Courtney Theriault @cspotweet:
A reminder that the trucker protest went to Ottawa to remove Justin Trudeau as leader but instead it’s Erin O’Toole who met with the truckers who has now been removed.
Here’s what it comes down to. Say you attend a protest organized by white supremacists & you didn’t realize. You can do one of two things:
1- leave because you know supporting such ideologies is morally wrong or
2- pushback & speak up
If you did neither, then you are complicit.
Statement: Downtown Protest’s Impact on Cornerstone’s Emergency Women’s Shelter by Cornerstone Housing for Women, Feb 2, 2022
February 2, 2022 – Ottawa, ON – – These last six days have been extremely stressful for people experiencing homelessness and frontline staff working to support them in the downtown core.
Cornerstone’s emergency shelter just returned to its downtown location a few weeks ago and is still getting situated and now, we’re having to manage through this protest that is creating more barriers and retraumatizing women in the city. The residents and staff in Ottawa’s women’s shelter are exhausted. This protest is having consequences on the rights and wellness of the city’s most vulnerable people.
Women and staff are scared to go outside of the shelter, especially women of color, being able to go outside is the only reprieve many women experiencing homelessness have and they cannot even do that. The incessant honking and noise from the trucks have caused significant anxiety and distress for staff and shelter residents. Women have admitted themselves into hospital due to the increased trauma from the noise and fear. All Shelters are having to figure out alternative plans for client transportation to any other program or hospitals in the city.
This past weekend Cornerstones operations moved to a crisis response far beyond the impacts of the Pandemic. Senior Managers working the frontlines to ensure staff and women are safe traveling to and from our shelter and residences. Supporting staff and shelter residents while they shake with fear waiting for a bus that never arrives.
Despite all this, we are living amongst the uncertainty of not knowing when this will end. After the past two years of battling through this unprecedented global pandemic, the toxic opioid epidemic, everyone is completely exhausted and cannot take one more day of this protest’s added stresses.
The cost of this protest to our city for 3 days would fund our women’s emergency shelter for more than an entire year, and yet this protest has cost us financial hardship. Frontline staff and healthcare workers have come to work every day for nearly two years, managing through this pandemic to provide safe, supportive services and communities to people in Ottawa who have no place to call home, and now they’re having heightened fear and anxiety around coming into work over these past few days in the midst of a global pandemic. Our shelter system cannot take one more day of the consistent noise and fear.
Housing and Healthcare support is desperately needed, and this protest is only going to further our housing and homelessness crisis. We must get our city back. Download Statement
For more information please contact:
Amber Bramer
Resource Development Manager
Cornerstone Housing for Women
613-878-3393
email hidden; JavaScript is required
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Nigel Banks (Alberta lawyer): Go to twitter link above to see the (L) and (R) photos
Fairy Creek civil disobedience protesters arrested: more than a thousand.
Coutts road warriors: zero.
We need to change this narrative.
It’s obvious, but Fairy Creek civil disobedience (L), Coutts road warriors (R). Equality before the law?
And and again: Coutts (R) and Wet’suwet’en land protectors (L). Equality before the law?
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Believe it or not, Randy Hillier is an MPP in Ontario:
J C@JC5health Replying to @RodKahx:
I would think so but seems the rules have been flushed down the toilet fast!!!
How does Randy Hillier (the Ontario MPP) still have an account on any social platform?
Easy, he’s a racist old white man. PS. A week of idling 60+ diesel trucks (diesel contains benzene and other toxics) 24/7 might render the terrorists and their sons they brought with them sterile.
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Anti-terror Legislation in Canada
Definitions
Terrorism: In Canada, section 83.01 of the Criminal Code defines terrorism as an act committed “in whole or in part for a political, religious or ideological purpose, objective or cause” with the intention of intimidating the public “…with regard to its security, including its economic security, or compelling a person, a government or a domestic or an international organization to do or to refrain from doing any act.”
…
The Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act
The Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act (JVTA)—and related amendments to the State Immunity Act— allows victims of terrorism to sue perpetrators of terrorism and those that support them, including listed foreign states, for loss or damage that occurred as a result of an act of terrorism committed anywhere in the world. It received Royal Assent March 13, 2012.
