Truckers explain why they’re boycotting New York and standing with Donald Trump
New York has charged former president Donald Trump $355 million for allegedly inflating the value of his properties in order to defraud banks — despite zero evidence of any banks losing money.
Now, truckers across the country have decided to protest the ruling by boycotting New York City and even New York state.
One trucker tells Glenn Beck that he recently delivered eight times to the five boroughs but has already told his dispatch, “Under no circumstances will I be crossing that bridge again.”
“I won’t go into New York state, much less the city,” he adds.
“What was your dispatch’s reaction to that? Did you get any heat?” Glenn Beck asks in awe.
Rather than giving heat, the dispatch responded with, “Oh, another one.”
“It seems like about between 20% and 25% of our drivers have refused to take any loads into New York state anymore,” he tells Glenn.
One trucker who owns his own truck and trailer is also refusing to go into New York City.
“It pays well, but I’m not going to do that anymore,” he says. “If a bunch of independent truck drivers start doing this, New York City will feel a pinch real quick.”
He believes that “it won’t really hurt the trucking industry,” because “there’s such a demand for drivers, experienced drivers, who are independent.”
While he says that it won’t hurt truckers, it “will hurt New York City.”
“I’m interested to see how this works out,” Glenn says. “This is a group of people that can make a huge difference.”
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Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich released from custody after court overturns bail decision
Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich has been released from custody after a justice in Ottawa, Canada, overturned a previous justice's ruling.
The justice said that the previous justice who controversially denied Lich bail made several errors in law, according to CTV News Ottawa.
Lich, a resident of Alberta, has been released on CA$25,000 bond and has been ordered to leave Ottawa within 24 hours and Ontario within 72 hours. She may not return to the province except to attend court or to meet with her lawyers.
She was arrested Feb. 17 and charged with counseling to commit mischief for her role in the trucker protests against Canada's vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Lich organized a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $10 million to support the demonstrators, who had camped in downtown Ottawa for weeks, disrupting traffic and refusing to leave the city until the mandates were lifted.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to the protests by invoking emergency powers, giving police additional authority to fine and arrest protesters and empowering financial institutions to freeze the accounts of convoy participants.
When Lich was initially denied bail by Ontario Court Justice Julie Bourgeois, critics slammed the justice's decision, observing that even alleged violent offenders, in some cases, are granted bail.
A long bail review hearing was held last week to determine whether Bourgeois erred in her decision, according to CTV News. Justice John Johnston presided over the hearing and said his decision would be issued Monday.
In overturning the previous justice's order, Johnston said Bourgeois wrongly compared the seriousness of Lich's charges to the seriousness of the impact of the "Freedom Convoy" and not to other criminal code offenses.
He said that Lich had lived a "pro-social" life prior to these charges and had no criminal record, suggesting these factors may be grounds for a lighter sentence if she is convicted. Johnston expressed concern that Lich would spend more time in jail before her trial than she would if convicted and sentenced, CTV News reported.
As a condition of her release, Lich has been barred from accessing or using social media or having someone else do so on her behalf. She also cannot attend or engage in any future protests against COVID-19 mandates. Further, she may not contact several other organizers or leaders of the convoy protest.
Johnston did however reject an argument from Lich that Bourgeois was biased because the justice unsuccessfully ran as a Liberal Party candidate for Parliament in 2011 and the Freedom Convoy protested the current Liberal government. He said there was no evidence that an election from more than a decade ago was proof of bias.
Watch: Actress Evangeline Lilly challenges Justin Trudeau to listen to Freedom Convoy members and not treat protesters as 'terrorists' in impassioned plea
Actress Evangeline Lilly delivered an impassioned plea for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to sit down and listen to the members of the trucker protests in Ottawa instead of classifying them as terrorists.
Lilly began the video addressing Trudeau, "I want to speak to you today about your current approach and treatment of our fellow Canadians who are protesting your federal vaccine mandates."
The "Ant-Man" and "Lost" star asked Trudeau why he has refused to meet with leaders of the Freedom Convoy.
