Rolling Thunder Convoy
 

What are we in for this weekend?

Just before 5 pm, I witnesses part of the convoy heading north on south Bank Street.

There are more than motorcycles. Lots of trucks again with flags and blaring horns.

I am nervous.

I am leading a public event on Sunday and I hope this does not spoil it.

We're in for noise and revving. A lot of noise and revving.

Sounds like it will be a lot of the same crowd. It seems to me that the plan is to keep them dispersed enough that they can’t cause the same kind of grief. Should be doable.

They can't be allowed to get entrenched like in February. From the livestreams it looks like there's a few vehicles (maybe 20+) out front the Rideau Centre. Hopefully the crowds can be pushed back enough for those vehicles to be allowed to turn around and leave the area or be towed out.

This weekend was nuts for traffic, even in Aylmer. Sunday morning traffic jams on Vanier/Allumettières, line ups at Champlain bridge on Taché from beyond St Raymond, and eastbound on Lucerne.

It's crazy what a few blocked streets can do.

That probably had more to do with the Ride for CHEO that took over the SJAM and GEC parkways.

Yes, that probably contributed too, good call.

During the February debacle, a lot of out of towners flooded the west end of Gatineau, so I may have some lingering 'misunderstandings'.

Critterfest has a habit of doing that to the City streets.

We are more known for our restos.

1 hour to get from St-Raymond/Tache to the other side of the Champlain bridge on Saturday. Witnessed some pretty awful driving behaviour at that intersection. Lots of cars cutting off peds/cyclists on the crosswalk.

If you're not watching the testimony of councillors Fleury and McKenney today live, watch the replay when you have a chance.

Yesterday was another display of the Police and Cities incompetence. Seems the Hotel Association, yes, that's right, the Hotel Association warned the Police that the truckers were booking hotel rooms for 30 to 90 days and were expecting 5k-15k. Police did nothing with that info.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/eme...tawa-1.6618549

Another dumb City of Ottawa brain fart:

https://twitter.com/Gray_Mackenzie/s...Y77ZfJdwb1K7Bw

#1 these are self entitled morons who hold on tight to their big rigs and pickup trucks. #2 You don't want these people on transit because intimidation/vandalism and #3 the City is aware the stadium parking is underutilized could be used as a park and ride, bony won't let residents and taxpayers use it as such?

In positive (?) news, props to Doug Ford for giving credit where credit is due. He supports the Feds's use of the Emergencies Act. Good on him for not being ultra partisan like the Federal PCs, or Provincial PCs in the west. I disagreee with a lot of his politics and decisions, but I can respect his willingness to work and support with the Federal Liberals.

https://globalnews.ca/news/9204438/d...ar-protesters/

Only watched a few short snippets on the news. Pretty harrowing. McKenney having to help residents get out of their home. Fleury himself needed to pack-up his family and leave. We witnessed true leadership from Fleury and McKenney during those dark days, while Watson's only move was to fire head of the Police Board and try to negotiate in vein with the occupiers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJXEzhg0Hh0&t=1s

Keep in mind the source of this video, but this doesn't cast the two Councillors in a good light with Fleury claiming his english isn't that nuanced (I've found him to be completely fluent in english) and McKenney is coaching him to switch the discussion to french etc under their breath.

Oh no, a francophone spoke French at a Federal inquiry.

They've taken something pretty innocent and made it look like some sort of conspiracy (that's what they do, right?). It's possible to be fully bilingual but not fully understand a dictionary definition. I'm sure most people use words in a certain way that's not completely in line with their intended use (people have a lot of trouble with "ironic", for example). The examples he used to describe micro-aggressions are in line with my thoughts.

Guy questioning Fleury was condescending, asking a fluently bilingual person to wear a translation headset because he could not confirm one definition.

Don't read the youtube comments. (That's a good general life rule, but especially in this case.)

My wife and I lived in Centretown at the time and by week three we had barely slept and were losing it. We booked and room in Smiths Falls for the last 5 days, because we just couldn't take it anymore. If anyone says, "oh it can't have been that bad", "protests happen in Ottawa all the time" or "whatabout xyz?", I have zero respect for them, because that shows zero respect for me, my wife or the people of Ottawa. The merits of a group deliberately targeting residential neighbourhoods for sustained harassment is not a subject I want to hear any amount of debate on.

It wasn't innocent at all. Fleury obviously being purposely obtuse. He speaks English better than French. Now they think they are talking to lawyers at the Nuremburg trial but it's clearly a BS move. They were getting at the lack of actual aggressive acts that took place. But agree Fleury and McKenney are literally survivors of all this so tend to think they are entitled to game the system a bit.

As for backing Ford. He refused to participate in meetings and claimed it should be left the the police so essentially ran away. Yes the convoy is very unpopular so he can seem all bipartisan and given distance to an election it is a bit magnanimous but he's not the hero of this for sure.

