WHAT ABOUT THE CANADA FREEDOM CONVOY'S SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS?

The Canadian SCOTUS shall hear of this outrage!

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked Canada's Emergencies Act to allow the national government temporary emergency powers to bring an end to wingnut truckers' blockades of border stations. Trudeau said it was necessary for the federal government to act:

"It is now clear that there are serious challenges to law enforcement's ability to effectively enforce the law," Trudeau told a news conference Monday afternoon.

"It is no longer a lawful protest at a disagreement over government policy. It is now an illegal occupation. It's time for people to go home."

The truckers and hangers-on have blocked traffic at major border crossings, caused hundreds of millions of dollars of economic disruption, snarled traffic in Ottawa, harassed residents for wearing masks and for not being white, constantly blown their big damn truck horns in neighborhoods, and called for an end to all anti-COVID health measures and for Trudeau's resignation. The disorder has been loudly supported — rhetorically and financially — by US rightwingers, who wish America could please have similar chaos too.

We should note that in saying it's time for this idiocy to end, Trudeau didn't even call the occupiers "patriots" or say that he loved them very much. How divisive!

What's All This Emergencies Act, Then, Eh?

 The CBC reports the Emergencies Act will give police enhanced powers to break up public gatherings — like blockades or occupations of streets — that are deemed to be illegal or dangerous, and will also allow the federal RCMP to enforce municipal or provincial law, if needed.

The government is also designating and securing critical areas such as border crossings and airports. Invoking the act will also allow the government to make sure that essential services — such as towing services to remove trucks — are rendered, said Trudeau.

The emergency declaration also will allow the government to crack down on funding for the blockades, as the CBC explains:  

Convoy organizers have raised millions of dollars. They raised money first through the GoFundMe crowdfunding site. When GoFundMe shut the fundraising campaign down, organizers pivoted to the Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said that under the Emergencies Act, crowdfunding platforms and the payment service providers they use must register with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), the national financial intelligence agency. They must also report large and suspicious transactions to FINTRAC.

Freeland said that regular criminal statutes limited the government's ability to go after crowdfunding platforms that were funding the blockades, which have been declared illegal:

We are making these changes because we know that these platforms are being used to support illegal blockades and illegal activity which is damaging the Canadian economy.

The enhanced government powers under Trudeau's declaration are limited; Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms still applies, and the emergency declaration expires after seven days unless the government gets approval from Canada's parliament. If either house votes against it, the declaration would be revoked.

New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh said yesterday that his party will support Trudeau's Liberal Party in the vote in Parliament, which should ensure passage, although Singh also said the declaration was "proof of a failure of leadership" on Trudeau's part:

"The reason why we got to this point is because the prime minister let the siege in Ottawa go on for weeks and weeks without actually doing anything about it, allowed the convoy to shut down borders without responding appropriately," he said.

Fact Check: Not Wrong, for sure.

Also too, various members of the Conservative Party whined about how public health measures were divisive and mean and if Trudeau really cared he'd end pandemic restrictions and let Canadians freely infect each other for freedom. Yes we are paraphrasing.

 Depending on how you count , this is either the first time the emergency law has been used, or the fourth, since in the 1980s the current law replaced an older law, the "War Measures Act," that was used during both world wars and during a 1970 kidnapping in which Quebec separatists held two hostages. (That may or not be on the quiz later, kids.) That 1970 use of the earlier law was invoked by Trudeau's father, then-PM Pierre Trudeau.

Mean Police Seize Peaceful Protesters' Guns, Won't Let Peaceful Protesters Ram Cops

The RCMP seized a cache of arms, ammunition, and insurrection accessories and arrested 12 people near the blockade of the Coutts border crossing between Alberta and Montana yesterday. Alberta RCMP Superintendent Robert McKale said the armed group had apparently embedded itself within the larger bunch of blockaders a few days after the blockade started.

There was a heavy stash of weapons and these weapons were brought by people who had the intent on causing harm. And there are also people here who are here to protest and very likely didn’t know what was going on,” McKale said.

