News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
A Message to Our Readers
 10K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
EarthCam Time-Lapse Documents Rafael Viñoly-Designed New Stanford Hospital Construction
 42K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
Resort Town
 5.9K     0 

Irrespective of what one thinks of the organizers or participants in these protests (who vary widely between those with reasonable intent; to those who think its some kind of party, to those hostile in the extreme to the state..........)

It would appear intervention of some description is now imminent, both from Ontario and perhaps from Ottawa (as in the Feds)

The U.S. appears to be getting irked by all this and has 'offered' Homeland Security to help clean up the 'mess'.

www.theglobeandmail.com

U.S. offers Homeland Security’s help to end Ambassador Bridge blockade and other trucker protests at border

Biden administration has offered Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the support of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to end blockades that are holding up shipments of more than half a billion dollars’ worth of goods every day
www.theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
If I have to be even more blunt - said service workers are also over-represented by visible minorities and new immigrants who had no choice but to work in unsafe conditions during the pandemic (while given measy and temporary "hazard pay" which were withdrawn ASAP). I don't see any of them blocking the capital and the international border crossings (or said unvaxxed truckers doing so "in solidarity" with their working class cousins?) when the going was the toughest. So honestly, off to trash this narrative of "working class protest" goes - this is all about people who have the luxury to chose to do whatever they feel like. Hell, I'd wager that these folks will vote for the party that is most inclined to enact policies that are fundamentally hostile to the said working class.

AoD
Click to expand...
I can't find the tweet, but someone quite properly said (approximately):

"if this is all about protecting our freedoms, why weren't you standing beside us when we were protesting with Black Lives Matter, Idle No More, the Occupy Movement, and for LGBTQ2+ or women's rights?"
 
Here we go w/the details:

www.cp24.com

Toronto, Canada and Global Breaking News – CP24

Most recent News News business news stories and video from CP24
www.cp24.com www.cp24.com

From the above:

Ontario is invoking a state of emergency in an attempt to end trucker convoy protests,
including one at a vital border crossing in Windsor.

On Friday, Premier Doug Ford announced the move as anti-mandate protesters have set up a blockade at the Ambassador Bridge,
which has caused significant traffic and trade disruptions.

Ford said the state of emergency will make it illegal and punishable to block and impede the movement of goods,
people and services along the Am (Ambassador Bridge, my edit)

Anyone who doesn’t comply, could face a maximum penalty of $100,000 and up to a year imprisonment.​

 
W. K. Lis said:
The truckers in the convoy don't seem to need their trucks for making a living, so seize them. Later sell the trucks to recoup the cost of enforcement.

Ontario prepares fines, possible seizure of trucks to end Ambassador Bridge blockade, sources say​

From link.
Click to expand...
"Bout time. I can't yet find the actual text of the order but will be interested to read the details. I will assume at this point that "seizure" of vehicles means impoundment. Actual seizure; i.e. change title, takes due process. For those who dig their heels in and refuse to move their rigs, the next trick will be the how. It seems commercial operators don't want to touch it, the province owns no heavy wreckers that I am aware, and I believe the military has a few but my guess is they will be in Gagetown NB and/or Wainwright AB.
 
lenaitch said:
"Bout time. I can't yet find the actual text of the order but will be interested to read the details. I will assume at this point that "seizure" of vehicles means impoundment. Actual seizure; i.e. change title, takes due process. For those who dig their heels in and refuse to move their rigs, the next trick will be the how. It seems commercial operators don't want to touch it, the province owns no heavy wreckers that I am aware, and I believe the military has a few but my guess is they will be in Gagetown NB and/or Wainwright AB.
Click to expand...
That means the army as a last resort. Towers who refuse could be last to be called upon for future collision situations.
 
WislaHD said:
I wonder if the meeting was merely regarding the blockades.

There seems to be real military development taking place on the other side of the world. Posted it in the Trudeau thread where it is probably more appropriate than here.
Click to expand...

You do have to wonder about the timing of this blockade and the sudden reach in the western world.

AoD
 
As obnoxious as the blockades are; and I am in favour of appropriate action to end them............I am so tired of overblown rhetoric.

From this story:


"Provincial Opposition NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, however, slammed the province's inaction at a press conference Friday for what she called a "horrible insurrection" in Ontario."

Bolding is my emphasis.

