Canadian Truckers: ‘Please Use Science and Facts’

The Canadian Truckers Freedom Convoy has been in Canada’s Capital city, Ottawa, since January 28, 2022. Many truckers have had enough of Government imposed mandates, whether they be vaccinations, vaccine passports, masking, curfews, lockdowns, etc. The truckers believe that the recent vaccine mandate imposed on cross border truckers by both the Canadian and American governments is not consistent with current medical science.

Only in Canada – a protest sign that starts with the word ‘Please’… it’s time to start using science and facts over fear.

Isn’t Prime Minister Trudeau accusing the truckers of doing the same thing his Liberal government has been doing to Canadians for the past two years?

Individuals are trying to blockade our economy, our democracy, and our fellow citizens’ daily lives—It has to stop,” asserts Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he speaks in an emergency House of Commons debate concerning the ongoing trucker protests in Ottawa.

The Conservatives think the Trudeau government is the root cause of the alienation

“We are at a crisis point not only with what’s going on out the doors and across the country, but the country overall,” Bergen said Monday night. “And so much of it is because of the things that he has said and done.”
– Interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen –

Even Members of Trudeau’s Liberals think their government’s Covid policies are increasingly questionable

Quebec Liberal MP Joel Lightbound called out Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday, accusing him of using the pandemic as a political weapon to turn Canadians against each other, adding other Liberal MPs feel the same.

Likely setting fire to his political career, Lightbound, first elected in 2015, said he was speaking for hundreds of constituents in his riding of Louis-Hebert, many of whom are vaccinated but are concerned about the imposition of poorly-explained federal and provincial public health measures that often appear arbitrary and cruel, introduced without explaining the purpose or providing the scientific data backing them.

“I’ve heard from people worried that those making the decisions seem at times to have been blind to the fact we’re not all equal for lockdowns, that not everyone can earn a living on a MacBook at the cottage. I’ve heard people worried that a few might have lost sight of the quiet … suffering of the many.”
– Toronto Sun, February 8, 2022 –

Who has been most severely impacted by those restrictions?

Who has most carried the hard weight of the COVID regime imposed by their governments and the protected class? Everyone knows the answer to that question: those in precarious economic positions, the independent, the unpensioned, blue-collar workers. Family and small business people, service employees, the staff of hotels and restaurants. The old and the very old, most cruelly those ill and in care, who were not only the most exposed and least protected, but who were cut off during their most difficult days from family contact. Anxiety was deepest, the burden greatest — as seems always the case in this world — for those least equipped to bear it.

The current protest is the marker of that unfortunate divide. A sign, too, of a new divide in our governance, where politics has swollen into a kind of moral marker, or an identity tag, where what should be simply a disagreement or an argument over this issue or that, has taken on the character of a shibboleth. Sign on here, you are good. Sign on there, you’re a wastrel and a pirate.
– Rex Murphy, National Post, February 8, 2022 –

Hockey rinks and that dangerous Bouncy Castle

As of Monday, Ottawa is still effectively in the hands of Freedom Convoy. The truckers used the weekend to further entrench their presence in the capital by erecting wooden buildings, piling up firewood , setting up impromptu road hockey rinks and even bringing in the occasional sauna and bouncy castle.
– Tristin Hopper – National Post, February 8, 2022 –

‘Disruptive and unlawful behaviour’ during ‘Freedom Convoy’ protest

CTV Ottawa issued this report on the 450 tickets the Police had issued in the first week-end of the protest. Serious stuff:

Excessive noise
Use of Fireworks
Failure to drive in marked lane
Red light violations
Driving through a No Truck Route
Seatbelt violation
Driving a motor vehicle on a sidewalk
Cellphone
Disobey sign
Improper muffler
Tint (too dark)
Obstructed license plate
Failure to produce documents
Stunt Driving (vehicle seized)
Suspended license
No Insurance

The GoFundMe Debacle – If Only the Truckers had said it was a BLM protest

Nearly $10 million had been pledged at GoFundMe to support the Freedom Convoy.  $1M was released to Convoy organizers. GoFundMe then decided that the convoy had evolved into something they don’t support – a stationary protest, an occupation – and would not release any more funding. GoFundMe asked donors to submit a refund form and said that any funds not returned to donors would be donated to a charity chosen by the Freedom Convoy. After an immediate outcry, GoFundMe announced they would skip the request process and refund donors automatically.

GoFundMe says they support peaceful protests but do not support occupations with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity unless, apparently, it is under the auspices of BLM. GoFundMe supported a project in CHAZ/CHOP, a police-free perimeter that encased several neighborhoods in Seattle’s Capitol Hill district in 2020. What initially started as a local curiosity, eventually took a turn for the worse. In nine days, the area saw four shootings, two deaths, arson, and several alleged sexual assaults, not to mention damages to buildings.

Ottawa Police try to find ways to oust the Convoy that they knew (for weeks) was coming but didn’t think it was going to amount to much

The Ottawa Police Service warned on Sunday that “anyone found bringing fuel to the demonstration trucks in red zone could be subject to arrest and charges. This is effective immediately,”
– Rebecca Cohen, Insider, February 7, 2022 –