it.” …

Major news outlets in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. are contacting the donors, asking them to justify their contributions. Many donors feel pressure to recant or desist from further financial expression of their views. For many journalists, that is no doubt the goal.

The hacker taking credit claims to have worked with intelligence agencies.

Everything that is happening in Canada will happen in the United States if Americans do not turn out to peacefully demonstrate.

Punditry

Why Are Canada’s Unions Siding With the Government Against Workers?

You can see in these statements how union leadership has repeated the government’s smears and outright falsehoods, which took one Confederate flag and one swastika flag and ballooned them into the lie that the protest was full of white supremacists.

Even the leader of Canada’s Federal NDP, which profess to be the party of “workers,” has denounced the Freedom Convoy. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh went so far as to denounce those provincial premiers who conceded to the Convoy’s extremely reasonable demand and have begun to drop their COVID restrictions and mandates.

Because these groups no longer represent workers. They represent progressives, using workers as a natural resource.

An interesting comparison is offered between the Convoys and Solidarity in Poland in the 1980s, especially with respect to the media relaying undocumented smears: ““Another Politburo member suggested using the media to smear the independent Polish union to win the public relations battle: “Both in ‘Pravda’ and in other newspapers we must organize statements of this sort.””

Last Living Premier Who Signed Canada’s Charter in Speech to Freedom Convoy: Section 1 of Charter Being ‘Illegally’ Used by Governments Brian Peckford: “Establish an inquiry, an independent inquiry, to determine what went wrong here, as the doctors point out, how did we get off on this wrong course and try to destroy our freedoms and rights…”

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Canada February 16, 2022 am

Police updates

Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly resigns. Officers supporting Ottawa protest to be “dealt with accordingly,” interim chief says.

Too early to say for sure what’s going on but here is a bit of background:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uCc3y8pUnI

Meanwhile: Police officer Nick Motycka went viral for vid saying politicians using Ottawa cops as ‘hired goons’


Also, former Detroit Police Chief James Craig Backs Canadian Trucker Protests, Infuriating Michigan Democrats

and

In an Emotional Video, Edmonton Police Officer Expresses Support for Trucker Protest

The police in Canada are being used to head off demands for accountability in what has got to be the biggest public health disaster in modern Western history, involving hundreds of thousands of politicians, bureaucrats, and the laptop class who have nothing but contempt for the people to whom they have subjected their costly and useless regimes. If it isn’t happening elsewhere, that’s either because governments have hastily dumped the lockdown crap or the public is now too inert to care.

If you want to say what’s happening where you live, sign in and use the combox below.

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Canada February 16, 2022 am

Banks and donation sites

TD Bank Freezes Bank Accounts Connected to Freedom Convoy Protest “TD Bank confirmed that it has frozen two bank accounts that held $1.4 million in Canadian currency (US$1.1 million) in deposits to support the trucker-led protests in Canada.” Note: “Debanking” has entered the lexicon and some of us are going to have to start writing about it more. You may think it;s your money but maybe the bank doesn’t.

GiveSendGo’s Website Hosting Freedom Convoy FundraiserReportedly Hacked (February 14, 2022): “Leak site Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoS) announced on its website that it had 30 megabytes of donor information from GiveSendGo, including names, email addresses, zip codes, and internet protocol addresses.” More data on Canadian ‘Freedom Convoy’ donors leaked -website “Tuesday’s leak contains donor information about a similar “Adopt-a-Trucker” campaign, which says it is operating “in partnership with the Freedom Convoy.”” One American has already been contacted by a CBC [= arm of Trudeau’s government] reporter to “discuss” the donation and wisely refused.

Meanwhile, GiveSendGo questions the authority of the province of Ontario to grab donations: “Based on GiveSendGo’s actions in response to the court order, as well as co-founder/CEO Jacob Wells’ statements regarding high-level attempts to shut down the fundraising page for the Freedom Convoy, this company gets it:”

“Big Tech really has taken it upon themselves to be the arbiters of truth. And it’s a place that they were never intended to be, and it’s caused more damage than good,” Wells told Fox News Digital in a phone interview Monday. “We are now stepping into that place because there is a natural pushback from many people because America was founded on these ideas of freedom.”

“This is like the tip of the spear and what is coming in a tsunami of technology that is pushing back against this authoritarian style of social platforms where it’s like these people just think that they get to control the narrative,” he said. “It’s mind-blowing to me that they actually think that is the way that it ought to be, because in my perspective, it only breeds more distrust and more vitriol, more divide.”

But (more at the link) the bigger issue may be with third party payment processors.

Remember all this when your friendly local bank blathers on, PR-style, about helping you meet your goals. If one of your goals is to be freed from crackpot authoritarianism, maybe they won’t help because the Top People don’t want to help you do that. Remember to make your vote count. It’s all you’ve got now.

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US updates February 15 2022

The majority of American Likely voters in a recent Rasmussen poll support the Canadian freedom convoys:

Canada’s prime minister has invoked emergency powers in an attempt to shut down a protest by truckers seeking an end to COVID-19 restrictions, but most American voters support the so-called “Freedom Convoy” – and think a similar protest here would be a good idea.

A new national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports finds that 59% of Likely U.S. voters support the Canadian trucker protest, including 42% who Strongly Support the “Freedom Convoy.” Thirty-three percent (33%) of voters oppose the trucker protest against Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions, including 21% who Strongly Oppose the protest. (

Well, no one is stopping the ones who think a similar protest in the U.S. would be a good idea.

The stark truth is beginning to leak into science media: CDC: COVID-19 Booster Effectiveness Wanes After Four Months “The agency also finds that third shots prevented hospitalizations during the Omicron wave.” Fine about the reduced hospitalizations but if it’s not a one-and-done, there’s no room for the high-handedness about the whole thing many people have experienced.

Annual shots may be mandated:

A woman who might have been the top button at Levi’s was hounded into quitting when she questioned the COVID-19 crazy shutting down Frisco schools:

Early on in the pandemic, I publicly questioned whether schools had to be shut down. This didn’t seem at all controversial to me. I felt—and still do—that the draconian policies would cause the most harm to those least at risk, and the burden would fall heaviest on disadvantaged kids in public schools, who need the safety and routine of school the most…

I wrote op-eds, appeared on local news shows, attended meetings with the mayor’s office, organized rallies and pleaded on social media to get the schools open. I was condemned for speaking out. This time, I was called a racist—a strange accusation given that I have two black sons—a eugenicist, and a QAnon conspiracy theorist.

More stark truths from Robert Zimmerman, to be faced in the coming months:

All research now consistently shows that the effort to shut down economic activities at all levels did nothing to slow or stop the spread of COVID.

During the last two years I’ve cited time after time the many different studies demonstrating these facts. A recent review of 34 research papers [pdf] on the impact of lock downs however drives the point home even more dramatically.

and

At no time during the entire epidemic has there been any valid research that successfully challenged the more than a century of research that showed masks are a useless protection against viruses. The science here has never changed. All that has changed have been the politically-driven policies of politicians and incompetent government health officials, who from month-to-month reworked their mask rules over and over, without ever citing any research that justified the changes. This video of Anthony Fauci illustrates this incompetence beautifully:

Governments know this, of course, but they also know that they don’t have to care if people don’t speak up and then repay them at the ballot box.

The Bee stings: Celebrities Assure Nation They Were Wearing High-Tech Invisible Masks Only Rich People Know About

Brilliant: L.A. Schoolchildren Dress Up As Super Bowl Celebs So They Won’t Have To Wear Masks

—

Israel February 15, 2022

Israeli ‘Freedom Convoy’ Blocks Main Highway in Protest of COVID Measures (February 14, 2022) “I”m here for my children, so that they can have a better world,” one of the protesters explained. “Rights are being taken away from citizens with no real justification, and we need to fight that.” She added, “We are no one’s enemies.”

Israel Starts Canadian-Inspired ‘Freedom Convoy’ Against COVID-19 Mandates “Thousands of Israeli protesters have joined a Canadian-inspired “Freedom Convoy” on Monday, with vehicles flying Israeli and Canadian flags while driving along the main highway linking Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.”

In a remarkable turn of events, the Canadian flag is seen as the flag of the people of Canada and not of its government. In that case, may all who wave our flag remember to let the laptop class, their media consorts, and their goons be responsible for all the viciousness and violence.

https://youtu.be/-G6nzMDBYYY?t=21

A key goal for us now is to help badly frightened neighbours see the COVID Crazy for what it is: A huge and very costly global public health disaster (in terms of the damage done to the lives of the many people who were never at serious risk). And now, those governments that are still fomenting panic and demanding lockdowns, masking, crackdowns, and mandates are simply trying to put off a reckoning until they find a scapegoat — some vulnerable group, probably. Let’s not let them.

—

Canada February 14 2022 pm

Trudeau declares Emergencies Act, never before tried — developing …

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland announced a number of measures to reduce funding to the protests. These include broadening anti-money laundering measures to crowdfunding platforms and digital currencies. Banks will also be able to freeze accounts of entities involved in the protests.

Freeland also said that for companies whose trucks are used in blockades, their corporate accounts will be frozen and their insurance suspended.

