Roundup: The “missing” PM reappears

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While things quieted down with the grifter occupation, a new cry went up on all sides, who were trying to draw Justin Trudeau out and into the fray. A narrative, fed by journalists who clearly still don’t understand what this occupation is all about, was that Trudeau was somehow “in hiding” and needed to engage with these extremists, grifters, and conspiracy theorists to end the current situation. Worse, every opposition party was adding their voice to this nonsense, insisting that “federal leadership” would resolve a situation that is clearly and explicitly that of the city’s civilian police force. Trudeau did show up in the House of Commons in the evening, during the emergency debate on the occupation, and pushed back at the Conservative narratives that the country is “divided” over this, and quite rightly repeated that Canadians stood together in the pandemic and that vaccination remains the way out, not these protests.

Meanwhile, I am growing very disturbed by the fact that my media colleagues are agitating for the prime minister to call in the military to resolve the situation, never mind that a) the power to call on the military to aid in civil powers is up to the provinces to use, not the federal government; b) the Canadian Forces are not a police force and should not be used as such, because we are not a police state, and I swear to gods I will keep posting this Battlestar Galactica clip until people get it through their heads that calling in the military is not a solution to anything. It will only feed the narrative that Trudeau is a mad dictator, which accomplishes these extremists’ goals for them. I also cannot believe that the media keeps normalizing this line of thinking, like their continued insistence that the federal government invoke the Emergencies Act, and the repeated refrain that “people don’t care about jurisdiction in a pandemic.” Jurisdiction is literally part of the rule of law. It matters. People should care. We need to stop treating this like it’s some stupid game, or that Trudeau is the premiers’ father who can just take over at any point. That’s not how laws work, and agitating otherwise because you think it’ll make a better story is really, really dangerous.

Grifter Occupation: Day 12

The occupation quieted down somewhat, thanks to the fact that the lawyer for the class action lawsuit managed to get a ten-day injunction from the judge against all of the honking, so that was something—more than the city or the police have managed thus far. As for the police, their promise to start interdicting fuel heading to the occupation site has proved to be largely a joke, as the occupiers were playing shell games with which jerry cans were filled with water and which were filled with diesel, and apparently police gave up. Such competence!

https://twitter.com/dgardner/status/1490844680678154241

Meanwhile, the mayor wrote open letters to the federal and municipal governments requesting over a thousand more police and other supports, of which I’m not sure where they’re all going to come from, particularly in a short period of time. We did find out why the OPP presence has been so thin—as it turns out, the promised 1500 officers that the solicitor general promised were cumulative, meaning 130 to 200 per day, which is the kind of shite maths that Doug Ford and his band of incompetent murderclowns like to use to obscure things. Oh, and city council tried to pass a resolution to call on the federal government to invoke the Emergencies Act, and I cannot even. What an absolute bloody farce this is.

And because this remains a situation that is bordering on surreal, the leaders of this occupation keep advocating to overturn democracy, and useful idiots in the media and even the gods damned mayor keep trying to insist that negotiation is somehow a viable option here.

Good reads:

  • More grifter sympathizes are trying to blockade the Windsor-Detroit Bridge, and I’m not sure that’s going to last as long.
  • The privacy commissioner wants to take another look at the mobile data-tracking programme to ensure that it was properly anonymised.
  • More than half of Canadian companies targeted by hackers paid ransoms.
  • Maclean’s talks to former Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz.
  • Chief Justice Richard Wagner called on the legal system to keep modernising even once we are through the pandemic.
  • The shape of the Conservative leadership campaign will be determined by the rules and length the party sets for it, trying to find a balance of openness and seriousness.
  • Two Conservative MPs’ offices in Nova Scotia received packages containing “disturbing images” and chemical irritants.
  • Matt Gurney takes in the occupation site for himself, and makes some observations.
  • Heather Scoffield wonders why Trudeau has not been spending the week denouncing angry populism, like he is wont to, in the face of the occupation.

Odds and ends:

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: The “missing” PM reappears”

  1. As has been evident for quite some time now in the US, the far right, basically represented by the Republican party is moving to an authoritarian political ideal. The spin-off is now in effect in Canada. Actually except the January 6th insurrection, is more insidious with multiple lawless actions within the freedom of demonstration here, highjacked by those same American interests. Once people forget the basics of free social behaviors that don’t strip those others who disagree from their freedoms, our society is doomed to slide into anarchy and totalitarianism. What we are seeing now is disrespect on a degree never before seen. The next step is rule at the point of a gun. I see this happening in Canada, because it appears that the nation is at a point where radicals are everyday learning the thin veneer of our laws, jurisdictions and will to resist. Bad times they are a’comin!

  2. Even the now ToryStar is echoing the RW talking points now. I see it didn’t take too long for the new ownership to reflect the editorial stance. Canadian media is broken and it has failed to properly inform and serve the public, in favour of sensationalism and a constant, steady stream of “Trudeau bad” BS. I don’t sympathize with any of them for getting what they should have expected for carrying water for the face-eating leopards. They don’t like a certain hashtag #CdnMediaFailed and block everyone who uses it as a TruAnon, instead of doing proper introspection on why they are so distrusted. IDGAF anymore. They bought their tickets; they knew what they were getting into. I say, let ’em crash.

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