A trucker's open letter to DOGE's Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk



Mr. Ramaswamy and Mr. Musk,

Congratulations on the victory of the Trump campaign, for which both of you played essential parts, and your subsequent nominations to head the proposed Department of Government Efficiency.

The American federal government in 2024 is a poisoned and bloated carcass that if not corrected will wash ashore on a beach to rot with so much potential wasted and the advancement of humanity itself curtailed.

Why is it that the trucking industry, which is the most critical link in the nation's supply chain, is being allowed to be undermined by foreign actors?

I want to single out Mr. Ramaswamy for additional praise as last year, during the heat of the presidential selection process for the Republican Party, he became the very first candidate in the history of this country to hold a town hall specifically for the people who make up the essential lifeblood of our economy: truckers.

On a cold winter night in Iowa, Mr. Ramaswamy came to the largest truck stop in America and heard our concerns.

In addition to this event, organized by my friends at CDL-Drivers Unlimited, Mr. Ramaswamy has also given public and very high praise to Canada’s Freedom Convoy. This shows that he understands what’s at stake when a wholly illegitimate and crushing bureaucracy pushes an entire country to the brink with no regard for the lives, families, and communities that it affects.

Mr. Ramaswamy also notably beamed in a video to the Mid-America Trucking Show this year, again, courtesy of our friends at CDL-DU.

He is one of a very small handful of politicians to both take an interest in trucking while bypassing the industry's entrenched interests in D.C., best (or maybe worst) represented by the American Trucking Association, to speak directly to drivers and owner-operators.

Given this, I believe you are the best-placed leader to investigate and take action on those parts of the industry and the bureaucrats who regulate it, who are parasitizing themselves on the taxpayers and causing more problems than they are worth.

Though the grift and corporate welfare that exists in the trucking industry is tiny compared to so many others, one fewer cut inches us slowly away from death by a thousand.

In this advice essay, I want to point to a series of issues that face the industry and which of them I believe DOGE would be well-suited to investigate: the waste of taxpayer funds on the industry’s driver retention problem, the misallocation of regulatory effort, and the misplaced focus on environmental concerns derived from trucks themselves.

The 'driver shortage' narrative

I’m sure while you were in Walcott, Iowa, with my colleagues from CDL-DU and so many other truckers you heard criticism about the industry and its claims to a "perpetual shortage of truck drivers."

This is a wholly manufactured concern used to fleece the taxpayer for untold hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

In a coincidence that is surely cosmic and a message from God himself, in the same week that President Trump won a clear-cut mandate to lead this country away from self-immolation, our friends at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration showed exactly why we need DOGE.

In an announcement on Thursday, November 7, the FMCSA bragged of a tour it was going on during which its members would lavish $140 million in taxpayer dollars on training programs for new truck drivers. At the same time, many carriers with hundreds of trucks across this country were closing up shop, in stark contrast to the claims of President Biden and his sycophants of there being such an awesome economy right now.

Does it not say something that one of the trucking industry’s biggest and highest-regarded publications has a very active section dedicated to nothing but truckers going out of business?

Even if the trucking business were booming, is it the responsibility of taxpayers to foot the bill for carrier training programs? What if I told you that "truck driver training" has become a stealth corporate welfare program that funnels untold millions of taxpayer dollars toward trucking companies that have gotten so used to these taxpayer funds that they will not do anything to reduce their own churn problem?

An academic named Steve Viscelli was recently commissioned by the state of California to see what could be done to ensure that there were enough truckers to keep the agricultural industry there moving. Viscelli’s study found that the taxpayers of California were spending $20 million a year on one training program alone and losing most of those newly trained drivers within a year.

In this same report, soon to be unemployed Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg admits that 300,000 truckers quit every year across America despite the millions of dollars spent on similar training programs.

It is quite clear that throwing money at this problem is not solving it, and it leads to one question. What do we get for all of that money other than a steady flow of underpaid, rookie truckers who tend to be involved in collisions at higher rates than everyone else thus necessitating increases in insurance premiums for all carriers that are sometimes so high that trucking companies are forced to close due to the unaffordability of those premiums?

Why do we tolerate this? Perhaps DOGE can look to cut off funding to trucker training programs and let the free market do its thing. It's long past time for the taxpayers to stop footing the bill for this problem, which won’t be solved as long as "free" money is available, which disincentivizes any solution.

Regulatory misdirection

The FMCSA, which is nominally tasked to properly regulate the trucking industry and which has an annual budget of nearly a billion dollars a year, could use some direction in prioritizing its resources and being far more efficient in cleaning up bad actors in the trucking industry than it currently is.

