Trudeau Invokes Emergencies Act

Headline on the front page of BBC News right now: &quot;Trudeau vows to freeze anti-mandate protesters&#x27; bank accounts&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.co.uk&#x2F;news&#x2F;world-us-canada-60383385" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.co.uk&#x2F;news&#x2F;world-us-canada-60383385</a><p>This feels downright dystopian, especially if the move away from cash and towards centrally-controlled electronic payment systems is anywhere near as widespread in Canada as elsewhere.

When protests were happening in India this is what Trudeau had to say:<p>&quot;Let me remind you, Canada will always be there to defend the rights of peaceful protesters. We believe in the process of dialogue. We’ve reached out through multiple means to the Indian authorities to highlight our concerns. This is a moment for all of us to pull together,&quot;Justin Trudeau said.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;indianexpress.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;india&#x2F;situation-is-concerning-canadas-justin-trudeau-backs-farmers-protests-7075085&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;indianexpress.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;india&#x2F;situation-is-concern...</a>

&gt; The Emergencies Act is the modern-day replacement to the War Measures Act. It allows the federal government to force companies to provide services, it can require public protests to end, and limit mobility rights by preventing people from moving to designating areas.<p>&gt;<p>&gt; The act also allows for the military to be used as police, but several sources said that is not under active consideration.<p>Not a good look for Trudeau. This definitely looks like an authoritarian response to a loss of mandate. The protestors will dig in more, the response will become harsher, and the government will be in deeper trouble.

&gt; 5:05 p.m.<p>&gt; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he has invoked the Emergencies Act as a “last resort” to bolster the police response to convoy demonstrators and to “bring the situation fully under control.”<p>I really feel like there were a number of &quot;resorts&quot; that could&#x27;ve been taken before this &quot;last&quot; one.<p>Engaging in dialogue with the truckers and not inflaming the situation by calling the truckers names are at the top of my list.<p>Engaging in dialogue with Canadians would be next on my list.<p>Using the powers granted to Ontario in their state of emergency would be on my list well before declaring a nation-wide emergency.

&gt; We’re not suspending the fundamental rights or overriding the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we are not limiting people’s freedom of speech, we are not limiting freedom of peaceful assembly (or) preventing people from exercising their right to protest legally<p>Pretending to express concern about charter rights with respect to towing some trucks away is quite the theatre.<p>Meanwhile, Canada spent the last two years stomping on charter rights: mobility (provincial borders closed, unjustified quarantine requirements even for vaccinated Canadians), free expression (court orders to silence anti-vaxxers), and free assembly (unvaccinated in Quebec are unable to attend weddings, funerals, religious services or pretty much anything with over 25 people) to name a few. Ironically, a lot of these are the things that actually caused the protests.<p>It’s been disappointing to see judges go along with it all (Canada has a big opt-out for charter rights, in that “reasonable limits” are allowed if they can be “demonstrably justified”), but quite ridiculous to see that statement in this context.

Trudeau, like many members of the political class, treat the messiness of democracy as a bug when it is in fact a feature.<p>The core purpose of liberal democracy, understood by any political science undergrad, is to _limit_ power - the tyranny of the majority, the executive branch etc...<p>Yet this is poorly understood by a class of individuals who exclusively do politics as a way of earning a living (ex. Trudeau, Liz Truss, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and so on).<p>Democracy is designed to make their jobs difficult. It is designed to force them to be thoughtful, measured, and generally non-extreme in any direction.<p>Things like the right to free speech, the freedom to assemble (protest) and the act of civil disobedience are designed to hold elected leaders accountable and ensure healthy checks and balances (ex. emergency powers for... covid! storms! protests!).<p>Trudeau and his ilk deeply envy China and their &#x27;bug free&#x27; implementation of the political class free from a significant number of checks and balances. As such they have embraced the Rahm Emmanuel mantra of &quot;never let a good crisis go to waste&quot; - using any so-called emergency to radically curtail democratic freedoms with an end goal of generally making their diktats more easy to implement.<p>Think this is an exaggeration?<p>Any protest in Canada during emergency mandates related to covid was subject to pervasive (on the ground + drone + officer cams) video surveillance, facial recognition, cell phone geofence &quot;warrants&quot; and ultimately a &quot;police contact&quot; file opened with the local law enforcement branch and the CPIC database (shared with all five eyes and used for purposes such as to deny immigration &#x2F; travel &#x2F; visas).<p>The result?<p>Massive disincentive for the professional class (with something to lose) to engage in protest and a direct limiting of democratic features like the right to freely assemble, protest and engage in civil disobedience.

The number of comments on this that are just fine with wild authoritarian abuses like this &quot;because vaccines are good&quot; is astounding. People have such idealogical myopia and are shocked and appalled when the same measures are used against their interests.

