Roundup: Grifters fail to secure Trudeau’s resignation

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While the organisers and the American mouthpieces they fed their PR to claimed that the grifter convoy would see 50,000 trucks and 1.5 million people descending upon Ottawa (a city of a million people over a fairly vast geography), it was a couple of hundred trucks, and a couple of thousand people—nothing even remotely close to a Canada Day in the Before Times. Some are saying it was relatively peaceful in that there were no riots, but its denizens were certainly belligerent and forced the closure of the mall near Parliament Hill, along with many other businesses in the area, most of whom will remain closed today. Liquor stores in the area were also closed because of the same belligerence, and the honking rarely ceased all weekend. (The Ottawa Citizen has a rolling blog of events over the weekend here, while Justin Ling has the definitive account of the event and its lead-up).

The reckoning for certain Conservative MPs will begin soon enough, particularly Michael Cooper, as he was filmed talking to reporters while in front of an up-side down Canadian flag that had a swastika on it. (Not-so-fun fact: swastikas were doing double-duty over the weekend, both sported by extremists like those who organised the event, while others were using them to denounce the government as being Nazis, because nothing says sore loser like calling the prime minister in a hung parliament after a free and fair election a tyrannical dictator). Cooper insists it’s not his fault there were swastikas around, and that he’s the victim here—erm, except he knew damn well that extremists organised this event and that these kinds of symbols and flags always turn up at these events, so it would have been better for him not to show up at all. (Reminder: Cooper is also the guy who read the New Zealand mosque shooter’s manifesto into the record at committee, because reasons). Also, I cannot wait for all of those Conservative MPs to have a meltdown about the grifters who urinated on the Cenotaph at the National War Memorial, the way they did when that rando did it on Canada Day in 2006. Because they’ll have the same reaction, right?

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1487763389522849795

As for what happens next, we’ll see. It already started to peter out yesterday because there’s a) nothing to do, and b) they’re accomplishing nothing. The extremist organisers insist they’ll stay there until all of the vaccine mandates are rescinded (good luck with that—they’re mostly provincial jurisdiction), and that the government resign, and even more, that the Liberal Party is dismantled. Yeah, that’s not going to happen, buddy. Police became way more visible on Sunday, and the play seems to be that they let these grifters have their fun and make their on Saturday, then made their presence known in a big way on Sunday, so that if they’re not gone by the end of Monday, they’ll start taking action. But we’ll see. Nevertheless, this is a big waste of everyone’s time, and everyone is out of patience.

Meanwhile in Alberta, a smaller convoy headed to the province’s legislature on Saturday, while a separate group of trucks blockaded a southern border crossing. It took a day for Jason Kenney to condemn said blockade, but after all of the noise he made supporting the original grifter convoy only for its same proponents to turn on him and his province is pretty much fitting. Kenney keeps thinking he’s the smartest guy in the room and can outrun the fires he starts to pretend like he’s putting them out, but once again, he’s getting burned.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau hopes the NDP and the Bloc will help them keep legislation from being held up by procedural warfare. Good luck with that.
  • A slate of bills targeting web giants and online harms are due to be tabled this week to meet the Liberals’ “100 days” deadline.
  • Anita Anand is in Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian officials, as Canada withdraws “non-essential” personnel from its embassy.
  • François-Philippe Champagne is hoping to help onshore more parts of the electric vehicle supply chain, and says there are forthcoming announcements.
  • Supriya Dwivedi points to the myriad of ways the Conservatives have previously cosied up to extremists, while the normalcy bias in media keeps letting it slide.
  • Althia Raj points out the obvious selfishness of the anti-vaccine crowd.
  • Susan Delacourt fittingly calls it a mass temper tantrum—which it is—which won’t end the pandemic (and would only make it worse if they got their way).

Odds and ends:

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: Grifters fail to secure Trudeau’s resignation”

  1. After this, I think he’ll only double down on his resolve to crush them soundly in the next election. The Conservatives, despite their protestations, are doing their best to help him — I’m sure the “freedom fighters” they’ve been cozying up to have delivered *petabytes* of oppo footage for the Liberals. You lay down with rabid dogs, don’t be surprised to wake up with fleas.

  2. You have to wonder how this defence of the largely indefensible, by folks like Cooper, will impact on Albertans’ allegiance to the Conservative party, or at least the current slate of CPC MPs. The truckers’ blockade at Coutts is not exactly doing wonders for the image of those who defend the truckers. I suspect that can dent the I-thought-you-were-on-OUR-side mentality that has traditionally bonded Alberta with the CPC.

    In other news, our son has been monitoring the chatter among the protesters. Several things are starting to become issues. One, there is no waste removal, and no public washrooms available. So the bags of poop some were forced to use, are becoming a little problematic. I suppose one CAN let them freeze, so they don’t become too stinky. But where do you put ’em? I heard one protester complain the other day that there were usually porta-pottys for events like Canada Day, so why weren’t there any provided here? Yeah, right. C’mon in and make yourself at home.

    The other mounting concern was that, with few businesses within walking distance being open, feminine hygiene products were in short supply for those of age to need them. Why not mask up and be polite so that the few Shopper’s Drug Marts nearby might feel safe to open, or is that too much to ask?

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