“China eats weird animals disease”

Truckers in France are reportedly planning to emulate the Canadian ‘Freedom Convoy’ by mobilizing groups of big rigs to protest vaccine mandates and other Covid-19 restrictions set by Paris. According to a BFM TV report, demonstrators plan to “paralyze” the French capital next week before joining a wider “European convergence” in Brussels.

I live in downtown Ottawa, right in the middle of the trucker convoy protest. They are literally camped out below my bedroom window. My new neighbours moved in on Friday and they seem determined to stay. I have read a lot about what my new neighbours are supposedly like, mostly from reporters and columnists who write from distant vantage points somewhere in the media heartland of Canada. Apparently the people who inhabit the patch of asphalt next to my bedroom are white supremacists, racists, hatemongers, pseudo-Trumpian grifters, and even QAnon-style nutters.

h/t Sanwin

Local towing companies are rejecting Ottawa police requests for help towing ‘Freedom Convoy’ trucks out of the downtown core, according to a senior police source.

The source told CTV News Ottawa that even if police decided to tow the trucks from the downtown streets they have been clogging up for the past week, they wouldn’t have enough tow trucks to do it.

Police outreach to tow truck companies across the city has been rebuffed, the source said.

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.

• GoFundMe supports peaceful protests and we believe that was the intention of the Freedom Convoy 2022 fundraiser when it was first created.
• We now have evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity.

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.

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?

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.

Ottawa police say they’ll increase their presence and further restrict access to the city’s downtown to control what’s expected to be another weekend of noisy protests, but they warn the situation remains volatile and dangerous.

In a Friday morning news release, police said the new “surge and contain strategy” means there will immediately be about 150 more officers dedicated to patrolling central Ottawa neighbourhoods and enforcing laws, more heavy barricades to manage traffic and more intelligence work with provincial and national help to lay charges, including against those planning and funding illegal activity.