February 16, 2022 - 10:13am
Ottawa, Canada
For as long as the Freedom Convoy remained parked in front of Parliament, the truckers were a frustrating but manageable problem for Justin Trudeau. Things only took a decisive turn against the Freedom Convoy when it inspired a self-organised group of protestors (mostly non-truckers) to block Canada’s most important economic corridor with the United States, the Ambassador Bridge on the border of Michigan and Ontario.
The Conservatives, who initially expressed sympathy for the Convoy, called for the truckers to go home and for the blockades to end. The Federal and Ontario Provincial governments quickly announced that they would be declaring States of Emergency. The Democratic Party’s most important organ, the New York Times, published an article entitled “Why hasn’t Justin Trudeau ordered the police or army to quash the protests?” President Biden also called Trudeau to express his concerns on the effect on production on American auto manufacturers.
Shortly thereafter, the Canadian Prime Minister responded in the most draconian way possible. Declaring a national state of emergency for the first time ever in response to protests, he ordered the truckers to disband or face criminal prosecution.
There was no need for the use of the Emergencies Act — Canada’s equivalent of martial law — to end the Freedom Convoy nor the blockades. The powers required to do so are available via a provincial state of emergency — indeed, the emergency orders issued under this state of emergency were sufficient to clear the blockade on Ambassador Bridge within 48 hours. What this move actually represents is a signal to the United States that Canada is willing to do everything necessary to prioritise investment and commerce. Canada is a country highly dependent on resource exports for its GDP; its manufacturing base is concentrated in the Province of Ontario and largely owned by foreign companies. In Ontario, nearly 40% manufacturing jobs are situated at a foreign-owned company. And of course, Canada’s most important foreign investor and client for its resources is the United States.
The city of Ottawa, where the convoy is located, is now under three States of Emergency: the municipal, provincial and federal levels. In the declaration of the state of emergency by Premier Doug Ford, there were several mentions of the need to maintain “investor confidence”. Similarly, deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland highlighted the damage to Canada’s “reputation as a reliable trading partner”, mentioning the primacy of the United States. Clearly, no cost is too small in achieving the goal of protecting foreign capital in Canada, including setting the extremely dangerous precedent of suspending civil liberties and rights in response to what has been an entirely peaceful protest.
The Canadian people’s rights and civil liberties have been weighed against the “rights” of American capital, and have been passed over. At the time of writing, banks have been granted the ability (free of liability) to freeze the bank accounts of those under mere suspicion of involvement in the protest movement — with no need for a court order. In addition, emergency orders must adhere to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but only according to Justin Trudeau’s interpretation. After two years of severe and unjustified infringements on freedom of association, assembly, religion, expression, and equality under law, many Canadians are now doubtful as to whether they are still citizens of a liberal democratic state.
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SubscribeMore protests are needed. More disruptions. More strain. Until they back away from these illiberal and antidemocratic practices and restore fundamental rights.
We are winning.
#ThanksJoeRogan
They stand for Freedom; against tyranny, the WEF and other such anti-sovereign powerful global interests. I stand with them.
I know, that this writer gets it so totally wrong shows how captured the entire MSM is. They have mass formationed themselves to being true believers of the agenda no matter how crazy it is. As Dezmit says – the more crazy the story they are fed, the more totally they believe it.
“Trudeau’s state of emergency is all about the money” “Civil liberties were suspended to protect foreign investment”
NO, no, no. The Covid Agenda allready spent a couple times the annual Budget of USA and Ca on sheer waste and destructive policies, $ 14 Trillion (which all basically has gone to the wealthy in the end) – saddling the future generations in such debt they will never pay it back. Causing an inevitable Great Depression, all Planned. They have destroyed the lines of supply, they have destroyed all the constitutional Freedoms, they have made honest and patriotic citizens ‘Terrorists’ in name, and likely will eventually build the Gulags…. They destroyed the small businesses and gave their market share to the mega corporations…..
This has nothing to do with the money being lost – the more money lost the more the Left like it, as then they are the only ones who can keep the people surviving (as long as they vote correctly)
“In a post on Twitter, DeSantis tweeted an image in support of the truckers on Tuesday that read, “Truck Yeah!””
Watch FOX news, Tucker Carlson praises the Truckers and exposes the tyrant in Trudeau every day – Fox loves the Freedom Protests, as they love Freedom.
CNN, CNBC, CBS, NBC, all of them, they have endless talk of how the police need to put on their jackboots and smash the Freedom Protest – they Love Trudeau’s actions.
It is nothing to do with money lost by border (and how about the South Border? The amount of drugs openly coming North are many more times as destructive as this.. But the Left LOVES it being an open wound…)
This is nothing to do with money, that the reporter says this does must mean she researches through Google, and the MSM, as that is what their Misinformation, and Mal-information campaign says to justify their Tyrant..
