The Ottawa Police have refused to enforce the law for 3 weeks. They've been letting this go on unchecked. The mayor is a former Conservative MPP who is not running for re-election, so he's completely checked out. The police chief is a retired former deputy who got passed over to lead Toronto's police force and came out of retirement to try and burnish his reputation so he can get into politics.

The province is governed by a right-winger who will not do anything to upset his base. They've been pointing fingers at the municipal police, and vice-versa, and refusing to act.

The truckers are a very small group with no cohesive messaging. It's a bunch of dudes having a party and yelling about how they want to overthrow the government and install JFK Jr or whatever. There is no dialogue that would de-escalate them, it would only legitimize them.

The people of Canada have overwhelmingly stated that they want the occupation to end. They're sick of seeing people desecrate monuments, steal from the homeless, harass vulnerable people, shit in the streets, and make noise 24/7. The truckers have started taking their flags down when they're driving in town because everyone hates them and they don't want to be seen outside the red zone.

Not to nitpick, but Jim Watson was a Liberal MPP, not Conservative.

I know he hasn't been especially effective during all of this but there's also not much he can do since mayors here are pretty much glorified councillors.

> Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he has invoked the Emergencies Act as a “last resort” to bolster the police response to convoy demonstrators and to “bring the situation fully under control.”

What was the "first resort"? Trudeau isn't even willing to speak with the protesters.

>There is still no indication Trudeau is willing to sit down or speak to convoy participants. He said he doesn’t regret describing those taking part with “unacceptable views” as a “fringe” in Canada[0] [0] https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/pm-says-everything-on-the-ta...

It's a last resort that Trudeau and the Federal Government even needs to be involved in the first place. It's wild that we're at this point.

The first resorts are the issue being dealt with by local police. The fact that local police couldn't resolve this, and neither could reinforcements from the Ontario Provincial Police is very troubling tbh. It really should never get to this point.

At the end of this there needs to be an inquiry as to why the police were unable to get a grip on the situation.

So he's tried nothing and it's not working?

If you always assume you are right any opposition is an excuse to expand your power.

That article is from last year and it just says black canadians are right to be wary because healthcare is racist. It doesn't say most truckers or occupiers are black (or indian?).

The truckers are overwhelming white men. I'm in Ottawa. I was at the protest yesterday that stopped a convoy of trucks, all driven by white men. The people who I see driving around with giant flags, yelling at pedestrians are all white men. The people at the LCBO fighting security without masks on - white men. People at the grocery store harassing actual essential workers - white men.

>That article is from last year and it just says black canadians are right to be wary because healthcare is racist. It doesn't say most truckers or occupiers are black (or indian?).

I was providing a link in corroboration as to why there is a disproportionate amount of not-white people protesting. While some media are covering how this is not white supremacy as claimed by the CBC... https://notthebee.com/article/come-and-laugh-with-me-at-the-...

The point is missed.

>The truckers are overwhelming white men.

So the reason why the convoy exists is antivaxxers. The way averages work, if Black canadians are at 50% vaccinated 'because reasons' and our average is 85%. This means white people are even more vaccinated and not concerned with the change.

>'m in Ottawa. I was at the protest yesterday that stopped a convoy of trucks, all driven by white men.

So you're a counter protester? I support your efforts so long as you also remain peaceful.

>The people who I see driving around with giant flags, yelling at pedestrians are all white men. The people at the LCBO fighting security without masks on - white men. People at the grocery store harassing actual essential workers - white men.

Here's the thing. The narrative that the truckers are a racists, sexist, etc fell apart. You can watch several eloquent Indian truckers explain in depth about how this is not about race.

There is a very relevant video from the notthebee page above: https://twitter.com/ezralevant/status/1487513119119261696

A counter protester with a sign saying 'white nationalist agenda' is confronted with reality.

>> Trudeau aka mr blackface put black truckers out of a job, then when they organized to protest, he called them racists. Now they are really digging in exercising their charter right to peaceful protesting and Trudeau is going to remove them using this.

Wow - that’s quite a summary of what’s going on right now. I keep seeing the same pattern of your comment on right wing media lately (e.g. with the insurrectionists): defend the racist group by blaming either a false flag or “a handful of individuals”, call the protesters “largely peaceful and just exercising their rights”, then turning the charge around to call the people accusing you, of being the actual racists. I find it fascinating to see this on hn - it’s usually the kind of comment I would find in the Breitbart / Fox News comment sections.

>Wow - that’s quite a summary of what’s going on right now. I keep seeing the same pattern of your comment on right wing media lately (e.g. with the insurrectionists): defend the racist group by blaming either a false flag

You can watch the livestreams for yourself. You can watch videos like: https://twitter.com/QTRBlackGarrett/status/14876208353639833...

There is absolutely no nazi flags or confederate flags. The media and Trudeau smeared these people. This is literally the definition of 'false flag'

>call the protesters “largely peaceful and just exercising their rights”,

This has been confirmed by Ottawa police chief. This is infact a logical conclusion because if the protesters were anything but peaceful they would be arrested by the police. The Ottawa police are unable to do anything because it's peaceful and protected by charter right.

>then turning the charge around to call the people accusing you, of being the actual racists. I find it fascinating to see this on hn - it’s usually the kind of comment I would find in the Breitbart / Fox News comment sections.

Did I call someone racist? I did not. Not once did I say Trudeau is a racist. You are the one who just connected that. Is that by chance because you believe Trudeau is a racist? Interesting.

Also I don't know anything about the final part of your comment. I'm Canadian and not interested in Breitbart / Fox News.

https://twitter.com/cancivlib/status/1493383581783236611

I remember a time many years ago when Trudeau would have open mic town halls and any manner of people would come after him. He would stand his ground and talk to anyone. Including terrorists, I even remember the terrorist kind of rushed toward him and he had to tell them to back off. In the end he literally spoke with that terrorist as a person. What happened to that Trudeau?