At least four premiers are against it:

Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec said they don’t support the prime minister’s use of the act.

“We have all of the legal tools and operational resources required to maintain order. The Act would add no relevant additional powers or resources,” Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said on Twitter on Feb. 14.

“The illegal blockades must end, but police already have sufficient tools to enforce the law and clear the blockades, as they did over the weekend in Windsor,” Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe tweeted.

Truckers: We Will Hold the Line’: Freedom Convoy Organizers Say They’re Not Deterred by Emergencies Act Conservative motion to end mandates defeated. Truckers moving from residential areas to main protest area.

If You Want to Judge the Freedom Movement, Go See it for Yourself

What critics of the Freedom Convoy seem to hate most, what just about drives them around the bend, is seeing the protesters enjoying themselves. The sputtering Jim Watson, mayor of Ottawa, seemed almost overcome with indignation when describing the bouncy castles, barbecues, dancing and music on Parliament Hill. The insolence. The effrontery. Intolerable. This is an occupation, after all, or perhaps an insurrection, or even sedition. It isn’t supposed to be fun. In any event, it must be illegal. Why, just the other night there were unauthorized fireworks over the House of Commons!

In his own blustering way, and certainly without meaning it, Watson was onto something. There is a lot of joy among the Freedom Convoy protesters in Ottawa and at the ongoing Freedom Rallies, marches and slow-rolls all over Canada. Anyone looking at this nationwide phenomenon with open eyes and an open mind – if they can see past the oceans of Canadian flags, themselves a joyful sight if ever there was one – can’t help but notice the pure, natural, unforced and unrestrained joy. It is everywhere and all around. In this article, Cassandra Navarette recounts making this discovery for herself, stunned yet exhilarated that the reality proved so different from the official reports…

So is waving that flag. I never thought I would thank Justin Trudeau for anything, but I must say, he has handed Canadians a priceless gift. Through his trashing of our nation’s history, his claim that our country has no identity, his portrayal of Canada as a place of racism and oppression, his open sympathy for those who hate Canada and would burn it to the ground, his implication that our flag is dirty and shameful, Trudeau has made the Maple Leaf itself a symbol of opposition and, yes, even rebellion. He has handed the Freedom Movement a beautiful, stirring, unmistakeable emblem, a single unifying banner for everyone to rally round: Canada’s flag. Who but the hard-left, the bitter, the haters, can be against that? Have you noticed all the flags popping up on vehicles, roadside fences, homes and businesses? Thank you, Justin!

It won’t be Trudeau’s fault if that laughter and those smiles aren’t rubbed out.

Here’s Ez Levant’s view for Rebel News (his reporters are embedded with the truckers, not the police): “And Trudeau left announcing the worst details to Chrystia Freeland, about how crowdfunding will be subject to anti-terrorism measures.”

From abroad, public intellectual Douglas Murray:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must go and his government “should fall” amid a list of “absolutely criminal” things the government is doing, says author Douglas Murray.

It comes as a state of emergency has been declared in Ontario, the province which includes Ottawa, after protests entered their third week in the capital.

Protesters have been warned they face large fines or even prison time for their continued demonstrations.

Mr Murray condemned Mr Trudeau for his treatment of the protesters, saying he called them “racists, misogynists and homophobes”.

“He and his appalling supporting paper, the Toronto Star, pump out the most vicious propaganda against these truckers.” 1 “The Canadian government has put pressure on some of the Canadian banks to freeze the accounts of truckers – this is just unbelievable banana republic behaviour.”

One wonders if Murray realizes that the once-venerable Toronto Star accepts funds from Trudeau’s government to stay in business…

Note: The Emergencies Act could possibly hamper the ability to report news from Canada; it will not affect the international sources that are watching the scene except that they are not on the ground. We’ll do our best to keep you posted. International news next.

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U.S. updates February 14, 2022

New Homeland Security bulletin targets non-approved COVID-19 information: “The proliferation of false or misleading narratives, which sow discord or undermine public trust in U.S. government institutions. For example, there is widespread online proliferation of false or misleading narratives regarding unsubstantiated widespread election fraud and COVID-19. Grievances associated with these themes inspired violent extremist attacks during 2021.”

Hmmm.What’s mainly undermined public trust in “U.S. government institutions” is their own behavior around COVID-19. It was a self-inflicted injury. So far, in Canada, where the convoys started (for what it’s worth), “the only “violent extremist attack” that hit the screen was a hit-and-run mowing down demonstrators in Winnipeg. But the demonstrators did not start it. Asked at The Federalist: “Why Aren’t Corporate Media Talking About The Car That Crashed Into The Freedom Convoy?”

Answer: Because 1) those people don’t matter, a fact of which they are themselves well aware. 2) most Canadian media are paid by the federal government to stay in business because so few readers depend on them and they know well which side their bread is buttered on. Yes, there’s good coverage out there. But it is probably just the sort that Homeland Security would like to stifle in the U.S.

Here’s a laptop class classic from Gizmodo: “Attempts to bring Canadian truckers’ ‘freedom convoy’ to the U.S. are mired in dysfunction.” The authors are obviously delighted. If so, that’s too bad. It certainly does not need to be that way.

Along the lines of slowly beginning to question the government’s COVID crazy:

According to the commercial lab study, between 33.1% and 34% of the population have circulating antibodies following a COVID infection as of 12/26/2021. For children 17 and under, approximately 44% show evidence of antibodies from prior infection. To emphasize, nearly half of the children under 17 express recovered immunity, and in two years, less than 1,000 have died. Yet Pfizer and Dr. Fauci are talking about giving toddlers and infants three doses of an experimental vaccine. And teachers’ union president Randi Weingarten wants 80% of school-age children to be vaccinated before masks come off.

There are vast masses of material out there that should raise warning flags about government demands and raise demands for inquiries. Expect efforts to prevent people getting hold of it.

It’s not as if the people supporting and promoting the lockdowns, mandates, and masks necessarily even believe it: “VIDEO: Not a Single Celebrity Is Wearing a Mask at Super Bowl Including Hypocrite Mayor Eric Garcetti” What they believe in is ordering their inferiors around while they strut and preen.

Oh, and Bill Maher sounds off on on Justin Trudeau: “Bill Maher on Canada’s ‘Freedom Convoy’: They’re ‘not wrong’ to be ‘p—ed off’ at elites. The HBO star blasts Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, comparing his attacks of the unvaccinated to ‘Hitler’”

“Hitler” seems a bit harsh for Trudeau. Eva Braun maybe… Or, no, Leni Riefenstahl.

—

Canada updates February 14, 2022

BREAKING: Ontario to Lift Vaccine Passport and All Capacity Limits March 1 Capacity limits lifting for restaurants and gyms this week. (We will need to be sensitive to the needs of the many fragile people crazed senseless with fear by the COVID ‘crats. Extra patience required.)

Just in, from an Ottawa area MPP (member of the provincial Parliament):

(If your government isn’t doing this, try Canadian flags, Canadians, rigs, horses…)

Police Make Arrests to Clear Protest Blockade at Major Canada–US Border Crossing “More arrests were made on Feb. 13. Police say they have made more than 25 arrests, mostly on mischief charges.”

BREAKING: Police sabotage heavy equipment sabotage heavy equipment at Coutts sabotage heavy equipment at Coutts: “Police confirmed that they were behind the damage caused to vehicles on private land in Coutts, Alberta.” [border crossing town]

RCMP had allegedly asked the owners to move the vehicles so they wouldn’t be visible from the highway. The owners obliged, and sometime after moving the vehicles found the damage.

Damage reportedly included the cutting of electrical and control cables. And an expandable foam was sprayed inside the vehicle causing additional damage.

People are beginning to expect this sort of things from the police. Which isn’t helping.

Demos spread to British Columbia, the westernmost province, bordering Alberta: ‘Here for the Long Haul’: Convoy Protest Digs In at BC–Washington Border Crossing

Meanwhile,

Facts Matter (Feb. 11): Six Provinces Lift Mandates After Protests Continue; Secret Phone Recording of Ontario Premier

and

Victory for Charter rights and freedoms as Québec scraps punitive tax against vaccine-free

Also: Town of La Crete, Alberta overrides the health bureaucrats and ends the pandemic

But now, here’s the BIG problem as we slowly emerge from the worst public health policy debacle in our history: As certain provinces begin to drop COVID-19 mandates, those who’ve been propagandized to fear normalcy, need help. See this:

Many people in our society were always fragile like that but we didn’t used to stoke their fears like this. Shame on those who do!

Meanwhile, notice the way governments in various places are subtly deplatforming the very concept of “freedom” which has come to be symbolized beyond Canada’s borders by the flag of Canada (not as displayed by the government but as displayed by the people):

“Freedom”‘s Just Another Word for …er, “White Supremacism”:

Canadian truckers are such an obviously genuinely naturally “diverse” group that one would have thought the Canadian media’s wholesale support for Jacinda Trudeau’s libel of them as Nazi white supremacists would have been too insulting to the intelligence of even CBC viewers. The general vibe of what’s happening isn’t hard to discover: Convoy supporters play street hockey under the watchful gaze of a fully armed RCMP tactical unit, whose colleagues are busy preemptively destroying private property on private land.