The Act complements Canada’s existing counter-terrorism measures, including the deterrence of terrorism, and is aimed at responding to the unique concerns of victims of terrorism while demonstrating Canada’s leadership against those who support terrorism around the world.
The Act allows:
- victims of terrorism to sue the perpetrators of terrorism and those that support them in a Canadian court, including foreign states listed by the Government. Victims can seek redress for terrorist acts committed anywhere in the world from January 1, 1985 onwards;
- victims of terrorism to sue the perpetrators of terrorism and those that support them if the victims are Canadian citizens or permanent residents, or if they can demonstrate a real and substantial connection between their claim and Canada; and
- for the suspension of statutory limitation periods. In other words, victims are not penalized if they were incapable of commencing an action within the normal limitation period because of physical, mental or psychological conditions, or when the victims were unable to ascertain the identity of the perpetrator of the act or those that supported them. …
UCP denies reports of rural caucus negotiating with blockade protesters after lanes opened in ‘good faith’, But UCP caucus chair says some Alberta restrictions likely to be lifted ‘within days’ by Hannah Kost, CBC News, Feb 02, 2022
The United Conservative Party is denying reports that its rural caucus has negotiated an agreement to temporarily end a protest blockade at a border crossing in Alberta, in exchange for discussions on lifting COVID-19 health restrictions.
“Reports have surfaced that the United Conservative rural caucus has negotiated an agreement to temporarily end the Coutts blockade pending the outcome of a rural caucus meeting to discuss the immediate lifting of the Restrictions Exemption Program (REP),” UCP caucus chair Nathan Neudorf said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
“No such agreement has been authorized and the meeting is not to discuss lifting the REP. As the Premier has stated, Alberta will begin lifting restrictions very soon, likely within days, starting with the REP.”
The statement comes after reports of a potential breakthrough that aimed to resolve the blockade that has snarled cross-border traffic at the main U.S.-Canada border crossing in Coutts, Alta, since Saturday.
Chad Williamson, a lawyer representing truckers blocking access to the crossing, said earlier on Wednesday they had spoken with RCMP and agreed to open a lane of the highway in each direction.
Trucks and other vehicles began clearing paths.
WATCH | Potential breakthrough as truckers partially open highway:
Truckers partially open highway at blockade in Coutts, Alta.
4 hours agoDuration 1:20After days of impeding travel at the U.S.-Canada border in southern Alberta, protesting truckers have allowed one lane of traffic in each direction to move through the blockade. 1:20
“The truckers finally feel like their message has been heard,” Williamson said.
“In a tremendous show of good faith, they are reopening one lane each way to provide unimpeded access through the town of Coutts and across the border in both ways.
“That doesn’t mean the protest is over, but it signals what we hope to be ongoing cordial efforts to address the concerns of the people who have been involved in the movement down here in Coutts.”
RCMP Cpl. Curtis Peters said the protesters removed vehicles from one lane in each direction, northbound and southbound, but added it may be temporary and police continue to monitor.
In a statement issued shortly after 5:30 p.m., RCMP said the move allowed area residents to move freely and would enable emergency services to provide full services. The RCMP said border access and the flow of goods and services would also resume.
“The Alberta RCMP remain on scene and our efforts continue to be focused on fully reopening services,” reads the statement.
Protester says they are hoping for negotiations
The demonstration is tied to an ongoing, nationwide protest over federal rules for unvaccinated or partially vaccinated truckers entering Canada from the U.S. The rules took effect Jan. 15.
The United States implemented a similar mandate on Jan. 22 requiring that all U.S.-bound travellers — including truckers — show proof they’ve had the required shots.
The tie-up has stranded travellers and cross-border truckers for days, compromising millions of dollars in trade and impeding access to basic goods and medical services for area residents.
Earlier on Wednesday afternoon, and before the release of Neudorf’s statement, a protester told CBC News that the lanes were cleared after blockade participants were told that there will be attempted negotiations involving MLAs to loosen COVID-19 public health restrictions.
“I don’t know all the details exactly, but from my understanding … if they don’t get what they want, they’re gonna block it off again. If they drop all the mandates, then they’ll continue to negotiate,” the protester said.
