The fear in people’s eyes, just as they went about their business — going home, coming back from running an errand or from work — that will always stay in my mind,’ said Catherine McKenney, who was Ottawa city councillor in the ward impacted by the protest.
In Ottawa, Wellington Street has always been an odd duck.
It’s the home address of Parliament, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Supreme Court of Canada, among other notables on the world’s most earnest celebrity-sightings map. It has some of the touristy pomp you’d expect of an official promenade, but it’s also an ordinary commuter artery. And so it’s possible to see Justin Trudeau climbing out of a tinted-window SUV on his way into his office while being delayed getting to your own, all on the same block.
Former MPP Randy Hillier, facing nine charges stemming from last year’s “Freedom Convoy” occupation of downtown Ottawa, wants a change of venue for his trial to ensure an untainted jury.
His defence lawyer, David Anber, has filed a motion for a change of venue that will be heard later this year.
WASHINGTON — Four additional members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia were found guilty of seditious conspiracy on Monday for their roles in trying to keep Donald J. Trump in office after his 2020 election defeat, nearly two months after the group’s leader — Stewart Rhodes — was convicted of the same offense in a separate trial in November.
A jury in Federal District Court in Washington also found the four defendants guilty of two separate conspiracy charges.
Vancouver police aren’t allowed to wear thin-blue-line patches on their uniforms, the city’s police board reaffirmed Thursday.
Deputy Chief Fiona Wilson said the decision to prohibit officers from sporting the symbol isn’t due to its contentiousness, but the Vancouver Police Department’s long-standing policy against unauthorized adornments.
BMO CEO Addresses Suggestion to Designate Convoy Protesters as ‘Terrorists’ to Freeze Accounts
The CEO of Canadian bank BMO addressed on Jan. 19 the revelation that he had recommended to the finance minister that Freedom Convoy protesters be designated as “terrorists” to facilitate the freezing of their financial accounts last year.
“I would never call the convoy protesters terrorists. What was said is that in order for the banks to be helpful, there are certain protocols,” Darryl White told True North’s Andrew Lawton reporting from Davos, Switzerland.
“Those protocols include sanction where we can in fact, help in that case, otherwise, it’s not our business to interfere in the affairs of anyone’s finances, truckers or otherwise.”
Everywhere Justin Long goes, Ottawa’s so-called “Freedom Convoy” goes with him.
It was an event, Long says, that restored his national pride to such a degree that he tattooed a reminder of the protest on the back of his left hand.
“Don’t tread on me” — the slogan of the American Revolution-era flag favoured by anti-government groups — is inked just above his wrist. In the centre is a Canada goose wearing a yellow vest, a nod to the Yellow Vesters, the progenitor protest movement to the “Freedom Convoy,” and holding a jerry can in its beak. And on his knuckles is a four-letter word: “Honk.”
Flyers’ Provorov cites religion for boycott on Pride night
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov cited his Russian Orthodox religion as the reason he did not participate in pregame warmups when the team wore Pride-themed jerseys and used sticks wrapped in rainbow Pride tape.
The 26-year-old Provorov boycotted the pregame skate with his teammates before Tuesday night’s game against Anaheim as the Flyers celebrated their annual Pride night in celebration and support of the LGBTQ+ community. He played nearly 23 minutes in Philadelphia’s 5-2 victory.
“I respect everybody’s choices,” Provorov said after the game. “My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion. That’s all I’m going to say.”
Big Gay vs. the Russian Orthodox Church, 1st round goes to the Orthodox.
The NHL just got shirted by DeSantis in Florida for their racism, not sure if they’ll kick up too much of a fuss this go round.
Just finished watching a game on Sportsnet and all they could talk about was Ivan Provorov’s refusal to wear the Flyers LGBTQ+ pride night jersey.
Get over it! Stop forcing your religion on to everyone.
Happy to see someone stood their ground. pic.twitter.com/NZ10hD5WT6
— Wake Awake (@WakeAwake1) January 18, 2023
The NHL keeps providing me new reasons why I don’t bother watching any longer.