It is ironical that Trudeau is whining about these &quot;protests&quot; now, when they&#x27;re at home. He was singing a different tune when farmers in India were doing similar things: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;indianexpress.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;india&#x2F;situation-is-concerning-canadas-justin-trudeau-backs-farmers-protests-7075085&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;indianexpress.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;india&#x2F;situation-is-concern...</a>

This is definately going to back fire on him and his administration. There weren&#x27;t any major incidence of violence or rioting. They got the bridge cleared. He should&#x27;ve left it at that and let it fizzle out.

None of this is a surprise to anyone who has been watching. I could characterize it in a number of ways, but there is nobody left to persuade. Given some obvious inevatabilities that flow downstream of this, what&#x27;s the smart thing to do as an individual? If you are aligned to the official narrative, the incentives are to double down to make sure nobody suspects you of disloyalty if it prevails. If you are on the side of revolt, the official narrative is so increasingly divorced from reality as a means to signal it doesn&#x27;t have to care about it - because this is how it says it is powerful - that it is impossible to sustain the dissonance to find any common ground or agreement in principle.<p>I just don&#x27;t see reconciliation as a result of this emergencies act process.<p>My bets would be on a ratcheting up of controls over internet services, hyper aggressive financial services and tax enforcement, over the top surveillance exampples as threats, a miasma of staged and real &quot;random&quot; violence, escalating hit jobs and cancellations of the reasonable and principled, an official pivot to &quot;fighting hate&#x2F;terror&quot; as a permanent emergency, etc.<p>The only question to me is whether a new class of plausible leaders emerges to replace the terrible ones responsible for this nonsense, or decades of low level conflict with a radicalized populace vs. a state that has more international support than national legitimacy. The only out is removing internal passport controls and mandates. The alterative is clear. Such interesting times.

&gt; Canada is now regulating crowdfunding platforms and crypto currency under the Terrorist Financing Act.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;TrueNorthCentre&#x2F;status&#x2F;1493347561876471809" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;TrueNorthCentre&#x2F;status&#x2F;14933475618764718...</a><p>&gt; As of today, financial institutions with be “authorized or directed” to “prohibit the use of property” or freeze accounts - personal or corporate- if the institution suspects that the account holder is financing illegal blockades.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;TheMarieOakes&#x2F;status&#x2F;1493344048932966405" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;TheMarieOakes&#x2F;status&#x2F;1493344048932966405</a><p>I am absolutely ashamed of what my Government is doing right now. Our PM was singing a different tune when the farmers in my home country were protesting in India. Or the Hong Kong protests. Or the pipeline protests in Canada.

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;2020_Canadian_pipeline_and_railway_protests" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;2020_Canadian_pipeline_and_rai...</a><p>&quot;Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said politicians should not be telling the police how to deal with protesters and that resolution should come through dialogue&quot;<p>Millions of dollars in damage by these protestors (railway above). Protests for me, but not for thee.<p>Vaguely remember stuff like:<p>&quot;Your right to freedom of speech stops where it harms others&quot; (hate speech)<p>&quot;Your right to bodily autonomy stops where you can harm others&quot; (vax mandates)<p>&quot;Your right to protest stops where ... ?&quot;<p>These are all nuanced, sadly the Canadian government can override its Bill of Rights whenever they please under temporary 3 year Emergency Measures.

When a section of Indian farmers imposed similar blockades on Indian highways, Trudeau was shilling their &quot;right to protest&quot; to pander to his Sikh voters. This despite the fact that the Indian protests were far from peaceful - devolving into riots[1], and the protest sites being venues for rapes[2] and gruesome murders[3,4]. With peaceful protests in his own backyard, Trudeau has forced private organisations to block their funding, imposed emergency and called out the army. Hypocrisy at its finest.<p>1. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.livemint.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;india&#x2F;over-300-cops-injured-in-farmers-tractor-rally-violence-delhi-police-11611726061467.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.livemint.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;india&#x2F;over-300-cops-injured-in...</a><p>2. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;indianexpress.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;cities&#x2F;delhi&#x2F;fir-names-six-in-gangrape-of-26-year-old-at-tikri-protest-site-7309577&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;indianexpress.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;cities&#x2F;delhi&#x2F;fir-names-six...</a><p>3. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thehindu.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;cities&#x2F;Delhi&#x2F;man-burnt-to-death-near-tikri-border-one-arrested&#x2F;article34844316.ece" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thehindu.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;cities&#x2F;Delhi&#x2F;man-burnt-to-deat...</a><p>4. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hindustantimes.com&#x2F;india-news&#x2F;body-with-severed-hand-found-hanging-at-farmer-protest-site-at-singhu-101634281978995.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hindustantimes.com&#x2F;india-news&#x2F;body-with-severed-...</a>