What the Truckers Do and Do Not Want – youtu.be/P8tzXazvyHQ
“Canadian Truckers are reportedly 90% vaccinated, above the country’s 78% total, a key detail that’s brazenly ignored by media in both countries determined to depict these more as “anti-vax” than “anti-mandate”.”
Please watch. It’s important the other side is heard when it has mainstream media and global elite organisations opposed to them and determined to misrepresent.
Truckers are Pro-Vax, if we think about it.
Yes, but this rather makes the error of assuming that the truckers in the convoy are representative of truckers overall! There is a big overlap between anti-vax or vax-sceptical, shall we say, and anti-mandate positions. (if you are happy to be jabbed, you are probably not so motivated to join an anti-mandate convoy travelling hundreds or thousands of miles at some cost to yourself).
Then we have the ‘right wing’ version of the Left always pointing to the numbers of people demonstrating as if that means the majority of the population or particular group support their cause! It always makes me laugh how the heroic British people of Brexit become a mass of moronic dupes or ‘sheeple’ when it came to covid policy. The appeal to ‘the people’ is so often so very contingent and context-dependent.
I entirely support the truckers right to protest, but it is so ironic that many right wing (I suppose) commentators who excoriate Extinction Rebellion etc for blocking roads are all of a sudden so sympathetic to truckers doing the same on bridges!
Hmmm…you know, I can’t help thinking there was a previous experiment in fusing the economic power of business with the raw muscle of the state. I think it was an Italian chap who pioneered the method, but his name escapes me. Help me out, anyone?
Pavarotti?
Super Mario?
Maybe. I seem to remember he WAS a fat guy who spent a lot of time making exaggerated movements.
Well, Super Mario and Pavarotti obviously, but also many of the Roman Tyrant Emperors, Maybe even a couple of the more corrupt Popes, and obviously the Doges of Florence and Venice, and of course Mussolini.
I weep for democracy.
All Hail Brandon, the true King of Canada; and spare a thought for his local errand boy Justin “Can I borrow your boot polish?” Trudeau
America closed the bridge, if I read correctly, by blocking unvaccinated drivers from Canada.
Now, now Justin. The government shutting things down is fine. It’s when the people do it that it becomes a crisis. Get with the program.
I Know – this article is sheer Google research – how about the fact Canada shut down cross border traffic for a couple years – Canadians were not even allowed to leave their country. Aus, NZ, Canada…. Lockdowns to the point of economic suicide – but all fine, till a lockdown happens in the name of Freedom instead of Plandemic Despotism. Then it is ‘About the Benjamins’, as Congresswoman Omar so eloquently put it….
NZ has spent less time in lockdowns during the past 2 years than almost any other first world country, and their debt to GDP ratio is less than 50%, even after the costs incurred by the pandemic. Hardly economic suicide
Whats their exit strategy?
The same as almost every other country, let the virus work it’s way through the population, trying to control the spread as much as possible to avoid collapsing the health service, then open up and end all restrictions. The government have stated this many times
Its not about the trucker vaccination decree. That is just the straw that broke the back.
The opening stanza of Canada’s anthem includes the line:
The True North, strong and free;
And patriotic voices to the south go wobbly on the following:
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Meanwhile, everyone else is looking the other way and suppressing a laugh. Rather sad really.
Didn’t Trudeau outlaw O, Canada because it was upsetting the locals in Ottawa? Worse than Honk, Honk!
Maybe I’m wrong on this–maybe one can still quote it, but not sing it. UnHerd readers, help me out on this one.
The woken changed the words.
TRUCK OFF TRUDEAU! and
LET’S GO BRANDON!
Is Trudeau actually coming in for any criticism in Canada or ids the press completely subservient?
Most of the media in Canada is sponsored by the government. The notion that Canada is still a democracy is pure fiction.
The big thing in Canada is — Quebec vs. The Rest. Quebec speaks French and the rest (more or less) doesn’t. Trudeau, pére et fils, were/are loved by all in Quebec but unloved elsewhere. This is a big thing. The Quebecois would secede tomorrow if they could get away with it but the rest needs them badly. Quebec has the only waterway which can be kept open all the year round.
I was in Quebec a couple of years ago and hired a car with non-Quebec plates. I was told I was very lucky that the car was not vandalised.
Yeah, I’m calling BS on the non-Quebec plates part of your story.
Have you been to Quebec then?
With hindsight it was obviously a mistake for Wolfe not to do some cleansing
Say what? Your understanding of the geography of Canada is somewhat laughable.
Imagine if this was in Britain and what the reaction of the MSM here would be, and the narrative they’d be trying to spin..
Same thing in Canada, I gather.