A pickup truck decorated with a Confederate flag at the “Freedom Convoy” in Ottawa early last year was driven by a local roofer who supported the protests, not by Liberal government “provocateurs” as convoy organizers alleged at the public inquiry into the invoking of the Emergencies Act.
Maurice Landriault told CTV National News that it was his Dodge Ram 2500 seen on Elgin Street and at a protest site at Confederation Square, but he denies the flag he mounted on the tailgate next to a Canadian flag was offensive.
“It’s a sign of independence,” he said. “I look at it as a rebel sign. In the biker community, a lot of people have the Confederate flag because we’re rebels.”
Boy aren’t you glad this has been cleared up? What’s that? You say it was all MSM Hysteria designed to tar all the protesters and criminalize dissent? Yea, you’re right but that’s what they’re paid to do.
B.C. Mountie’s anti-Trudeau website raises concerns about discriminatory views within the RCMP
A B.C. Mountie’s anti-Trudeau website is causing waves in a small West Kootenay community and raising concerns about political bias among the ranks of the RCMP.
The Church of Trudeau website was online last November and early December and featured theatrical performances by a man dressed up as multiple characters in what appears to be satirical political commentary about the Prime Minister and what the site referred to as “left-wing Liberal ideologies.”
CBC News has confirmed the identity of the man in photos and videos on the website as Trail, B.C., RCMP officer Brent Lord through a source familiar with the website and its contents.
The goal is to criminalize dissent against the likes of Trudeau and McKinsey’s evil immigration policy.
Dissent is not a crime unless you disagree with Justin.
In Berkeley Springs, the purchase of an iconic castle by VDare, which some consider a hate group, has led to angst and ugliness
BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. — The little town was sparkling.
White lights gleamed from the garlands and wreaths adorning the gazebo in Berkeley Springs State Park. A large Christmas tree was lit next to the courthouse. Even the parking meters downtown were decorated for the holiday, transformed into snowmen, garden gnomes and the Grinch.
And looming above it all: the Berkeley Castle, a 19th-century structure that has become as much a symbol of this tourist town two hours northwest of Washington as the flowing hot springs that gave this Appalachian community its name.
A Sussex-area businessperson who was one of the largest financial donors to the Freedom Convoy is asking a court in Ontario to throw out an attempt to sue him for damages.
Brad Howland, who gave $75,000 to the convoy that paralyzed downtown Ottawa last winter, is named in a motion to designate him as the representative of everyone who gave money to support the protest.
It’s part of a broader class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of downtown Ottawa residents, businesses and employees who say the convoy disrupted their lives.
Mendicino willing to talk about changing CSIS’s legal authority after Emergencies Act hearings
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says he’s open to discussing changes to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s legal authority after the spy agency’s chief signalled during the Emergencies Act inquiry that his organization needs “critical” reform.
CSIS’s key mandate is to investigate activities suspected of constituting threats to the security of the country, and to report to the Government of Canada. But the definition in law of such threats under the Emergencies Act turned out to be a key point of contention during the inquiry.
Organizers of the original “Freedom Convoy” protest that paralyzed downtown Ottawa for three weeks in early 2022 say they’re bringing a new convoy to Winnipeg this winter.
In a Facebook post, Canada Unity shared a live video in which they proclaimed that a “world unity convoy” would be held in the Manitoba capital Feb. 17 to 20, 2023.
In the video, Canada Unity founder James Bauder said they chose Winnipeg because it’s the middle point of Canada.
The platform suppressed true information from doctors and public-health experts that was at odds with U.S. government policy.
I had always thought a primary job of the press was to be skeptical of power—especially the power of the government. But during the Covid-19 pandemic, I and so many others found that the legacy media had shown itself to largely operate as a messaging platform for our public health institutions. Those institutions operated in near total lockstep, in part by purging internal dissidents and discrediting outside experts.
Twitter became an essential alternative. It was a place where those with public health expertise and perspectives at odds with official policy could air their views—and where curious citizens could find such information. This often included other countries’ responses to Covid that differed dramatically from our own.
