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Look at Ottawa: Is this the start of widespread popular uprising - by actually-healthy contagion?

Renegades vs NWO
#29

I’m a bit late into this thread, but here are my thoughts.

In normal circumstances, I’m a bit uneasy about demonstrations where a small number of people have the power to make a huge protest, essentially holding a country to ransom. For example, that happened in Venezuela, when supermarket owners and other leaders of big businesses decided to strike with the result that their actions had a massive effect on the country, essentially paralyzing it. On the other hand, the 2 million or so protesting the Iraq war in the UK had little leverage on the Blair government. The state, via the police, of course also has a massive power advantage. Indeed the police itself have it – if they decide to join a protest the government will have to act promptly to pacify them!

The current truck driver protest may seem a bit like the first example – with big trucks requiring relatively few people blocking large parts of a city “holding it to ransom”. However, there are two big factors to provide context:
(1) this protest has huge support among a substantial part of the population (~30% I guess and probably much more if the media reported critically on the Covid responses and adverse vax effects).
(2) the severity of the government’s (not just the Canadian of course) attack on the people; in particular in this case on the direct livelihoods of these truckers (and millions of others).

These last two years have seen an incredible power grab by most Western governments with unheard of restrictions to people’s freedoms. Standing around for a few afternoons with placards is not going to get very far in removing eg vaccine mandates. Personally I prefer mass disobedience, but failing that I’m happy to see these protests. The government gets a taste of its own medicine – a lockdown.

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#30

Indeed!

#31

Interesting eye witness report. Just a little comment about the lovely phrase ‘cuck muzzle’. I hate this word cuck. It comes from cuckold and was coined by right wingers to describe weak men. In other words, any man who cannot control his wife is a weak loser, and any weak loser is a cuck. Misogynistic and harmful imo, and anyone who uses that word tells me right away something about who they are.

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#32

I’ve no idea of the veracity of this…

Although I can say that communications have been difficult since yesterday.

#33

Another one here Rob.

Truckers expecting kettling and violence from the police…

Freedom Convoy Preemptive SOS Press Conference Feb.7, 2022

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#34

Who’s that man…
with the white hair and glasses.
image

It’s Dr Roger Hodgkinson!

Some fans here…@RobG perhaps

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#35

Definitely Dr Roge with the truckers. He must be supporting them - he wouldn’t be there to offer them vaccinations… :rofl:

Dr. Roger Hodkinson | These Truckers …

Watch this for a quote at the start that might breach the guidelines…

“Myocarditis is ALWAYS serious…”
On celebs showing off their vaccine - “but they have nothing between their ears”

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#36

Thanks @Rich. Quiet determination on show.
Where are all the racist misogynist homophobic kitten-stompers then, Mr Trudeau?

#37

Good old Hodders!

Yes, I remember the Brees interview - IIRC he did get a bit minty with her.

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#38

Where are all the racist misogynist homophobic kitten-stompers then, Mr Trudeau?

They’re here Ev - look, loads of the bastards :laughing: (Justin case you missed it :wink: )

#39

Anna Brees. What a stupid woman but as ex- BBC or ITV I forget, it is hardly surprising. Here constant bleating about being censored but failing to realise that this has been a key part of the plandemic and claiming “We have done our best …” Terrible interviewer!

#40
#41

I would say that many supporters who are not there, and perhaps most who are there on the ground don’t want anything to do with politics. But the organizers certainly do (or did - they withdrew this MOU demand yesterday. Here’s some text from their Memorandum of Understanding, stating their demand that the Senate and Givernor General of Canada bypass the elected parliament and end mandates. Sorry if the formatting is funny.

“By having the Senate of Canada and the Governor General of Canada sign this MOU into action, they agree
to immediately cease and desist all unconstitutional, discriminatory and segregating actions and human
rights violations. It calls for an immediate instruction to all levels of the Federal, Provincial, Territorial and
Municipal governments to not only stop but furthermore waive all SARS-CoV-2 (and not limited to SARS-
CoV-2 subsequent variations) fines that have been issued and imposed upon its citizens, institutions, and
private enterprises. Further, to immediately re-instate all employees in all branches of all levels of
governments and not limited to promote the same to the private industry and institutional sectors
employees with full lawful employment rights prior to wrongful and unlawful dismissals. Lastly it instructs
all levels of government and private Sector that the Illegal use of a Vaccine Passport to cease and desist
immediately.”

