Trudeau vows to freeze anti-mandate protesters' bank accounts

[qallunat]

37. Interesting Discussion

Hi all. Canadian here. I live in Ottawa, FWIW, and work a few blocks South of the occupation. Many of us are of two minds about this. first, the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) has shown themselves to be either nothing more than thugs with guns or complete incompetents. As someone who has attended several protests in the city, I can confirm that the OPS are not shrinking violets when it comes to instigating violence in full riot gear if the protesters are racially diverse and peaceful.

Both Quebec City and Toronto managed to avoid paralysis of their cities. Collusion between the OPS and the convoy has been well-documented.

While it's deliciously ironic that protesters championing "freedom" have resulted in the the PM instituting what may be the potentially serious--this word is key for the moment-- abrogation of civil liberties since his father, some might say that several factors make this this an understandable response if you step back and view this situation as a country government faced with:

1. An occupation of the capital city and several sites critical for the economic functioning of the country. This is a form of sabotage and, if we consider that the mayor has caved into demands and allowed trucks to park in front of Parliament (think about the World trade Center for a moment), any country's security apparatus should be taking this situation seriously.

2. Let's throw into the mix, the fact that the occupation force has operational and intelligence support from members of several municipal and provincial police service members, as well as at least two members of our elite Special Forces unit (JTF2) and a few retired federal law-enforcement agents, including Trudeau's former head of security, and a pretty troubling picture emerges.

3. Several sitting parliamentarians have expressed sympathy for the stated goals of this occupation (one of which was the overturning of a fair democratic election- sound familiar?), plus the influx of substantial amounts of foreign funding and public support from foreign seditionists (Tucker Carlson and Ted cruz come immediately to mind) and we appear to have an international movement to destabilise a democratic government. Trudeau, as the head of that government, is invoking a law that seeks to fight a credible internal threat to the rule of law.

For the record, I did not, and never would vote for Justin Trudeau or any Liberal, but that is another discussion. Nonetheless, I think we need to frame this situation as, not a grassroots demonstration against government overreach on public health measures, but rather, as a trial balloon being floated to assess the viability of an approach to sedition and an interrogation of the amount of public support similarly motivated actions might have in the future. Worrying stuff!

On the other hand, though the motivations of the organizers may be in line with the national security/democracy in jeopardy frame, maybe the actual effect is just of a terrorist LARP that got out of control. I will say I know people in Ottawa who have been beaten for wearing masks, subjected to racist verbal attacks and some who are afraid to leave their apartments, to say nothing of the stress of the noise and exhaust fumes that have made living in the Market and downtown centre living hell.

If that is true, then the Emergencies Act is too much too soon because the OPS had the legal and logistiacl tools to deal with the situation and the citizens of Ottawa are entitled to know why they failed us. Invoking the Emergencies Act unecessarily puts our civil liberties at risk (the points above about government being able to cut off funding/freeze accounts of any protest group is especially worrying), just whitewashes a systemic rot in at least one municipal police force and hides the issue of accountability of our provincial and municipal leaders to the people they were elected to serve.

Anyway, just some thoughts. Gonna join the counter-protests this weeked.