Financing terrorists - and these "truckers" were nothing else, which led to the declaration of the emergency state, a legally defined mechanism! - will lead to issues no matter if it's al-quaeda or y'all-quaeda.
The donors should be happy all they got was a temporary freeze on their bank accounts. Had it been Islamist terror they had donated to, the accounts would have been terminated and criminal charges levied.
I am curious if you generally feel comfortable with the government being able to retroactively define something as "terrorism" when it does not conform with your general political views. Personally I think this is a terrible idea whether or not I agree with the people being targeted.
>I am curious if you generally feel comfortable with the government being able to retroactively define something as "terrorism" when it does not conform with your general political views. Personally I think this is a terrible idea whether or not I agree with the people being targeted.
There's a hilarious video from our parliament.
Andrew Scheer(former conservative leader, former opposition leader) was talking.
Elizabeth May(former green party leader) got up and started accusing him of 'dogwhistles to nazis' blah blah.
Andrew Scheer stands up with the biggest smile.
He points out Elizabeth May has been arrested and convicted of an illegal blockade while being green party leader. That the precedent set will mean that the green party donaters will have their bank accounts seized as well as her own.
The irony, it's only matter of time that conservatives take government back and very well can do this now.
On twitter a ton of greenpeace and antifa people freaked out at this new precedent.
"What if I donate to greenpeace. Some point later they have a protest that goes sideways. My bank account gets seized?"
It sounds the argument being made here is that this was a dangerous precedent being made that can be abused by political parties against their political opponents. This seems to be presented by you with apparent glee as a conservative vs green party/greenpeace/"antifa" or liberal issue. What you'll actually find is that broader society is just intolerant of the economic duress and disruptions caused by such protests.
Up to a quarter of Canadian-US trade was going through that area, and real people were suffering due to the trucker blockade. These economic disruptions had secondary effects that impact the lingering impacts of the pandemic and exacerbated supply chain issues.
There is not a whit of moral equivalency between climate change protests and some truckers afraid of a needle.
>It sounds the argument being made here is that this was a dangerous precedent being made that can be abused by political parties against their political opponents.
Because it was the current government abusing the act to use against their political opponents. Do you agree or disagee with this?
>This seems to be presented by you with apparent glee as a conservative vs green party/greenpeace/"antifa" or liberal issue.
If Canada is a free country and we do have fair and free elections. Inevitably the conservatives form government again. Andrew Scheer almost was prime minister.
I guess the glee comes from the above question. If you disagree and that the current government did not abuse the act to crush a peaceful protest. I will immediately agree with you and accept the precedent that this future conservative government gets to crush all dissenting political protests.
The glee you detect isn't glee. I very much disagree with this precedent. The government should NEVER be able to stop a peaceful protest. The glee is how absolutely tyrannical Trudeau acted.
>What you'll actually find is that broader society is just intolerant of the economic duress and disruptions caused by such protests.
Well first of all, this 'broader society' needs citation. The only people who suggest the majority of canadians agree with the use of the emergency act are the same media who called the protests a bunch of nazis. I dont accept state propaganda as facts sorry.
Also what economic duress and disruption? By the government's own admission in their required justification of the emergency act there was no blockades. The emergency act was used entirely and solely as part of the Ottawa protest. Blocking a few blocks in front of parliament. There is no economic duress here at all.
>Up to a quarter of Canadian-US trade was going through that area, and real people were suffering due to the trucker blockade. These economic disruptions had secondary effects that impact the lingering impacts of the pandemic and exacerbated supply chain issues.
1/4 of usa trade goes through downtown ottawa for no damned reason? Can you prove that in any way please?
Or do you mean the detroit bridge blockade? Not only was there 1 lane open, the detroit tunnel was completely unblockaded. Sarnia's bluewater bridge was not blockaded. Niagara falls, not blockaded. And cherry on top... the ambassador bridge dissolved BEFORE they even mentioned talking about the emergency act.
No, I dont expect you are trying to use a non-existent blockade as justification for national emergency. The only place the emergency act was used was in ottawa. Surely you are arguing 1/4 of usa trades has to drive in front of parliament?
>There is not a whit of moral equivalency between climate change protests and some truckers afraid of a needle.
If you say so. I do believe I get to decide upon my own moral decisions.
Here's really what's happened. Trudeau was misinformed greatly by the canadian media. He crushed the legitimate protest because he misunderstood why the canadian media called for the denazification of the protest. Trudeau absolutely acted tyrannically and has not fixed the situation.
The precedent is set, conservatives do NOT have the right to protest right now. All of the original reasons for the original protest still stand AND they've added new vaccine mandates making the reason for protesting to increase.
Without the right to peaceful protest.. it means other protest will now be required.
If conservatives want to lead an armed insurrection in Canada over "vaccine mandates" (reactionaries are so good at controlling the discourse with the words they force) they should go for it. Something tells me the consequence will be larger than not being able to swipe your plastic at the gas station.
Funny it took white people getting their bank accounts frozen for there to be noise that the government has too much power and wields it against citizens with impunity. Wonder how Trudeau's government treats the First Nations? Oh that's right, running oil pipelines through their land.
