Who's funding Canadian COVID Protests?

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Over 90% of Canadian truck drivers are vaccinated and the truckers’ union opposes the protests since they’re costing jobs. So who’s funding this small minority of COVID protesters doing economic damage beyond their numbers?

I bet we trace this back to an Eastern European troll farm funded by Russia.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/08/ottawa…

What’s unfolding in Ottawa is not a grassroots protest that has spontaneously erupted out of the frustration of local lorry drivers. Rather, it’s an astroturfed movement – one that creates an impression of widespread grassroots support where little exists – funded by a global network of highly organised far-right groups and amplified by Facebook’s misinformation machine. The drama may be centred in Canada, but what is unfolding has repercussions for us all.

intercst

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The Mayor of Windsor is bringing the hammer.

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens seeks injunction to stop bridge protest, get traffic moving

“We need to appreciate that these demonstrators are fellow Canadians and that they have a fundamental right to their views and their opinions,” Mayor Dilkens said. “They don’t have the right to affect you or your family’s ability to earn a living, and they’ve gone too far.”

https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2022/02/11/windsor…

The mayor is echoing what I said on this board yesterday, the trucker’s right to demonstrate ends when they obstruct other people’s right to go about their business.

Now these so-called “Freeedom convoys” are getting started here in Shinyland. Most state governments that answer to a heavily goober population have already dropped any attempt to mitigate the plague.

Michigan Capital building, April 2020, looking very much like the capital building in Ottawa now. The Lansing demonstration only lasted one day, not weeks, as in Ottawa.

‘Operation Gridlock’ protest underway in Lansing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUtlmXzKpAs

Armed demonstrators at the capital building. At the 40 second mark, people in the crowd assault someone.

Armed coronavirus lockdown protesters clash at Michigan’s state capitol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K33-sTb6EE0

Demonstrators, some armed, overran the state capital building two weeks later.

Anti-shutdown protesters storm Capitol building in Michigan demanding lockdown lifted | Covid-19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr5SarJBMK4

So, now, Canada is being infected with the same plague of ignorance, dressed up as “freeedom”.

Steve

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Caught the German news tonight.

The anchor, Brent Goff, is a USian, born in North Carolina. The truck demonstrations in Canada lead the broadcast tonight. Goff had on Maxime Bernier, head of the People’s Party of Canada. In spite of being a USian, Goff seems to not be able to deal with modern USian style gooberspeak. Goff kept trying to discuss the issue with facts and logic, but Bernier kept blathering about a big government conspiracy to take away people’s “freeedom”.

The video is at this link. The piece about the Canadian demonstrations starts at the two minute mark.

https://www.dw.com/en/the-day-with-brent-goff-canadas-trucke…

Meanwhile, the BBC commented “Canadians used to be know for being polite”.

It was probably inevitable, that, being next to the US, Canada would be infected with the same idiocy.

Steve

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Goff had on Maxime Bernier, head of the People’s Party of Canada.

Bernier is the spawn of a wealthy Quebec Conservative family who wanted to become PM. When the Conservatives wouldn’t make him their leader (a rare display of good sense on their part) he formed his own party.

His claim to fame was a girlfriend at one point who used to belong to a Hells angle leader who IIRC was killed by another gang. One person who did some staff work for him told me “The only time he gets up to speed is when he sees the buffet”.

https://g.co/kgs/KuYnAz

I don’t think he has so much as a single seat in parliament?

Tim

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I don’t think he has so much as a single seat in parliament?

Tim

Just checked, they received a large number of I suspect protest votes in the recent election but didn’t win a seat in parliament even for Bernier himself.

Whoever put him on air should vet their picks better? Bernier would do a dog a pony show to get TV time.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/julie-couillard-s-ey…

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It was probably inevitable, that, being next to the US, Canada would be infected with the same idiocy.

Freedom is ‘idiocy.’ You would make George Orwell proud!

Denny Schlesinger

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Freedom is ‘idiocy.’ You would make George Orwell proud!

Watch the interview at the link. “Freeedom” is the excuse. What the person being interviewed is spewing is idiocy.

Steve

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Whoever put him on air should vet their picks better? Bernier would do a dog a pony show to get TV time.

Deutsche Welle was probably looking for someone to express the trucker’s point of view. I would say Deutsche Welle was successful in that search, as the nonsense the man was spewing is exactly the sort of nonsense I hear from the assault rifle waving demonstrators in Michigan: claims that covid is no worse than a cold, claims the vax is useless, claims it is all a big government conspiracy to take away people’s “freeedom”.

The court may rule today on the injunction requested by the city of Windsor to order the truckers to disperse.

Steve

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Freedom is ‘idiocy.’ You would make George Orwell proud!

