Down With the Sickness: Canadian Politics 2022

o_O.

I have seen exactly one visible minority openly participating or supporting this here so far. But good to hear other perspectives - never good to stereotype.

Lot of Asian people in the neighbourhood, but still...

This video, shared by a supporter, looks, uh, consistent in demographics with what I've been observing around here:

Are you serious man pic.twitter.com/4m9qC7spBM

— David Laflamme (@davidlaflammme) January 29, 2022

also in beards

Sorry, don't want to misrepresent what was going on...the protest did look to be all white guys tbh but on the two or three main intersections along the way there was little crowds of people with canada flags and ppc signs and there were lots of non white people there. Probably faith groups from the suburbs?

Nice and quiet this morning

Today will almost certainly be the last 'big' day. An employee at the hotel I'm at say more or less *everybody* who checked in Friday and Saturday are checking out today.

Obviously, the long-haulers are going to stay nestled in their trucks when Parliament resumes Monday.

— Justin Ling (@Justin_Ling) January 30, 2022

Spoke too soon. Horns just started up again.

edmonton:

From CBC: Edmonton MP on Parliament Hill handing out coffee to protestors, with upside-down Canadian flag with swastika in background. Disgraceful. #FluTruxKlan #FluTrucksKlan #KarenKonvoy pic.twitter.com/RoU2tmh2Kl

— Barre Campbell (@bgrantcampbell) January 29, 2022

i'm just catching up with all of this and apparently there were more nazi and confederate flags being flown at these protests in various cities.

these people are so utterly confused. you can't even have a rational discussion with them

https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/sfql2g/nazi_flag_during_freedom_convoy_protest_at/

Yep, both pictures are from Parliament Hill here. The MP is Michael Cooper:

Conservative Member of Parliament Michael Cooper, supporting the anti-vaxx convoy being interviewed in front of a swastika.

Just a normal, peaceful protest. pic.twitter.com/Xou4sb9beu

— Chris Bittle (@Chris_Bittle) January 29, 2022

I can't make out what was written on the QC flag behind him. Can anyone read it?

I really wish the CBC would stop calling this a protest against Covid restrictions

Nothing says "grassroots campaign to end vaccine mandates" like professionally-made transphobia placards. Via @TheCanuckMD pic.twitter.com/G4DvflHSOI

— Michelle Cohen, MD (@DocMCohen) January 30, 2022

If there are any journalist lurkers here please read this thread

🧵Want to know how protests like today's #FluTrucksKlan benefit alt-right extremists? Here's some 101 on how hat operates.

First, they pick an issue that has reached a boiling point. In this case, it's the pandemic and health mandates. They know a lot of people are exhausted.
1/

— Mx. Amanda Jetté Knox (@MavenOfMayhem) January 30, 2022

At least they are reporting this: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/convoy-protest-border-lethbridge-alberta-1.6332936

Ugh. Hopefully it’s broken up a bit out there sund4r? I just drove a couple hours eastbound on the 401, and passed at least 100 westbound convoy vehicles (flag draped) that had to be headed home. Not nearly as many trucks as smaller vans and pickups though. Still seemed like a lot.

We got the thumbnail version in St. Marys: one guy standing at the town's main intersection, Unknown Comic paper bag over his head, anti-vaxx signage (and a People's Party sign hanging from a drainage pipe inside his car parked nearby). Thankfully, he wasn't looking to engage as I walked by; not something I'm particularly up for at the moment.

Took some pictures en route to the drug store: https://photos.app.goo.gl/v5VnPUWy2nkYoMyQ9

I wandered up Bank St. for a bit until the honking got to be too much.

Definitely a surreal weekend.

I love the "WE ARE THE FRINGE" signs. Like... okay, I believe you.

Friends, it's been a difficult 24 hours. Staff harassed for meals. A service user and security guard assaulted. Through it all, you have donated and filled our hearts with gratitude. Every cent will support people experiencing homelessness. Thank you. See our statement ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/TYHD8r8aLo

— Shepherds of Good Hope (@sghottawa) January 30, 2022

I've tbh been a little confused about how this is even legal for them to shut down the core of the city for days on end; this seems to suggest that it's not but police are scared of "confrontations" with the 'peaceful' demonstrators??

The latest Ottawa Police news release on the ongoing protest near Parliament Hill: pic.twitter.com/0WVS3oChuo

— Katie Simpson (@CBCKatie) January 31, 2022

The elementary school next door is closed because of this. Why is this being tolerated?

It's infuriating; it's also impossible to not be cynical about "why"

It's jaw-dropping, thinking about how many people were arrested during the G20 protests in Toronto or how aggressive the police response was to the Printemps érable in Montreal. They can't even give these people parking tickets?