"If you are so convinced of your own reasons for the mandates, sit down and walk the leaders of a group of 2.3 million protesters across the country who represent many millions more across the nation and explain it to them," Lilly said in the video. "And ask them to listen with open hearts and minds and then reciprocate."
"Listen to what they have to say with a mind open to hearing things that might go against the ideas you are entrenched in," the Hollywood actress proposed. "Maybe there are solutions that could bring Canadians together right now that you have not considered."
"You unify people by finding solutions together," she stressed. "Not by vilifying those who say there is a better way. What we need right now from our leadership is unification and that requires being willing to see, recognize, and hear from the people sitting out in the cold at your door."
Lilly challenged Trudeau to "go outside and meet those protesters for yourself."
"That is what a true leader would do," the 42-year-old actress said in a dig at Trudeau. "They would go out and meet their constituents, look them in the eye and treat them with respect."
Lilly noted that despite what the Canadian government and corporate media has said, the Freedom Convoy has been overwhelmingly peaceful with "thousands of people singing, dancing, hugging, waiting, patiently speaking kindly, cleaning up the streets, and generally sharing the true Canadian spirit."
"You as a group have gone from ignoring these protesters to dismissing them as a fringe minority, to smearing them as racist and misogynistic, to now attacking them as terrorists," she continued.
"When you became prime minister of Canada, you did not just become the prime minister of the people who agreed with you," Lilly pointed out. "You became prime minister of every Canadian. You don't get to pick and choose who you will care about. It is your civic duty to care about all Canadians. Even those who you disagree with."
Lilly said treating the protesters against vaccine mandates with "prejudice, suspicion, and illegal repression is not care."
"Protesting something that deeply, deeply concerns you in our society is not terrorism, it is the civic duty of every Canadian," she declared, and added, "It is our job as the people to hold our leadership accountable. If they are infringing on our inalienable rights, if we suspect that they have become corrupted or compromised in any way, or simply if we think they're wrong in monumental decisions they are making on behalf of their people."
"But you are treating my brothers and sisters, your constituents like terrorists without ever speaking to their leadership," the movie star proclaimed.
"There are no riots. This is not a violent protest," the celebrity actress said. "There is only a mass of deeply concerned citizens at your doorstep who you refuse to acknowledge for what they are – your people."
Lilly then gave a message for people on both sides of the vaccine mandate debate.
"If you think that the person on the other side of this divide is your enemy, please take time to get to know them," she said in the stirring video. "Listen with an open heart to what they're really saying. And remember that we're all humans – who get scared and feel pain."
"Most of us are just trying our best to build the brightest future for the next generation," she continued. "And the happiest, most fulfilling, most peaceful, and healthy today."
Lilly slammed the legacy media, "Don't let the press brainwash you into division and hatred. The antidote to prejudice is knowledge."
She acknowledged that Google algorithms can make it "very hard to find good information on the other side," so she suggested, "Ask someone you know."
Lilly said, "Listening is the only way out of the ideological mess the media has broiled us all into."
"May cooler, wiser, more loving heads prevail right now. The future of our society depends upon it," the actress concluded.
Actress Evangeline Lilly shares a heartfelt plea - A MUST WATCH PLEASE SHARE ALL MUST HEAR THIS. www.youtube.com
In March of 2020, Lilly declared that she would not self-isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic because she valued her freedoms and believed the government could be attempting to encroach on her liberties.
"It's unnerving. ... Let's be vigilant right now. And kind. Watchful and gracious — keeping a close eye on our leaders, making sure they don't abuse this moment to steal away more freedoms and grab more power," she said at the start of the pandemic.
Last month, Lilly attended an anti-vaccine mandate in Washington D.C., where she called the mandates "not safe."
"I was in DC this weekend to support bodily sovereignty while Canadian truckers were rallying for their cross-country, peaceful convoy in support of the same thing," Lilly said in an Instagram video. "I believe nobody should ever be forced to inject their body with anything, against their will ... under any threat whatsoever."
Washington Post hammered for painting Freedom Convoy as 'explicitly racist,' arguing 'freedom is a key component of white supremacy'
The Washington Post was skewered for an opinion piece painting members of the Freedom Convoy as "explicitly racist," and arguing that expecting individual freedom is a "key component of white supremacy."