In any previous Canadian media environment, it would be the behaviour of the Mounties that would be abnormal and under scrutiny. But physical lockdown seems to have inculcated in the citizenry a psychological lockdown that will be far harder to lift. So, on the CBC’s Cross-Country Check-Up (a show once hosted by Rex Murphy), the word “freedom” is now suspect.

That’s the main reason many Canadians want to defund the CBC.

Note: The world’s peoples are welcome to use our Canadian flag. But in the long run they might be best to use their own in the same way.

—

Australia update February 14, 2022

MASK OFF: Canberra reveals its nasty side:

Over the course of the two weeks that the Australian protest has been in Canberra, it has evolved from a protest against vaccine mandates and into a general rejection of Covid health orders and the over-governing seen during the two years of pandemic politics…

Meanwhile, several road rage incidents in Canberra have been recorded as locals hurl profanity and hate-fuelled abuse as protesters…

As for Labor, the traditional ‘voice of the working class people’ – when faced with a sea of blue-collar workers outside Parliament House begging for the right to return to their jobs and feed their families, the official comment from Anthony Albanese was to to ‘go home’.

One such road rage incident where a demonstrator’s car was rammed was pretty serious but then the demo, at 20,000 people, was “is understood to be the biggest public demonstration ever held in Canberra”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO53BKU4qag

Another account:

As of February 13, Canberra police have not charged this woman for driving her car into (and upending) the car of a demonstrator: “The Canberra woman speeds off, misjudges, and drives straight into the side of the protester’s car, almost tipping her own vehicle over with the force of the collision. Her car ends up suspended on two wheels, leaning against the car she has just struck.”

Australians have been surprisingly tolerant of government lunacy and overreach in the past few years and many residents may simply never have encountered fellow Australians who say, “Enough.”

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Europe update February 14, 2022

Here’s an interesting hit piece from Associated Press: “Canada protests sound common refrain: ‘We stand for freedom’” The piece goes on then go on to shovel irrelevant dirt — irrelevant, that is, if you were on the ground, as I (O’Leary for News) have been. And conspiracy theories as well*. Some useful information though:

In Paris, police prevented a threatened blockade of the French capital on Saturday. But a few dozen vehicles were able to disrupt traffic on the famed Champs-Elysees, prompting police to fire tear gas to disperse the crowd.

“The convoys are for the restoring of our liberties,” said Pierre-Louis Garnier, a 64-year-old who attended a protest in Paris on Friday to welcome an anticipated convoy that never materialized. In the Netherlands, dozens of trucks and other vehicles, some waving Canadian flags, have descended on The Hague, the historic Dutch parliamentary complex.

“We are living now in police state,” said Hans Evenstain, a 76-year-old protester said Sunday. “That’s not a good life anymore. We want to move freely and that’s why we are here for us and for our children and our grandchildren.”

In Belgium, federal police were urging people to avoid Brussels on Monday, when a convoy is expected to gather in the country’s capital, and the headquarters of the 27-nation European Union.

  • Note: Contrary to claims in the story linked above, which hints at an attempt to overthrow Trudeau, Trudeau was not nearly as unpopular a month or so ago as he became when he responded to the demonstrations by going into hiding and lobbing insults at the demonstrators — actions unworthy of a leader. At this point, it is a reasonable inference that even his own party, the Liberals, would like someone else to be in charge. But no one had realized before how immature he actually is.

And, as with New Zealand, it’s fairly simple, really. Either Europe belongs to the peoples of Europe or Europeans are one of the many possessions of their government(s). They must decide. Yes, there will be social division as a result. But a conflict like this cannot be put off any longer. There is no science justification for the lockdowns/masks/mandates. It is pure government overreach, gratefully accepted by some, opposed by others.

—
New Zealand Update February 14, 2022

AP: New Zealand tries old earworm hits to flush out protesters

The protesters, who have been voicing their opposition to coronavirus vaccine mandates, responded to the soaking from the sprinklers by digging trenches and installing makeshift drainpipes to divert the water.

When a downpour hit Saturday, their numbers only grew. Protesters brought in bales of straw, which they scattered on the increasingly sodden grounds at Parliament. Some shouted, others danced and one group performed an Indigenous Maori haka.

By evening, Parliament Speaker Trevor Mallard had come up with a new plan to make the protesters uncomfortable: using a sound system to blast out vaccine messages, decades-old Barry Manilow songs and the 1990s earworm hit “Macarena” on a repeat loop.

Protesters responded by playing their own tunes, including Twister Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.”

It’s not all fun: Police arrest convoy protesters at New Zealand’s Parliament: “The protest began on Tuesday after more than 1,000 people driving cars and trucks from around the country converged on Parliament in a convoy inspired by protests in Canada and elsewhere around the world.”

New Zealand needs Canadian flags. And horses. Lots and lots of horses.

https://youtu.be/os8iiCuLHu0?t=277

It’s fairly simple, really. Either New Zealand belongs to the people of New Zealand or New Zealanders are one of the many possessions of their government. They must decide. Yes, there will be social division as a result. But a conflict like this cannot be put off any longer. There is no science justification for the lockdowns/masks/mandates. It is pure government overreach, gratefully accepted by some, opposed by others.

—

Victoria update February 13, 2022

Freedom convoy in Victoria, B.C., Saturday, February 12, 2022

Saturday February 5, I (O’Leary for News) went downtown to near the harbour to see whether there was any Freedom Convoy activity. There certainly was, just masses of convoyers on Douglas Avenue, a major artery, and here’s an account of that.

Yesterday, I went back again to see if anything had changed. I went myself because I have learned not to trust government-funded media in this matter and there aren’t many embedded indies out here. (Victoria is a small city at the southern end of Vancouver Island, off the west coast of North America. It is the capital of the westernmost Canadian province, British Columbia.)

This time, I changed my route. I wanted to know approximately where the convoying was starting to become a traffic jam so, instead of going right downtown to Fort Street, I went to Saanich and Douglas (much higher up) to wait for the southbound bus. As I waited, a little after noon, a number of cars and trucks rolled through the stream of traffic, sporting Canadian flags. I saw few of them coming back, so I guessed they were headed to the main rally point that afternoon.

I got a seat on the bus’s upper deck, at the front, and by the time we got to Hillside Avenue, roughly between Saanich Avenue and Fort Street, the entire middle lane was jammed with cars and small trucks bearing flags, with some honking. I observed no big rigs; that might be due to police action or it might be a strategy; one can fit two or three smaller vehicles in the same space and more people in the vehicles.

The bus driver suggested we get off if we were near our destination. His problem was that Victoria allows people to park in the right lane for two hours on Saturday. It was extremely frustrating for him to keep weaving in and out between the right lane and the middle lane every time he encountered a parked car. (He is not allowed to use the left lane unless he is making a turn.)

So I got off and continued walking south. I had brought a little Canadian flag with me and waved it at passing cars. The drivers of a number of cars that bore no flags honked in recognition.

One young fellow was running along the sidewalk, shouting “Freedom!” I stopped him and gave him a little flag and he appeared very grateful, “Yeah, I’ve got to get me one of those!”

Well, it would certainly save him having to yell “Freedom!” because everyone knows that that’s what the Canadian flag means now, in the context. Even the French are using the Canadian flag as a signal.

I saw little evidence of actual disapproval from the public at large, despite the uproar. Apart from scurrilities on signs directed at Justin Trudeau, I heard no hostile or bad language; people seemed to be enjoying their freedom, having a great time. Doubtless, we will be hearing from bureaucrats, however, that they are not at all pleased.

The police were rampaging up and down the left lanes and sometimes even in front of oncoming traffic in the opposing lane. I thought, “If you want to give out tickets, you would be better off to park at the head of a side street to spot actual violators of traffic rules.”

The traffic was probably slow rolling all the way to near the harbour, but I didn’t repeat the survey walk from last week; I had already seen what I wanted to know: The jam began way up at Hillside/Gorge and Douglas.

If this is happening in staid little Victoria, I wonder what is happening in other smaller Canadian cities that we hear little about?

—

Europe updates February 13 2022

It didn’t have to be this way “A bioethicist at the heart of the Italian coronavirus crisis asks: why won’t we talk about the tradeoffs of the lockdown?”

There’s no such thing as a value-free model. Self-isolation and quarantine are much heavier physical and mental burdens for those who live alone. John Ioannidis, the professor of medicine at Stanford University who exposed the ‘replication crisis’ in social psychology and beyond, has argued since the beginning of the pandemic that the economic, social and mental health implications of lockdowns must be accounted for in cost-benefit public health calculations – including the deaths caused by disruption to the social fabric. We might end up looking back on coronavirus, Ioannidis said, as a ‘a once-in-a-century evidence fiasco’. There’s currently little evidence that the most aggressive measures work, and if they continue, they could end up causing more harm in the long term than riding an acute epidemic wave. However, discounting the future is a typically human bias – as health economists know well from studies of how people think about the consequences of smoking, drinking or failing to exercise.

