The truckers protest in Ottawa is out of hand

Heh. I hadn’t  been on this thread since when it first started, so just clicked to read the most recent post. That usually gives me an idea where things have headed (yes) and whether I want to read backwards (no, thanks).

I just heard an epidemiologist on a podcast say that that the US is #60 on the lists of countries with the highest percentages of vaccinations. Sixty. He also said (podcast is two weeks old) that an American is dying every 17 seconds from Covid, handily eclipsing both cancer and heart disease. (Oh, and then some horrifying stats about the increased chances of hospitalization and death among the unvaccinated. Crazy high numbers. Using most measures, this has become a pandemic of the unvaccinated.)

So, since we can very clearly dispense with the idea of American Exceptionalism, maybe both the US government and we-the-people can stop muscling our way, and our perspective, into every global - or other country’s - issue. 

I wouldn’t be at all surprised, but not being Canadian, I am not sure of the accuracy of this Tweet. You know, there’s so much “fake news” out there. 😉

It's accurate - the provincial protests may have been a bit more grass roots but Ottawa is pure astroturf.

It's been well-reported in other reputable sources

www.ctvnews.ca/canada/who-is-who-a-guide-to-the-major-players-in-the-trucker-convoy-protest-1.5776441

I have read that a lot of foreign money is involved. I tend to believe it. Yeah, if this thing ever ends, it will be very interesting to see how it happened and who financed it.

AGAIN  - this is not true for transplants list.  They are being denied because they are not good transplant recipients…if it was something other than COVID they would still be denied. If it was before COVID and they did not agree to follow their protocols they would be denied and removed. Find something else to use as your proof that Unvaccinated people are being denied medical treatment or are not being given acceptable treatment!

I work for a hospital, we have had guidance come out to reiterate that no one is denied medical treatment and everyone is shown empathy and provided with the best medical attention possible…vaccinated or unvaccinated.   So like the voter fraud, there may be some fringe weird story here and there that some random Dr did deny treatment BUT overall it is not true and is a wrong, extremely ugly, incorrect, and dangerous false narrative to be pushing.  You need to find something else to push if you want any kind of chance of changing people’s mind.

It’s unfortunate that so many people who are determined not to be vaccinated have found doctors who are willing to “advise” them not to get it. I realize there are people who really shouldn’t get it. But their cause is being hurt by people like my sister, who carefully questioned all of her family’s doctors (her kids have CF and she has RA, so they are many) until she found one that was willing to say he kind of sort of thought her concerns *might* be valid. And she was able to turn around then and say, oh, my doctor advised me not to vaccinate any of my family.

Her actual objection, btw, is the spurious one about aborted fetuses being used in the research. Nothing to do with medical concerns. She’s just making stuff up to have an “excuse” and it hurts other people.

Given that I bypassed pages 1-13 entirely, I would say my objection is credible enough. To be fair.

I disagree.

Of course you do. Anything else wouldn't fit the narrative.

Some good news:

“At a press conference Friday, Ford said he will convene cabinet and "urgently enact orders that will make crystal clear it is illegal and punishable to block and impede the movement of goods, people and services along critical infrastructure."

"This will include protecting international border crossings, 400-series highways, airports, ports, bridges and railways. It will also include protecting the safe and essential movement of ambulatory and medical services, public transit, municipal and provincial roadways, as well as pedestrian walkways," Ford said.

"Fines for non-compliance will be severe, with a maximum penalty of $100,000 and up to a year imprisonment. We will also provide additional authority to consider taking away the personal and commercial licenses of anyone who doesn't comply with these orders."

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-announcement-ontario-protests-1.6347810

This is the News Report from cbc.ca on Friday Feb. 11, 2022

Ontario is declaring a state of emergency in response to convoy protests against public health measures meant to curb the spread of COVID-19, which have caused major disruptions in multiple areas of the province in recent weeks.

Premier Doug Ford made the announcement Friday morning while protest blockades continue to shut down parts of Ottawa's city core and portions of Windsor's Ambassador Bridge.

Meanwhile, more protests are expected at Queen's Park in downtown Toronto, forcing police to close off several roads in the surrounding area.

At a press conference Friday, Ford said he will convene cabinet and "urgently enact orders that will make crystal clear it is illegal and punishable to block and impede the movement of goods, people and services along critical infrastructure."