There are too many people making making similar comments to reply to all of them, so I&#x27;m going to make a top level response to all of them.<p>The truckers are NOT protesting against the vaccine itself, and if you believe that they are, I would highly encourage you to find different sources for news.<p>The truckers are protesting the idea that the government can force them to take the vaccine against their will.<p>I would hope that people could find some more common ground on this, since there is an almost identical debate happening around the idea of bodily autonomy:<p>Almost nobody, or functionally&#x2F;practically nobody, is &quot;pro abortion&quot;. People who are &quot;pro choice&quot; are saying that they don&#x27;t believe the government should be able to force women to carry a child until birth, because they believe it violates their right to bodily autonomy.<p>The truckers are saying the same thing. They aren&#x27;t &quot;anti vaccine&quot;, they are against the government forcing them to take a vaccine, because they believe it violates their right to bodily autonomy.

While I still think this is not the ideal move and am in general skeptical of government claims that their invoking martial law-ish privileged comes with self control, I feel there is some nuance missing in the comments so far, particularly that this is <i>not</i> calling in the military and as of now <i>not</i> limiting &quot;authorized protests&quot; according to TFA, but about strengthening the executives ability to enforce the laws that are being civil disobedienced. I&#x27;m personally not a fan of law-and-order rhetoric or politics, but if you are, I feel like you should be in favour of this - and think about supporting civil right and increasing checks on the executive and judicative <i>after</i> Trudeau&#x27;s tenure as well.<p>---<p>Trudeau will not be calling in the military, he said.(...)<p>The move will “supplement provincial and territorial capacity to address the blockades,” Trudeau said, and will afford more powers to local police forces.(...) The police will be given more tools to restore order in places where public assemblies can constitute illegal and dangerous activities, such as blockades and occupations as seen in Ottawa, the Ambassador Bridge and elsewhere. These tools include strengthening their ability to impose fines or imprisonment,” he said. (...) The measures will be “time-limited, geographically targeted as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address,” he said. “The Emergencies Act will be used to strengthen and support law enforcement agencies at all levels across the country. This is about keeping Canadians safe, protecting people’s jobs and restoring confidence in our institutions.”<p>Trudeau said the move could be used to render “essential services” such as contracting trucks to tow vehicles blocking streets.(..)<p>Financial institutions will be “authorized or directed to take measures, including regulating and prohibiting the use of property to fund or support illegal blockades,” Trudeau said. (...) The act will also enable the RCMP to enforce municipal bylaws and provincial offences, Trudeau said. (..) Trudeau said he wanted to be “equally clear” about what the act does not entail, and said he would not be calling in the Canadian Forces.(..)<p>“We’re not suspending the fundamental rights or overriding the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we are not limiting people’s freedom of speech, we are not limiting freedom of peaceful assembly (or) preventing people from exercising their right to protest legally,” Trudeau said.

An obvious response to this, that doesn&#x27;t involve blocking any roads, is for truckers to simply go on strike. Imagine if even a quarter of Canadian truckers just decided to sit at home and not move anything.

There seems to be a trend in our newly tyrannical governments of using war and terrorism acts on their own citizens. It feels strange being subject tyranny for the first time in my life here in Australia. It is the first time in my life I have felt a government just threaten and bully people to get whatever it wants. There is no going back from this, whoever may win.

I have never heard a rational and compelling argument for COVID vaccination mandates. To enforce these we need to implement pretty much an MVP of chinese Social Score System.<p>In the begining we were promised the vaccine will end the pandemic (supposedly downgrading covid as endemic). Vaccination does not prevent infection, does not prevent virus spread but why not make the goal at that? The vaccines are not fully approved yet, there are waivers for compensation if you get a sideeffect so effectively medical insurance treats the vaccine as medical experiment.<p>As we can see, a nontrivial part of the population refuses to take part in the medical experiment and so far civilised countries respected that, this freedom was guaranteed by human rights, constitutions and other minor laws. To enforce vaccination mandate we need to rollback liberal democracy citizen freedoms back some 500 years and it won&#x27;t be easy winning them back.<p>The vaccine we are forcing on people is targetting the original virus from 2019, since then we went through many variants. We are not forcing everyone vaccinates for 2019 seasonal flu. Israel vaccinated everyone 4x and that did not stop the pandemic.<p>Surely imposing martial law and effectively marking everyone unvaccinated or vaccinated more than 5 months prior as 2nd grade citizen without access to public areas is disproportional reaction to the dangers of Omicron.<p>Some countries Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, UK? are already treating COVID as endemic, where is the rationale in some countries insisting to rollback liberal democracy with the vaccination mandate??