Reprieve comes after Tuesday violence at Coutts
Police tried to peacefully break up the demonstration Tuesday, only to see others breach a nearby police barricade and join the blockade. Later, a head-on collision occurred, resulting in an assault, police said.
No arrests were made but Peters said they intend to “restore the movement of goods and vehicles on the road, but not at the risk of public safety.”
“Obviously enforcement is not the way that anyone wanted this to go,” Williamson said.
Premier Jason Kenney called on protesters to end their demonstration on Tuesday.
“This kind of conduct is totally unacceptable,” Kenney said during a news conference in Edmonton. “Without hesitation, I condemn those actions and I call for calm.”
Meanwhile, other rumoured blockades around southern Alberta largely failed to materialize by Tuesday afternoon.
However, trucks and tractors were reportedly parked and creating obstacles for drivers on Highway 2 near Fort MacLeod, about two hundred kilometres south of Calgary, around 2:30 p.m.
With files from Erin Collins and The Canadian Press
Potential breakthrough in Alberta border blockade as protesters open lanes in ‘good faith’, Trucks and other vehicles have begun clearing two lanes — one going north and one going south by The Canadian Press, Feb 02, 2022, CBC News Anti-public health terrorists dictating public health policies
There has been a potential breakthrough aimed at resolving the impasse in a protest blockade that has snarled cross-border traffic at the main United States border crossing in southern Alberta.
Chad Williamson, a lawyer representing truckers blocking access to the crossing at Coutts, Alta., says they have spoken with RCMP and agreed to open a lane of the highway in each direction.
Trucks and other vehicles have begun clearing paths.
“The truckers finally feel like their message has been heard,” Williamson said Wednesday.
“In a tremendous show of good faith, they are reopening one lane each way to provide unimpeded access through the town of Coutts and across the border in both ways.
“That doesn’t mean the protest is over, but it signals what we hope to be ongoing cordial efforts to address the concerns of the people who have been involved in the movement down here in Coutts.”
Protestor says they are hoping for negotiations
The demonstration started on Saturday, and is tied to an ongoing, nationwide protest over federal rules for unvaccinated or partially vaccinated truckers entering Canada from the U.S. The rules took effect Jan. 15.
The United States implemented a similar mandate on Jan. 22 requiring that all U.S.-bound travellers — including truckers — show proof they’ve had the required shots.
The tie-up has stranded travellers and cross-border truckers for days, compromising millions of dollars in trade and impeding access to basic goods and medical services for area residents.
A protester told CBC News that the lanes were cleared after blockade participants were told that there will be attempted negotiations involving MLAs to loosen COVID-19 public health restrictions on Wednesday afternoon.
“I don’t know all the details exactly, but from my understanding … if they don’t get what they want, they’re gonna block it off again. If they drop all the mandates, then they’ll continue to negotiate,” the protester said.
Police tried to peacefully break up the demonstration Tuesday, only to see others breach a nearby police barricade and join the blockade. Later, a head-on collision occurred, resulting in an assault, police said.
No arrests were made but the RCMP’s Cpl. Curtis Peters said they intend to “restore the movement of goods and vehicles on the road, but not at the risk of public safety.”
“Obviously enforcement is not the way that anyone wanted this to go,” Williamson said.
Premier Jason Kenney called on protesters to end their demonstration on Tuesday.
“This kind of conduct is totally unacceptable,” Kenney said during a news conference in Edmonton. “Without hesitation, I condemn those actions and I call for calm.”
RCMP declined to comment on the lanes reopening.
With files from Erin Collins and CBC News
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Struggling to express the depths of my disgust with the weak capitulating cowards in government who are about to eliminate public health restrictions at a time where hospitalizations are at an all-time high and kids are so close to accessing a vaccine.
The “learn to live with COVID” rhetoric coming from some MDs, politicians & CMOH ignores the fact that permitting high transmission of SARS-CoV2 just produced a hugely divergent variant (Omicron) which collapsed healthcare systems. The cognitive dissonance is stunning.
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Omicron is incredibly contagious, including outside. How many will get long COVID, brain or other damage (including weakening the immune system) or die because of the masses of people, inside and out, maskless, screaming, yelling, singing, spitting, shitting & pissing for days – in a pandemic? Organizers raised – so far – over $10 million dollars but neglected to bring in portapotties.