Tag Archives: Canadian Truckers

Trudeau Taught The Truckers A Lesson They Will Never Forget

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Trudeau may have revoked the Emergencies Act this week, under local and international pressure, but only after all the damage was done in his “crackdown” on truckers. Below is an article, in full, from this website, describing what the truckers face now: Nearly 40 Trucking Businesses Involved in Canada’s Freedom Convoy Protests Have Been Shut Down. The truckers have been vilified in the news in Canada and particularly by our Prime Minister. Prime Minister Trudeau has done everything he could to tarnish their name and to malign their motives. It is truly shameful. In Canada we feel we no longer have a democracy due to the draconian measures Trudeau has taken against the Freedom Convoy of truckers. Their big ask? To be able to work and freely cross the border. What did they get? Permanent shut-down. I have no words.

By Katabella Roberts

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) confirmed that it shut down nearly 40 businesses during its crackdown on Freedom Convoy protesters opposing COVID-19 mandates and restrictions.

In an email to Global News on Feb. 23, Dakota Brasier, a spokesperson for Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney, said the ministry had issued 12 seizure orders to Ontario-based large truck operators which suspended them from being allowed to operate within Canada.

The ministry also issued an order to seize all plates registered to them, Brasier said.

Outside of Ontario, the ministry also issued 27 seizure orders to out-of-province large truck operators, which stopped them from operating any commercial motor vehicles in Ontario, Brasier said.

The MTO would not reveal the name of the businesses that were issued with the seizure orders when asked to comment by Truck News.

“In an effort to preserve future police investigations into the illegal occupation in Ottawa, the ministry will not release the names of affected businesses at this time,” a ministry spokesperson told the publication when asked.

The Epoch Times has contacted an Ontario Ministry of Transportation spokesperson for comment.

The confirmation from MTO regarding businesses being shut down came just hours after Ontario Premier Doug Ford lifted the province’s state of emergency.

Ford declared the emergency on Feb. 11 to address the impact of the ongoing protests against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions by trucker conveys who arrived in Ottawa on Jan. 29.

However, Ford’s office said in a statement on Feb. 23 that the “emergency tools” provided to law enforcement would still remain in place for now, “as police continue to address ongoing activity on the ground.”

“We remain grateful to all front-line officers and first responders that contributed to peacefully resolving the situation in Ottawa, Windsor, and in other parts of the province,” the statement said.

Also on Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that he was revoking the use of the Emergencies Act, which he originally invoked on Feb. 14 to deal with the protests and blockades, stating that the situation is no longer an emergency.

Trudeau defended utilizing the act in the first place after he faced fierce criticism from opponents, including Canadian politician Mark Strahl, who claimed that the act had resulted in a single mom with a minimum wage job having her bank account frozen after donating $50 to the Freedom Convoy.

Invocation of the act granted the federal government powers to freeze protesters’ and supporters’ bank accounts without a court order.

GettyImages-1238211565-600x400 Nearly 40 Trucking Businesses Involved in Canada’s Freedom Convoy Protests Have Been Shut Down Business Featured Top Stories World [your]NEWS
Thousands gather around Parliament Hill in support of the Freedom Convoy truck protest in Ottawa on Feb. 5, 2022. (Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)

Trudeau said invoking the act initially was “the responsible and necessary thing to do” and that there was evidence that individuals wanted to “undermine and even harm Canada’s democracy.”

However, prior to the Emergencies Act being invoked, Ambassador Bridge, the busiest Canada-U.S. border crossing which transports products between the two countries, had already reopened.

Meanwhile, blockades at the border crossings in B.C. and Alberta had also ended shortly after Feb. 14, and the biggest protest still ongoing was in Ottawa, yet the government insisted it was still necessary to use the act because there was an ongoing threat that new protests or blockades might pop up again.

After Trudeau’s announcement, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said that it was reaching out to financial institutions to unfreeze accounts.

“As of February 21, 2022, the RCMP has gone back to financial institutions with some updated information about certain entities whose status may have changed pertaining to the illegal protest activity,” RCMP said in a statement.