Ah, but were they also very fine people? The weapons seized from the peaceful protesters included 13 long guns, handguns, several sets of body armor, a machete (for getting through the dense Alberta jungle, no doubt), a bunch of high capacity magazines, and "thousands" of rounds of ammunition. Eleven people were arrested at the scene, and a twelfth was arrested in a traffic stop shortly after.

The investigation is ongoing, although no charges have yet been filed.

Also, there have been two incidents near the Coutts blockade where peaceful protesters attempted to use vehicles to slam into police , for Liberty.

Sunday night, a huge farm tractor and a semi-truck (sans trailer) attempted to ram a police vehicle. The police officer was able to swerve out of their way, fortunately:

Police followed the suspects to an area where protesters were gathered. The driver of the tractor was identified and police are working to locate him so he can be taken into custody. The tractor and semi were both seized by the RCMP.

The RCMP said this is an example of “the militant mindset” of a small group of the protesters.

Then on Monday afternoon, yet another peaceful protester aimed a semi at police, this time at a checkpoint about 13 miles (2,200,000 centimeters) north of the border crossing:

[Around] 12: 45 p.m., police said a semi-truck driving north toward the Milk River RCMP check stop accelerated and drove toward police members.

“The driver swerved at the last moment and hit some traffic cones which were on the roadway,” a release said.

The driver was arrested close to the scene for Criminal Code offences, RCMP said. This was the 13th person arrested in connection with the protests at the border crossing.

If there was a related assurance that this person too was very different from the rest of the blockaders, we seem to have missed it.

Truckers' Secret Chat Invaded By Ram Ranchers, Double Agent

Buzzfeed News reporter Paul McLeod said in a Twitter thread yesterday that the antivaxx/pro-chaos truckers' communications have been breached by troublemakers, hooray, and the interruption appears to have helped, in part, to confuse the dipwads enough that the RCMP had an easier time of clearing the blockade from the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. McLeod provided live updates from an online "emergency meeting" yesterday:

First, a participant complains the protesters' Zello channel was spammed with that excellent gay porno cowboy anthem "Ram Ranch," and when the truckheads moved to a new channel, it turned out that the moderator of that group hadalso tricked the poor innocent jerkwads. We'll just copy McLeod's hilarious tweets, avec linkies:

 The problem was the moderator of the channel turned out to be a double agent. “This person gained our trust. We trusted them as a moderator,” the guy says.

“Traitor! Traitor!” another person yells.

 That moderator who turned out to be “part of the resistence” apparently shut things down and ruined their ability to communicate, allowing the police to roll up the blockade. “It’s a morale blow,” he said.

Another guy adds: “What a clusterfuck."

 Aaaand someone started playing Ram Ranch on this feed. [ The "emergency meeting" feed — Dok ]

“Christ on a cross!” one protester yells.

McLeod noted that as more resisters crowded into the "emergency meeting" chat, he was soon unable to keep real and spoofed commenters straight.

 There’s lots of talk of needing money. “None of us know how to use that goddamn bitcoin,” says one guy.

“I’ve got kids… I need some money here. I can’t do this,” says another.

 “What happened to the money we donated? I gave $600” says one woman.

“It’s gone. Byyyeeee” says another.

 This has gone way off the rails. Actual quote just now: “What is this Ram Ranch people are talking about? Is it somewhere we can go and get our money?”

The punking continued merrily; in response to gripes about how the truckers can't even get insurance, another voice claimed to be a trucker who could help — and then played the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" theme, another popular clip with the "Ranchers."

 After another guy goes on a monologue about sucking off truckers, the protesters are trying to figure out how to kick out all the Ram Ranchers.

“I don’t understand what’s happening,” says one woman. “People are just disgusting."

 Quotes that are either from truckers or ranchers pretending to be truckers, I can no longer tell:

“Whose ramming?”

“I’ve been rammed too many times over these last couple weeks.”

[A solid 20 seconds of someone blowing their nose]

The emergency meeting was overrun with Ram Ranchers, and we say God Bless Our Northern Porn Trollers, the end.

[ CBC / Reuters / Global News / Paul McLeod on Twitter]

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