It seems like (maybe it&#x27;s a polarization thing) its becoming more common for all sides to want to go straight to the (thankfully only metaphorical) nuclear option to try and end situations. Everything is framed as an emergency or a human right or some other category that means its supposed to be dealt with in the harshest possible terms and admit no discussion. I don&#x27;t just mean by government or a particular side, it&#x27;s the kind of rhetoric used in every argument now.

I&#x27;m usually all in favor of workers protesting; not this time however. During war time food and resources are rationed; does people complain against the government? Nope. So why during a pandemic that in just two years killed 5 fucking millions people -and counting- should they protest against perfectly sound measures? Am I missing something, or &quot;get vaccinated&quot; doesn&#x27;t even sound close to &quot;one loaf of bread per day per family&quot;?

Why are so many Americans obsessed about Canadian politics all of a sudden? The comments here are mostly non-Canadian, and are not representative of the current general sentiment in Canada.<p>While invocation of the Emergencies Act is always concerning, it&#x27;s pretty clearly warranted here. There&#x27;s always chance for abuse, but Trudeau&#x27;s minority government is on thin ice and if they cross any lines they&#x27;re as good as gone.<p>I can only imagine the chaos that would unfold if this was happening in Washington, D.C., but it&#x27;s not. I know some outraged Canadians who support the protests&#x2F;blockades, but most of them are either extreme right wing (a comically small population compared to USA) or heavily biased through being directly impacted by restrictions (like the travel industry).<p>The vast majority of my friends, family, colleagues, strangers on the street, business owners I interact with, lawyers, CEOs, investors, healthcare workers, waiters, bartenders, bus drivers, teachers... are all in strong support of putting an end to the disruption, and in favour of vaccine passports, mask mandates, gathering restrictions, etc. to protect public health.<p>Compared to the USA, Canadians care much more about what&#x27;s best for the collective whole than about personal freedoms. This is simply a case of a small minority causing problems for the majority, amplified by the fact that the USA leans towards supporting the protestors.

I’m not in Ottowa and I feel like I’m not sure what to believe here.<p>On one hand, if the protests really were peaceful, I do not believe the government should shut them down.<p>On the other hand, I’ve heard the protests have caused millions in trade to be shut down which I would not consider a peaceful act. If some non-citizen entity shut down millions in trade, I don’t think it would be viewed as peaceful.<p>Should the right to peaceful protest include the right to halt trade at this scale? Are the reports of halted trade overblown?

This whole thing is so sad. My mom lived her final days in fear as she was on chemo treatment and COVID would have been a death sentence to her. The state we live in is very anti-mask, and people were outright hostile to us when we would go out in public here. To a little old lady. With no hair. Who was obviously very sick. My daughter has an autoimmune disease that again puts her at very high risk. She likely will never be able to go out in public and live a normal life again is what we have been told. I am triple vac&#x27;d and would be even without these family stories. But I also believed in HIPPA and not treating people with AIDs differently and don&#x27;t understand why now all of the sudden we must treat people differently based on their medical status. This is not who we are. Remember my body my choice? People wanting to deny medical care to other human beings is as un-understandable as the people harassing my cancer tricked mom for wearing a mask. Just stop for a second people, take a breath, and try to be human. Please get vaccinated. If not for you than for others who have family that love them. Try not to advocate condemning people to death because you don&#x27;t like their like choices, if not for them then for the family that loves them and would be devastated by their loss. Take a second to undig your feet from your current position and start over, because this isn&#x27;t working, and it&#x27;s hurting us all. These are all actual human beings, some in fear for their life from a very real threat from a severe disease, some in fear for their civil rights that their ancestors fought for. I am not right, you are not right. We hold an opinion. That should NEVER lead to deaths for those we disagree with. You don&#x27;t want a rushed experimental mRNA vaccine, get the Johnson and Johnson shot. It&#x27;s basically the flu shot. You feel like AIDS patients shouldn&#x27;t be discriminated against? Then don&#x27;t require MEDICAL passports declaring people&#x27;s medical status&#x27;. You feel like it&#x27;s women&#x27;s bodies they have a say, then don&#x27;t require experimental vaccines approved in a rush to be put in other&#x27;s bodies. Seriously people just slow down for one second, and always try to humanize the other, and look at other beliefs we hold and see how someone could hold the belief they have. Take a second today on this day of love and have some compassion. You are valuable, you are important, and your view is important. But people shouldn&#x27;t die because of it if you can help prevent that. They too are valuable and important and loved.

A) Trudeau still has a minority government, so oversteps could be correct almost immediately.<p>B) throwing 1000’s of people out of work as collateral damage is pretty selfish. These people aren’t involved in what they’re protesting.<p>C) The original item of the protest was based on a us action. Can’t enter the us unvaccinated per their regs. Perhaps they protested the wrong people&#x2F;places?<p>D) the national defence act enables the military to be involved if requested by the appropriate premier. This has not been invoked.<p>E) most of the mandates are imposed and controlled at the provincial level. Train, air and entry to Canada along with the federal workforce is under federal mandate.

