Trucker Protest in Canada

[canpakes]

Canadian Trucking Alliance Statement to Those Engaged in Road/Border Protests

Saturday January 22, 2022 | Border & Customs, COVID-19, Labour/HR/Driver Shortage, News Releases, Operations & Safety

The vast majority of the Canadian trucking industry is vaccinated with the overall industry vaccination rate among truck drivers closely mirroring that of the general public. Accordingly, most of our nation’s hard-working truck drivers are continuing to move cross-border and domestic freight to ensure our economy continues to function.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) does not support and strongly disapproves of any protests on public roadways, highways, and bridges. CTA believes such actions – especially those that interfere with public safety – are not how disagreements with government policies should be expressed. Members of the trucking industry who want to publicly express displeasure over government policies can choose to hold an organized, lawful event on Parliament Hill or contact their local MP. What is not acceptable is disrupting the motoring public on highways and commerce at the border.

“The Government of Canada and the United States have now made being vaccinated a requirement to cross the border. This regulation is not changing so, as an industry, we must adapt and comply with this mandate,” said CTA president Stephen Laskowski. “The only way to cross the border, in a commercial truck or any other vehicle, is to get vaccinated.”

https://cantruck.ca/canadian-trucking-a ... -protests/

[Binger]

Damn, I should've invested in Towing in Ontario.

Police Arrest Protesters That Remained At U.S.-Canada Bridge

WINDSOR, Ontario (AP) — Police moved in to clear and arrest the remaining protesters near a key U.S.-Canadian border bridge early Sunday, trying to end one of the main protests that have broken out across Canada and the world against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other restrictions.

Windsor police said arrests were being made and vehicles were being towed just after dawn near the Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, Ontario — the busiest border crossing to the U.S. Television images showed officers detaining protesters.

Do you hate all the truckers?

[Chap]

Canadian Trucking Alliance Statement to Those Engaged in Road/Border Protests

Saturday January 22, 2022 | Border & Customs, COVID-19, Labour/HR/Driver Shortage, News Releases, Operations & Safety

The vast majority of the Canadian trucking industry is vaccinated with the overall industry vaccination rate among truck drivers closely mirroring that of the general public. Accordingly, most of our nation’s hard-working truck drivers are continuing to move cross-border and domestic freight to ensure our economy continues to function.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) does not support and strongly disapproves of any protests on public roadways, highways, and bridges. CTA believes such actions – especially those that interfere with public safety – are not how disagreements with government policies should be expressed. Members of the trucking industry who want to publicly express displeasure over government policies can choose to hold an organized, lawful event on Parliament Hill or contact their local MP. What is not acceptable is disrupting the motoring public on highways and commerce at the border.

“The Government of Canada and the United States have now made being vaccinated a requirement to cross the border. This regulation is not changing so, as an industry, we must adapt and comply with this mandate,” said CTA president Stephen Laskowski. “The only way to cross the border, in a commercial truck or any other vehicle, is to get vaccinated.”

https://cantruck.ca/canadian-trucking-a ... -protests/

Do you hate all the truckers?

Why would anyone hate people just for being truckers?

From the description in the post above, they seem to be generally a sensible and law-abiding bunch. It would be grossly unfair to blame them collectively for the actions of a tiny minority.

[K Graham]

Damn, I should've invested in Towing in Ontario.

Police Arrest Protesters That Remained At U.S.-Canada Bridge

WINDSOR, Ontario (AP) — Police moved in to clear and arrest the remaining protesters near a key U.S.-Canadian border bridge early Sunday, trying to end one of the main protests that have broken out across Canada and the world against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other restrictions.

Windsor police said arrests were being made and vehicles were being towed just after dawn near the Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, Ontario — the busiest border crossing to the U.S. Television images showed officers detaining protesters.

Do you hate all the truckers?

Are you still beating your wife?

[Binger]

Do you hate all the truckers?

Are you still beating your wife?

Oh, are you asking a question that has a presupposition? Is that what you are trying to do? OOOOOOOHHHHHH. Where else do you do that?

[K Graham]

You're nothing if not ignorant and hypocritical.

[K Graham]

By the way, do you ever intend to circle back and own up to your fake news about Biden and crack pipes?