OTM

Is a positive test even news anymore?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-protest-ottawa-1.6333316

Good piece about the explicit connections between this shit far right white supremacism: https://www.antihate.ca/the_freedom_convoy_is_nothing_but_a_vehicle_for_the_far_right

At what age does conspiratorial thinking set in? I mentioned to a grade 6 class today about Trudeau testing positive; "He's not really positive, he's just hiding from the truckers."

Not sure that's a conspiracy per se, although it may be an implicit admission that the protest is not so peaceful.

I destroyed one sign today and flipped people off while walking on the sidewalk. Starting to lose it. The city has basically isolated Centretown and handed us over to these nutters: https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/troster-trucker-convoy-ottawas-centretown-has-been-abandoned-to-the-mob

From a viewer just now: “I am disabled and live within blocks of parliament. I’ve been trying to get groceries for days now and because of the mess down here I am unable to have them delivered…I haven’t had food for days now” #ottnews

— Graham Richardson (@grahamctv) January 31, 2022

The idea that the PM would release false test results to dodge a difficult situation--not least coming from an 11-year-old--strikes me as very conspiratorial. I'm guessing the idea didn't formulate in his own mind.

Oh, tbc, it's bullshit and makes no sense anyway. Trudeau was hiding just fine before he got sick.

Funny...On a related note, a different kid in the same class, when I brought up Hiroshima on Friday (in connection to Jackson Pollock), said the Japanese deserved the atomic bomb. Flabbergasted, to say the least.

Uh, are your students' parents parked around here rn, by any chance?

The minute they get their licenses...

O'Toole may be getting ousted?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/erin-otoole-leadership-review-caucus-1.6334491

(xpost) I misread your post--parents, yeah...I don't want to characterize the whole school, I've been there a lot this year and most of the kids are just fine, but obviously a few of them are getting very creative history lessons around the dinner table.

No paramedics were hurt following an incident on Parliament Hill where rocks were thrown at an Ottawa ambulance vehicle during the third day of the “Freedom Convoy” protest.

Darryl Wilton, president of the Ottawa Paramedic Association, confirmed the news to CityNews on Monday, January 31, adding that one of their paramedics had also been subjected to anti-Asian racial slurs during the same incident as he checked on the status of the vehicle.

https://ottawa.citynews.ca/local-news/rocks-hurled-at-ottawa-ambulance-at-downtown-truck-convoy-5011107

clem how did you respond to the 11yo?

Pretty sharply both times (again, two different kids). I let the kid on Friday know how cruel he was being, even if that wasn't his intention, and with the kid today, I basically said "That's absurd." It's a bit of a balancing act to the degree that any kind of engagement with these topics is, in the abstract, better than no engagement, so I tried to stop short of "You have no idea what you're talking about so just shut up." They were all respectful when I talked about Jackie Robinson today (birthday), so I'm sure it's just random nonsense they're picking up from home.

i have to say i do view clemenza's student's viewpoint as conspiratorial. an increasing amount of people on the right are taking advantage of trudeau's low approval rating by blatantly making up lies about him and the people around him.

have a look at this CBC piece from today:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/adam-scotti-accusations-protest-1.6334213

this is a CPC MP posting on facebook. sure, she removed her post but this just flames so much conspiratorial thinking. while there's no direct link between what that news piece says and trudeau avoiding the protests, it's very obvious we're seeing a nascent US-style conspiratorial and hate culture in canada, which is so extremely demoralizing. i'm starting to believe we truly are the US on a delay

once this "seed" is planted in chamber, we will see all kinds of people fill in the blanks with wild ideas when posts are removed or conservative MPs are viewed as being "silenced"

in terms of when would conspiratorial thinking set in, i'm still a relatively young person with no children, but i believe this kind of thinking is embedded in subtle ways as an infant, to the point where it is difficult for a child to even identify her or his own thoughts as conspiratorial unless exposed to a variety of ideas and challenged intellectually. once rationality is thrown out the window, they're pretty much a lost cause, but i tend to give educational institutions a lot of credit. also, unfortunately, and i think this overlaps with some conservative viewpoints sadly (especially from the US, where a lot of this is coming from), i do believe that lack of government transparency also gives way to this kind of thinking and i believe most governments we've had have failed us in this regard. i wouldn't be surprised if our government is one of the least transparent, as are the corporations that have established themselves here

there is a reddit post that describes all the horrible things that have happened at these protests:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments/sh62nr/convoy_megathread_27/hv0k0xk/

I thought conspiracy theories usually involve multiple powerful parties colluding in secret to enact a hidden agenda? Not sure who the conspirators are in a 'theory' about a politician telling a lie (something that politicians do); it just seems baseless and unlikely in this case. Or is the idea that the health care system and media are also in on the conspiracy?