Some facts (and a few polls) suggest that the Trucker convoy isn&#x27;t a broadly popular movement of truckers as much as a well funded tiny minority without broad support even from truckers.<p>First 90% of Canadian truckers are vaccinated. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;newrepublic.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;165341&#x2F;fox-news-vaccine-canadian-truckers" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;newrepublic.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;165341&#x2F;fox-news-vaccine-cana...</a><p>Evidence suggests that funding for this protest is in large part foreign (IE not from canada) and that most canadian donations are from wealthy business owners, not workers <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theverge.com&#x2F;2022&#x2F;2&#x2F;14&#x2F;22933772&#x2F;givesendgo-funding-freedom-convoy-hacked-donor-leaked" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theverge.com&#x2F;2022&#x2F;2&#x2F;14&#x2F;22933772&#x2F;givesendgo-fundi...</a> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2022&#x2F;02&#x2F;14&#x2F;world&#x2F;canada&#x2F;canada-trucker-protests-donations.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2022&#x2F;02&#x2F;14&#x2F;world&#x2F;canada&#x2F;canada-truck...</a><p>The convoy is unpopular both in Ottawa and provincially, and is in fact not supported by a majority of Canadians<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vox.com&#x2F;policy-and-politics&#x2F;22926134&#x2F;canada-trucker-freedom-convoy-protest-ottawa" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vox.com&#x2F;policy-and-politics&#x2F;22926134&#x2F;canada-truc...</a> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cp24.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;almost-2-3rds-of-canadians-oppose-trucker-convoy-protest-poll-suggests-1.5772347" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cp24.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;almost-2-3rds-of-canadians-oppose-...</a>

Shameful that a <i>peaceful</i> protest is met with this response. How <i>can</i> a person protest meaningfully if any peaceful protest can be called illegal?<p>I do understand that the truckers were disturbing the peace of ordinary people - I think this should be discouraged. However there <i>must</i> be a way to peacefully assemble without the government&#x27;s approval.<p>I don&#x27;t see how we can have meaningful civil discourse if you need permission to protest at all.

Yesterday BLM, today vaccines. I don&#x27;t care about the issues anymore. It&#x27;ll be a different one tomorrow. I just hope that the people advocating for selective enforcement of the law and flip flopping their position based on the which side they like rather than arriving at their position via principals are young enough to be alive to reap what they sow.

Weapons, ammunition seized as 12 people arrested at Coutts border blockade<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;globalnews.ca&#x2F;news&#x2F;8618494&#x2F;alberta-coutts-border-protest-weapons-ammunition-seized&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;globalnews.ca&#x2F;news&#x2F;8618494&#x2F;alberta-coutts-border-pro...</a><p>Convoy protesters break through Surrey RCMP barricade with military-style vehicle<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bc.ctvnews.ca&#x2F;convoy-protesters-break-through-surrey-rcmp-barricade-with-military-vehicle-as-others-march-to-u-s-border-on-foot-1.5779120" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bc.ctvnews.ca&#x2F;convoy-protesters-break-through-surrey...</a>

Premiers of Three Canadian Provinces Oppose PM Trudeau Invoking Emergency Measures<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;health-coronavirus-canada-truckers-provi-idINL4N2UP3SP" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;health-coronavirus-canada-tr...</a>

Just some thoughts, I like comments to help crystallisation of my ideas.<p>This summer will see protests from the other side in North America, and we will see more hypocrisy and what-about-isms cries. Especially when there will be more damage and death resulting from them, sadly. It will be interesting to count how many people who don&#x27;t see any dual standard now, seeing it in 5 months or so.<p>The UK at least tries to stop all protests and not just let certain ones go unhinged and supported by opposition politicians. It boggles my mind how the trucker convoy lasted longer than a day, in the UK they would have been towed away and arrested very quickly. There&#x27;s no need for a state of emergency or to freeze bank accounts. It&#x27;s normal policing.<p>Canadas actions and lack of actions before are a kind of worrying symptom of dysfunction at best. Perhaps they are not used to protests? Perhaps they don&#x27;t have basic common laws about protest, nuisance, decency? That would explain things.<p>(As an aside, it&#x27;s a really bad idea to protest in the middle of winter in a freezing country. Thatcher managed to negotiate with coal miners to stop them protesting in the winter, but today&#x27;s protests are not by critical power supply workers)

I don&#x27;t get it.<p>This is completely nonsensical, guys like Trudeau or Macron (France) are eroding their power for what looks like petty fights.<p>I really don&#x27;t understand what is going on behind the scene.

Looks like a government is taking action after their citizens overwhelmingly are opposed to domestic terrorists ruining the lives of residents in the area.