There are a number of problems in trucking right now that are within the purview of FMCSA to solve, but it seems hell-bent on harassing the industry with onerous regulation instead, leaving the industry open to being abused. This in turn results in value from the American economy being extracted to other countries while putting the motoring public at unnecessary risk.

Allow me to explain.

There are a number of fraudulent scams being run on the trucking industry, many of them involving both foreign entities and entities based in the United States.

Double-brokering

A recent recurring problem is "double-brokering," as part of which one middleman load broker arranges a truck through another load broker either willfully or unknowingly, which is highly illegal.

Under the law, only one broker may be involved in a load arrangement between a shipper and the trucker hauling the load. In a double-brokered situation, not only is an additional hand in the pie, removing value that ought to be going to the trucker who hauled the freight so that he can operate safely and turn a profit, but questions of liability and even more potential fraud arise.

In the most egregious cases, we see situations in which the trucker who hauled the load doesn’t get paid at all.

Estimates put the losses from double-brokering in the tens of millions of dollars. Cumulatively with other forms of freight fraud and outright theft of loads, this problem is estimated to cost the economy a staggering price of $500 million to $700 million annually, and some fraudulent carriers and brokers are so brazen, they are now holding loads for ransom.

What is the FMCSA doing about this?

Not much, as it turns out.

The biggest operation it has orchestrated, which isn’t even in the world of freight, was to crack down on those companies that move households.

Modern-day slavery

Another problem the FMCSA is doing nothing about, that I’m aware of, is investigating the very worrying trend of illegal immigrants being employed as truckers in America, many of them with no command of the English language, many having no CDL or any training whatsoever, and many more often than not being bound to their employers through indentured servitude arrangements.

This is, in essence, a form of modern-day slavery. Over and above this being completely and utterly unethical, illegal immigrants and those other immigrants who are here "legally" through the abuse of existing visa programs, are often paid rates far below prevailing wages, which undercuts the American trucker and thus the wage floor for all other workers.

It is very difficult to get hard numbers on these trends in part because of the self-censoring that many media and labor advocacy organizations engage in because of the "woke" climate that has taken over discussion of nearly any topic in America.

Any frank treatment of the use and abuse of illegal labor in trucking is very difficult to find. When I have brought this up to various mainstream trucking publications and their journalists, I have been dismissed for "searching for a problem" that those I spoke with implied does not to exist.

There are a tiny handful of articles around that have looked into this, specifically from the folks at FreightWaves, a couple of examples of which are found here and here.

Menace behind the wheel

An advocacy organization called American Truckers United has begun to analyze crash data and connect the dots between ever-increasing truck collision numbers on American roads with the use of overseas laborers who, again, are often not trained properly or even licensed at all.

Statistics from the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, a North American wide-group of enforcement officials who conduct annual roadside safety inspection "blitzes," show some worrisome violations that correlate with the behavior of companies that employ illegal immigrants.

In 2024, two of the top five out-of-service violations, for which enforcement officials stop the commercial vehicle from operating, were failure of the driver to produce a CDL and failure of the driver to produce a Medical Certification showing fitness for being behind the wheel.

Some of the problems with employing illegal or other immigrant labor in trucking explicitly to exploit and underpay them have been around for years.

In 2017, USA Today did a major, three-part series on how immigrants from Central America were being abused in drayage operations at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Immigrant truckers were found to be paid starvation wages, if they were paid at all, and in many cases, were barred from going home at the end of their shifts, told to "take a nap" and then keep on trucking.

Why is it that the trucking industry, which is the most critical link in the nation's supply chain, is being allowed to be undermined by foreign actors?

What are the FMCSA and others such as the DOT doing about this?

Horses have left the barn

Nothing. They are too busy focusing on the after-effects of problems created by horses that are already out of the barn.

The FMCSA, if you go by the news feed on its website, spends an incredible amount of time auditing new entrants to the electronic logging device market despite the fact that truck crashes and aggressive driving cases have gone up since the ELD mandate came into effect in 2017.

When asked whether the FMCSA would reconsider the mandate after being shown that it had achieved none of its goals or objectives, former FMCSA head Robin Hutcheson simply said no.

In fact, the FMCSA is now considering expanding the ELD mandate to older trucks that have been exempted, even though there are no studies that show trucks exempted from the mandate are a factor in truck collisions or other safety concerns. The FMCSA is worried about compliance — not material improvement.

I posit to DOGE that the FMCSA, DOT, and other federal agencies tasked with regulating the trucking industry are wasting taxpayer dollars by focusing far too much effort on compliance gimmicks and technological fixes to problems that are very human.

