Free Republic

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal minority government has reached a deal with the New Democratic Party (NDP) to stay in power until 2025. In exchange, the Liberals will support the left-leaning NDP on several of the party's key priorities in parliament. Mr Trudeau said on Tuesday that he believes the agreement will provide "stability" for Canadians. The move has been strongly criticised by Canada's Conservative Party. Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Mr Trudeau said that the deal - which he termed a "supply and confidence" agreement - begins today and will continue through the end of Canada's...

...You don’t need a lesson in civics to identify the real heroes here, and attempts to paint the #FluTruxKlan as anything beyond a misguided, moronic, malice-driven display of redneck hubris and hillbilly insurrection flies in the face of facts—reinforcements for which emerge daily. Simply put, the convoy—or at least its organizers—are “people contemptibly lacking in the courage to do or endure dangerous or unpleasant things” (as the Oxford definition goes). Like pulling together to deal with a two-year pandemic… or acting on climate change… or mounting a transparently funded legal protest with an actual point (vax mandates were only an...

...On Friday, Horgan said he hoped any potential protesters coming to Victoria would instead redirect their efforts to "positive outcomes." "I would just say to those people, goodness me, get a hobby," said Horgan. "Find something else to do with your time." "Ninety-four per cent of adults in British Columbia are vaccinated, so we are spending an awful lot of time with a small group of people who seem to have nothing better to do with their time besides drive around in circles honking their horns," he said.

...“I just want to tell you that we are watching what's happening in Ukraine every single day from around the world,” Trudeau said. “And we are all standing with you and we all want this to be over as (soon) as possible. And to get your country back and to support your brave husbands and brothers and friends who are staying back to make sure that Vladimir Putin doesn't win. But you need to know that the West will be there for you as well.” With Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland serving as his translator, Trudeau listened as some of...

OTTAWA -- Lawyers for a proposed class-action lawsuit against the convoy protest in Ottawa argued in court Wednesday that GiveSendGo may be in breach of a freezing order on funds raised for the convoy on the website. Monique Jilesen, a lawyer representing the proposed class and who obtained an injunction that froze convoy funds, said the order is meant to secure funds so the legal issue of how they should be used can be dealt with in court. Parties in the case have agreed to move some donated funds and cryptocurrency into escrow, which could be redistributed to affected Ottawa...

As the tire tracks fade from the so-called “freedom convoy” that occupied downtown Ottawa streets, some of the Telegram forums devoted to the convoy have taken up the torch of a new cause: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Much like the misinformation that fueled some of the trucks headed for Ottawa, conspiracy theories are at the core of some of their conversations about Ukraine — leading them to decry Western intervention in the conflict, or in some cases, express outright support for Russia. “I fully support Russia,” wrote one Telegram user in the channel titled Convoy to Ottawa 2022, which has...

Victoria residents might want to prepare for a lot of trucks coming to their city on March 14 to protest vaccine mandates. "We're going to be occupying that area for two to three months," organizer James Bauder said on Rumble from Mattawa, Ontario. "This is a very intense, deeply rooted NDP-Liberal stronghold down there. And they've had their way for too long." He expects 500 to 1,000 vehicles will travel from Surrey to Victoria for what he's dubbed "Bearhug B.C." and "Bearhug II".

“Those who organized the protests didn’t really care about anyone’s rights or freedoms but their own, and neither did the politicians who enabled them.” ...While truck horns have been silenced and the convoy has largely moved on, there is lingering resentment and anger among residents. “And rightfully so,” said Coun. Catherine McKenney, who attended Saturday’s rally as a supporter. “Right from the start (of the convoy), we saw there was hatred, xenophobia, racism, and that was directed very much to a certain demographic … I think that feeling of abandonment is what terrified people during the illegal occupation, and I...

Over the past few weeks, I watched the siege of Ottawa along with millions of Canadians. Trucks choked the downtown, crowds waved giant Canadian flags, firecrackers went off at night, men lounged in hot tubs and hot dogs were grilled on the BBQ, all against a backdrop of incessant, deafening honking. It was like witnessing a block party, crashed by middle-aged white men with a penchant for military fatigues and giving the occasional sieg heil. I never thought I’d live to see the day when words generally ascribed to Muslims would be used to describe white people. I could hear...