To people who think this act is justified, this act was used in World War I, World War II, and in 1970 when Quebec had a terrorist group doing bombings, kidnappings, and murder. It’s insane, absolutely insane, to think these are equivalent. This protest is about anti-vaccine mandates... with bouncy castles.<p>Part of me thinks this is political theatre to show how strong Canada is, with the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict.

Whether it is Black Lives Matter or Canadian Truckers nobody has the right to block roads.<p>The funniest thing about the direction the world has taken since 9&#x2F;11 for me is the extent to which people are being played against each other according to a plan.<p>The plan appears to start with increasing social disorder from fomenting identity and grievance politics.<p>At one time the organisation behind the plan was know as the Illuminati but this is now considered not to exist.<p>Whether the human organisation exists or not society appears to have the emergent quality of implementing the &quot;plan&quot; autonomously.<p>Imagine how many nutcase truckers there would be with out social media? Imagine how many vaccine and mask karens there would be without social media?<p>Both sides are wrong and the powers that be want both sides to fight. Divide to conquer.<p>But alas this is a conspiracy theory and can&#x27;t be discussed in polite company.<p>Absolutely hilarious to me is that the organising principle of capitalism is called the &quot;Invisible Hand.&quot;<p>Yes lets all work together and build an Orwellian technocratic hell so that we can get rich individually.<p>Blind leaders leading blind men in a blind world.<p>Compete to please the Boss...lol.

TL;DR: the original protest was legitimate, albeit tainted by more than a few bad actors. The subsequent several weeks have been harming local residents, and the inaction by both the Ottawa Police Service and Ontario government have resulted in this. I&#x27;m not happy it got this far, but blaming Trudeau is (mostly) misplaced.<p>There is a fair bit of nuance here, so I&#x27;m going to try and clarify a bit of what&#x27;s going on for those that haven&#x27;t been following. I&#x27;ll attempt to provide sources as much as I can, and for some context, I live in Ottawa.<p>The protesters arrived on January 29th, with a rally at Parliament Hill. The original protest was largely peaceful, in the sense that the majority of the protestors did not harm or assault local residents. However, there is photographic evidence of a protester carrying a flag with a swastika on it[0] and at least one protester with a Confederate flag (who was later asked to leave)[1]. Other objectionable reports include drinking and dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and protesters assaulting and harassing members of soup kitchen[2]. These initial actions didn&#x27;t exactly endear them to the locals, but in truth, this was surprisingly peaceful given how bad things could have been.<p>Beyond the first day, however, things largely got worse for residents of Ottawa. Describing things as &quot;honking&quot; is understating it; for the first two weeks, anyone within a few blocks of the protest had to deal with loud truck horns, and aftermarket &quot;train horns&quot;, blaring throughout the majority of the day and night. There is documented evidence[3] that long-term exposure to noise is detrimental to human mental health, so for folks living in this area, things have been horrid. Additionally, idling trucks for so long harms the local air quality, especially in buildings that aren&#x27;t particularly well-sealed... which tend to be occupied by less well-off folks that are either renting or can&#x27;t afford to retrofit their home.<p>I won&#x27;t go into every single case, but in the subsequent few weeks, there have been cases of attempted arson[4], cases where protesters are attempting to handcuff the doors closed on another building[5], and various reports of folks being harassed for wearing masks, for having the pride flag displayed, and more.<p>The Ottawa Police Service has been completely ineffectual here, doing nothing more than asking protesters or warning them to leave, but not actually taking any enforcement actions against protesters. Even when a court-ordered injunction against honking horns was granted, the OPS has not enforced it.<p>Additionally, Doug Ford and the Ontario government have been completely absent, skipping 3 straight conferences on how to deal with the protests[6] in Ottawa.<p>I&#x27;m personally <i>deeply</i> uncomfortable invoking the Emergencies Act here. But it&#x27;s also true that this is probably one of the last remaining mechanisms to actually <i>deal</i> with the protests - not to prevent protesting from happening, but to ensure that they&#x27;re not harming the lives of local residents that have their own right to safe, secure, and peaceful life. If the OPS or Ontario government had acted in any meaningful way, this would likely have not been necessary.<p>[0]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;YoniFreedhoff&#x2F;status&#x2F;1487517973422223374" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;YoniFreedhoff&#x2F;status&#x2F;1487517973422223374</a><p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.washingtonexaminer.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;man-with-confederate-flag-told-to-leave-by-ottawa-truckers-we-called-him-out" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.washingtonexaminer.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;man-with-confederate...</a><p>[2]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.independent.co.uk&#x2F;news&#x2F;world&#x2F;americas&#x2F;convoy-truckers-canada-soup-kitchen-b2003765.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.independent.co.uk&#x2F;news&#x2F;world&#x2F;americas&#x2F;convoy-tru...</a><p>[3]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.factmag.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;10&#x2F;09&#x2F;sound-fear-room40-boss-lawrence-english-history-noise-weapon&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.factmag.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;10&#x2F;09&#x2F;sound-fear-room40-boss-la...</a><p>[4]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;globalnews.ca&#x2F;news&#x2F;8600592&#x2F;trucker-convoy-police-investigating-arson-apartment&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;globalnews.ca&#x2F;news&#x2F;8600592&#x2F;trucker-convoy-police-inv...</a><p>[5]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;AndreaHorwath&#x2F;status&#x2F;1492945668838723593" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;AndreaHorwath&#x2F;status&#x2F;1492945668838723593</a><p>[6]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cbc.ca&#x2F;news&#x2F;politics&#x2F;ford-trilateral-ottawa-border-protest-1.6346687" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cbc.ca&#x2F;news&#x2F;politics&#x2F;ford-trilateral-ottawa-bord...</a><p>(edited for spelling&#x2F;grammar)