Really? No its not. Its a nuisance, its economically injurious, and inconvenient and illegal; it is not an insurrection. Also......a horrible insurrection? As opposed to what? A lovely insurrection?

FFS, lets stop misusing and abusing the language; words have meanings and they should be made use of accordingly.
 
lenaitch said:
"Bout time. I can't yet find the actual text of the order but will be interested to read the details. I will assume at this point that "seizure" of vehicles means impoundment. Actual seizure; i.e. change title, takes due process. For those who dig their heels in and refuse to move their rigs, the next trick will be the how. It seems commercial operators don't want to touch it, the province owns no heavy wreckers that I am aware, and I believe the military has a few but my guess is they will be in Gagetown NB and/or Wainwright AB.
Click to expand...

At your time of posting there was no text to read, to my understanding the orders were going to a cabinet meeting later today to finalize.
 
I'm with northern light here, I deplore this convoy, and everything it represents, but I'm so tired of people throwing around buzzwords carelessly as if they mean nothing. Not only does that dilute the meaning of terms with serious weight and meaning behind them, it is also undermines the legitimacy and struggle of people who have actually suffered through some of these very real events. I'm sure we all agree that comparing mask mandates at schools to child abuse is appalling, and completely diminishes the experience of children who have been abused, but the same goes for calling all these people Nazi's and terrorists. There may be individuals who fit those descriptions of course, but throwing those terms around so carelessly (I've particularly seen terrorist and violent insurrection used excessively on social media) it's not reflective of reality and diminishes the significance of those terms.

With the growing number of border blockades, I think economic terrorism is starting to become a more relevant term, but it's like people fail to see that movements can cause havoc while still being basically nonviolent, which is in fact the case here. This is NOTHING LIKE a violent revolution.

Additionally, I can't believe how many people here are advocating the use of military on civilians, the military should never be used on civilian protests, EVER. Having come from a legitimately authoritarian country (China) that rhetoric makes me incredibly uncomfortable. Maybe it feels ok that the military comes in and start shooting when most of us disagree with the movement, but what happens next time when the reason for protest is largely viewed as legitimate and they send the military in for that too. How does that make us any better than authoritarian regimes?

Even Doug Ford's new emergency powers that he's going to subsequently table to become official legislation. Up to $100,000 fines, 1 year imprisonment and revocation of your licenses for blocking highways and bridges. That can so easily be weaponized in the future. Why do we need additional legislation to deal with things that are already illegal?

For the border blockades in particular, just start arresting and towing people. There's hundreds of individuals at best, if our police forces somehow cant handle that then we have bigger problems. The military should not be needed.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
I'm sure we all agree that comparing mask mandates at schools to child abuse is appalling, and completely diminishes the experience of children who have been abused, but the same goes for calling all these people Nazi's and terrorists. There may be individuals who fit those descriptions of course, but throwing those terms around so carelessly (I've particularly seen terrorist and violent insurrection used excessively on social media) it's not reflective of reality and diminishes the significance of those terms.
Click to expand...
I agree with almost everything you said. I think the values of most Canadians are that of peace. We should do everything in our power to avoid military intervention, or violent response. And yes, not all people there are hardcore Nazis, or violent. But with any extremist movement embedded in the middle of others of a less violent position, there will be mob mentality that goes on.

Aside from their separatist and white supremacist aspects, leaders of this occupation routinely talk of Nuremberg 2.0. In case you haven't guessed, that means Trudeau and other politicians (and some include mainstream media) need to be tried and executed for crimes against humanity. There've been plenty of images of nooses, "Hang Trudeau", "Nuremberg 2.0", signs, etc. There are a good number of people in amongst the group calling for blood. And when the crap hits the fan, people will take sides. Do you think those same previously less violent people are going to suddenly turn against those they've been singing, dancing and eating with the last week, when they already believe the system is broken, or feel disenfranchised?

This may need to go the military route, and it's precisely because of the violent, bigoted people leading the charge.
 
Bjays92 said:
...but the same goes for calling all these people Nazi's and terrorists. There may be individuals who fit those descriptions of course,
Click to expand...
But that gets into that thorny area of "they might as well be" again. Not to mention it's been quite demonstrative that there are certainly bad actors from that camp who are using questionable acts to get their point across. Maybe not blowing things up (yet), but certainly terrorizing civilians starts to fall into what terrorism is. It's a case of the if the shoe fits, so we shouldn't be just dismissing that either, IMO.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top