The article titled "The Ottawa trucker convoy is rooted in Canada’s settler colonial history" is written by Taylor Dysart – a Ph.D. candidate in the department of history and sociology of science at the University of Pennsylvania.
"The convoy has amassed significant support; its (now removed) GoFundMe raised more than $10 million (CAD) and it has been celebrated by several center-right and right-wing public figures, including Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, and former President Donald Trump. The Freedom Convoy now touts itself as an 'Anti ALL MANDATES Movement,' desiring to remove all public health mandates," Dysart asserted.
"While the convoy’s supporters have characterized the protest as a peaceful movement, uninformed by 'politics, race, religion, or any personal beliefs,' many supporters have been associated with or expressed racist, Islamophobic, and white-supremacist views," Dysart stated.
"The convoy has surprised onlookers in the United States and Canada, both because of the explicitly racist and violent perspectives of some of the organizers and because the action seems to violate norms of Canadian 'politeness,'" Dysart claimed. "But the convoy represents the extension of a strain of Canadian history that has long masked itself behind 'peacefulness' or ‘unity’: settler colonialism."
"The history of Canadian settler colonialism and public health demonstrates how both overt white-supremacist claims and seemingly more inert nationalistic claims about 'unity' and 'freedom' both enable and erase ongoing harm to marginalized communities," Dysart wrote.
"The primarily white supporters of the Freedom Convoy argue that pandemic mandates infringe upon their constitutional rights to freedom," the WaPo writer continued. "The notion of ‘freedom’ was historically and remains intertwined with whiteness, as historian Tyler Stovall has argued."
In Stovall's book "White Freedom: The Racial History of an Idea," he contends that the Statue of Liberty "promised both freedom and whiteness to European immigrants." The book allegedly "provides vital new perspectives on the inherent racism behind our most cherished beliefs about freedom, liberty, and human rights."
Dysart alleged, "The belief that one’s entitlement to freedom is a key component of white supremacy. This explains why the Freedom Convoy members see themselves as entitled to freedom, no matter the public health consequences to those around them."
A real sentence published in The Washington Post.pic.twitter.com/6RGuS2Xntn— TheBlaze (@TheBlaze) 1645214119
The article was widely slammed on Twitter.
Journalist Tom Elliott: "Evidently Not a Parody: UPenn Prof. Taylor Dysart argues Canada’s civil rights protest is premised on 'white supremacy.'"
Associate editor Liz Wolfe: "When you call everything 'white supremacy,' the term ceases to have any effect whatsoever."
Political commentator Dinesh D'Souza: "If freedom is a white supremacist notion, as this @washingtonpost article insists, what should we be aiming for instead? Unfreedom? Incarceration? Slavery?"
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.): "Why do conservatives want to keep critical race theory out of schools? Because it leads to the insane belief that 'one's entitlement to *freedom* is a key component of White supremacy.'"
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas): "WaPo: Freedom is racist. Don’t worry! While Canadian Mounties trample citizens."
It wasn't only the Washington Post that reduced the trucker protest against vaccine mandates in Ottawa to simply "white supremacy."
"This op-ed argues that the Ottawa 'Freedom Convoy' is really about white supremacy and white nationalism," according to an article in Teen Vogue titled "Canada’s 'Freedom Convoy' Trucker Protests Aren’t About Freedom."
"The protests have included white supremacist and white nationalist imagery, and in that inclusion have given rise to the false and dangerous supposition that those views are a function of freedom, amplifying existing threats to public safety," freelance writer Erica Marrison claimed in the progressive outlet.
Video: Trucker protest in Ottawa escalates as police clash with Freedom Convoy demonstrators, 150 arrested as authorities retake Parliament Hill area
The Freedom Convoy protests have been happening in Ottawa for three weeks, but clashes between law enforcement and demonstrators escalated on Friday and into Saturday.
The Ottawa Police Department said on Friday, "Protesters are assaulting officers, have attempted to remove officer’s weapons. All means of de-escalation have been used to move forward in our goal of returning Ottawa to its normalcy."