Trudeau has been in office for over 6 years. There are no term limits in Canada.

Imagine if Trump had declared martial law during his mandate to push through something he otherwise couldn&#x27;t. This is literally the equivalent. There is one question of whether or not you support the cause of the protestors. The relevant question here should be whether the government can break usual norms and declare an emergency to grant itself power it otherwise wouldn&#x27;t have. If you don&#x27;t agree with the protestors, fine. But that shouldn&#x27;t be carte blanche to ignore the rule of law and grant outsized powers to the state. If it can happen with something you support, it can also happen with something you don&#x27;t support. I can&#x27;t believe that so little time has passed since all the concerns about what trump could do with unchecked power, and people are suddenly perfectly cool again with the government having unchecked power

The changing image of Canada.

The situation in Canada right now in insane.<p>Police and government officials are actually trying to convince the public that &quot;trucks blocking streets is an act of violence&quot;.<p>That&#x27;s the most non-violent form of protest I can imagine.<p>While at the same time they are restricting the truckers gasoline that would allow them to both keep warm in these ridiculously cold temperatures and move their trucks out of the streets.<p>And painting people trying to support the protesters as racists and terrorists.<p>Goodbye, Canada.<p>Hello, Nineteen Eighty-Four.

The people who thinks this will degenerate to violence will be disappointed. The truckers are normal people with mouths to feed and a retirement plan to save, not a militia made of radicals, as we saw at the bridge.<p>What will happen however is that the problem just going to be moved elsewhere. Trucks might begin to slow down, citizens might continue to assemble, in Ottawa or elsewhere. How protesters are going to find other ways to protest will be very interesting to watch and how the government will respond will be terrifying.

Trudeau is a hypocrite of the highest order. He fully backed the Indian farm protests (which blocked roads and essential supplies), supported foreign &#x27;donations&#x27; and criticised the Indian courts for actions against the protesters.<p>What is OK in India is not OK for Canada it seems.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;indianexpress.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;india&#x2F;situation-is-concerning-canadas-justin-trudeau-backs-farmers-protests-7075085&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;indianexpress.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;india&#x2F;situation-is-concern...</a><p>Quoting Trudeau: &quot;When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;justintrudeau&#x2F;status&#x2F;205322201187106816" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;justintrudeau&#x2F;status&#x2F;205322201187106816</a>

Stupid vs Stupid<p>That&#x27;s a distilled version of a western political crisis. Where parties lost ability to use rational thinking. Everyone needs to be a part of the party that very divisive.<p>It&#x27;s very stupid from both sides. One side want to stop entire country for just one medical requirement. Just do the damn vaccine and live your life. It has nothing to do with freedom or political part.<p>The other side trying lost the opportunity to use omicron as a temporary chance to go back to norm and make requirements easier. Instead they let it blown to a real political, supply and economical crisis.<p>Why just not be a centrist? Yes, mandate make lots of sense. Right now omicron is so easy. It&#x27;s doesn&#x27;t block hospitals. Leave them alone. Encourage others to do the vaccine in a stimulative way, not restrictive.

The question few are asking is does this meet the standard of a threat to the sovereignty of the state of Canada and I don&#x27;t believe it does.

All the comments here are &quot;they don&#x27;t have support&quot;, &quot;it is a small minority&quot;, etc. Popularity doesn&#x27;t prove what is right and wrong, nor will it dissuade those from doing what they think is right. These tactics of &quot;its just you, go home&quot; will not work, because the people using these tactics do not understand their enemy. I support the truckers. I support people having freedom over what they inject in their own bodies. I don&#x27;t care if I am the only one, I don&#x27;t care about the threats.