America’s roads are becoming increasingly dangerous because there are far too many drivers on them who have not received adequate training, don’t speak English, or are otherwise employed in the trucking industry illegally.

The evidence is out there, and these agencies ought to be investigating these problems rather than engaging in a rearguard action that wastes time and resources punishing those parts of the industry that are not the problem. At nearly a billion dollars a year, we should be getting far safer roads out of the FMCSA than we currently are.

Truck efficiency, system efficiency

There are many in our society who are concerned about climate change, and for many years now, regulators have sought to reduce various types of emissions into our atmosphere. The trucking industry has come under intense scrutiny in this regard, given how many trucks there are on the road in support of our modern economy.

Since 2007, the EPA has imposed, and continues to impose, ever more stringent emissions control mandates on trucks. Truck engine manufacturers have done their best to develop technologies that meet the requirements of those mandates, but this has not come without significant cost.

Famously, the heavy equipment and engine manufacturer Caterpillar gave up trying to meet the mandates at all and discontinued building truck engines for on-highway use.

Other manufacturers have pressed forward with various technologies, with the most popular being selective catalytic reduction, which helps reduce diesel particulate matter and nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide.

Studies on the economic impact of these mandates are hard to come by, and no studies of or investigations into the impact of illegal labor on trucking have been done.

Society has taken it as a given that any mandate or regulation imposed on us in the name of saving the climate is a moral and unquestionably good, and it is politically dangerous to actually examine the effects of such.

Weighing the costs

Yet the anecdotal evidence from trucking companies and owner-operators about the cost imposed on them by these emissions mandates has been piling up for years; even legal action has been launched in some instances.

The Owner Operators Independent Drivers Association is the largest and oldest trucker advocacy organization in the country. In 2014, it released a white paper examining the impact of EPA mandates on engine manufacturers and on the trucking companies that suffered great losses in time and money from them.

LandLine, the official media outlet of OOIDA, has been following the costs associated with emission control systems mandates for many years and has an immense collection of writings on the subject.

During the recent COVID pandemic, many people first became aware of the term supply chains as those very chains were being stress-tested by the reactions to COVID by governments around the globe.

It showed us that many technologies we rely on for the basic function of our economy are dependent on manufacturers in other parts of the world.

Trucking was not immune to this; specifically, the chips and various other parts that operate these emission control systems became scarce. It was not uncommon to hear about trucks being put out of commission from dysfunctional emissions controls for months at a time due to backlogs of parts.

The emissions racket

In my own experience, the manager of a local truck dealer and service center told me when the propane delivery truck I was driving during COVID was in to have its emission system repaired for the umpteenth time that emission control system service makes up 75% of the business.

Another company I worked for previously had spent $65,000 on emission systems repairs on one truck over the course of 18 months after purchasing it new. The equipment down time accrued by the trucking industry over the last 17 years of these mandates is probably incalculable.

We do not know what the total economic impact of these mandates has been, nor do we employ alternative ways to make our trucking and logistics systems more efficient, mostly because the EPA, and our government in general, are laser-focused on technological solutions to climate change at the exclusion of all other considerations.

We do know, however, that the EPA is a vindictive and spiteful organization that has zero tolerance for those who fail to comply or seek to avoid its costly mandates.

There are numerous examples of the EPA imposing hefty fines on shops and service providers, sometimes millions of dollars, who have disabled or otherwise removed the emissions control hardware and software on modern engines despite the fact engines typically run better and cheaper without them. (And never mind the expensive parts replacements and down time when they eventually break down.)

To add insult to injury, many used trucks in America are sold internationally, especially next door into Mexico and Central America, where those systems are immediately removed from the trucks.

Beside not being subject to similar mandates, the trucking industry in those countries simply does not have the parts and DEF distribution networks or the money to pay for these systems. In the words of Rob Henderson, writer and author of the wildly popular memoir "Troubled," the imposition of very expensive emissions control systems is a "luxury belief."

Wasted capacity

What could the EPA and other agencies be doing to make the trucking industry more efficient rather than wasting government resources in pursuing operators simply trying to make a living in a market where margins are very tight and many companies are going out of business?

Perhaps the reason so many trucks are on the road in the first place is that trucking capacity is often wasted due to problems that are not the fault of truckers but of the customers whom they service.

"Detention" is the industry term for the time that trucks sit waiting to be loaded or unloaded at customer facilities, and it is consistently listed as a top-10 problem in annual surveys by the American Transportation Research Institute, this year making number four among drivers across the board.