The Ottawa Police added, "The protesters continued their assaultive behavior with the police line, to prevent an escalation or further injury, mounted officers were sent in to create critical space between the police line and protesters. This is done to create a safe distance."
However, mounted police charged into a crowd of demonstrators on Friday, knocking down at least two people, including an elderly woman on a mobility scooter.
WATCH: Close up of peaceful protestors in Ottawa protesting mandates being trampled by the mounted unit.\n\nYes, this is Canada in 2022.pic.twitter.com/I776GdTIwe— K2\ud83c\udf41\ud83d\ude9b (@K2\ud83c\udf41\ud83d\ude9b) 1645225843
Overhead photo of police on horseback facing off with protesters in Ottawa today \n @Brett_Gundlock \n\nhttps://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/gallery-in-photos-ottawa-police-say-action-imminent-to-remove-truck-convoy/\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/iJr5nHA6E1— Matt Frehner (@Matt Frehner) 1645228231
The Ottawa Police claimed that "no one has been seriously injured or passed away in any of today's police actions." One officer reportedly had a minor injury.
Early Friday night, the Ottawa Police announced that it had arrested over 100 people and towed 21 vehicles.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on Friday, "There are indications we are now starting to see progress."
Interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell added, "We're in control of the situation on the ground and continue to push forward to clear our streets. We will work day and night until this is completed."
On Saturday morning, the Ottawa Police said its officers would be using helmets and batons.
PROTESTORS: We told you to leave. We gave you time to leave. We were slow and methodical, yet you were assaultive and aggressive with officers and the horses. Based on your behaviour, we are responding by including helmets and batons for our safety.
By noon, the Ottawa and Gatineau Police closed the Chaudières Bridge to "prevent an influx of protesters into Ottawa for everyone's safety." The Chaudière Bridge crosses the Ottawa River about half of a mile west of Parliament Hill.
According to the Associated Press, police "aggressively pushed back protesters" and retook the streets in front of Canada's Parliament building from the Freedom Convoy protesters.
Police surge against the freedom protestors in Ottawa, forcing them towards Parliament Hill.\n\nFootage by @PuffinsPicturespic.twitter.com/aBXmpuPFoR— The Post Millennial (@The Post Millennial) 1645281490
This is the scene in front of Parliament Hill right now. Police are aggressively pushing forward. We are nearly in front of Peace Tower now. #cdnpolipic.twitter.com/22f241zHdL— Rachel Emmanuel (@Rachel Emmanuel) 1645284656
As the protesters were being driven away from Parliament Hill, demonstrators sang, "O' Canada."
Freedom protestors sing O Canada as police drive them away from Parliament Hill.\n\nFootage by @PuffinsPicturespic.twitter.com/YRm3onH8DH— The Post Millennial (@The Post Millennial) 1645290028
CTV anchor Graham Richardson said authorities had retaken Wellington Street and the area surrounding Parliament Hill by noon.
Ottawa Police admitted that they used "a chemical irritant in an effort to stop the assaultive behavior and for officer safety."
On Saturday, the New York Times reported, "Canadian police officers advanced on demonstrators at gunpoint, smashing truck windows and arresting protesters in front of the country’s Parliament building, an aggressive escalation in the government's effort to finally end the protests that have roiled the nation’s capital for three weeks."
The New York Times acknowledged that the trucker protest has been overwhelmingly peaceful, "The protests had been by and large nonviolent, evoking the atmosphere of a carnival. But they ensnarled traffic across the capital, disrupted business, and annoyed residents with incessant honking. Organizers inflated bouncy castles in the street, and people brought small children and dogs. D.J.s spun music from flatbed trucks-turned stages. At one point people soaked in a hot tub erected in front of the Parliament building."
By 1 p.m., Ottawa Police said that they had arrested 47 on Saturday and towed 38 vehicles.
The major crackdown of the protest occurred after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act earlier this week, which enabled law enforcement to set up a secure zone with roughly 100 checkpoints, suspend driver's licenses, and freeze bank accounts of protesters.