“This new information can be assessed alongside all other information to help inform decisions to unfreeze certain accounts.”

In total, RCMP had frozen at least 206 accounts due to support of the Freedom Convoy, totaling $7.8 million, according to Isabelle Jacques, assistant deputy minister of finance.

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How Trudeau Turned Canadians Against Himself and Not the Truckers

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Images of trucks rolling across Canada with crowds lining the highways, waving Canadian flags, were signs of hope a few weeks ago. These truckers, our essential workers, for months on end hauled loads, risking their lives, in the face of a pandemic when no vaccine was in sight.

I live in Surrey, BC which is sometimes referred to as “Little India” because of the large East Indian representation. For about a year we saw people on street corners with signs, “No Farmers, No Food.” They were supporting a protest in India. Trudeau even got behind them with his support.

On January 15 Prime Minister Trudeau passed a federal mandate requiring truckers to be vaccinated or forced to quarantine. About 10% of truckers in Canada are not vaccinated. Within a week the U.S. imposed a similar mandate, pulling an estimated 16,000 truckers off the road.

Shortages and delays were noticed almost immediately. But the real issue was that this happened as a result of men and women losing their livelihood due to a needless government mandate. Omicron is spreading without any regard for who is vaccinated and who is unvaccinated.

A convoy of truckers began to travel to Canada’s capital, Ottawa, at the end of January to speak with Prime Minister Trudeau. Trudeau has a history of not speaking to truckers and he didn’t entertain the thought of listening to the truckers for the entire three weeks they parked their rigs in downtown Ottawa. He had three weeks to make peace with his people.

This protest was of Trudeau’s making.

And then the Prime Minister of Canada made things exponentially worse by calling in what is equivalent to the National Guard, seizing private personal information, freezing bank accounts of protestors and their supporters, and arresting unarmed people who were peacefully exercising their democratic rights.

The lesson for Canadians is that you cannot, as an ordinary citizen, expect your prime minister to listen and you will be penalized for supporting a legal protest even if it is entirely within your civil rights. Authorities will look the other way while protestors are kneed in the back, trampled by officers on horseback, sprayed with rubber bullets and tear gas, butted with military rifles, and harrassed in their place of business for assisting protesters. I’ve watched too many videos to count that were posted by ordinary citizens and my heart is broken.

It does not cease to amaze me how a peaceful protest can be villainized by the press. But with millions of annual support by the Trudeau liberal government, I suppose the journalists had no other option, unless they wanted to face a fate similar to that of the truckers. Just last week a local radio personality, Kid Carson, found his position terminated. This is what happens if you step beyond the accepted narrative.

Gone are the days of freedom of thought and speech. Gone are the days of freedom of the press.

Gone are the days of freedom of peaceful protest. It is difficult to imagine a more peaceful protest than that of the truckers’ Freedom Convoy in Ottawa.

Trudeau has discredited himself on the world stage and lost the confidence of the Canadian people.

Why Pierre Poilievre Shouldn’t Run for Conservative Party Leader

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There is a Facebook page devoted to Pierre Poilievre and people on it are putting a great deal of pressure on him to become the leaders of the Conservative Party of Canada. This week the current leader, Erin O’Toole, was ousted for his weak support of the Freedom Convoy of truckers in Canada, at least that looks like the most apparent reason. He has also waffled on other Conservative positions, particularly during the election campaign, last September, when the Conservative party was defeated by the Liberal Party who gained a second minority government.

From a personal standpoint, I can think of a number of reasons why Poilievre should not become Conservative Party leader. I understand that he is probably the MP who has spoken most eloquently and voiced the most coherent arguments in parliament in opposition to the Liberal Party. He has a very good grasp of history, current affairs and government. Here are a few recent videos of Poilievre, to give an idea for those who may not be familiar with him. They do not represent….  The authoritarian left…. and Canadians are uniting…

However, here are the reasons why I do not think he should run for the leadership of the party, although I think he could potentially win the leadership race, handsomely.

From my observation, I think he has what it takes. He understands what needs to happen, has the ability to communicate this to the public as well as the will to see it happen. You ask, then why not?