MIT FreightLabs has launched studies into the issue of trucking capacity, or rather the woefully inefficient use of it. In 2022, one of the researchers put it rather starkly: "40% of America's trucking capacity is left on the table every day."

Another issue with trucking in America is our very restrictive weight limits. The federal standard of 80,000 pounds gross is one of the lightest in the world. Many states have allowances for longer and heavier trucks within their states, as they understand that trucks doing more work per load means fewer trips and fewer trucks on the road in total.

For comparison, in Canada, with what they call a Super B Train, trucks are longer and allowed to be 140,000 pounds gross weight.

Perhaps the recent bipartisan Infrastructure Act could have contained funding and specification to upgrade our roads to accommodate even slightly heavier trucks, or build double unit yards along certain interstates, as we see already on roads like the New York State Thruway or Ohio Turnpike.

I would submit to DOGE that the United States trucking system is in many ways vastly inefficient. Subsequently, there are more trucks on the road than we need, which contributes to excessive carbon emissions. Rather than tackling these efficiency deficits, the EPA has fallen under the sway of well-connected cronies who want to sell more costly technology to us while assuaging the manufactured guilt of the public about the state of the sky.

In conclusion

The trucking industry in America faces vast challenges — too many to list here. I did not even begin to touch on the looming potential of automated trucks or the oversale of electric vehicles to the public as a solution to slow down climate change.

There are, however, some very simple policy changes that ought to be made that would force the industry to rethink how it does business and be less reliant on government handouts, illegal labor, and a punishing regulatory regime that is chasing problems created by those handouts and use of illegal labor.

The regulatory agencies that oversee all of this are very costly to American taxpayers. They would have less to do, and thus necessitate a lower price tag, if we enacted my above suggestions.

This essay originally appeared on the Autonomous Truck(er)s Substack.

How Trump can help get justice for Canada's Freedom Convoy prisoners



Of all those cheering Donald Trump’s recent re-election as a victory over leftist tyranny, one group has especially personal reasons to celebrate: the roughly 1,400 Americans charged with crimes related to the Capitol protests of January 6, 2021.

While these defendants and their families wait for the pardons Trump has hinted at, another set of prisoners languishes behind bars to the north. Though Canadian and not subject to the president-elect’s direct authority, their fate may also depend on actions Trump takes during his second term.

Pressure from Biden emboldened Trudeau to invoke Canada’s Emergencies Act, which grants the federal government additional powers during threats to national security.

Like the January 6 protests that preceded it, the movement that came to be known as the Freedom Convoy was a massive, decentralized, and spontaneously organized uprising against the authoritarian injustices of a liberal regime, this one of the Liberal Party of Canada.

A nationwide rebellion

It began in January 2022, when Canadian truckers organized a few separate convoys protesting COVID vaccine mandates for crossing the United States border. As these convoys converged in the capital, Ottawa, the movement grew into a nationwide rebellion against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s draconian regime of pandemic restrictions.

The Freedom Convoy lit a fire around the world, garnering praise from former president Trump and inspiring many similar protests, including the People’s Convoy here in the United States. Over three weeks, thousands of Canadians demonstrated in Ottawa and around the country, disrupting traffic and blockading various border crossings.

The protests were so effective, in fact, that they drew the ire of the Biden administration, then — as today — aggressively prosecuting anyone involved with the January 6 “insurrection.”

The Democrat Party line was to cast these protesters as conspirators in the worst attack on America since 9/11, or even Pearl Harbor. As such, participants who were guilty of trespassing, at most, found themselves burdened with additional, spurious charges such as "entering and remaining in a restricted building" or "disorderly conduct.”

Sentencing, too, was and continues to be unduly harsh — especially in cases involving no violence or property damage, let alone any demonstrable intent to overthrow the government. One such glaring example is that of Christian Secor, currently serving 42 months in federal prison essentially for sitting in Vice President Pence’s Senate seat.

Biden butts in

It was this authoritarian zeal that President Biden brought to the situation in Canada, America’s largest trading partner and longtime ally, with which it shares the longest undefended border in the world. Pressure from Biden emboldened Trudeau to invoke Canada’s Emergencies Act, which grants the federal government additional powers during threats to national security, a move Trudeau was considering from the get-go.

The crackdown was swift and merciless. A situation at one of these protests, used by Trudeau to justify his controversial use of the Emergencies Act, involved four men arrested the night before it was invoked.

The arrests took place at the protest in Coutts, a tiny village where Alberta Highway 4 crosses into Montana to become Interstate 15. As one of the busiest border crossings on the entire prairie, Coutts was of particular concern to both Biden and Trudeau

Royal railroading

On February 13, 2022, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided the protest site at Coutts and arrested 13 people, charging many with mischief and other nuisance charges that were likewise leveled at those in Ottawa later that week.

