Trudeau says trucker protest threat is over, ends emergency powers and lifts freeze on bank accounts



Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced at a media briefing Wednesday that the threat from trucker protests is over and that he was rescinding the emergency powers used to quell the occupation.

Bank accounts that were frozen to help the government tamp down the protests are also reportedly in the process of being released from the emergency action.

"We were very clear that the use of the emergencies act would be limited in time," said Trudeau.

"And today after carefully consideration, we're ready to confirm that the situation is no longer an emergency, therefore the federal government will be ending the use of the emergencies act," he added. "We are confident that existing laws and bylaws are sufficient to keep people safe."

Trudeau invoked the emergency powers on Feb. 14 after weeks of a trucker blockade that brought the city of Ottawa to a standstill as a protest against vaccine mandates. The Canadian Parliament voted on Tuesday to approve and extend the emergency powers for 30 days.

Officials said on Tuesday that they had begun lifting the freeze on bank accounts they said were being used to support the trucker blockade. Canadian Assistant Deputy Minister of Finance Isabelle Jacques said about 210 accounts were frozen with about $8 million in funds.

"The vast majority of accounts are in the process of being unfrozen, subject to any new information that the [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] may have," said Jacques.

She denied that the bank account freeze was likely to affect people other than the leaders and organizers of the trucker blockade, but she admitted that it was not impossible.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association accused the Trudeau administration of abusing the powers of government and said the emergency powers should not have been used against a domestic demonstration of protest.

"The federal government has not met the threshold necessary to invoke the Emergencies Act," the CCLU said on Feb.15. "This law creates a high and clear standard for good reason: the Act allows government to bypass ordinary democratic processes. This standard has not been met."

Here's Trudeau's comments ending emergency powers:

Trudeau revokes Emergencies Act; Inquiry into use of actwww.youtube.com

Dad confronts violent thug for stealing his 13-year-old daughter's Canadian flag amid Ottawa protests. Culprit ends up whimpering as cops handcuff him.



A dad recorded video of his confrontation with a violent man who stole a Canadian flag from his 13-year-old daughter amid continuing protests in Ottawa over the weekend.

What are the details?

According to a video from Peter van Oordt — the father of the girl in question — he, his wife, and his two children were visiting Ottawa as the protests against COVID-19 restrictions were in full swing.

He said in the clip that the man walked up behind his family while they were near city hall and snatched the flag and flagpole from his daughter and ran off hollering obscenities at them.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

But van Oordt pursued the man, hit record on his phone, and captured everything that happened next — including a tense scene as another individual began pulling the flag pole from the thief, after which the crook got the upper hand and shoved him away after yelling, "Get out of my f***ing city!"

Image source: YouTube screenshot

But van Oordt continued to pursue the flag thief and captured video of their on-foot chat: "Why did you steal the flag from my 13-year-old daughter?"

At one point the flag thief takes a swipe at van Oordt and steals his gloves — after apparently trying to grab his phone — and stomps on van Oordt's gloves in a slush-filled gutter.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Seconds later the flag thief comes at van Oordt, and video doesn't capture exactly what happened, as the camera was jostled around — but the crook ends up on his back atop a snowbank, moaning in pain.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Van Oordt said in his video that "I believe in peace" and that he "didn't engage with him physically" even when the flag thief went directly after him.

Eventually cops arrive after a bystander calls authorities. Van Oordt tells officers he believes the man had been drinking. Another bystander tells van Oordt he saw the whole thing and would be a witness if he needed one; another man tells police the flag thief earlier assaulted an Uber driver.

Soon cops arrest the whimpering man, who claims his ankle is broken — and admits to officers that "I took somebody's flag, that's it."

Here's the video explanation from van Oordt showing his confrontation with the flag thief as well as his commentary on it.

Content warning: language:

Violent Activist Arrested in Ottawayoutu.be

Anything else?

Van Oordt said in a previous video that after refusing to provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19, he was fired from his part-time position as a firefighter in his township — and then banned from going on campus at the University of Waterloo, where he's a full-time theology graduate student.