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Neo-nazis and the convoy, an analysis from r/skeptic:

In response to this statement:

The truckers support Neo Nazis? What’s the evidence of this except for a few flags from the first few days that seem to be condemned in the interviews and streams I’ve seen of the participants.
In a skeptic subreddit, outliers are now a full representation of the protesters.

A poster responds:

I'm going to try and answer you, but there's a bit of a problem in your question because it's very broad in scope1 and inches pretty close to presuming the answer to the question before anybody actually answers it2. I've explain what I mean at the end of my comment, but for now I'm going to (1) limit the scope of my reply in my next comment, and (2) I'm going to take you at your word that you're not "just asking questions."

Scope: I'll be speaking specifically about the Canadian trucker convoy demonstrations, which began in Ottawa and have spread across the country. Currently, the most notable demonstrations are at the Coutts border crossing, the Ambassador bridge in Windsor connecting Ontario to Michigan, and in Ottawa (the nation's capital). The rest of my comment only applies to my country's demonstrations, since I frankly don't have an opinion on the rest (...keeping up with just my country's demonstrations is exhausting).

My position: I don't think it's wholly accurate to say the truckers are Neo-Nazis, but I do think it's in the right ballpark (which is the best you're going to get since all of these terms are pretty fuzzy in the first place). My personal opinion is that the convoy in Canada is a vehicle for alt-right ideologies, and that the truckers involved are flirting with fascism and white supremacy even if they themselves wouldn't call themselves fascists or white supremacists.

The organizers***\**3*

The Canadian trucker convoy has two or three primary organizers (depending who you ask): Tamara Lich and B.J. Dichter (who founded the initital GoFundMe for the demonstrations), and Pat King (who is a big name for the convoy, directs others). All of these individuals are somewhere on the alt-right spectrum, which should be enough to raise some eyebrows.

Tamara Lich boosted the Yellow Vest protest in 2018, when she circulated cospiracy theories about the "Muslim Brotherhood" in Canada. She was also involved with 'The Clarion Project,' the goal of which is to distribute Islamophobic articles and videos online.

B.J. Dichter is also Islamaphobic. In 2019, he wrote about how letting muslims into Canada was degrading Canadian society. He also ran for parliament with the People's Party of Canada, which is Canada's far-right party (and worthy of its own discussion for how it promotes conspiracy theories and white supremacy).

Pat King susbcribes to the "Anglo-Saxon replacement" conspiracy theory, where white people will become the minority in Canada through deliberately accepting refugees en masse. He's also made racist and anti-semetic remarks public on his livestreams.
Action at the protests

At the protests themselves, lots of actions have occurred that toe the line with fascist/alt-right ideology. I'm particularly concerned about (1) the display of neo-nazi imagery, (2) the victimization of minorities -- which is inherent to neo-nazi/white supremacist ideology, and (3) the general lawlessness of the protests which has allowed protesters to essentially do whatever they would like without repercussions.

You've mentioned the flags at the beginning of the protest, but those were not the only ones. They're just the ones that have gotten the most attention. (I can source this later if you'd like)

Violence is a frequent occurrence at the protests (the Ottawa Police Service has said this on numerous occasions from the very beginning). Is this alt-right violence? It's hard to say for some of it, but city counselor McKenney (whose ward is at the epicenter of the protests in Ottawa) went on record in the first week of the protests to say that they were receiving hundreds of complaints a day from their constituents about the protests, many of whom are women, LGBTQ+, or BIPOC individuals who say they were the victims of targeted hate crimes (e.g. threats to rape or attack them).

Also in the first week, I'm aware of one coffee shop (Happy Goat) which had its window broken (...where there was a pride flag displayed), and a resident's home which was defaced with human feces (...which also had a pride flag in the window).
Within the last few days, Pat King was videotaped "swearing in" protesters as "peace officers" ... brown shirts, anybody?

Three court orders have been issued in Canada to do with the protests. One to clear a blockade at the Coutts border crossing, one to clear the blockade at Ambassadord Bridge in Windsor (connecting Ontario + Michigan), and an injunction banning the use of horns in downtown Ottawa. All three of these court orders have been violated by the protesters, and when the police tried to enforce the Coutts injunction, a protester tried to run over an RCMP (kind of like federal police) officer with their truck.