Based on unrecorded and unverifiable testimony from undercover officers, and having confiscated hunting rifles using a faulty warrant, four of those arrested were charged with "conspiracy to murder police officers," a heinous accusation that shocked the nation.

Despite having no criminal records or histories of violence, these four men, who would come to be known as the Coutts Four, were held without bail for two years while waiting to come to trial.

Two of the men, Jerry Morin, a 43-year-old electrical lineman, and Tony Olienick, a 42-year-old trucking, excavation, and quarrying company owner, were kept for long periods of time in solitary confinement, a recognized form of torture and surely beyond the pale for a country like Canada, which has a proud tradition of leading U.N. peacekeeping missions and advocating for civil rights and democracy around the world.

Conspiracy of silence

During the two years of these men’s incarceration, the Canadian media said nothing about their treatment or the dubious and murky nature of their charges.

The allegations about the Coutts Four, before ever being tested in court, were cited in a mandatory inquest into Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act, and they continue to be seen as a legitimating factor, even though another Superior Court ruling found Trudeau’s invocation to be "unreasonable" and "unjustified."

To this day, few Canadians — never mind Americans — are aware of what happened to the Coutts Four.

Morin and Chris Lysak, 50, an electrician, were eventually released in February 2024 after pleading guilty to lesser charges.

It is widely understood that the confession from Morin to "conspiracy to traffic firearms" was coerced by keeping him solitary; his appeal is pending. During the trial, the "firearms" undercover officers claimed Morin handled were proven to be socks, underwear, and a guitar.

Lysak plead guilty to a gun mishandling charge, an easily applied offense in a country with no constitutionally protected gun rights and where owning a pistol is nearly impossible.

It is also a very strange coincidence that Lysak and Morin were released about a week after Tucker Carlson appeared on stage in Alberta and mentioned their case. Thus far, Carlson is the only major media personality to have highlighted the plight of the Coutts Four at all.

A case of collusion?

The other two men, Olienick and Chris Carbert, eventually went to trial over two years after being arrested. While acquitted of the charge of conspiracy to murder police officers, they were found guilty of the lesser charges of mischief and possession of weapons for a dangerous purpose.

In sentencing of the two men, the judge effectively did an "end run" around that not-guilty verdict, comparing their peaceful protest to another case in which a man drove his vehicle into Canada’s Parliament and wandered around with guns, actively looking for politicians to shoot.

As if that weren't indication enough of the political nature of the case, evidence allegedly showing that Crown Prosector Steven Johnston broke the law in building a case against the Coutts Four has been sealed. Given what we know about allegations of collusion between Johnston and the RCMP, it seems likely that the case against the Coutts Four would have been thrown out.

Olienick and Carbert remain in custody, serving out six and a half years for politically trumped-up charges.

Like the Biden administration, which (as if to avenge the Democrats’ humiliating defeat at the polls) has vowed to spend its final two months making even more January 6 arrests, Trudeau is unrepentant about turning on his own people.

Trump vs. Trudeau

What, then, can Trump do once he takes office in January?

While the two leaders have had a congenial enough relationship in the past, Trudeau and his ministers have spent a lot of time bad-mouthing Trump in Canada’s Parliament; President Trump’s new Cabinet nominees have taken note and are starting off their relationship with Trudeau on a sour note.

There’s also the matter of Trudeau’s plummeting popularity within Canada. With members of his own party recently urging him to step down, the prime minister is more vulnerable than at any other time in his career.

This presents ideal conditions for Trump to press the issue of the Coutts Four, perhaps in trade policy negotiations or while pointing out Canada’s failure to live up to its NATO commitments or adequately fund its own military.

Then, of course, there’s Canada’s tendency to let an alarming number of illegal immigrants, including hundreds of terrorists, slip across the border and into America.

MAGA diplomacy

President Trump would do his many freedom-loving fans in Canada a great service by publicly acknowledging the Coutts Four as political prisoners, persecuted, like so many of the Freedom Convoy protestors, by an overzealous, politically-motivated government, which is still convicting peaceful protesters to this day.

Such an acknowledgment would emphasize Trump’s commitment to undo the damage wrought by the Biden regime, while strongly encouraging Canada to safeguard the liberty of its own citizens.

With both countries having atoned for the shameful treatment of their own citizens, America and Canada could then build an even stronger relationship, one based on mutual prosperity and security.

The REAL reason farmers and truckers are rising up all around the world



Farmers around the world are rising up to protest regulations that are threatening to destroy not just their industry — but the countries they’ve learned to thrive in.