Only a certain demographic has had freedom of protest in Canada. Have you ever been water cannoned for defending your home and the groundwater of your community? But sure, conservatives are the new precedent about not being able to protest. No demographic has been harmed in Canada as deeply or egregiously as the conservatives who live underground now and trade in scrip
>If conservatives want to lead an armed insurrection in Canada over "vaccine mandates" (reactionaries are so good at controlling the discourse with the words they force) they should go for it. Something tells me the consequence will be larger than not being able to swipe your plastic at the gas station.
If you analyze protests lately like the 'mostly peaceful' burning riots of BLM etc. Which as a quick aside, BLM is fully justified in their protest.Police brutality and clear systemic racism is objectively true.
Compare that to the over the top peaceful protest in Ottawa. Which was intentionally that way. The protest policed itself to not give the media this. The media has been smearing conservatives for so long.
But more importantly, and clearly you went right to armed insurrection. Who said this was an insurrection. Notice also how January 6 went from insurrection to less than a riot. It's not even a riot, it's just an 'attack' now. Trudeau urgently wanted it to turn into an insurrection... the false allegation and propaganda was that the protest was looking to overthrow the government. Which isn't true at all. They sat outside in -20c on the road and NEVER insurrected or even tried to overthrow anything.
This just goes to prove how wrong all of this still is. Conservatives still do not have the right to protest.
>Funny it took white people getting their bank accounts frozen for there to be noise that the government has too much power and wields it against citizens with impunity. Wonder how Trudeau's government treats the First Nations? Oh that's right, running oil pipelines through their land.
>Only a certain demographic has had freedom of protest in Canada.
Why do you think Trudeau hates racial minorities so much? Vaccine mandates disproportionately harm racial minorities especially black and indigenous canadians.
>Have you ever been water cannoned for defending your home and the groundwater of your community? But sure, conservatives are the new precedent about not being able to protest. No demographic has been harmed in Canada as deeply or egregiously as the conservatives who live underground now and trade in scrip
It almost reads like you read conservative = white people. How very incorrect.
> “I would be remiss if I didn’t start by recognising the news coming from India about the protest by farmers. The situation is concerning. We are all very worried about family and friends. We know that’s a reality for many of you. Let me remind you, Canada will always be there to defend the rights of peaceful protesters. We believe in the process of dialogue. We’ve reached out through multiple means to the Indian authorities to highlight our concerns. This is a moment for all of us to pull together,” Trudeau had said in November 2021.
Those were in fact not peaceful
> 1 journalist killed. One person lynched for alleged desecration. Over 1,500 telecom tower sites damaged by protestors (as of 28 Dec). Government buses and 30 police vehicles damaged on Republic Day.
Race plays a role in vaccination. Black and Indigenous Canadians are only around 50% vaccinated. Indian/Punjabis are somewhere around 70%. An awful lot of truckers are Indian. Especially from Quebec.
One of the original key issues that sparked this protest is the action by Trudeau to ban unvaccinated truckers and put them out of a job. This disproportionately harmed racial minorities including Indians.
The comparison or hypocrisy is that he supported the indian farmers but called the punjabi truckers a bunch of racists. It blows my mind.
Canadian truckers were > 90% vaccinated at the time of the "Trucker" Tantrum. There were very few Southeast Asians in evidence among the tantrum throwers.
They were majority white (mostly because the Southeast Asian truckers in Canada are mostly vaccinated and were quite busy because the people throwing the tantrum weren’t actually working because they refused to get vaccinated).
This is whataboutery. At the very least the truckers were an extremely unpleasant and potentially dangerous nuisance for everyone in the vicinity.
At worst were literally attempting regime change. They were also largely funded by the US far right, which has obvious links to Russia. In fact Russian propoganda was encouraging similar actions in the US and the EU.
So of course they were defunded.
It's always amusing to see libertarians complaining that a government shoots first - financially in this case, and only after a long delay - and asks questions later, when they're typically the people claiming loudly that far more extreme forms of violence are always legitimate in personal self-defence.
Just as with Jan 6, most of these people should have been jailed and those from the US should have been banned from entering Canada again.
Never mind the political angle, the nuisance and intimidation were more than enough to justify that.
I agree that the truckers were super disruptive. I’m glad some punitive action was taken.
But freezing the bank accounts of people who donated to them without due process is beyond the pail. Given that cash is mostly dead as a result of covid, banking needs to be considered a basic right. It shouldn’t be able to be revoked simply because the government doesn’t like what you do with your money.
Claim made not in evidence. Legally frozen were the recipient accounts. Yes, contributors could have had their accounts frozen, but no evidence that the government ordered such an action on any donor.
You sound severely self-centric and antisocial. Protests are a movement, and the noise they make are the extended arm that you are to grab and hop onto.
>It's always amusing to see libertarians complaining that a government shoots first - financially in this case, and only after a long delay - and asks questions later, when they're typically the people claiming loudly that far more extreme forms of violence are always legitimate in personal self-defence.
do you regularly see libertarians advocating for shooting the friends & family of an attacker, in your own words, "after a long delay"? this is a very poor comparison.
The donors should be happy all they got was a temporary freeze on their bank accounts. Had it been Islamist terror they had donated to, the accounts would have been terminated and criminal charges levied.