“After two years of severe and unjustified infringements on freedom of association, assembly, religion, expression, and equality under law, many Canadians are now doubtful as to whether they are still citizens of a liberal democratic state.”
Why are Canadians doubtful?
There is no doubt that Canadians NO LONGER live in a liberal (in the traditional sense, meaning “free”), democratic state.
The boy king, as woke as they come, has usurped powers that belong to the Canadian people. Martial law now, when Corona is on the ropes? Really?
Trudeau has taken a knee, genuflecting (or perhaps worse) before a demented, doddering, dotard, sacrificing the rights and freedoms of his people (See, Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms) in exchange for a few more cars/trucks being produced. No wonder Canadians feel inferior to Yanks–the boy king has confirmed their serf status.
Since when was the boy king so concerned about keeping businesses open, instead of shutting them down–(See, 2020, 2021)?
Trudeau and his actions are sickening. He reminds me of another woke “democratic” leader a bit to the south, who once said he did not have the power to legalise millions of illegal invasive species in the US, that only Congress could do that, since he was not a king. He went around the country saying this, and when the invaders had and lost a vote (the filthy invaders won in the House, lost in the Senate), the so-called “Dream Act” did not become law, but the FKM (“Filthy Kenyan Muslim”) legalised them anyway.
So much for democracy!
Didn’t the refugees from Gilead end up in Canada? Perhaps that story line will need to be revisited.
Canada is now a woeful excuse for a democracy.
Excellent point. And there was an Indian family seeking to flee Canada and invade the US because they were forbidden from singing O, Canada in Ottawa.
I’m not 100% sure of this. Maybe they were fleeing Canada for some other reason. How did that end for the potential invaders? (Make better choices–like stay home!)
There is also the question of why are the vaccine mandates so important to Trudeau. The most likely explanation is that his government has entered into secret agreements with tech firms that commit the government to maintaining mandates.
There’s a headline in today’s Independent having a go at Trudeau. He really must have gone too far!
The article also says the polls show 65% of the population are against the truckers. Any Canadians able to comment on that? It seems unlikely.
Maybe the Canadians are generally a wimpy lot? I have only been there once, but there were signs…
Canada is just like USA, I have been over every bit of it and lived there.
The West is like California and Oregon but without those rough minorities. Alberta is like Denver and Pheonix. The fly over Provinces are like the fly over States (deplorables), and the East is like the USA East (but with a crazy French thing going) The problem is they have way too few deplorables, and way too many Portland Oregon/SF idiots.
The Arctic and far North provinces are a world of their own, Not like Alaska, maybe more like Danish Arctic, an odd mix.
Your ignorance is evident
Ignoring the reasons for the protest, do those commenting on UnHerd believe that the protestors had the right to block the bridge, even though this would prevent members of the public going about their day and led to some missing out on wages due to the factories having to shut?
If so, do they also believe that the posh kids with extinction rebellion had the right to block the M25 and disrupt London for their protests? As I remember at the time this board was almost universal in its condemnation of those people and the police for not moving them along sooner, whereas they are critical of the Canadians for doing exactly what should have been done with Extinction Rebellion
I don’t mean this comment to imply that I condone Trudeau’s threats of freezing bank accounts and the pathetic state of emergency because I don’t, I’m just curious to know if people are happy with protests causing disruption to the general public all the time or only for causes they approve of
You make a good point, assuming that the bridge-blockers are actually part of the Freedom Convoy and not a rogue or false-flag group seeking to discredit them. If blocking roads is wrong, it’s wrong for all groups regardless of what they are protesting.
Two different arguements. The Truckers are complaining about vax paperwork restrictions on their jobs. XR/IR on the motorways are mainly unwaged (doleys, civil servants on sickleave, retired pen pushers, etc) and are taking part in what I call a 3rd party Demo. Various UK Local and Nationals Govs have been providing cash grants or organising the insulation of many houses around the UK (care of the National/Local Taxpayers) while I and many other Brits in private houses paid for our own. It should be noted that the Twit who is organising all of these demos lives, I believe, in a private dwelling which is not yet insulated while he is capable of paying for it to be done. The Truckers want to move. XR/IR won’t even let Emergency Vehicles “move”.
Despite draconian threats and some arrests, the truckers stay on. The blockade that the was hurting the public has mostly ended but the demonstration continues. Enforcing the law via police is done reluctantly. The stalemate may show the government has limits, but we shall see.
Trudeau’s admiration for …. China – https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson/status/1493597275351826432?s=20&t=LPBSo0WvKMBt1C2ahXt6-Q
Quislings of the WEF.
Democracy will die if those who use their right to protest block the highways and deny free passage to their fellow citizens who want to go about their daily business and earn a living.
Government’s must act when faced with their country being brought to a standstill and their fragile economies disadvantaged.,