France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain have all seen recent protests against these regulations. In France, entire herds of livestock have been led into the city to stop traffic, and manure has been sprayed on government buildings.

“This is not just an American problem,” Glenn Beck comments. “What they’re protesting is about to affect every single citizen on planet Earth.”

The protests are a reaction to the actions of global elites, who allege that they’re trying to save the environment.

One of those elites is John Kerry, who, at the recent AIM for Climate Summit, was adamant that agriculture is a problem for the environment.

“Agriculture contributes about 33% of all emissions of the world,” he told the audience. “Depending a little bit on how you count it, but it’s anywhere from 26% to 33%, and we can’t get to net zero, we don’t get this job done, unless agriculture is front and center as part of the solution.”

“You can’t just continue to both warm the planet while also expecting to feed it. Doesn’t work. So we have to reduce emissions from the food system,” he added.

“I’m not an expert on this, but has anybody considered how many people will go hungry in the race to eliminate 30%?” Glenn asks. “Did they factor in how many ranchers and farmers will be forced into poverty? Have they thought about the ramifications of something that has taken us thousands of years to perfect — to change it in a four-year-period?”

To learn more, watch the video below.


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Court rules Trudeau's use of martial law to crush peaceful trucker protest was 'unjustified' and unlawful



A Canadian federal court ruled Tuesday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's use of martial law in 2022 to crush the peaceful trucker protests "was not justified." Justice Richard Mosley noted further that "the decision to issue the Proclamation was unreasonable and led to infringement of Charter rights."

While a poll indicated last month that a supermajority of Canadians already wanted Trudeau to resign, he now faces additional pressure to step down. However, his deputy — who recently smirked as a reporter was bashed and arrested by police for asking her questions — indicated the Liberal regime will continue to defend its actions and appeal the ruling.

Meanwhile, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and his socialist party are attempting to retroactively qualify their support for the Emergencies Act invocation, suggesting they had championed it "reluctantly."

What's the background?

The trucker protests, dubbed the Freedom Convoy by organizers, kicked off in early 2022 in response to the Canadian government's draconian COVID-19 vaccine mandates and travel restrictions, which greatly impacted the livelihoods of those whose jobs required them to leave the house.

A massive convoy comprising Canadian flag-adorned trucks and other vehicles drove across the country, cheered on by massive crowds at various stops along the way, until it ultimately reached Ottawa, the nation's capital.

In Ottawa, multitudes of citizens crewed outside their Parliament, calling on the Liberal regime to drop some of its pandemic protocols, which even one of the authors of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms said were unconstitutional.

The protests took on the atmosphere of a winter festival, complete with bounce castles, saunas, musical performances, dancing, and speeches. Crime dropped in the Canadian capital during this so-called occupation, and demonstrators periodically shoveled the sidewalks.

— (@)

Not all were keen on the protests, however. Affluent residents in the government city claimed they were left traumatized by the sight of Canadian flags and the sound of honking, according to CTV News.

While Trudeau had not intervened in previous political protests — such as those staged by BLM or Idle No More activists — and had not taken similar action in 2020 when anti-pipeline activists blockaded Canadian rail lines, paralyzing the country, the peaceful trucker protests were evidently too much for him to bear.

Martial law

With the approval of his Cabinet and the support of Singh's New Democratic Party, Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act from Feb. 17 to 23, 2023. At the time of the declaration, there were still around 500 trucks remaining in Ottawa.

"These illegal blockades are hurting Canadians, and they need to stop," said Trudeau.

The Emergencies Act is a revised version of Canada's former War Measures Act, which can be invoked in national emergencies that "seriously threate[n] the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada."

Police seized fuel from the truckers in subzero conditions, towed 115 trucks, and arrested hundreds of protesters. The Liberal regime also discussed deploying German Leopard battle tanks against protesters; froze 257 bank accounts; and altogether clamped down on public criticism of government overreach.

Trudeau was condemned by members of the Conservative Party and civil rights organizations, as well as by foreign dignitaries.

An internal Department of Public Safety report later revealed there was no evidence of violence committed by Freedom Convoy protesters in Ottawa; that "the majority of the events have been peaceful"; and that the "disruption to government activities is so far minor."

In late 2022, Trudeau told the Public Order Emergency Commission what allegedly made the Freedom Convoy unusual was that the protesters expressed a "certain level of frustration" that was "very concerning."

— (@)

'Unjustified'

Siding with civil liberties groups in his Tuesday ruling, Justice Mosley indicated that while economically impactful, the Freedom Convoy protests neither threatened national security nor warranted martial law.