We are told that Italian flags are beginning to pop up everywhere… A Canadian can’t help wondering what’s next …

French “freedom convoy” protesters merge ahead of planned rally in Paris, February 11, 2022

French police fire tear gas:

Well, at least the government is leaving people in no doubt that it is more comfy with lockdowns and crackdowns than the people are. Science, ya know.

—

Canada Updates (February 12 2022 evening)

Police are clearing/have cleared the blockade at the Ambassador Bridge, between Windsor and Detroit:

Heavily armed Ontario Provincial Police are at the scene, as well as an armoured police vehicle.

Most of the protesters have been dispersed, with a few still remaining at the main protest site. Most of the big trucks are gone.

but

Protester Domenico Pelle says some demonstrators are telling the police they may leave today, but if the province doesn’t lift its COVID-19 mandates in two days, they’ll be back.

Meanwhile:

Timeline to lift all COVID-19 measures in Ontario coming soon, top doctor says

and

Ontario’s Vaccine Passport to Go Under Review for Reopening Plan: Chief Medical Officer

The Top Doctor had better not be kidding. More and more Canadians are beginning to ask, why are we putting up with this when the theories about how to contain COVID-19 are in shreds?

And people do not need a truck either:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m51Xehjtuso

Part of the problem is that government today — this may be a worldwide problem — is viscerally connected with the laptop class, full of mask Karens, lockdown Larries, jab Jills, and COVID Crazies. Top ‘crats maybe don’t even know many of the sort of people on whom they have inflicted the Crazy for years — the rest of the people of Canada, who are gradually waking up.

Also in the tray, Ottawa Will Soon Announce Changes to Border Measures as Omicron Recedes: Health Minister

The big question for many Canadians is, do they mean it? That would mean standing up to the mask Karens in their own civil service ranks. Maybe they would just as soon face off against China or Russia. We understand. And we will help them grow backbones.

Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau is doubling down on the crazy (casting doubt on his Health Minister’s claim):

That’s Candice Bergen above, the interim leader of the Opposition, the Conservative party, which just ousted their useless leader Erin O’Toole (one good thing to come out of the uproar). No, Candice can’t run for leader this time out. Party by-laws don’t permit the interim leader to be a candidate. But we will doubtless hear from her again later…

Last night, the block party continued at Parliament Hill

GiveSendGo is mocking the Ontario government, which ordered the donations collected for the truckers frozen. But, as noted earlier, money, while gratefully accepted, isn’t really what is most needed now. What is most needed is, do whatever you can to politely and peacefully turn up the heat on COVID crazy where you live and help anyone else to do so.

Meanwhile, punditry:

Trucker Protests the Tipping Point of Frustration With Two Years of Botched Pandemic Responses “The two main ingredients of it are manifestly the collapse in trust in institutions and the astonishing lack of self-awareness of our politicians that continues to fuel it.”

Now here’s an interesting thought: Might Trudeau be ousted over his utter failure as a leader in this situation?

We’re Used to Dissenting Tory MPs; When Liberals Dissent,We Should Take Notice. Cory Morgan wonders if the Liberals are looking to sideline Trudeau, who is as useless as O’Toole but more destructive:

Principled politicians within the Liberal caucus are clearly becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the prime minister’s ongoing campaign to vilify a segment of Canadian citizens. Most people enter politics with a personal vision and ideal to make the world a better place though they differ on the path to getting there. It has to be dismaying to watch your own leader purposely pitching Canadian citizens against each other for the sake of political gain…

Trudeau has been leading the Liberal Party for nearly 10 years now. Ambitious party members are surely beginning to chafe under his leadership and want to make their run for the top job before they age out. The only real protection Trudeau had against challengers to his throne was his ability to win elections. Last fall’s electoral stalemate bought him some time, but it may not have saved his hide.

That’s worth watching. Alberta province’s Jason Kenney and Ontario province’s Doug Ford — both of whom are lockdown Larries — have one thing going for them: They are Conservatives and the opposition progressive parties would be, if anything, much more unhinged and ferocious. Trudeau lacks that advantage. His opponent would be someone more like Candace Bergen.

U.S. commentator Tucker Carlson notes that governments are panicking:

And now some fun:

Trudeau Orders All Geese Rounded Up And Shot For Honking In Solidarity With Truckers

And a bit of karma:

CNN Analyst Backtracks After Calling for Canadian Convoy to Have Tires Slashed. Advisedly, one might say:

But her Twitter post was quickly derided by other users, including some who claim to be truckers. Some noted that if the trucks’ gas tanks were drained, it would be difficult to move them. Others remarked that commercial trucks generally have their tires inflated to around 100 PSI, meaning that if someone tried to slash one of the truckers’ tires, it could lead to significant bodily harm.


Apart from a few people in office who need replacing, Canadians (so far) haven’t had to live with many people like the CNN analyst. But Americans, unfortunately, do.

—

Australia update (February 12, 2022):

Australia’s biggest convoy so far descends on the capital:

Australia has actually been far more subject to goon policing, in general, during the COVID-19 crazy than Canada was. They appear to have been hit by a collective nightstick, however, and remembered that Australia is, in principle, a free nation in the English Common Law and Parliamentary tradition. Australia belongs to the people of Australia, not to laptop class bureaucrats and their goons. And if they keep it peaceful, they are not the ‘crats’ lab rats either.

Wonder what’s happening in New Zealand…

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US updates (February 12, 2022):

Although a number of American governors, perhaps with the mid-term elections in mind, are dumping or scaling back mask mandates, the White House seems to be urging their retention:

“Well, our guidance is consistently – has consistently been this,” Psaki replied. “When you are in a high transmission area, which is everywhere in the country, you should wear a mask in indoor settings, including schools.” The reporter followed up by asking if the CDC risks “becoming irrelevant in the minds of many Americans, given that their states are moving along without them?”

CDC [Center for Disease Control] is irrelevant to the governors because masks have not been shown to significantly reduce transmission.

In other news, a mask Karen is exposed: As various states dump masking rules,

”But in California, Barbara Ferrer, the top public health official in Los Angeles County, expressed her concern to elected officials this week: “We should not be lifting the masking mandate when we are reporting thousands and thousands of new cases every day. That doesn’t make sense.”

Some would say Ms. Ferrer is drawing the wrong inference. If we have mask mandates and are still seeing hundreds of thousands of new cases per day, maybe that means mask mandates don’t work.

She’d best go back to the war on head lice among schoolchildren. It’s dangerous to give such people too much power.

But Silicon Valley is in her camp: YouTube Removes, Then Restores, Video of Mom Fighting Mask Mandates in School:

“I guess you’ll have to ask YouTube why it considers basic science like this, shared by a mom at a school board meeting, to be dangerous to its viewers,” he said.

Why? While learning how to be the Pravda of social media, YouTube and others sometimes move too quickly, that’s why. Later, they will — ideally in their own view — ban all non-approved discussion whatsoever.

Somehow related to the story just above? CDC Struggles to Maintain Public Trust, Leader of House Doctors Caucus Says.

Probably related to the CDC’s PR problem: Now that the true medical situation is becoming more generally recognized: “The dismissal of hydroxychloroquine as a possible Covid-19 treatment, however, was never based on solid science. The Los Angeles Times article reveals a fundamentally authoritarian worldview: medical claims are “unproven,” and dangerous for the public to discuss, until some official body endorses them—an approach that threatens public health and science alike.”

Meanwhile, New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, “ not ready to lift mask mandate for schools”: Maybe she will after the February break… Convoy? Convoy? Come in Convoy. Are you reading us?

Here are Nevada schoolchildren’s responses to the news that the mask Crazy is now shut down, by order of the governor. (severe jubilant noise warning)

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International updates

Shot: Freedom Convoy Spreads Across the World, With Protests in the Most Unlikely Countries:

Even in far-flung New Zealand, which has mainly been praised for its handling of the pandemic and hasn’t managed to be divided by the virus in the same way as many other nations, supporters of the movement are taking to the streets to protest COVID restrictions. In the city of Wellington, police on Thursday arrested more than 120 people protesting coronavirus restrictions after closing a Freedom Convoy camp outside of parliament.

The writer of the above article strongly disapproves and regurgitates many government-funded media putdown talking points. But she’s right; even many New Zealanders have discovered that they are not lab rats. And their government does not own them.

Chaser: Around the world, authorities are cracking down on “freedom convoys”:

Something is happening in the world. At present, it’s a formless, shapeless mass, and barely discernible. But something wonderful—and scary and exciting and possibly earth-shattering—is happening in countries across the globe…

Mandates in the United States are dropping right and left as Democrats begin to pay a serious political cost for “following the science” when the “science” isn’t very “scientific.” If the radical left in America is forced—reluctant to give up their emergency powers, why not Canada? European nations are also slowly easing restrictions. The writing is on the wall: the COVID panic is over and it’s time to get serious about rebuilding the damage done by ruinous government policies.

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Canada updates:

Shot: Ottawa citizens find creative uses for jerry cans to frustrate police seizure.