(H/T: TheMarieOakes)

Truckers protest Canadian vaccine mandate in world record-breaking 'Freedom Convoy'



Truckers from across Canada are protesting vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions with a "Freedom Convoy" that began in British Columbia and is making its way to the nation's capital with tens of thousands of supporters.

The convoy departed from Vancouver on Sunday and is headed toward Ottawa in protest of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's vaccine mandate for all truck drivers crossing the border from the United States into Canada. As of Wednesday, the convoy has grown to a world record-smashing length of 70 km (43 miles), according to Freedom Convoy spokesman Benjamin Dichter.

“It’s 70 km long,” Dichter told the Toronto Sun. “I have seen footage from an airplane. It’s impressive.”

The Guinness world record for longest truck convoy is 7.5 km, which was achieved by a convoy in Egypt in 2020. The Toronto Sun estimated that when the convoy reaches its destination for a planned protest in Ottawa Saturday, it could be as much as 10 times longer than the previous world record. The outlet reported there are as many as 50,000 trucks from western and eastern Canada participating, and even some joining from the United States.

They've been cheered on by thousands of Canadians who have lined up along highways to stand in solidarity with the anti-mandate movement.

WATCH: Crowds lined up in the cold cheering Convoy for Freedom 2022pic.twitter.com/vnKA9f3YhM
— Jack Posobiec \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Jack Posobiec \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1643295046

Images and video posted to social media over the last several days show large crowds of people enthusiastically cheering the convoy, waving Canadian flags and holding signs showing their support.

Solidarity to the 50,000 \u2018freedom' truckers in Canada who are forming the world's longest convoy to protest against vaccine passports and restrictions.\n\n#KeepOnTruckin pic.twitter.com/zldAPudomd
— James Melville \ud83d\udc9c (@James Melville \ud83d\udc9c) 1643239192
Crying as I watch footage of the truckers freedom convoy, I am realizing how much trauma our canadian government has caused, continues to cause and how broken I am. It is unforgivable.pic.twitter.com/4fq7p5q8w1
— Unacceptable E-co Fashion \ud83d\udc60 (@Unacceptable E-co Fashion \ud83d\udc60) 1643043380

One protester, Lou Anne of Ontario, told Canadian journalist Keean Bexte of the Counter Signal that the truckers and their supporters were standing up for their freedoms.

"I am marching because I feel we have a right to choose whether we are vaccinated or unvaccinated. And they have tried to divide us, but they can't divide us anymore because we have become united - both the vaxxed and the unvaxxed," Lou Anne said in a video posted to Twitter.

Any mainstream media outlet that has called this convoy xenophobic or alt-right has my complete permission to use this interview. This protester is Lou Anne, an indigenous Ontarian who braved the cold to show her solidarity with the convoy. Listen to her words. They are powerfulpic.twitter.com/npMcj6jSLr
— Unacceptable Bexte (@Unacceptable Bexte) 1643220271

A GoFundMe account set up to raise money to cover the cost of fuel, food, and lodgings for the protesters has raised over $6.3 million dollars as of Thursday, but the funds won't be available until the donation page organizers show documentation on how the money will be properly dispersed.

A spokeswoman for GoFundMe said this was "part of our standard process to ensure the protection of all donors” and “once a withdrawal plan is provided by the organizer, our team is on standby to safely and quickly deliver the funds.”

The Canadian Trucking Alliance issued a statement over the weekend saying it "strongly disapproves" of protests on roadways, highways, and bridges.

"The vast majority of the Canadian trucking industry is vaccinated with the overall industry vaccination rate among truck drivers closely mirroring that of the general public. Accordingly, most of our nation’s hard-working truck drivers are continuing to move cross-border and domestic freight to ensure our economy continues to function," the organization said on its website.

The group estimates that about 15% of Canadian truckers are not fully vaccinated, which is roughly 16,000 truckers.

Trudeau has also condemned the protesters, calling them a "small fringe minority who are on the way to Ottawa who are holding unacceptable views."

NEW - Trudeau says the "small fringe" trucker convoy on the way to Ottawa does "not represent the views of Canadians."pic.twitter.com/IBOM3ju0yR
— Disclose.tv (@Disclose.tv) 1643235931

"What we are hearing from some people associated with this convoy is completely unacceptable," he said at a news conference.