Denny Schlesinger

This has zero to do with Freedom, rather it is more about taking Freedom away from others. We have elections that decide who runs the country and to the best of my knowledge none of these people won seats in parliament in our last election.

The party that came second is in a tough spot as showing support for these guys would cost them dearly in the next election. 80% of the Canadian population are fully vaccinated and wants this insurrection stopped. One way or the other it will be stopped. The vaccination rate for the ‘Truckers’ is higher (~ 90%) as they needed to be fully vaccinated to cross the US/Canada border for work either way).

You might want to make the effort to learn the facts rather than spouting old clichés?

Anymouse

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Modern politics has a dirty secret – it is largely an entertainment sector. The current most popular form of entertainment is fantasy, especially fantasies of power wherein stunningly absurd evil forces are successfully confronted and beaten by even more stunningly absurd “good guys”.

This phenom is usually OK, and I am guessing is inevitable in popular democracies. But when a culture goes wacko the entertainment takes over governance.

Ugh.

David fb

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Freedom is ‘idiocy.’ You would make George Orwell proud!

Denny Schlesinger

Denny is blocking the public right if way a freedom? Are the business that are being harmed freedom collateral? Used to be a thought that my freedom to swing my fist about ended at somebody’s nose. You are saying it doesnt?

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Watch the interview at the link. “Freeedom” is the excuse. What the person being interviewed is spewing is idiocy.

I didn’t hear the ‘idiocy’ but then I didn’t watch the full clip. I stopped when the newscaster asked an idiotic question.

I any case, the fact that there are idiots out there does not degrade the value of freedom of choice. Or do you prefer to be ruled by a dictator? There are lots of places happy to grant you that wish.

The Captain

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You might want to make the effort to learn the facts rather than spouting old clichés?

Thanks for the suggestion which I’m going to ignore.

The Captain

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Denny is blocking the public right if way a freedom?

Can you make omelettes without breaking eggs?

Used to be a thought that my freedom to swing my fist about ended at somebody’s nose. You are saying it doesnt?

In theory that is correct but things come to a breaking point. I’m assuming you are an American. Your ancestors broke the rule of the land with the Boston Tea Party.

There comes a breaking point where power decides what is right. To keep a democracy you have to respect the governed, specially the minorities. The elites have stopped doing that and they are getting the power backlash.

I’m not saying that what the truckers are doing is right by law. It’s what happens when push comes to shove. The Canadian Tea Party!

The Captain

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I any case, the fact that there are idiots out there does not degrade the value of freedom of choice. Or do you prefer to be ruled by a dictator?

Sometimes when you are up to your neck in alligators it is best to stop explaining? Your freedom of choice does not include stomping on others freedom of choice.

Please stop embarrassing yourself.

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Thanks for the suggestion which I’m going to ignore.

The Captain

Ploink

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Denny is blocking the public right if way a freedom?

BTW, I suspect that the truckers might suffer the fate of the Reagan air traffic controllers and the peasants of the Peasants’ Revolt.

Peasants’ Revolt, also called Wat Tyler’s Rebellion, (1381), first great popular rebellion in English history. Its immediate cause was the imposition of the unpopular poll tax of 1380, which brought to a head the economic discontent that had been growing since the middle of the century. The rebellion drew support from several sources and included well-to-do artisans and villeins as well as the destitute. Probably the main grievance of the agricultural labourers and urban working classes was the Statute of Labourers (1351), which attempted to fix maximum wages during the labour shortage following the Black Death.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Peasants-Revolt

In the end… Might makes Right!

The Captain

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Your freedom of choice does not include stomping on others freedom of choice.

Ayup.

I don’t know the law in Canada, but, pending correction, I will make some assumptions.

-to drive truck in Canada, you need to have a high level license, in Michigan, that would be a Commercial Driver’s License. Add a hazmat endorsement to carry fuel or chemicals.

-to run a truck on public roads, it needs to be licensed and insured.

-tolls need to be paid where required, to cross some bridges and drive on some roads.

-traffic signals and stop signs need to be obeyed.

None of these “infringements of freeedom” cause an uproar.

Being Canadian, these drivers have probably been vaccinated against a number of threats, as a matter of public health policy, since childhood. That’s why we don’t see a lot of polio or small pox in North America anymore.

But the covid vax? OUTRAGE!, they scream, and appoint themselves as having the “freeedom” to violate everyone else’s liberty to go about their business.

Steve

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Please stop embarrassing yourself.

Tim, granting you parole was a mistake, my mistake.

The Captain

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In the end… Might makes Right!

So Kim Jong-Un is right.

Not a very democratic moral principle, but at least we know where you stand.

AW

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