“China eats weird animals disease”

At this point, it is not entirely inconceivable that the Ottawa protesters will get their wish of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau being forced to step down before they pack up and head home. With public opinion firmly against the prime minister, his caucus, which is already beginning to speak out, may conclude that there is no other way out of this crisis, and start demanding he leave or actively push him out. That is not something to celebrate, as it would confirm that our institutions, from Parliament down, are so completely full of rot that normal governing has become impossible.

VANCOUVER — The Canada Border Services Agency says traffic is moving again south of Vancouver at the Pacific Highway border, while more protesters were arrested Monday night.

Surrey RCMP Cpl. Vanessa Munn said starting at about 8:30 p.m., police arrested 12 protesters, bringing the total number of arrests to 16 since Sunday.

Investigations into unlawful activity that is alleged to have occurred on Saturday during the blockade continue, police said.

Monday, FNC host Tucker Carlson called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act to respond to the so-called Freedom Convoy truckers’ protest underway in Trudeau’s country a “defining moment” in its history.

Carlson said Trudeau’s declaration was the equivalent of declaring Canada a dictatorship.

Trudeau brings martial law to Canada. pic.twitter.com/RsiTrChIMe

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 15, 2022

Peter Sloly has resigned as Ottawa’s police chief and will publicly announce he is stepping down after the Ottawa Police Services Board meeting today, according to sources that have spoken to CBC News.

Sloly has faced criticism for his handling of a truck convoy protest that has caused major disruption to Ottawa’s downtown core.

There are some concerns about the federal government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to end antigovernment blockades against COVID-19 measures that are being held across the country.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association says it does not believe the “high and clear” threshold needed to invoke the act has been met, noting the law states it can only be used when a situation cannot be dealt with using any other law in the country.

The protesters who used semis, farm equipment, campers, and other vehicles to block access to and from the U.S.-Canada border at Coutts, Alta., wound down their demonstration Monday night, with the last holdouts planning to leave the area Tuesday morning.

… “I feel a little defeated,” Isaac Peters said while sitting around the fires Monday night. The mood of the protest changed Monday after RCMP said it arrested 12 people after finding a weapons stash. The Mounties said this cluster joined the protest in its early days but were separate from the larger group. The situation prompted RCMP to suit up in tactical gear, Mr. Peters said, and openly carry large firearms.

From the perspective of freedom-loving citizens in this country, the trucker convoys and blockades protesting mask and vaccine mandates are a stirring spectacle of patriotism, civic responsibility, and true grit. They represent the offset to heavy-handed and arrogant government that is using everything in its power to suppress their efforts: threats, fines, police coercion, theft of property, and the manifestly illegal sequestering of funds donated to the truckers by private individuals. A conflict of this nature is often framed as the state versus the nation, the authorities versus the people. Whether it applies to the current situation, as we will see, is problematic.

An American tech billionaire, two NASA employees and Canadian civil servants are among a leaked list of nearly 100,000 Freedom Convoy donors, according to information released by hackers responsible for taking down the group’s crowdfunding site.