Say what you will about the far-right fanaticism of many of the leaders of the convoy insurrection, Fluker wrote that “we … find ourselves here today because of decisions made by the executive branch of governments in most provinces that have shown almost no regard for basic democratic practices.” “Slowly but surely over the course of two years, voluntary compliance with the COVID-19 rules was going to end because the rules were (1) too often announced for the first time, and without any advance public notice, at media scrums; (2) made with little or no explanation for where the lines...

A Toronto Liberal MP said some public support of the truckers’ Freedom Convoy was actually saluting Nazi leader Adolf Germany. “How many guns need to be seized? How much vitriol do we have to see of ‘honk, honk, which is an acronym for Heil Hitler, do we need to see by these protesters on social media,” said Ya’ara Saks, as she debated whether or not to vote in favour of the Emergencies Act. While there were no serious acts of violence during the three-week standoff in Ottawa, a cache of guns was seized by RCMP at the Coutts border cross...

The co-owner of a downtown Ottawa restaurant says he'd love to treat some local residents who made headlines standing up to “Freedom Convoy” protesters. North & Navy on Nepean Street, still behind police checkpoints in the "secure area" downtown, said on social media it plans to reopen Wednesday, and offered free dinner to several local heroes.

...“Today—24 days after this ordeal began—is the first day I have felt any semblance of peace since the Convoy upended my life,” said first-year University of Ottawa law student Elaine Tam, speaking to JURIST. “I just watched the final truck being towed out of my window’s line of sight around 3:30pm, and I cannot describe the relief that washed over me. […] I am left feeling utterly drained and exhausted. […] My faith in our political institutions, as well as my trust in our law enforcement mechanisms are now damaged beyond repair.” Tam lives a few streets from Parliament and...

In a video from Ottawa, a broadcaster stares at the camera in silence as protesters surround him and scream expletives, calling him a liar and bellowing "freedom." Near the U.S. border in Surrey, B.C., a cameraman's equipment is shoved off his shoulder and two men spit on him. A demonstrator follows another journalist closely, yelling that he is a "disgusting, filthy human being," while police escort the reporter through a jeering crowd. Experts and advocates say the treatment of journalists, captured in many cases on video, during recent protests against public health measures should be a wake-up call.

...To understand how this echo chamber works, we have to start with the Ottawa protest itself. The “Freedom Convoy’’ started as a loosely affiliated group of Canadian truck drivers led by a group called Canada Unity, founded by far-right activist and QAnon conspiracy theorist James Bauder. But over the last 30 days, Bauder has managed to build a coalition of fed-up truck drivers, fringe Canadian political party members, neo-Nazis, anti-vaxxers, and an international coterie of scammers, grifters, and low-level online creators that has been able to generate major headlines around the world.

Ottawa is holding its collective breath as police appear ready to finally end the so called Freedom Convoy protest that has paralyzed a good chunk of the capital city’s downtown core for the past three weeks. With significantly bolstered ranks municipal, provincial and national police officers have established a perimeter with about 100 checkpoints covering Ottawa’s downtown to keep out anyone intent on joining the protest this weekend.

...Freedom can not be preached by people waving Swastika and Confederate flags, as history has proven those flags represent brutal and repressive political forces. With all of the noise coming from Ottawa and other cities across the country these past few weeks, people who truly love freedom must not allow it to be tampered with, misused and misplaced.

Marion Isabeau-Ringuette, director of communications for the solicitor general, donated $100 to an online fundraiser created by an organizer of the anti-COVID measures protests on Feb. 5, more than one week after protesters began occupying downtown Ottawa, and the day before the city's mayor declared a state of emergency. A few days ago, details including names, email addresses and postal codes of almost 100,000 donors to the GiveSendGo fundraiser leaked online. The Christian crowdfunding site has since acknowledged it was hacked, but has not verified the data itself.

Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly has resigned, sources confirmed to CTV News Ottawa. Sloly's resignation comes amid criticism of his handling of the ongoing trucker protests in downtown Ottawa. The protests have reached day 19, with demonstrators encamped on Wellington Street and the surrounding area and showing no signs of leaving.

...So this isn’t a grass-roots trucker uprising. It’s more like a slow-motion Jan. 6, a disruption caused by a relatively small number of activists, many of them right-wing extremists. At their peak, the demonstrations in Ottawa reportedly involved only around 8,000 people, while numbers at other locations have been much smaller.