... and more, but to be honest, it's exhausting going through everything. There's a google doc somewhere on /r/Ottawa detailing all of this, so I'll try and find it to send it to you if you're interested. (the doc, courtesy of /u/brandon_ball_z)

Other minutia/considerations

Canada had an election less than a year ago. Despite this, the protesters insist that our duly elected leader PM Trudeau must resign for the protests to stop. This is perfectly exemplified by the Coutts demonstration. Alberta has given into the protesters' demands in regard to covid mandates, but they remain. One protester specifically stated they would remain until Trudeau resigned. Some protesters have gone as far as to say they want the whole Canadian government to be dissolved.

The stated goal from the beginning of the protest has been to completely shutdown the supply chain of goods within Canada, strong arming the government into giving in to protester demands. This is entirely unprecedented, and could be construed as a form of terrorism.

The Ottawa Police Service Chief Sloly is on record saying that protesters have brought weapons to the demonstration, including guns, improvised weapons, and "perhaps most concerning ... the trucks themselves." There is an implicit threat of violence by the truckers' mere presence.

Addendums, clarification, etc. below~

1: What I mean by "broad" is that there's too many ways to define Neo-Nazi and "the truckers." e.g. Neo-Nazi could specifically mean people who aspire for a Nazi-Germany-esque government, or it could be used as an umbrella term for white supremacist ideologies; "the truckers" could refer to the global movement, the movement in the USA, the movement within Canada, the movement within Europe, or some subset/combination of any of these.

(cont. 1) Then, even within each of those movements, you still have different groups to consider such as the truckers themselves, their supporters, non-trucker protesters, organizers, donors, etc. You see the problem here.

2: i.e. by stating that the flags have been condemned by the streams you've seen, you aren't explicitly taking a stance ... but you're toeing the line in a way that sounds like JAQing off. (To be explicit -- I'm not accusing you of that -- but I am informing you because many people make a point to not reply if they think somebody is doing that).

3: my information on the organizers comes from here. I'd look through that site for my information if you want to hear more about why some people are concerned the protesters are Neo-Nazis/white supremacists/etc.

Here’s the link if you want access to the doc mentioned above:

https://www.reddit.com/r/skeptic/commen ... ?context=3

I understand the very people that should read lengthy comments about the convoys are the very people that’ll never read them, but I believe RI was trying to figure overlapping socio-political movements, and I thought c&p’ing the comment could help with the effort.

- Doc

[Binger]

Neo-nazis and the convoy, an analysis from r/skeptic:

In response to this statement:

The truckers support Neo Nazis? What’s the evidence of this except for a few flags from the first few days that seem to be condemned in the interviews and streams I’ve seen of the participants.
In a skeptic subreddit, outliers are now a full representation of the protesters.

A poster responds:

I'm going to try and answer you, but there's a bit of a problem in your question because it's very broad in scope1 and inches pretty close to presuming the answer to the question before anybody actually answers it2. I've explain what I mean at the end of my comment, but for now I'm going to (1) limit the scope of my reply in my next comment, and (2) I'm going to take you at your word that you're not "just asking questions."

Scope: I'll be speaking specifically about the Canadian trucker convoy demonstrations, which began in Ottawa and have spread across the country. Currently, the most notable demonstrations are at the Coutts border crossing, the Ambassador bridge in Windsor connecting Ontario to Michigan, and in Ottawa (the nation's capital). The rest of my comment only applies to my country's demonstrations, since I frankly don't have an opinion on the rest (...keeping up with just my country's demonstrations is exhausting).

My position: I don't think it's wholly accurate to say the truckers are Neo-Nazis, but I do think it's in the right ballpark (which is the best you're going to get since all of these terms are pretty fuzzy in the first place). My personal opinion is that the convoy in Canada is a vehicle for alt-right ideologies, and that the truckers involved are flirting with fascism and white supremacy even if they themselves wouldn't call themselves fascists or white supremacists.