This will likely not come up in the inquiry. One of the biggest reason why they implemented the Emergencies Act, was that the public was about to take matters into their own hands, and that could have led to violent confrontations.

We saw the spur of the moment protest at Billings Bridge the Sunday before the Emergencies Act was enacted. This was going to explode the following weekend if the Act was not enacted. The hundreds in the Billings Bridge protest would have grown to thousands and who knows what would have happened. I know that I was planning to participate in the 'next' anti-convoy protest. I was fed up with how the convoy had held the city hostage. The Monday following the first weekend, the mandates were already being loosened as planned, so what was the point?

I am somewhat more sympathetic to convoy than most here but clearly this was not like any other protest in any way.

That said while whataboutism isn't always helpful but many actually violent protests have been condoned and given their way in Canada. One where people and property were attacked with axes during these protests. I'm fine with the new precedent though predict there will be a lot of people on both sides arguing against similar treatment by the next Con government of environmental or aboriginal illegal protests.

Agreed. Ford didn't actually do anything to help. But he also did not oppose the Feds when they decided to do something about it.

Meanwhile, the Federal Conservatives complained that the Feds weren't doing anything (while supporting the occupiers). When the Feds enacted the Emergencies Act, the Federal Conservatives complained. When Trudeau ended the Emergencies Act, surprise surprise, the Federal Conservatives complained. Federal Conservatives and most other Provincial Conservatives go against the Federal Libs at every turn, even if it goes against their own beliefs. Kind of like Republicans in the U.S.

I don't like Ford as a Premier, but at least he's able to put partisanry aside and remain civil.

The amount of spamming in the replies to every single social media post about the public inquiry and the convoy is disturbing. The same replies over and over and trend spamming on Twitter, all of which is from clearly fake accounts. It seems like someone is spending serious money on this nonsense.

He was afraid of a provincial protest and if it happened interesting to think if it would have fractured the provincial party the way it did federal cons. He moved quickly to remove restrictions as convoy grew as did Quebec. So interesting in Ontario protesters blamed Trudeau for masks and other provincial issues wheras F Legault signs were on some days a majority yet they still drove from Montreal to protest on parliament.

Why are freedumb supporters given a platform? Why do we let far-right conspiracy theorists who don't believe in science speak? All the do is spread disinformation and threaten democracy. We shouldn't let fascists and neo-nazis threaten our future. Canadians focus on keeping everyone safe and tackling climate change. These MAGA radicals need to be stopped.

Slippery slope. Remember, we are dealing with the least intelligent people in our society here. Most of them truly believe they are in the right, and don't have the mental capacity to recognize their own idiocy. Dunning-Kreuger runs rampant in this group. Take away their voice entirely, though, and they become more radicalized.

I'm glad I left for Toronto as this was occurring. I would have been right there with you. I was around for the first couple days, but I planned my departure around the date restaurants/bars opened up again which I believe was Feb 7th? I felt awful for all the spots in that area that had to remain closed after being in a 3 week lockdown or whatever it was.

Because I am a total shit disturber.. I had to go down there on the initial Saturday and see what all was going on. I made a hat. You know those newspaper triangle shaped hats like you would see in a cartoon? I made one of those out of tinfoil.

So I head down to Rideau/Sussex area with my new chapeau. I tells ya... none of these people got it. "wooo.. yaaa.. love your hat bro!!!". I feel like perhaps one person got what I was trying to convey. Not the brightest folks.

It was also the first time I saw a full size pickup truck doing a massive burnout in an intersection while the police just looked on.

The city and police practically welcomed them with open arms... it's no wonder they got sassy. If they would have just left after that first weekend of pandemonium I probably would have been fine with the whole situation. It was kind of amusing that first day to be honest. I was walking around with a beer yelling about No More Open Container Mandates!! with my ridiculous tinfoil hat.

*quick edit... I was wearing a mask haha

I'm glad someone else noticed.

I don't have any skin in this game at all but this is most definitely true.

If Fleury had donned a headset to better understand the questions in English, the interpreter would have translated "a microagression" to... "une microagression"... just for him.

So anyone who opposes covid restrictions or criticizes climate policy is a "MAGA radical" who "needs to be stopped" and shouldn't be allowed to speak?

Sounds like you're the fascist.

I make myself a game with Facebook comments on Canadian political news articles. See how many replies it takes to find the word 'turdeau'. Usually it's about 3 or 4.

I had to walk my nurses from my Centretown clinic to the LRT everyday because they were being harassed by the "convoy". People were telling my Asian-Canadian nurses to "go back where they came from" and being very intimidating. I was beyond angry as the nurses in question are some of the hardest working people I know and I GUARANTEE work harder than any of those idiots day in day out. The first time I walked them through the protest area I thought I was going to say something....give them "a piece of my mind". Then I realized that the majority of the convoy was made up of massive dudes in Skidoo suits. No way I was gonna get my ass beaten by a bunch of unemployed anti-vaxxers who claim to be truckers so I just kept my mouth shut.