Regarding the GoFundMe, there is no way that $10 million was collected in one week from donations from ordinary people in Canada. And there is no way that ordinary Canadians were giving any more than a few of the $10k+ donations that were showing up. I am all for Canada going in the direction that Canadians want it to, even if it’s a direction that I might not like. But I am horrified at the thought of right wing libertarians from the US interfering our our domestic affairs.

#42

Here’s a link to the MOU. Sure, they’ve withdrawn it but what kind of people dream up something like this in the first place?

https://canada-unity.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Combined-MOU-Dec03.pdf?

#43

Trudeau has not handled this well at all imo.

#44

But you’ll post it anyway.

#45

I might have missed something heinous…what was wrong with it - seemed like calling for law to be respected and human rights enforced.
It’s a moot point whether the restrictions are unlawful, probably are. It maybe went farther than the truckers mandate issue, I guess.

“But I am horrified at the thought of right wing libertarians from the US interfering our our domestic affairs.”

Why would you object if someone else supports them. I’m pretty sure that principled donations from the left would be gratefully accepted.
Jackie though you say the mandates are stupid etc, it doesn’t sound like you think the truckers have a right to do what they’re doing.

I also don’t get how you think Trudeau, implementing a tyrannical policy of…at least… enriching billionaires, can be anything other than right wing; or why millions of people moaning about a strike without acknowledging the strikers’ legitimate grievances can represent ‘the left’. They seem to be complaining that ‘the right’ have stolen their old clothes!

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#46

Anyone who puts Dr Hodgkinson in front of a camera gets an automatic pass :slightly_smiling_face:

#47

Great clip!

#48

Both the Senate and the Governor General are unelected. This group proposes to come in and bypass elected representatives to overturn government policy. Is that how we’re going to do it now?

Re Trudeau, I have never voted for the party he represents but I have thought of him as a decent person, especially compared to many of the people in the current conservative parties. I hate his and his party’s relationship with and unwavering support for Israel. I was dismayed when they brought in the vaccine mandate for federal employees just before last fall’s general election - which they won (minority gov’t) with mandates in their platform. I haven’t checked out the WEF yet.

Many of your other questions are addressed in my TLN post today:
A couple things about the Ottawa protest. It’s called a truckers’ protest and trucks are the defining physical feature. But it’s not organized by truckers. It is organized by people out of the oil and gas sector in western Canada. They are workers and they work very hard with three week on, one week off stints in remote work camps (or some variation of the on/off schedule). They are not poor; they’re very well paid as long as they’re employed. A lot of them fly in and out from other parts of Canada.

The organizers come from a sector that denies that humans are responsible for climate change. They do not want a move away from fossil fuels and are against putting a price on carbon. There is deep anger, sustained for at least 5 decades, at any attempt by the federal government to control the energy sector. They believe that the rest of the country mooches ungratefully off the wealth created by their labour, and they very much resent it.

The energy sector out west has extensive ties to the US energy sector and many of the workers hold libertarian ideas that are prominent in the US.

Another aspect of the Ottawa and other truck protests in Canada is that they are aligned with and I believe drawing funding from US and other international conservatives. I don’t believe that the $11+ million collected in their GoFundMe campaign, which has been shut down and replaced by other crowd funding, was collected from ordinary Canadians. Donations of $500 and less, and some of the bigger ones, would have come from regular people. But I assume that most of the $10K and larger donations are coming from people and groups, many from outside the country, who want a lot more than the lifting of vaccine mandates. At the risk of over simplifying, I would say that the people and groups in the shadows are part of the international Trump movement.

We had a federal election in Canada in September, 5 months ago. The governing party won with vaccine mandates as part of its platform. Voter turnout was about 62% and they won a minority of seats with a low percentage of the popular vote. So the election didn’t repair any divisions or really change anything at all beyond hardening positions and leading into this country wide protest against vaccine mandates.

Even the Teamsters are saying it’s not a truckers’ protest.
https://teamsters.ca/en/blog/2022/02/07/the-real-enemy-for-truckers-is-covid-19/