Anyway lol Saskatchewan

"I asked … why you can't start ticketing [ on Queen Elizabeth Driveway ], it's far enough away. And they said they'd get on their CB [ radio ] and there would be another 20 truckers there smashing down the barricade."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-protest-convoy-length-ticket-tow-mayor-1.6333497

Are these people under the impression no one remembers stuff like this? https://thetyee.ca/News/2019/12/20/RCMP-Planned-Snipers-Wetsuweten-Pipeline-Protest/

(tbc I'm not advocating the Ottawa police start sniping people)

Reading about this and the border crossing blockade, I'm reminded of how many liberal/progressive/etc people told me they couldn't support police abolition, because without cops there'd be no one to defend them from armed right-wingers. Turns out you don't even need a gun or a militia just some big cars and they're powerless. Of course the answer will probably be "we need to give the police military-grade vehicles" (which they will never use against white people)

Not important, but I'm trying to sort this out in my mind...When you refer to JFK conspiracists, you're not saying they're part of the original plot, but rather that they, under the influence of other like-minded people, have come to construct and believe far-fetched narratives about Kennedy's assassination (or Q people obsessed with Hillary and pedophiles and Pizzagate). That's why I call that kid a nascent conspiracist: prompted by his parents or the internet, he's propagating some scenario where the truckers are being ignored by a PM who's hiding out under the false pretense of COVID. And I'm sure that's only one part of a bigger and wilder story about how the protestors are being undermined.

Well, both of those are theories about conspiracies: Oswald didn't act alone but was a pawn in a conspiracy involving the people within the CIA or Castro or KGB colluding; that the Clintons, Obama, George Soros, and Bill Gates are secretly meeting to worship Satan and traffic children or something. Maybe there is a wider narrative about a conspiracy to suppress the truckers and protect Trudeau but "he's lying about the test results to avoid dealing with them" doesn't sound like a conspiracy to me on its own. Never thought "conspiracy theory" referred to a conspiracy among the people who are developing the theory.

Anyway I do get that there's a little bit of a difference between sending the RCMP or military out to a protest blocking pipeline access roads in the middle of nowhere and authorizing them to use force to remove protesters vs sending soldiers or snipers out to an urban downtown core with 50,000 civilian residents and risking the incitement of violence from people who are already using their trucks to ram through barricades. This does seem to be the angle that Watson and Sloly are taking and maybe they're right - it's true that no one has been seriously injured or killed so far. However, if that's true and "the threat of violence has been too great" to enforce the law as per Watson, can we stop treating this event that is "unique in nature, massive in scale, polarizing in context, and dangerous in literally every other aspect" in Chief Sloly's words*, as a peaceful demonstration and officially recognize it for what it is, namely, terrorism? Let's not let Tories get away with endorsing it without being clear that that's what they're endorsing.

*around 13:40 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kycmhtiyou0

well put Sund4r. Perhaps it's worth distinguishing the Alberta border crossing blockade from the Ottawa occupation. The former is such a direct threat to state power I am reeling a bit at how chill the coverage of it is

What a clusterfuck. https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/rcmp-enforcement-possible-as-coutts-border-blockade-reaches-fourth-day

i hear you guys are having truck demon issues
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VLHXe5Ub488/WxH55FOOR3I/AAAAAAAAAZI/ERB_VQXIkzIv3r7wDtEX5Gg5mn-FWQMJQCLcBGAs/s1600/MO+first.jpg

I'm gone, but glad to hear it.

Gong's 11th place finish (he must have had more signs on the streets than votes) leads me to wonder if he was running to increase general name recognition, perhaps business related.

I have nothing to say about this but: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-gregoire-separation-1.6925254

absolutely HUGE news.

Every single political party in Canada admits that Indian state was involved in POLITICAL ASSASSINATION of Canadian-Sikh community leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar this summer.

Let that sink in, comrades. https://t.co/brMdtpBJj0

— Harsha Walia (@HarshaWalia) September 18, 2023

reminding myself who Anthony Rota is: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ndp-jagmeet-singh-rota-racist-therrien-1.5616661

Canada right now: pic.twitter.com/HP10CKST7k

— The Leninist Lawyer ☭📕 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇵🇸 (@MarxistLaw) September 25, 2023

what's up Manitoba

Wab Kinew will become the first First Nations premier to lead a Canadian province!

A historic win for the Manitoba New Democratic Party! pic.twitter.com/TxIwTZODVe

— Khelsilem (@Khelsilem) October 4, 2023

Ontario lefties: I think I'm just done with electoral politics period after the ONDP kicked Sarah Jama out of caucus, absolutely livid at these spineless fucks

I thought I maybe posted about this on this thread, but I guess not. Not sure where to put it--not politics, but a huge national story. They got a verdict today in the London hate-killing case.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-attack-guilty-verdict-1.7029754