The organizers***\**3*

The Canadian trucker convoy has two or three primary organizers (depending who you ask): Tamara Lich and B.J. Dichter (who founded the initital GoFundMe for the demonstrations), and Pat King (who is a big name for the convoy, directs others). All of these individuals are somewhere on the alt-right spectrum, which should be enough to raise some eyebrows.

Tamara Lich boosted the Yellow Vest protest in 2018, when she circulated cospiracy theories about the "Muslim Brotherhood" in Canada. She was also involved with 'The Clarion Project,' the goal of which is to distribute Islamophobic articles and videos online.

B.J. Dichter is also Islamaphobic. In 2019, he wrote about how letting muslims into Canada was degrading Canadian society. He also ran for parliament with the People's Party of Canada, which is Canada's far-right party (and worthy of its own discussion for how it promotes conspiracy theories and white supremacy).

Pat King susbcribes to the "Anglo-Saxon replacement" conspiracy theory, where white people will become the minority in Canada through deliberately accepting refugees en masse. He's also made racist and anti-semetic remarks public on his livestreams.
Action at the protests

At the protests themselves, lots of actions have occurred that toe the line with fascist/alt-right ideology. I'm particularly concerned about (1) the display of neo-nazi imagery, (2) the victimization of minorities -- which is inherent to neo-nazi/white supremacist ideology, and (3) the general lawlessness of the protests which has allowed protesters to essentially do whatever they would like without repercussions.

You've mentioned the flags at the beginning of the protest, but those were not the only ones. They're just the ones that have gotten the most attention. (I can source this later if you'd like)

Violence is a frequent occurrence at the protests (the Ottawa Police Service has said this on numerous occasions from the very beginning). Is this alt-right violence? It's hard to say for some of it, but city counselor McKenney (whose ward is at the epicenter of the protests in Ottawa) went on record in the first week of the protests to say that they were receiving hundreds of complaints a day from their constituents about the protests, many of whom are women, LGBTQ+, or BIPOC individuals who say they were the victims of targeted hate crimes (e.g. threats to rape or attack them).

Also in the first week, I'm aware of one coffee shop (Happy Goat) which had its window broken (...where there was a pride flag displayed), and a resident's home which was defaced with human feces (...which also had a pride flag in the window).
Within the last few days, Pat King was videotaped "swearing in" protesters as "peace officers" ... brown shirts, anybody?

Three court orders have been issued in Canada to do with the protests. One to clear a blockade at the Coutts border crossing, one to clear the blockade at Ambassadord Bridge in Windsor (connecting Ontario + Michigan), and an injunction banning the use of horns in downtown Ottawa. All three of these court orders have been violated by the protesters, and when the police tried to enforce the Coutts injunction, a protester tried to run over an RCMP (kind of like federal police) officer with their truck.

... and more, but to be honest, it's exhausting going through everything. There's a google doc somewhere on /r/Ottawa detailing all of this, so I'll try and find it to send it to you if you're interested. (the doc, courtesy of /u/brandon_ball_z)

Other minutia/considerations

Canada had an election less than a year ago. Despite this, the protesters insist that our duly elected leader PM Trudeau must resign for the protests to stop. This is perfectly exemplified by the Coutts demonstration. Alberta has given into the protesters' demands in regard to covid mandates, but they remain. One protester specifically stated they would remain until Trudeau resigned. Some protesters have gone as far as to say they want the whole Canadian government to be dissolved.

The stated goal from the beginning of the protest has been to completely shutdown the supply chain of goods within Canada, strong arming the government into giving in to protester demands. This is entirely unprecedented, and could be construed as a form of terrorism.

The Ottawa Police Service Chief Sloly is on record saying that protesters have brought weapons to the demonstration, including guns, improvised weapons, and "perhaps most concerning ... the trucks themselves." There is an implicit threat of violence by the truckers' mere presence.

Addendums, clarification, etc. below~

1: What I mean by "broad" is that there's too many ways to define Neo-Nazi and "the truckers." e.g. Neo-Nazi could specifically mean people who aspire for a Nazi-Germany-esque government, or it could be used as an umbrella term for white supremacist ideologies; "the truckers" could refer to the global movement, the movement in the USA, the movement within Canada, the movement within Europe, or some subset/combination of any of these.