Chaser: Ottawa Will Soon Announce Changes to Border Measures as Omicron Recedes: Health Minister

It’s wise to be cautious — these bureaucrats seem honestly to think that they own Canadians and are enraged to find out that, actually, they don’t. Let’s see the ink on paper first.

Meanwhile: Manitoba (province) to lift mask mandates, COVID-19 vaccine passports in March.

Yes? Well, those of us who can get down to a demonstration venue had better keep doing so until the order comes down — and the mask Karens are screaming hysterically at the government, not at us.

Alberta (province): Truckers In Southern Alberta Hold the Line Despite RCMP Enforcement

For those unfamiliar with the situation, or perhaps those who have been misled about what is happening at this site, all vehicles are pulled off to the sides of the highway or parked in the ditch. The only vehicles impeding traffic at in fact RCMP and police vehicles. There are campfires, play areas, impromptu kitchens, coffee and snack stations, all of which is being shared for free. Aside from the fact that everything is set up alongside the highway, it feels entirely like a family reunion campout.

Everyone ensures newcomers have something to eat, and some of the organizers even joke that the only time anyone gets violent is when the coffee isn’t ready in the morning. You very much get the sentiment that you could leave your car unlocked and never see a single thing goes missing. Even when the RCMP seem to try to intimidate folks, the people simply respond by locking arms and singing the [national] anthem. Members of the RCMP and mainstream media commented on how respectful and kind everyone had been.

Meanwhile, an army major speaks out against government overreach.

And a veteran asks other veterans to support the truckers.

And now, rest your soul, Canadian style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGLonqpdh1Q

Just think: They thought they owned us… like we were their lab rats…

By the way, the national anthem

More soon.

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Featured! Ontario Provincial Police are now cracking down on Facebook posts. Watch as one Canadian heroine draws a line in the snow:

More updates soon.

—

Government update — Ontario declares state of emergency

Note: Ottawa, the capital of Canada, is in the province of Ontario. Ontario’s capital is Toronto.

Ontario premier Doug Ford “will enact orders making it “crystal clear” that it is illegal and punishable to block and impede the movement of goods, people, and services along critical infrastructure.”

In other provincial news: “Ontario will soon announce when vaccine passports will end and the province may move up the reopening schedule that’s currently in place, according to Dr. Kieran Moore.”

A note about states of emergency in Canada vs. elsewhere from senior columnist Brian Lilley (discussing an earlier state of emergency declaration by Ottawa):

What it will do is give Ottawa residents, used to American news about states of emergency being declared, the false impression that Watson is doing something. Our laws differ greatly from the U.S., and having the city declare a state of emergency really just makes it easier for civic officials to buy stuff.

I’m not joking; it’s right in the city’s news release, which stated that the declaration, “could help purchase equipment required by frontline workers and first responders.” Even city solicitor David Evans told the emergency meeting of the police board on Saturday that the move wouldn’t give the city any extra legal authority.

Anything Ontario premier Doug Ford does will also have to past courtroom and constitutional tests as well.

So anyone looking forward to hearing the crack of truncheons on skeptical skulls may have to look elsewhere. One hopes so.

—

Media updates:

A CNN commentator:

The convoy protest, applauded by right wing media as a “freedom protest,” is an economic and security issue now. The Ambassador Bridge link constitutes 28% of annual trade movement between US and Canada. Slash the tires, empty gas tanks, arrest the drivers, and move the trucks ✔ https://t.co/nvRQTfPWir— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) February 10, 2022

Kayyem is apparently too clueless to realize that the reason that Canada is known as a peaceful country is that we try not to do things that would simply escalate conflicts. But then the laptop class is usually insulated from the violence it advocates and enjoys viewing anyway. But who watches CNN these days? Eight percent of the U.S. public? Sure has fallen.

Don’t let the government start funding them. That’s part of how authoritarian government got out of control in Canada: Media are funded to spout nonsense and falsehoods because no one needs them for news.

Prediction from Ez Levant, a senior journalist in Canada and founder of indie Rebel News,

I can’t get over the fact that 57% of Green voters love the truckers. Trudeau’s smiley mask has slipped; he’s shown his rage. Voters will never un-see that…

Trudeau is polling as the worst politician to deal with the crisis according to BOTH pro- and anti-truckers! (How is that even possible?)

It’s a remarkable combination of insults, incompetence, and fleeing the city. Both sides blame Trudeau…

But the truckers are already changing the political climate. Half a dozen Democrat states just ended mask mandates. Democrats are looking for a graceful exit for Fauci. Biden doesn’t need this staring contest. And here, I predict, is how this ends:

18. Biden gets the CDC to announce that The Science™ has evolved again, and St. Fauci now says truckers don’t need to be vaccinated to cross the border. Biden’s policies are working so well, they can be retired already! Biden is a friend of the working man!

19. Biden saves the day. He saves jobs. He’s normalizing America! And the Teamsters will praise him. And because he didn’t demonize the truckers, he won’t lose face.

But all cross-border trucks do round trips. So if Biden ends the vaccine mandate, Trudeau has to, as well.

Let’s hope it ends as simply as that and school kids and teens can start living again.

Here’s a thought: Is it possible that Trudeau has COVID worse than he is letting on and is, in a classic symptom, “confused”? That would earn him some sympathy but only at the risk of making clear that his All Must Vax! policies lack any reasonable basis. He was vaxxed to the max and it happened anyway. We shall see.

Rebel is a great source on the Convoy, along with many upstart indies who are simply live streaming what’s really happening on YouTube. We suspect YouTube won’t shut them down because that would only benefit upstart Rumble, founded by… a Canadian.

Punditry:

How the Left betrayed the Truckers

They call it “The Honkening”. Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, is currently being besieged by a novel kind of protest. Honkening is a fairly appropriate name for what’s going on. Thousands of truckers have driven to the capital, and barraged the city with the noise of truck horns creating a cacophony of sound. Elsewhere, on the border between the United States and Canada, truckers, farmers and cowboys have blockaded traffic…

Many on the Left came to believe that without their corporatist union structures, and without their shop stewards and political organisers, the working classes were done for. They were little better, to paraphrase Marx, than a “sack of potatoes” …

Ottawa’s truckers are a symptom of the massive class divide that is opening up across the West. Marxists are sticking their heads in the sand about this generational moment, or papering it over with absurd topsy-turvy leaps. In one recent display of moon logic, the Canadian activist, writer and self-described socialist Nora Loreto complained that “labour” was invisible in the resistance to the “fascist” truckers that had occupied Ottawa. An exasperated comrade chimed in with a story of being a shop steward for a teamster (truck driver) union, and — horror of horrors — the painful truth was that many teamsters were more likely to be in the protest themselves than protesting against it.

It’s quite simple: It was one thing when the laptop class despised us “inferiors” silently; another when it made life intolerable for everyone else while indulging its pet theories.

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Politicians are finding that medical totalitarianism is NOT a winning issue

Ontario’s hitherto intransigent premier Doug Ford is said to be set to abandon the vaccine passport scheme (according to a secretly recorded phone call).

Trudeau is beginning to sound like he is losing it. He got booed in the House of Commons for leaving during debate:

Reportedly pouting after being heckled and shouted down. He blames the problems on the Conservatives.

Some are calling this Trudeau’s “Ceausescu moment” where he reveals that he just isn’t getting it:

Trudeau fled the city, removing his family to what aides called a “secret location” for “security reasons,” a politically disastrous move denounced by just about everyone with a microphone or a Twitter account, including members of his own party. Liberal MP Joël Lightbound took things a step further. He ripped Trudeau’s politics as divisive, saying his government needs to recognize people have “legitimate concerns” while adding, acidly, “Not everyone can earn a living on a MacBook at a cottage.” This has been a theme in the States, too, where the people most dickishly insistent on the necessity of lockdowns or mandates have tended to be Zoomer professionals spending the pandemic in pajamas.

Meanwhile, a second Liberal has split from Trudeau’s caucus and is publicly questioning the mandates and lockdowns.

So far, the trucks are winning out over the tweets:

If the last fortnight is anything to go on, this will only harden the demonstrators’ resolve. When police began seizing fuel from truckers, protesters saw the humorous side. They were soon seen carrying jerry cans en masse through the city — whether full or empty — to confound law enforcement officials, thereby turning the humble jerry into a symbol of Canadian dissent.

The propaganda war on Twitter will no doubt continue, but nothing beats the real world. And in the real world, the truckers are winning.

Even Alberta’s premier Jason Kenney is now talking about dumping the vax passort and other restrictions but may need some encouragement:

Meanwhile, the dramatically unpopular Kenney has had Pastor Artur arrested again so Artur is addressing the quiet revolution from behind bars.

Watching this disaster for Big Government (and Big Pharma and sellouts to China) unfold, U.S. talk show host Tucker Carlson comments that “crumbling regimes always resort to this”:

Constitutional lawyer John Carpay says that the accusations against the truckers, aired by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau among others, are ”vicious and baseless”:

Chief Sloly publicly accuses the truckers of engaging in “unlawful” and “harmful” activities, and of promoting “hatred” and “violence,” but provides no examples, facts, or arrests to support his accusations. The Chief calls for “order” to be “restored” even though “order” has not been lost. His fact-free rhetoric includes mention of an “increasingly volatile” and “increasingly dangerous” situation. As though speaking for an oppressive regime, Chief Sloly has repeatedly called for an “end” to the exercise of the fundamental Charter freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly by Canadians in their own capital city.