I joined this forum because it's a safe space for liberal ideas. Why are you here? To spew right wing hate?

To my mind, the ‘Protestors’ quickly morphed into ‘Terrorists’.
Definition:
(from https://terrorvictimresponse.ca/legislation-in-canada/)

As for virtually every other protest, there should have been a strong police presents from before the group’s arrival, and a ‘low’ tolerance for scofflaw behaviour.

This entire episode was a massive failure on the part of this city’s police and municipal government. The fact that the Mayor is now complaining that the Province didn’t come riding in on a white horse to save us is very telling. I’m so glad that the current Mayor is not running for re-election.

These characterizations get more and more over the top. Terrorism is scoffaw behavior? Which takes place in many protests which all have political goals.

This took place at the same time as the convoy. It exceeds convoy micro aggressions in every way:

https://www.coastalgaslink.com/whats...of-axe-attack/

If your argument is yes but their goals are justified you are very thin ice in your definition of terrorism.

Any evidence that Russia was behind any of this?

Likely they were stoking the anti vax talk. Actual Convoy less clear. In February their A team was certainly otherwise occupied though.

Using the word terrorist sounds apropos. In what sense does holding a community hostage to extort political demands, depriving at once thousands of persons' enjoyment of peace in their own dwellings, not fit the definition?

Setting aside questions of legitimacy of their cause, no Indigenous group or environmental group has done anything comparable before. Yes, there are instances of ecoterrorism affecting pipelines and the like. No one here is defending or downplaying those actions in this discussion. And while Indigenous groups have engaged in rail or road blockades, this is literally on land that is theirs. Neither has taken a city hostage for a month.

How do you jump to the conclusions that you do? That is some Olympic grade maneuver.

The scofflaw behaviour is the 'little' things (like urinating on the War Memorial, or dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier) that were done at the beginning that were clearly against the law. By-laws should have been strictly enforced, too. They were not. This led to an escalation of behaviour into the realm of, what amounted to, Terrorism.

You don't need to protest and block residents from travelling to work for months on land that is definitively yours.

Read about the Grand River Land dispute it was 15 years ago but well beyond anything that took place here. Yes these mostly impacted rural people who don't matter but Caledonia was held hostage for more than a year. The result of land they had previously sold (granted under duress) was bought out by the provincial government. We could have paid the convoy people their salaries for the 6 months when they actually needed to be vaccinated for much cheaper. (sure many were anti trudeau nuts who couldn't be reasoned with).


Protest even illegal to get your way is not terrorism. It is what brought down the government in Ukraine and what the brave people of Iran are doing now. Many in Iran probably think enforcing hijab wearing is as important as we think enforcing vaccine mandates was. Actually we now know the vaccine mandate was all political because those of us who got vaccinated were happy to see them punished for extending the pandemic though the only thing that ended the pandemic was 60-70% of us finally getting Covid as many said in the beginning.

Why do keep bringing up examples of things that are most definitely not monthlong community hostage taking? Wake me if Indigenous groups ever try the convite playbook in downtown Ottawa.

By your definition, the ecoterrorism you brought up was mere protest. Or does the well-being of pipelines matter more to you than safeguarding the peace of a community?

It appears you share the sentiment of the convites that something cannot be terrorism, or hostage taking, or really that bad at all, so long as it is grievance-driven and wears the cloak of protest. I disagree. In Ottawa we are used to protests. After the first weekend, the convoy ceased to be a protest.

It's pretty gross to equate the antivax/anti-Trudeau occupation—and all the illegal activity that accompanied it—with protest against illegitimate and authoritarian regimes abroad. The illegal occupation of Ottawa was not precipitated by actions of an illegitimate or authoritarian regime. God help me if you think it was.

I shouldn't have to write this, but being forced to live with minor temporary inconveniences as a person unvaccinated by choice in the midst of a pandemic cannot in any way be compared to living in like Iran in a permanent state of subjugation under an unelected theocratic regime.

Just saw an extended version of the video, and the convoy lawyer was actually a bit of a dick to Fleury for daring (sic) to speak French at a federal hearing.

So there is that element to it also.

The convoy lawyer is so badly prepared, they can use clips of him in law schools and bar courses.

Convoy Inquiry reveals Ottawa Police’s controversial “good cop, seditionist cop” strategy
The Beaverton
MARK HILL, November 3, 2022

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2022/11...-cop-strategy/

It's a joke, but apparently it's not. According to the lawyer representing the convoy leaders, they were getting tips from insider the OPS, OPP, RCMP and even CISIS.

Perhaps the most troubling thing to come out of the inquiry so far, along with the fact that the former police chief was apparently living in a different reality from everyone else in authority during the protest.