"I have concluded that the decision to issue the Proclamation [of the Emergencies Act] does not bear the hallmarks of reasonableness – justification, transparency and intelligibility – and was not justified," wrote Mosley.

The court also found that the Trudeau regime had not exhausted other available, less extreme legal options to tackle what it perceived as a threat.

"Due to its nature and to the broad powers it grants the Federal Executive, the Emergencies Act is a tool of last resort," wrote Mosley. "The GIC cannot invoke the Emergencies Act because it is convenient, or because it may work better than other tools at their disposal or available to the provinces."

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, one of the groups that challenged the Liberal regime, said in a statement, "Emergency is not in the eye of the beholder. Emergency powers are necessary in extreme circumstances, but they are also dangerous to democracy. They should be used sparingly and carefully."

"They cannot be used even to address a massive and disruptive demonstration if that could have been dealt with through regular policing and laws," continued the CCLA. "The Federal Court agreed that this threshold was not met."

Canadian Constitution Foundation executive director Joanna Baron, who also challenged the use of the act, said, "The invocation of the Emergencies Act is one of the worst examples of government overreach during the pandemic and we are very pleased to see Justice Mosley recognize that Charter rights were breached and that Cabinet must follow the law and only use the Act as a tool of last resort."

Liberals unrepentant amidst resignation calls

While Trudeau dodged questions from reporters after the ruling, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland indicated the Liberal regime is unrepentant and will appeal the ruling, reported the National Post.

"The public safety of Canadians was under threat; our national security, which includes our national economic security, was under threat," said Freeland. "I was convinced at the time. It was the right thing to do. It was the necessary thing to do."

— (@)

Cosmin Dzsurdzsa of True North intimated the appeal might be well received, given that two-thirds of the 15 Federal Court of Appeal judges were Liberal appointees.

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre — poised to beat Trudeau in the next election should the Liberal fail to resign — said Trudeau "broke the highest law in the land with the Emergencies Act. He cause the crisis by dividing people. Then he violated Charter rights to illegally suppress citizens."

Former Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer stressed that "Trudeau must now answer for his reckless abandonment of the law and the most basic freedoms of all Canadians."

Scheer said in another message, "Never again let Trudeau give a lecture about Charter rights."

Maxime Bernier, head of the People's Party of Canada, reiterated that the Liberal government is a "tyrannical regime," adding in a subsequent tweet that the decision by the Liberal government was "absolutely horrendous, violent, abusive and unnecessary."

Ezra Levant, the publisher of Rebel News, suggested that in "any healthy democracy he'd resign."

Jay Bhattacharya, professor at the Stanford School of Medicine and co-author of the "Great Barrington Declaration," wrote, "In light of the Federal Court ruling that the Canadian government violated the basic civil rights of its citizens by invoking the Emergencies Act, Justin Trudeau should resign and there should be a new election."

Dr. Jordan Peterson wrote, "If the government violates its own constitution in what way is it still the government? A dead serious question @JustinTrudeau[.] Looks like it's high time for you to hit the road, Jack."

Trudeau presently has a disapproval rating of 64% according to the Angus Reid Institute. An Ipsos poll last month indicated that 69% of Canadians think Trudeau should step down.

Trudeau appears to be in hiding, as he has no public events scheduled for Wednesday.

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Pastor ‘Exiles’ Family To Kenya To Escape Canadian Persecution Of Christians

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Freedom Convoy: Exposing What the Media Hid from You | Tamara Lich | INTERNATIONAL | Rubin Report

Freedom Convoy: Exposing What the Media Hid from You | Tamara Lich | INTERNATIONAL | Rubin Report

Canadian cop punished for giving $50 to Freedom Convoy, forced to perform 80 hours of unpaid labor



A Canadian police officer has been persecuted and prosecuted for having dared to donate $36.66 USD of his own money to the Freedom Convoy.

Windsor Police Service Const. Michael Brisco learned on May 18 that, following his discreditable conduct conviction under the Police Services Act, he must now work 80 hours for free as a penalty for his private expenditure, which evidently upset the sensitivities of the state, reported CTV News.

Brisco, a 15-year veteran on the force with no previous history of disciplinary actions, reportedly made the donation on Feb. 7, 2022, after he was suspended for refusing to provide papers evidencing compliance with vaccine requirements, reported the Windsor Star.

The constable admitted to posting this message along with his donation: "Thank you fellow Canadians for fighting for freedom at the base of Sauron’s Tower. The world is watching … and we see Trudeau’s true colours."