"This will include protecting international border crossings, 400-series highways, airports, ports, bridges and railways. It will also include protecting the safe and essential movement of ambulatory and medical services, public transit, municipal and provincial roadways, as well as pedestrian walkways," Ford said.

"Fines for non-compliance will be severe, with a maximum penalty of $100,000 and up to a year imprisonment. We will also provide additional authority to consider taking away the personal and commercial licences of anyone who doesn't comply with these orders."

The premier also said Friday that he doesn't believe these protests are representative of the bulk of truckers in the province, which was the initial stated thrust of the protests.

"This is about a political statement. That's what this is about," Ford said.

"To the occupiers: please, go home."

From cbc.ca Regarding "donations" to the convoy occupying Ottawa.

Seven of the top 10 donations listed on a fundraiser for the convoy occupying Ottawa and blockading some national border crossings are anonymous, as is the largest donation at US$215,000, according to the fundraising website.

And even as Ontario’s Attorney General has obtained a court order freezing any funds raised in two efforts on the American website GiveSendGo, donations continue to pour in, at $8.6 million and counting as of Friday morning.

It’s a sign Canada has to do more to understand the connection between crowdfunding and possible foreign sources of money and influence to domestic political groups, said a member on a national security committee looking into the crowdfunding efforts.

“For someone to donate a couple hundred thousand dollars — that’s an eye-opening amount,” said NDP MP Alistair MacGregor.

“There are a lot of anonymous donors, there are a lot of American donors donating to this, and we just want to make sure they are donating for innocent reasons and not nefarious ones,” he said.

On Thursday, the committee voted unanimously to expand their study of the Freedom Convoy’s fundraising efforts to include a study on the rise of ideologically motivated extremism, which included an invitation to GiveSendGo to appear before the committee.

The convoy’s previous fundraising platform, GoFundMe, raised more than $10 million before shutting down and refunding most of the money. That platform has agreed to attend a hearing on this issue in March, committee chair and Liberal MP Jim Carr said at the hearing.

A CTV News analysis of a sample of the donations to one of the GiveSendGo fundraisers showed that more than a third of the donations were anonymous, and of those that identified their geographical location somehow, about a third were from Canada and slightly more than half were from the United States.

Comments listed names like “From Oregon With Love” and “Buckhorn Texans for Freedom from Government.”

The top donation, $215,000, has a comment that says “processed but not recorded.” The next top donation, at $90,000, is listed as from Thomas M. Siebel. CTV News has reached out to the American billionaire by the same name but has not confirmed it is his donation.

The third highest donation, $75,000, is from an anonymous donor.


Stephanie Carvin, an associate professor of international affairs at Carleton University, said it’s clear the convoy has gotten the attention of America’s right-wing figures.

“We’ve seen the support for the truckers given out by Donald Trump Junior, by Elon Musk, we shouldn’t be surprised that they are directing their audience to what’s happening in Canada,” she said.

The use of foreign funds for political campaigns is largely prohibited in Canada, and domestic funds are largely limited to caps in the few thousands of dollars, she said.

“We have really strict election laws when it comes to financing. We don’t want our political parties beholden to foreign cash. But what happens when it’s a movement?” she said.

Garry Clement, a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer who is now an expert in money laundering, said any Canadian intermediary for the money should ask serious questions about its source, and its intended use, which could run afoul of Canadian money laundering regulations.

“Do we want to have money coming from a foreign state that disrupts Canada? The answer is no, and that should be a concern to intelligence agencies and the RCMP,” he said.

“Why would any Canadian bank accept this? They should be immediately sending it back because they can’t know who the people are who are funding this,” he said.

GiveSendGo tweeted Thursday night, “Know this! Canada has absolutely ZERO jurisdiction over how we manage our funds here at GiveSendGo. All funds for EVERY campaign on GiveSendGo flow directly to the recipients of those campaigns, not least of which is The Freedom Convoy campaign.”

In Ottawa, CTV News spoke with several protesters who said they did not have a problem with accepting foreign funds, mainly on the basis they believed they were part of a worldwide movement.

“We want to get our freedoms back and make this country something to be proud of again,” said Jay Sugrue from inside the cab of a truck. “It’s moving worldwide, it’s not just Canada.”