Ontario’s hands-on premier has taken a hands-off approach to the weeklong protest that has snarled downtown Ottawa, the second-largest city in his province.
How will that change if something similar happens in Toronto?
Demonstrators are set to converge on the legislature on Saturday in support of the Ottawa protesters. Premier Doug Ford appears to be crossing his fingers that they don’t bring anywhere near the level of disruption as experienced in the downtown of the nation’s capital.
In 1853, Frederick Douglass wrote of cities in the North:
Every hour sees the black man elbowed out of employment by some newly arrived emigrant, whose hunger and whose color are thought to give him a better title to the place.
With only a handful of interruptions, black workers have faced the same situation for nearly two centuries — mass immigration of foreigners whom employers prefer to black workers, pushing them to the back of the hiring line.
China’s Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin of Russia have signed a joint statement calling on the west to “abandon the ideologised approaches of the cold war”, as the two leaders showcased their warming relationship amid a tense standoff with the west before the Beijing Winter Olympics.
In the joint statement released by the Kremlin, Putin and Xi called on Nato to rule out expansion in eastern Europe, denounced the formation of security blocs in the Asia Pacific region, and criticised the Aukus trilateral security pact between the US, UK and Australia.
The two leaders met for the 38th time since 2013. The two countries also pledged to step up cooperation to thwart “colour revolutions” and external interference, and vowed to further deepen “back-to-back” strategic coordination.
A woman from Kansas once known as a doe-eyed “all-American girl” will remain in custody before facing terrorism charges for allegedly leading a female Islamic State fighting squadron.
Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, is accused of training children as young as six to use machine guns and planning to commit “violent jihad”.
She was denied bail after appearing in court in Virginia on Thursday.
She faces decades in prison.
… Doski Azad was killed Monday, reportedly by her brother, who has apparently fled the country. Kurdish media have described Azad as a victim of a so-called honor killing.
“Our investigation so far suggests that Doski Azad was killed by her brother at a location just outside the city before he managed to flee crime scene,” said Hemin Suleiman, a spokesman for the Duhok police, adding that the victim was killed by a handgun.
He told VOA that an arrest warrant had been issued for the suspect, who reportedly lives in Germany.
Toronto police are closing off a stretch of University Avenue in order to protect Hospital Row ahead of expected demonstrations this weekend.
Police said in a tweet that University Avenue will be closed between College and Queen Streets to regular traffic and any convoys starting at 11:30 a.m. Friday. College Street will also be closed from University Avenue to Yonge Street.
A reporter for a Dutch news outlet was dragged away on video by a Chinese security officer outside the arena during a live broadcast of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony on Friday.
Onze correspondent @sjoerddendaas werd om 12.00u live in het NOS Journaal door beveiligers voor de camera weggetrokken. Helaas is dit steeds vaker de dagelijkse realiteit voor journalisten in China. Hij is in orde en kon zijn verhaal gelukkig een paar minuten later afmaken pic.twitter.com/GLTZRlZV96
— NOS (@NOS) February 4, 2022
In the moments before the Ottawa police’s Friday morning briefing on the ongoing anti-vaccine mandate protest on Parliament Hill, officers — both in uniform and plain clothes — and media alike awaited the arrival of the chief and deputy chiefs.
Meanwhile, a few folks were passing around a news release on tougher police measures coming in the days ahead, including one man who was not with the police services, but with the chief’s office, CBC was told.
That man was Matthew Barnes, a senior consultant for Navigator — an elite and expensive crisis management firm.
They must be expecting some real crap to go down.
The video below, posted by the Ottawa Police Service, is of the much ballyhooed desecration of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during the Truck Convoy protest in Ottawa. I’m disappointed, I heard she was dancing naked.
No one should be standing on the memorial yelling slogans that’s a given. But have you or anyone you know even heard about the desecration of the Cranbrook Cenotaph? Where was Justin’s outrage?
Radio personality Adam Carolla is being slammed on social media after claiming that people only like rabble-rousing New York City Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez because she’s young and attractive. The 57-year-old “Adam Carolla Show” host dropped the bombshell during a recent appearance on “Hannity.”
“Here’s a quick thought experiment: If AOC was fat and in her 60s, would anyone listen to another thing she ever said?” the “Man Show” creator told Sean Hannity in the inflammatory interview.
A group of American truckers are seeking to import a Canadian movement to protest against vaccine mandates, with thousands of members on social media pledging to bring the demonstration to Washington DC next month.
In Canada trucker protests have been linked to the far right and caused days of disruption in the capital, Ottawa, as well as in a border town in Alberta.
US organizers operating a Facebook group called Convoy to DC 2022 quickly gained more than 100,000 members and announced a convoy next month. But the Facebook group was recently removed by Meta.
China’s militant regime wants the United States to aid its space program, and some, including those in the U.S. space community, are eager to provide assistance. Such cooperation, however, would be extremely disadvantageous for the United States, as it has always been.
On January 28, Beijing issued “China’s Space Program: A 2021 Perspective,” its fifth white paper on the subject. Listed priorities include moon landings, asteroid defense, and space debris removal.
The woman organizers describe as “the spark that lit the fire” of the truck convoy protest that has occupied downtown Ottawa is a former energy industry worker and a leader within the “Wexit” movement pushing for the independence of western provinces.
The ongoing trucker convoy protest has brought downtown Ottawa to a standstill. Amid the DIY signs and banners decrying Canada’s COVID-19 response, demonstrators have also been waving factory-made flags that bear obscene political slogans.
These flags and other offensive merchandise are available online from sellers on Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Facebook Marketplace and more.
“Corporate greed has no moral compass, so of course businesses will take advantage of an opportunity like this,” Barbara Perry told CTV News. Perry directs the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism at Ontario Tech University.