Yes, that is how the laptop class throughout much of the Western world does view things. And receiving a slap from reality doesn’t teach them anything very swiftly.

A cop who spoke out about politicians wanting police to be a goon squad fears he maybe in trouble. Actually, all of us lab rats are in trouble. That’s why this is happening.

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Legacy media continue to reveal that their current mission is simply to protect authoritarian government by the laptop class

Perhaps no group has come off worse — to say nothing of ridiculous — in the Convoy battles against the COVID crazy than the government-funded media:

One legacy journalist in Ottawa mistook a ball weight attached to the end of a crane (to keep the chain from swinging wildly in the winter winds) for a wrecking ball aimed at the Parliament Buildings.

Trenchant critic of legacy media “[Ezra] Levant went on to boldly state that the elite members of the Canadian media are ‘intellectually and structurally incapable’ of understanding the working men and women of their country.” Remember this if your country is thinking of funding legacy media.

The once-proud Globe and Mail is now paid by the Canadian government to front this kind of stuff, with little inhouse opposition:
“How truck convoy supporters like Pierre Poilievre have weaponized ‘freedom’” As a matter of fact, it is called The Charter of Rights and Freedoms and it was intended to be “weaponized” peacefully against authoritarian government. The Globe and Mail’s National Affairs columnist Gary Mason should check it out it out some time.

The Globe and Mail is now also concern trolling: “Calling the Ottawa protests “peaceful” plays down non-violent dangers, critics say.” Jim Treacher responds,

“Non-violent dangers.” That’s right up there in the annals of liberal doublethink alongside “Fake but accurate” and “Fiery but mostly peaceful.”

I (O’Leary for News) have written for the Globe and Mail yay years ago (believe it or not, it was a story on… trucking). The paper now seems a sad relic of its honest years.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), wholly owned by the government in all senses and lavishly funded, featured a claim that the protesters were motivated by “Russian actors,” which only underlines how out-of-touch the largely unwatched CBC is:

Meanwhile, in a hilarious third-rate spoof version of American conventional wisdom — when Canadians try to imitate American pretensions, does it ever not end in a cringe-worthy self-own? — CBC announcer Nil Köksal went on air on January 28th and suggested the trucker protests were a Russian concoction. “Given Canada’s support of Ukraine in this current crisis with Russia,” she posited, to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, “there is concern that Russian actors could be continuing to fuel things as this protest grows, or perhaps even instigating it from the outset.”

Here’s a reality check at upstart new medium Substack: from Rupa Subramanya: “I’ve spoken to 100 of the protestors gathered in the Canadian capital. What’s happening is far bigger than the vaccine mandates.”

The truckers were scared of running out of gas—freezing to death in their little truck beds in the middle of the night. The city threatened to arrest anyone who brought it to them. In response, hundreds of Ottawans did just that. The truckers stayed put.

They are a city inside a city whose inhabitants—there are an estimated 8,000 to 10,000—were outraged with a country that seemed to have forgotten they existed. This past Sunday, as if to confirm that suspicion, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has yet to meet with Freedom Convoy leaders, took a personal day. On Monday, during an emergency debate at the House of Commons, he called them “a few people shouting and waving swastikas.”

I live in downtown Ottawa, within view of Parliament Hill, and have spent the past 10 days or so bundled up and walking around the protests. I have spoken to close to 100 protesters, truckers and other folks, and not one of them sounded like an insurrectionist, white supremacist, racist or misogynist…

The convoy is spearheaded by truckers, but its message of opposition to life under government control has brought onto the icy streets countless, once-voiceless people declaring that they are done being ignored. That the elites—the people who have Zoomed their way through the pandemic—had better start paying attention to the fentanyl overdoses, the suicides, the crime, the despair. Or else.

Remember, the media you hear spouting about swastikas and Confederate flags would be out of business if they depended on ordinary working Canadians to read and fund them. In that sense, they are desperate to hang on to the slush fund from the taxpayer that the elite has granted them.

And the gulf between the media and its former readers is widening to the extent that media don;’t really need to cover the news anymore:

My journey with this particular narrative began when I first learned from a social media post that an anti-mandate rally was being held in my city, Vancouver. When I tried to look for more information, there was no coverage in the mainstream media to be found. All I could locate were a couple posts in independent, online publications. Several thousand people attended the anti-mandate rally, yet one would never know this if one received their news from the mainstream press.


True. I (O’Leary for News) went downtown on a bet last Saturday and sure enough, there was an impressive convoy slow-rolling down Douglas Street. To find out much about it, I relied on social media and intuition.

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In Ottawa, people are often just politely ignoring the police — as long as they can

Despite being forbidden to do so, they are bringing cans of gas to the truckers:

Gas can subterfuge:

With no end in sight for the entrenched protest, Ottawa police announced on Sunday they would be cracking down by arresting anyone giving “material aid” — such as fuel — to the protesters.

But on Tuesday, police revealed that demonstrators were trying to subvert officers by filling jerry cans with water, or just leaving them empty.

“It does provide a layer of logistical complexity to us,” said Steve Bell, Ottawa deputy police chief.

The police continue to take the cans but they don’t seem to be fazing the crowd.

The demonstrators now have constitutional lawyers on the case, though they really just want the politicians to ratchet down the COVID crazy:

Here, an elderly man is arrested for honking his horn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUEPsuDLs0A

Added: 78-Year-Old Man Arrested for Honking in Support of Truckers’ Protest ‘Bruised’ and ‘Traumatized’: Lawyer Good. He has a lawyer. Legal counsel is one of the purposes of the funds the new totalitarian-lite governments are seizing.

The Ottawa police can’t immediately help the fact that they serve an elite that would be comfortable with an authoritarian/totalitarian state. But they had better address what that elite is turning them into soon.

Canada news

The Ambassador Bridge between Windsor (Canada) and Detroit (US) continues to be blockaded — “the truckers are peaceful but determined.”

“From Toronto and Quebec City to Alberta, truckers have assembled, demanding an end to the myriad useless COVID-19 lockdown mandates that are making all our lives miserable”

The Emerson border crossing in Manitoba is also blocked.

And the border at Coutts, Alberta:

At Coutts, the government can’t find a towing company that is willing to tow the trucks away.

In Toronto (Canada’s biggest city):

Tensions grew between thousands of protesters and police at the intersection of Avenue Road and Bloor Street.

Big rig trucks approached police vehicles and subsequently blocked Bloor Street — a major artery in the city — for hours. Some expected to stay indefinitely. As more vehicles and big rigs joined, the streets and intersection became filled with supports chanting, “let them through,” and “we love you” to the few naysayers.

*(The threatened counter protest did not amount to much.)

Message: Stop. You don’t own us. We are not some of your many lab rats. By the way, while we are here, Canada belongs to the people of Canada, not to a privileged globalist elite who think they can make our lives hell for years on end and then shout insults and slanders, all the while evidence is mounting that their COVID strategies don’t really work any more.

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US news

Governments are starting to backdown from mandates, lockdowns, and the useless mask crazy:

As recently as last month, when newly elected Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin ended mandatory mask rules in Virginia public schools, Democrats were calling him, essentially, a mass murderer.

But that was then. All of a sudden, we are told, “The science has changed.”

No, really, those were the words of CNN medical “expert” Dr. Leana Wen, leading Reason’s Robby Soave to ask, “Has anything fundamentally changed in the last six months, except for Democrats finally, belatedly realizing that militant masking is a political loser? The science didn’t change, the politics changed.”

Nevada ends the mask mandate, effective immediately

Masks on schoolkids are not a winning political cause:

Just recently, Democratic governors in New Jersey, Delaware, Oregon and Connecticut announced they would end their states’ school mask mandates. Even Randi Weingarten, head of American Federation of Teachers, signaled her willingness for masks to come off in schools. She admitted on MSNBC “no one wants masks in schools.” After years of threatening, suspending and holding back children from the classroom, Democrats and teachers’ unions are admitting that it is not science, but the politics that has changed.

Punditry in the U.S.

You Count Indiana:

This really has nothing to do with vaccines or vaccine safety, or vaccine mis/disinformation. It certainly has nothing to do with a commitment to truth. This is about money and power. Or money as an aspect of power. And it certainly has everything to do with totalitarianism and mass formation psychosis.

Karys Rhea at Newsweek:

Over the last two years, Canada has descended into the kind of mass-surveillance state you read about in dystopian novels. In December, the country’s public health agency admitted it has tracked data from 33 million devices monitoring people’s movement and activity during the lockdowns—and plans to continue doing so for the next five years. In a country of only 38 million people, that’s an extraordinary number. Other disturbing anecdotes of government overreach have emerged, from Canadian citizens being detained for weeks when entering the country with no ability to contact anyone, to Alberta police issuing tickets at unpermitted Christmas gatherings.