Take the interview with Aaron Gunn. If he were Prime Minister he would not be able to do these kinds of informative interviews. He would have to take a combative or defensive stance as part of political posturing. Right now he is educating people about what is happening in government and in Canada. By becoming Prime Minister (of course I’m assuming he could win a Federal election) he would be elevated to another plane with very different expectations. His behaviour would change. There is no guaranteeing that the people who support him now would follow through if he was elected.

The fact is that the public needs time to adjust to change. People might not agree with the changes he proposes if they were suddenly implemented. Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper is an example of someone who had a great deal of foresight and implemented many positive changes but one of the things he was faulted for was for not taking the time to bring the people along with him.

The point is that large scale change needs to happen in the hearts of the people, first, otherwise they will just vote out the leader. Poilievre is doing this essential work of informing and bringing insight. And he is doing it without becoming the target as he would if he was Prime Minister.

It takes an incredible amount of time and energy to acquire a grasp of the myriad of concerns facing a country and then to articulate them with a far-reaching influence. Right now Poilievre is not hindered by the distractions of being leader of a party and can give interviews to people like Aaron Gunn. As a party leader he would not have the luxury of focus.

There is also the obvious fact that he would be a tremendous support to a good leader. Leaders need a team of powerful, capable, intelligent and articulate men and women behind them.

At the present Poilievre may be the one who is “preparing the way” for the next leader. Until he thinks he is ready, which doesn’t appear to be the case, I would side with him and continue to endorse what he appears to be doing very well–spreading a vital message and touching the hearts of the Canadian people.

I do not rule out the possibility that Poilievre could choose to embrace a broader leadership role, representing the Canadian people, in the future. Before that happens we may need to lay a new foundation for our country, one that involves recognizing the kind of leaders who have the interests of Canadians at heart. In the meantime, let’s not minimize the impact of his current role.

Neil Young — Much Ado About Nothing

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As a Canadian, who just witnessed the historic Canadian Truckers Freedom Convoy travel from coast to coast across Canada to convene in our great capital, Ottawa, for a peaceful demonstration on Saturday, January 29, to protest vaccine mandates imposed this month on truckers by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, I find myself perhaps a little more surprised than I might usually be by the actions of two Canadian musicians—Neil Young and Joni Mitchel—who  took it upon themselves, this week, to give an ultimatum to Spotify regarding vaccine “misinformation.”

On Tuesday I came across the Global News headline, Neil Young threatens to pull music from Spotify over Joe Rogan vaccine ‘disinformation.’ Not much later it was followed by the CTV News headline, Spotify pulling down Neil Young’s music collection. I waited and the plot thickened as CTV News reported the next day, Joni Mitchell removing music from Spotify in solidarity with Neil Young.

“I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines….” —Neil Young professed.

I think this can only be understood in the context of the original article’s statement that “a group of 270 scientists and medical professionals previously shared an open letter with the platform on New Year’s Eve.”

Young has removed the open letter he penned on his personal site and this is unfortunate because I really wanted to get a closer look at the letter. As a matter of fact, I thought I read the letter on a news site which no longer has it either and to me the wording sounded suspiciously familiar. If somebody put Neil Young up to this, that didn’t go over so well. By no means do I think we have seen the end of this little skirmish. Not at all.

But it really is about nothing. I mean with all the money spent on advertising and the procurement of vaccines, and all the effort already put into stamping out “misinformation” I can hardly imagine that some talk show host could be a threat to the vaccine effort. With between 80-90% of adults already vaccinated and health officials telling us that everybody—vaccinated and unvaccinated—will get the Omicron variant and we should think of it as the flu and go back to work in five days, how can this “misinformation” be any kind of a threat?

Sometimes timing is everything. Just like Prime Minister Trudeau’s timing of slapping a vaccine mandate on truckers and potentially taking 16,000 Canadian truckers off the road—drivers who made sure we had food in our grocery isles during two years of a pandemic—comes at a very bad time, I think the open letter to Spotify comes at the wrong time as well. Because this virus is going to have its way, without any regard for mandates or vaccination status. It’s much ado about nothing. And it’s not very friendly.