(cont. 1) Then, even within each of those movements, you still have different groups to consider such as the truckers themselves, their supporters, non-trucker protesters, organizers, donors, etc. You see the problem here.

2: i.e. by stating that the flags have been condemned by the streams you've seen, you aren't explicitly taking a stance ... but you're toeing the line in a way that sounds like JAQing off. (To be explicit -- I'm not accusing you of that -- but I am informing you because many people make a point to not reply if they think somebody is doing that).

3: my information on the organizers comes from here. I'd look through that site for my information if you want to hear more about why some people are concerned the protesters are Neo-Nazis/white supremacists/etc.

Here’s the link if you want access to the doc mentioned above:

https://www.reddit.com/r/skeptic/commen ... ?context=3

I understand the very people that should read lengthy comments about the convoys are the very people that’ll never read them, but I believe RI was trying to figure overlapping socio-political movements, and I thought c&p’ing the comment could help with the effort.

- Doc

This you?

2 neo-Nazi group members, including US Army veteran, sentenced to prison

[ajax18]

Other than watching Adolf Trudeau react to the Freedom Convoy like a mewling little gerbil, my favorite part of the trucker protests has been sizzling hot takes like this: Wait, Now the Right Loves Traffic-Blocking Protesters?

It truly is an astounding act of mental midgetry…

Let’s begin with the obvious… The least of the sins committed by the domestic terrorists in Black Lives matter is blocking traffic. For most of 2020, these violent marauders burned, looted, beat, and destroyed — much of the time in predominantly black neighborhoods. These monsters caused a record amount of property damage, and much of that property was owned by working people. Oh, and now tens of millions of dollars in Black Lives Matter donations remain *lol* unaccounted for.

The Freedom Convoy burned, looted, and beat … nothing and no one. No violence of any kind, just video after video of a block party atmosphere, of everyday people having a good time — a sight our elites hate even more than themselves.

The Freedom Convoy also did its level best to target their protests at the government. Compare that to the terrorists in Black Lives Matter, who mostly rampaged against business districts and targeted innocent retailers, including mom and pop stores, for total destruction.

As far as the traffic blocking, let’s look squarely at that…

Would you prefer to deal with a vicious and violent mob swarming your car — which is how Black Lives Matter blocked traffic — or a truck just sitting there?

I’m not saying the Freedom Convoy isn’t inconveniencing everyday people. Of course it is. The honking, the traffic issues… But it is peaceful. And guess who else blocked bridges and inconvenienced everyday people? Rev. Martin Luther King. There is a long and glorious history of civil disobedience in Western culture. All the Freedom Convoy is guilty of is proudly picking up that baton and running with it.

Let me add that the Freedom Convoy’s blocking of a crucial bridge between the U.S. and Canada was every bit as strategic and righteous as the Civil Rights protests on Edmund Pettis Bridge 57 years ago.

And let’s not forget who invented this suddenly-insidious idea of traffic blocking, who normalized traffic blocking as a legitimate form of protest. That was Black Lives Matter, along with their cheerleaders in the organized left, the Democrat party, and the corporate media.

Hey, once something is normalized and accepted as legitimate, why shouldn’t everyone join in?

Let’s also look at what these respective groups are fighting for…

What exactly does Black Lives Matter want? What is their list of demands? There are none.

King wanted equal treatment under the law.

The Freedom Convoy is fighting for the same rights rich celebrities at the Super Bowl and Oscars enjoy.

Black Lives Matter literally wants you on your knees.

Finally, let’s look at what’s on the line…

Besides upgrading their home entertainment systems, what exactly does Black Lives Matter risk? Nothing. They are almost all professional activists, criminals, and students. What’s more, they can commit the most heinous of crimes, get arrested, and immediately be set loose by far-left prosecutors and Kamala Harris’s bail fund.

Compare that to these truckers who are working-class guys with bills to pay, families to feed, and who showed up with their own rigs, which were at risk of government confiscation. These guys lost wages, incurred massive expenses, and agreed to participate, knowing the corporate media and their own government would smear them as terrorists and Nazis.

And now my closing argument:

https://Twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status ... -convoy%2F