Roundup: Complacency versus the hard work of democracy

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Things are fraught in Ottawa, tempers are short. A lot of stuff that has been barely under the surface is blowing up. David Reevely has some thoughts about where we find ourselves, and why, and he’s pretty dead-on about it.

Grifter Occupation: Day 21

The combined police forces started handing out strongly-worded flyers yesterday warning of imminent action and arrests, as they began the box-ticking exercises before enforcement measures start rolling out—not that it seems to have deterred any. Most appear to be convinced that this is all hot air, or that the Emergencies Act is just a scare tactic, but that being said, it’s not like the police have followed up on any threats to date, so why wouldn’t these occupiers be lulled into a false sense of security?

Newly leaked data shows that about 60 percent of donors to the “Adopt-a-Trucker” page were Canadian. As for accessing those donations, banks in Canada say that they’re working to implement the measures in the Emergencies Act, while there are concerns about using those measures as it relates to cryptocurrency because of the difficulty in regulating it.

Here is a look at the religiosity that permeates the occupier crowd. And because things won’t stop getting weirder, the conspiracy theorist pillow guy from the US had a truck full of pillows he was trying to send to the occupied zone, but was stopped at the border because of a lack of vaccination or approved pre-arrival testing. Because we’re being fully colonised into America’s ridiculous culture war.

Good reads:

  • Debate on the Emergency Act measures begins today in the House of Commons. The Conservatives won’t support it, nor will the Bloc.
  • January inflation reached 5.1 percent, largely on gasoline and food prices, both of which have little ability to be influenced by the federal government.
  • The blockade at Emerson, Manitoba, broke up with no arrests being made as they left peacefully, and regardless of the premier’s contradictory demands.
  • Pablo Rodriguez says that Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime all need to do more to contribute to Canadian culture.
  • There was an epic meltdown at Ottawa City Council over the Police Services Board, and its independence has been compromised as the mayor put his cronies on it.
  • Jason Kenney and Scott Moe joined with sixteen Republican governors to call for an end to vaccine mandates at the border. (Capitulate more! That will solve things!)
  • Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column looks at what can be raised during the debate on the emergency orders.
  • John Michael McGrath shines a light on the echoing silence coming out of Queen’s Park about doing anything about the occupation in Ottawa.
  • Robert Hiltz tears a strip off of Doug Ford for completely giving up on protecting people from the pandemic, because he’s too concerned about hurt feelings.
  • Heather Scoffield makes the (obvious) point that the Emergencies Act won’t solve the bigger problems around dark money and populist anger.
  • Colby Cosh has his own concerns about the imposition of the Emergencies Act.

Odds and ends:

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3 thoughts on “Roundup: Complacency versus the hard work of democracy”

  1. Many Canadians, it seems have decided that they don’t want to be regulated, they believe that they are having their freedoms stripped away by governments. especially the federal jurisdiction and they grasp onto “facts” that suit them. Yet, these very things will take place in an authoritarian regime and if the populists aren’t careful, they will find a land enslaved and barren of commonsense. What we are seeing today is rampant ignorance about how our society works, a lack of informed second thought and sadly, an unwillingness to look under the headlines. This state of affairs is what is boiling in the divided disunited States of America and must be ameliorated quickly. There seems to be reticence for our leaders to discuss issues of national importance rationally without personal political agendas. Canada must demand better because if we continue to travel this fraught path we will fail. The time to stop lying to ourselves is now. Our future together on this planet is at stake. The planet’s resources will virtually run out within three decades. Our ways of society must change well before that date. We have to lose our stupidity. If any one thinks otherwise, then just look. It is right there before our eyes. I hope that the current events will teach us.

  2. I just can’t believe the state of politics, even in Canada, has sunk so low that conservatives would willingly support (or run mealy-mouthed, both-sides interference for) a *terrorist insurrection that could leave children dead* to score political dunks on a prime minister they don’t like for immature personal reasons. Let’s face it, Trudeau derangement syndrome isn’t about policy and never was. It’s about petty personal jealousy. The hatred for this man runs so deep through the conservative movement, that its members and adherents would burn the country down if they thought it would cost him a couple of points in the polls.

    Wow.

  3. As far as David Reevely being “dead on”. He’s saying there’s a bunch of “charlatans” in elected office. Is that what you think is “dead on”? Not just one or two, they’re “in command of whole legislatures and parliaments”! Why would I ever vote if I believed such a sweeping statement.

    I like what this “expert” said, if only because she’s allowing for the state of not being able to know everything: “When asked about the preparedness of the various levels of government that are now involved with these protests,[Nomi Claire] Lazar said “political scientists and the public, to an extent, are using concepts and categories that may no longer be helpful to understand what’s going on. This is a different kind of protest, it doesn’t reflect the kind of cleavages that we’re used to. The types of cleavages and concepts that we have brought to bear to understand politics aren’t doing the job anymore, and for that reason, I think we were not prepared,” she said. “Nobody fully understood what it was that was happening until maybe a week in.” (Hill Times)

    Reevely is borrowing heavily from Barack Obama, by the way.

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