Brisco intended to send the fruit of his labor to the organizers of the Freedom Convoy, a movement drawing support from across the country that peacefully protested the Trudeau government's apparent contravention of Canadian mobility rights and imposition of strict COVID restrictions. However, according to Brisco's defense lawyer, Shane Miles, the money hadn't even made it to the protest organizers because the Trudeau government had the dissenters' online accounts frozen.

In addition to freezing bank accounts and online transactions, the Trudeau government implemented martial law, thereby squelching the rash of populist dissent. It was later revealed that members of his liberal cabinet had mulled over whether to deploy German-made Leopard 2 tanks, designed to engage Russian heavy armor in battle, against the protesters.

Since Brisco was reportedly unapologetic for attempting to support the cause of freedom — having proudly stated, "I'm ready to accept whatever penalty you wish to give me" — lawyers for the Windsor police stressed their preference that the constable perform 140 hours of unpaid labor.

That number was shaved down to 80 hours.

"Constable Brisco betrayed the trust of his fellow officers, the community and the Windsor Police Service (WPS)," said Morris Elbers, the Ontario Provincial Police superintendent who adjudicated the constable's case. "The donation which was made was in total opposition to the hardworking police officers from across the province who worked day and night to keep the peace in Ottawa and Windsor specifically and elsewhere in this country."

"The discreditable conduct displayed by this officer has caused damage to the reputation of this organization," added Elbers.

It is unclear whether Elbers feels the beatings of unarmed, peaceful Freedom Convoy protesters or the theft of truckers' gasoline amid frigid temperatures similarly did reputational damage to the force.

Elbers further suggested that "as a police officer there comes a time when you must take the political issues out of your head when you are making decisions."

It appears not all causes and protests are made equal in the eyes of the Windsor police.

Former Windsor Police Chief Pam Mizuno lavished BLM identitarians with praise in 2020, stating, "The demonstrations that we had in our city were awesome events to attend, really showing how wonderful our community is to have those demonstrations and it is a difficult conversation," reported iHeartRadio.

There appear to be no reports of officers donating to BLM or being punished for doing so.

Windsor Police also accommodated Indian protesters with the Idle No More movement who blockaded the Ambassador Bridge to Detroit in 2014. Martial law was not then declared.

Miles underscored, "This isn’t an officer who used force that was excessive. This isn’t an officer who treated the public poorly. ... This is an officer who donated $50."

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Canadian leaders weigh 'online harm' bills which would further restrict free speech



Political leaders in Canada are moving forward with plans to impose further restrictions on online free speech.

They have assembled an "expert advisory group" to develop so-called "online harm" bills which will hold online service providers "responsible for addressing harmful content on their platforms and creating a safe online space that protects all Canadians," according to the government's website.

However, others worry that the Canadian government is stoking fears regarding hate speech, child exploitation, the sharing of non-consensual images, incitements to violence, and terrorism — all of which are already illegal — to pass sweeping restrictions against free speech that the government just doesn't like.

Douglas Blair, an American writing for the Daily Signal, warns that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's "brand of authoritarian speech-policing" may soon metastasize in the U.S. Citing Trudeau's stringent crackdown on the truckers of the Freedom Convoy, who were protesting continued government shutdowns earlier this year, Blair claims that elites in both Canada and America "will ruthlessly enforce orthodoxy toward leftist positions and accuse peaceful protests against them as hateful."

Still, despite dire warnings from Blair and others, many say that a sizeable majority of Canadians favor heavy restrictions on "hate speech" and "disinformation." A recent poll from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation claims that almost 80% of Canadians want social media companies to remove "hateful" and/or "racist" messages posted to their platforms.

"Exaggerated concerns that regulations will erode our constitutional freedoms are misplaced and out of step with what Canadians have repeatedly made clear: Hate speech has no place in our democratic society," said Mohammed Hashim, Executive Director of the CRRF, according to CBN.

To demonstrate the supposed danger posed by unfettered free speech, many have pointed to a recent incident in Alberta in which an unidentified man followed Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland into an elevator and hurled obscenities at her and called her a traitor. Though the man's actions have been condemned by leaders on both sides of the aisle, some believe that those in power plan to use this example of unsavory speech as an excuse to censor the opposition more generally.

Peter Menzies of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute recently said that Canada is "poised to become a global leader in restricting online speech and meddling with news media" and that Canadians "will be soon communicating only in manners of which their government approves," even as leaders insist that the "online harm" bills will operate "within the parameters of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."

Regardless of intent, the "online bills" have since stalled in the legislative process, and some now say that a formalized bill won't be introduced until early 2023 at the earliest.