On Thursday, police arrested key leaders of the Freedom Convoy – Tamara Lich and Chris Barber.
Trudeau invokes emergency powers to end Freedom Convoy protests
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday invoked rare emergency powers to end the Freedom Convoy trucker protests against vaccine mandates.
In Canada's capital, Ottawa, hundreds of truckers have entered their third week of protest against the government's COVID-19 vaccine mandate, occupying the city's downtown area. Elsewhere, protesters have blocked border crossing between the U.S. and Canada, demanding that Trudeau lift the vaccine requirements on truckers that cross the border, as well as other coronavirus restrictions.
Canadian authorities said Sunday they had arrested several people and towed a pair of pickup trucks that had been parked to block an intersection leading to Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit, Michigan. In the province of Alberta, police arrested 11 people near a border crossing and found a cache of firearms and ammunition.
"This is not a peaceful protest," Trudeau declared at a press conference.
The prime minister announced that he has invoked the 1988 Emergencies Act, a law that permits the federal government to override the provinces and suspend certain civil liberties to protect national security during an emergency. Trudeau's powers under the act would enable him to prohibit public assembly, travel, and to mobilize government support for local police, according to Reuters.
"With each of the illegal blockades, local law enforcement agencies have been acting to keep the peace within their jurisdiction. Despite their best efforts, it is now clear there are serious challenges to law enforcement's ability to effectively enforce the law," Trudeau said.
"After discussing with cabinet and caucus, after consultation with premiers from all provinces and territories, after speaking with opposition leaders, the federal government has invoked the Emergencies Act to supplement provincial and territorial capacity to address the blockades and occupations," he announced.
The Emergencies Act has never been invoked by a Canadian prime minister. A previous version of the law called the War Measures Act was used during peacetime by Trudeau's father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who in 1970 used emergency powers to deal with a militant group of Quebec separatists who had kidnapped a British diplomat and then abducted a provincial cabinet minister who was later killed in captivity.
The law defines a national emergency as a temporary "urgent and critical situation" that "seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians and is of such proportions or nature as to exceed the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it."
"I want to be very clear, the scope of these measures will be time-limited, geographically targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address," Trudeau said.
CBC/Radio-Canada, a publicly funded news outlet, reported that Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair has been in "daily" discussions with Trudeau's cabinet on using on the government's emergency powers. Blair said the government was "prepared to do everything necessary" to end the protests.
At the press conference, Trudeau outlined how the Emergency Act will be used to "get the situation under control."
The prime minister said that police will be given greater powers to impose fines on or imprison the protesters in Ottawa and at points of entry between the U.S. and Canada, accusing the demonstrations of engaging in "illegal and dangerous activities." Trudeau said the government will designate border crossings and airports, among other places, as "critical" to the Canadian economy and will protect those areas.
He added that the government will be empowered to tow vehicles blocking roads and that financial institutions would be empowered to block funding for the protests and will not need a court order to do so.
Trudeau deputy PM: \u201cFinancial service provider will be able to immediately freeze or suspend an account without a court order [if the person supports the truckers]. In doing so, they will be protected against civil liability for actions taken in good faith."pic.twitter.com/DFzWxkL0dL— Tom Elliott (@Tom Elliott) 1644876037
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland explained that any trucker that's using their vehicle in the "illegal blockades" will have their corporate accounts frozen and the insurance on their truck suspended.
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister:\n\n"If your truck is being used in these illegal blockades, your corporate accounts will be frozen, the insurance on your vehicle will be suspended."pic.twitter.com/iv1K8VDhAL— Greg Price (@Greg Price) 1644876043
"This is about keeping Canadians safe, protecting people's jobs, and restoring confidence in our institutions," Trudeau said.
The prime minister emphasized that the government will not call in the military to end the protests.
"We're not using the Emergencies Act to call in the military. We're not suspending fundamental rights or overriding the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We are not limiting people's freedom of speech, we are not limiting freedom of peaceful assembly. We are not preventing people from exercising their right to protest legally. We are reinforcing the principles, values, and institutions that keep all Canadians free," Trudeau said.
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