Now, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his state-sponsored media would have you believe that a fringe group of miscreants have hijacked the Canadian trucking industry. They’ve formed a violent convoy and stormed across the country to wreak havoc on the capital city of Ottawa. These odious, white supremacist truckers have been hurling abuse at small business workers, stealing food from the homeless and vandalizing sacred monuments. With the aim of spreading their anti-vaccine ideology and giving everyone COVID, these truckers simply have unacceptable views and share none of the higher ideals of the average Canadian citizen.

But none of this is true.

—
International news

French Convoyers are waving Canadian flags. “About 200 protesters assembled in a parking lot in Nice, on France’s Mediterranean coast, with many displaying Canadian flags in a nod to the truckers in Canada” (If interested in freedom from medical totalitarianism, be sure to secure a Canadian flag while you still can.)

Hockey Star Mike Fisher: Truckers Are Fighting for the Freedom of Every Single Person in Canada
Yes, and for everyone who waves a Canadian flag. Or would like to. 😉

Sweden is lifting restrictions: Swedish health minister says coronavirus is no longer classified as a danger to society

France, Greece, and Portugal have become the latest European countries to relax their COVID-19-related regulations, with the three nations easing travel restrictions.

—

The $8 million raised for the Canadian truckers in the Freedom Convoy by GiveSendGo has been frozen by an Ontario court: “The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ordered that all donations made through the “Freedom Convoy 2022” and “Adopt a trucker” campaigns on the Christian fundraising platform be frozen until further notice, according to a statement from Premier Doug Ford’s office.” “‘In a statement on Twitter, GiveSendGo wrote in an apparent response to the court order, “Know this! Canada has absolutely ZERO jurisdiction over how we manage our funds here at GiveSendGo.’”

When the elite is rebelling against the people, laws don’t matter. It was bound to happen and some truckers are looking into crypto or just cash. But money isn’t the big need. Determined, free people are.

You may also wish to read:

Let us listen to Dr. Robert Malone, dissenting expert, on the COVID-19 crisis

and, for what’s happening in suddenly famous Canada:

Convoy II : The police swoop in Ottawa: The Constitution? Old news now “Trust the science!” is starting to show its totalitarian face in Canada — but, as they slowly learn the facts, citizens are standing their ground, From the comments: “Canadians: ‘Be polite when you are being arrested.’ u guys rock!” (Sure, commenter. Canada belongs to the people of Canada. And this is how free people fight back. Serfs, by contrast, destroy things and attack people because they have no stake in a free and prosperous society.)

and

What I saw at the Freedom Convoy in downtown Victoria It was all friendly; people were having a good time. There was no violence; I heard no racial epithets and saw no racial insignia. So if media tell you that it is really about white nationalism, etc., remember that the legacy Canadian media are in fact supported to stay in business by the federal government. Because few depend on them for news any more.