Insightful thread on how (worst case) this might escalate: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;man_integrated&#x2F;status&#x2F;1493297796031692812" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;man_integrated&#x2F;status&#x2F;149329779603169281...</a><p>I&#x27;m guessing the more likely option is that the trucker community become &quot;conscientious objectors&quot; and refuse to work, in the hope that their number will cripple services. Does sitting at home still count as terrorism? Because I&#x27;d happily fund that

It was all foretold by the transformers franchise, the decepticons fighting the truckers and sports cars.

I guess there is going to be a run on Canadian banks... and who would trust their money in banks where it could be frozen without prior cause?<p>It is not clear to me how deep the support for this cause is among Canadians, but if this group chooses to act by pulling their money out, this would cause even more headaches for Trudeau and his ilk.

“A republic, if you can keep it.” — Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Constitutional Convention, Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sept. 17, 1787.<p>Oh wait, Canada isn’t even a republic, just a monarchy. . .<p>Just a Federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy.<p>Maybe it’s nigh time?

This legislation has never been invoked before. It&#x27;s very difficult to invoke. Virtually any other law must be used first. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;laws-lois.justice.gc.ca&#x2F;eng&#x2F;acts&#x2F;e-4.5&#x2F;page-1.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;laws-lois.justice.gc.ca&#x2F;eng&#x2F;acts&#x2F;e-4.5&#x2F;page-1.html</a><p>&gt;AND WHEREAS the Governor in Council, in taking such special temporary measures, would be subject to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Bill of Rights and must have regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, particularly with respect to those fundamental rights that are not to be limited or abridged even in a national emergency;<p>The right to peacefully protest still stands even with the invocation of this act. The Ottawa police have been incapable of ending this protest because it has been peaceful. Nobody has even raided&#x2F;trespassed in the capital buildings like the January 6th &#x27;insurrection&#x27; in the usa. If the protesters were anything but peaceful, the Ottawa police would easily be able to arrest them. Logically concluding that this protest has been peaceful. You can confirm this to be true simply by watching the myriad of livestreams online.<p>&gt;3 For the purposes of this Act, a national emergency is an urgent and critical situation of a temporary nature that<p>&gt;(a) seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians and is of such proportions or nature as to exceed the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it, or<p>&gt;(b) seriously threatens the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada<p>&gt;and that cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada.<p>There are an awful lot of &#x27;any other law of Canada&#x27; that could be used before this act. Some peaceful protests are not going to justify using this act. In fact not even possible to use this act against peaceful protesters. Trudeau is moving against a foe that isn&#x27;t described by this protest.<p>The accusation or allegation by Trudeau is that the USA has a military occupation over Canada. The funding is being organized in the USA.<p>This to me doesn&#x27;t ring true. If the USA wanted Canada, a squadron of F22 could annihilate our armed forces in a day. B2 bombers could lay waste to everything else. Canada could do nothing, none of our allies would come to save us. Our allies could never protect us against the USA. Nuclear bombs wouldn&#x27;t be needed. Plus, we have an extensive and fantastic alliance with the USA. Why would Biden who is worried about Russia, Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan invade Canada? It makes no sense.<p>The alternative is that Trudeau has deployed this against his political opponents who are peacefully protesting.<p>What do you think?

This is a very sad day to be Canadian, I&#x27;m worried it&#x27;s only going to get much sadder.

Emergency act, because people are parking wrong, makes sense...

Protest != siege

End the mandates, they&#x27;re evil and counter productive.

Like father, like son.

Lets see who profits from this

Trudeau is a tyrant and corrupt leader like his father....it&#x27;s going to end poorly for him

So basically, Trudeau admits in fact he is everything a bunch of blue collar truckers say he is.

Truckers in Canada should Pull an Ayn Rand: Stop working. Move your families to the United States, stop working in Canada.

He must think these mandates are like violence. When it doesn&#x27;t work, you have to double down and do more. You can&#x27;t possibly take a step back and have a dialog.

“everyone has a right to assemble” - PM Trudeau, May 21, 2021<p>“get those hospital workers, get those anti-Vaxxers, get those oil consumers, get those truckers, get those protesters; crush ‘em all!” - Shorter Trudeau, today.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;justintrudeau&#x2F;status&#x2F;1394099973709565954" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;justintrudeau&#x2F;status&#x2F;1394099973709565954</a>

So our government is so weak it can&#x27;t do anything about peaceful protesters blocking roads, so it invokes this act that will no doubt simply be used to keep the restrictions going forever. Meanwhile inflation is running rampant but unlike the US, wages don&#x27;t seem to be budging, our hospitals are clogged with homeless drug addicts but the population gets blamed, our GDP is literally held aloft by nominal housing price gains and the government wants to take away more freedoms while the rest of the world is opening up... Seems par for the course. No wonder most of the educated people I know left Canada already...