Comments
Updates from February 24, 2022, on may be found here: We’re not your lab rats any more: Convoy update IV This file was getting too big for a post and there was trouble loading the graphics.News
February 24, 2022
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Asauber @503, Great point! This is reminiscent of Orwell's 1984. The state also needs criminals:
“Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against — then you’ll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We’re after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d better get wise to it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted — and you create a nation of law-breakers — and then you cash in on guilt. Now, that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.” - Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (1957)
-QQuerius
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Repercussions in Canada's banking and financial sector: https://youtu.be/lYCaXJqjHgs Take a look at the "bank outages" data beginning at 5:32. Then, there are some internal "smoking gun" documents discovered about how the Trudeau administration discussed the political advantages of invoking the Emergencies Act. -QQuerius
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The state needs enemies. If it doesn't have enough, it makes them. Andrewasauber
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That, however, says nothing about trust in the overall system, which was badly frayed in many quarters. Trudeau and his courtiers have not seen the last of this.
It sharpened the dividing line in Canadian society. Something that could have been handled intelligently, ended up causing even deeper wounds. Trudeau burnt all the bridges to his opposition and that's a very unwise approach to governing a people.Silver Asiatic
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Canadians are now having to come to grips with broken trust: https://twitter.com/i/status/1495309038501830657 They were wise in keeping their protests non-violent because governments excel in the escalation violence. And just like that, most the Canadian people now realize that their government, the police, their banks, their news services, social media platforms cannot be trusted. But their grievances remain unaddressed and their government is not listening. What do you think will happen next? -QQuerius
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Kairosfocus is offering sound financial sense at 496 above. Note: Re remarks offered at 498, "Bank failures" rarely happen any more. That is not due to more stability or better management but because the systems are interconnected and it is in NO bank's interests that any bank should fail. (Rather, a bad bank's assets can always be gobbled up and the system continues. Somewhat like a human body.) That, however, says nothing about trust in the overall system, which was badly frayed in many quarters. Trudeau and his courtiers have not seen the last of this.News
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The truckers had the high moral ground from the beginning as the Trudeau government and all its minions were lying. Consequently all that happened is squarely on the Canadian government. The same happened in the US as Fauci and company lied from the beginning and used the press to amplify theses lies. Consequently millions have died and lives destroyed in the name of a bogus ideology. Trudeau, Democrats and others have a lot to answer to. But they won’t as the press and other sycophants will make up reasons why what they did was right. Only yesterday a major new organization in the US blamed the poor economy and supply chain issues on the Ukraine crisis. They have no shame.jerry
February 24, 2022
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Sc, no, they should have listened to remonstrance and acted reasonably.
When the demands are unreasonable and changing by the hour, and coming from questionable sources, there is no point in listening to them. And besides, when does not liking the welcome you receive from those you seek an audience justify taking your frustrations out on others?
While you have already discredited yourself many times,...
Then it’s lucky for me that you have repeatedly demonstrated that you are not a sound arbiter of judging credibility.
...the point is that there is a real complaint coming from people who have suffered harm from failed pandemic policies for two years and there is cause for demonstration.
Occupying several blocks of a downtown core, harassing people that live there and disrupting businesses for several weeks is not a reasonable protest. Blockading international crossings to prevent the 90+% of truckers who accept the vaccine requirements, putting thousands of people out of work is not a reasonable protest.
Right now the onward blunders red flag the extremism of govt in Canada and destabilisation of the financial system.
The Canadian financial system is quite healthy. There has not been a banking failure in Canada since before the Great Depression.
Not to mention further eroding whatever shreds of credibility are left in the media. None of this bodes well.
As opposed to the credibility of the alt media that claimed that the horses killed two people, or the alt media that claimed that UN troops were used. Or Rebel News that launched a crowd source campaign to help their reporter allegedly targeted by the police, before the incident even occurred. Or the alt media that claimed that the police claim that a bicycle was thrown at a horse was actually the walker of the lady knocked down by the horse, when they were two separate incidents. The fact remains that the removal of the protesters from the city core was conducted very professionally and with the minimum of force. With the proliferation of cell phones, there are very few incidents that would not have been caught on video. The fact that those opposed to the police action could only find a handful of incidents where excessive force may have been used speaks volumes. There were remarkably few injuries, and the very few possible incidents of excessive police force will be investigated.Scamp
February 24, 2022
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Sc, no, they should have listened to remonstrance and acted reasonably. While you have already discredited yourself many times, the point is that there is a real complaint coming from people who have suffered harm from failed pandemic policies for two years and there is cause for demonstration. If there had not been willful refusal to listen then there would have been no resort to civil disobedience. Right now the onward blunders red flag the extremism of govt in Canada and destabilisation of the financial system. Not to mention further eroding whatever shreds of credibility are left in the media. None of this bodes well. KFkairosfocus
February 24, 2022
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News: Sobering observations >>anyone who had any reason to fear that a capricious little Mussolini in the civil service could cause them trouble would be wise to have a huge stash of cash in a secure place.>> 1: This reflects a further reason why the relevant local, provincial and federal Governments should go, they destabilised the foundation of trust for the financial system. 2: That said, the difference between valid paper money and paper only fit to burn is a repudiation of current notes. This happened in Jamaica when I was growing up and I have had experience of UK currency notes being declared stale on me. 3: That means, once trust is eroded, paper is dubious. So, there is the issue to hold silver, gold and maybe platinum or copper. >> Don’t expect anyone to admit it though.>> 4: A further sign of broken trust. >>And, for heaven’s sakes, REMEMBER this when some government starts blathering about all-digital currency. THEN where would you be?>> 5: We must never consent to repudiation of paper notes and hard currency. 6: To begin restoring trust steps must be taken that lock out the extremism of Government we have already seen. There need to be serious consequences. KFkairosfocus
February 24, 2022
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This is what Canada did wrong. Rather than ignore the convoy when they knew it was coming, they should have established a much bigger police presence in Ottawa and set up strategic roadblocks and detours for the truckers. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60492051Scamp
February 24, 2022
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Jerry @493, I know that this is off topic, but I can't help myself from responding to your comment above. Am I the only one that sees this? The part of the Ukraine that "wants" to secede from the Ukraine and join Russia is the easternmost ~5%, which is sparsely populated and extremely impoverished. Assuming Putin is lying (again), what could the Russians possibly want with "providing military assistance" to support the secession of this area? Oh, looky! There's a GAS PIPELINE that runs north to south right through the middle of the seceding regions. Fancy that! Gosh, where is this gas pipeline going? Ohhh, according to a gas and oil pipeline map, the gas flows south through this area to . . . Turkey! Now why doesn't the press pick up on that? Are they clueless, brain dead, or in on a secret? Turkey, Russia, and Iran are all currently involved and cooperating in Syria. According to the Bible, at some point in the future, they (and a couple of other nations) will invade Israel from the north as described in Ezekiel 38 and 39*, which is called the battle of Armageddon! According to the Bible, they almost succeed in wiping out Israel (except there's a big surprise)! According to the prophecy, the nations in the Arabian peninsula suspect this will happen and oppose the invasion. * Most of the ancient people groups mentioned in the prophecy are located in present-day Turkey. Let me also say that this interpretation might be completely wrong, but I think we'll soon find out. -QQuerius
February 23, 2022
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Meanwhile the American truckers are headed to DC. If they are smart they will just circle the beltway each day and not stop except for fuel and rest each night. If anyone has driven the DC beltway they will know it’s extremely slow without these trucks. Commutes will be horrendous if the truckers come and all they do is drive around. It could be very unpleasant in the DC area. On another topic: the potential war in Ukraine is due to the world’s reaction to the so called climate change emergency. By limiting energy options in Europe and the US it has made Russia the major source for energy in the world and emboldened them.jerry
February 23, 2022
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I suspect that Trudeau ended the use of the emergencies act because he probably got word that it wouldn’t get past the senate. But it does mean that he must call for an inquiry of the use of the act.Scamp
February 23, 2022
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The people of Canada win . . . for now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6KyJo8RNXc And even the cats of Canada come to the rescue! LOL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6KyJo8RNXc -QQuerius
February 23, 2022
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One thing's for sure--Trudeau is a talented and excellent liar. In other words, he claims his government was forced, forced to invoke the Emergencies Act to protect the innocent people and shop owners from the illegal acts perpetrated by LAWBREAKERS, some of whom were plotting to undermine and even overthrow "democracy" [i.e. Fascist control] of our beloved country. Did I mention protecting children and defenseless BABY DUCKS and PUPPIES! Sigh. Yeah, probably a bank run and escalating protests in Canada and the U.S., but do you think you'll hear about it from the CBC? Otherwise, why bother getting an extension of the Emergencies Act yesterday when it's miraculously "all clear" the very next day? -QQuerius
February 23, 2022
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Jerry at 488, there was probably a run on the banks. As noted in the OP above, anyone who had any reason to fear that a capricious little Mussolini in the civil service could cause them trouble would be wise to have a huge stash of cash in a secure place. Don't expect anyone to admit it though. And, for heaven's sakes, REMEMBER this when some government starts blathering about all-digital currency. THEN where would you be?News
February 23, 2022
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Here is a story I just saw. Did he get bad polling numbers? Will he look like a hero now? https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/immediate-emergency-situation-is-over-pm-trudeau-revokes-emergencies-act-1.5793047 One thing I didn’t know. There apparently was a run on the banks. If there was, then that may have something to do with it. Did he consult Greta? https://i.redd.it/iez5bu79xlu61.jpgjerry
February 23, 2022
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All above: Trudeau has revoked the Emergencies Act, we are told. Developing... Check the OP.News
February 23, 2022
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I'm also reminded of this amazing observation:
“Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against — then you’ll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We’re after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d better get wise to it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted — and you create a nation of law-breakers — and then you cash in on guilt. Now, that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.” - Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (1957)
There's nothing new under the sun . . . merely the next generation of suckers and patsies! -QQuerius
February 23, 2022
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Irony. The CBC don’t understand humanity. https://mobile.twitter.com/That_Jonika/status/1496592769661476869jerry
February 23, 2022
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Is this the man pulling the strings in Canada? And is his mentor on his shelf? (Bust of Lenin). https://www.usasupreme.com/the-statue-we-captured-on-schwabs-book-shelf-during-his-last-interview-might-explain-why-the-world-is-going-in-the-wrong-direction-photos/ Again, I say it. They want us all to have ESG and DIE scores so they can control us.jerry
February 23, 2022
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Journalist H.L. Mencken (1888-1956) wasn't a very nice man, certainly not a Christian, but had some cynical insights that aged well. They are as applicable today as in his heyday. But see what you think.
Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule—and both commonly succeed, and are right. - H. L. Mencken
This is as pathetic today as it was before WWII.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. - H. L. Mencken
I love this quote. It's extremely insightful--how governments slice off bits of liberty under the guise of "suppressing evil" until nothing is left. However, current governments employ an additional step. They ignore many true crimes (Marxists believe that criminals are victims of society) and promote corrupt individuals who are willing to grovel. They then label, suppress, and oppress those who won't also grovel as "criminals."
Liberty is of small value to the lower third of humanity. They greatly prefer security, which means protection by some class above them. They are always in favor of despots who promise to feed them. The only liberty an inferior man really cherishes is the liberty to quit work, stretch out in the sun, and scratch himself. - H. L. Mencken
Governments always want to gain more power for idealistic goals, with which they appeal to the gullible and use merely to defend their power grabs. But the concentration of power always results in despotism. History clearly and repeated teaches this lesson, which is why tyrants want to suppress or replace history.
The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth... Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty - and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies. - H. L. Mencken
This is a little harsh. Many of "the lower third" or "nine tenths imaginary" are people I respect and love. They just want to survive their poverty and be left to themselves without government interference.
It is the fundamental theory of all the more recent American law...that the average citizen is half-witted, and hence not to be trusted to either his own devices or his own thoughts. - H. L. Mencken
So true. Civil servants, including the courts and the police, often if not usually, interact with the most scurrilous fraction of society and they project their observations onto all citizens. As one cop warned me when I was a college student going to a Halloween party, "Tonight, there are the good guys and bad guys . . . and the good guys are wearing badges."
The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. - H. L. Mencken
This is the story of my life and that of most "creatives" that I've met, both in education and in industry. They are the ones "thinking outside of the box," which is given lip service but nearly always rejected as inopportune, disruptive, and threatening.
There is something even more valuable to civilization than wisdom, and that is character. - H. L. Mencken
Amen to that! Theodore Roosevelt would agree. As C.S. Lewis once observed, "educate a devil and all you get is a clever devil." -QQuerius
February 23, 2022
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KRock 477 The people who did that are cowards. But as the article states, that's how the left-wing fascists always work. Spying on one's neighbor and then reporting them to the authorities. Chairman Mao used that tactic to evil-perfection where the Communist sympathizers were rewarded (if only temporarily) for claiming their neighbors were resisting the revolution. This was "successful" even though most of the reports were false, and they lead to the death of innocent people. Then of course there's our favorite Stasi Secret Police:
10 Terrifying Facts about the East German Secret Police https://fee.org/articles/10-terrifying-facts-about-the-east-german-secret-police/ If someone looked like he might challenge the Communist Party’s legitimacy or control, the Stasi systematically destroyed his life. They used blackmail, social shame, threats, and torture. Careers, reputations, relationships, and lives were exploded to destabilize and delegitimize a critic. More than one in three East Germans (5.6 million) was under suspicion or surveillance, with an open Stasi file.
Guilty until proven innocent is something that is being swept away in the frenzy for leftist control of the culture. When that control is threatened, fascist tendencies emerge. In general, conservatives view the law as fixed and it should be applied justly. The left looks at the law as arbitrary and can be used as a lever of power and justice on a case-by-case basis. We might trace some of this to George Bush's Patriot Act and the fear of terrorism. I'd call that neo-conservative concerns with big corporate money, banking, and a struggle for power in the Mideast rather than true "conservative values".Silver Asiatic
February 23, 2022
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Escaping the vaccine mandate in Canada. Heading south. https://mobile.twitter.com/gcanderson57/status/1496271050354610181jerry
February 23, 2022
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Q @472 - some powerful videos there, thanksSilver Asiatic
February 23, 2022
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Scamp
legislation against legal protests
The survey cited legislation against riots and violent actions - so there's some question there.Silver Asiatic
February 23, 2022
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The Evil Gnome of Canada?
When Boring People Turn Dangerous: Canada's Insane Power Grab
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/when-boring-people-turn-dangerous?utm_source=url We always thought it would be Big Brother but Big Sister has arrived. What the so called good and polite people never realize is that the Montagnards always turn on the Girondists. Here is the article that pointed to the Taibbi article. It’s interesting for some of its comments. http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2022/02/22/canadas-evil-gnome/ Question: what vandalism, destruction of property and physical harm to others have the truckers done? I know they had been squatting and noisy.jerry
February 23, 2022
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@Scamp Canada is now in the thralls of Liberal Nazism (see article below). Just curious Scamp, are you going to spend any of your free time removing these posters, or would you rather just leave them up? https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/02/evil-threatening-posters-listing-names-personal-info-hacked-givesendgo-convoy-donors-appear-streets-ottawa-following-trudeaus-vicious-crackdown/KRock
February 23, 2022
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