Zeitgeist

Actually there’s an exodus from much mainstream legacy media right now. Fascinating to hear on Real Time with Bill Maher that more Democrats are watching Fox News now than MSNBC. WTF? Massive shift underway culturally. It’s like suddenly people are realizing how restrictive leftist woke ideology is making life. The centre cannot hold in our cancel culture. Beri Weiss is calling cancelation almost a badge of honour. Wokeness is being rejected along with mandates and all forms of overreach. This is the libertarian moment. We’ve lived under de facto totalitarianism under the public health authorities and a technocracy of data reports from our digital surveillance systems. This is a movement against digital totalitarianism. Marshall McLuhan would’ve found these culture wars in the Information Age fascinating. Global theatre. However, the threats to our civil liberties are real. We really could go the way of China if we don’t demand the lifting of mandates and restrictive policies. Digital vaccine passports are the stuff of dystopias.

It was pretty sucky stuff. Yes the protests were probably a bit much for residents downtown in the capital for the most significant protests in Canadian history. It was messy but no one got hurt (except the protesters). The injunction worked. The blockades were being removed before the Emergencies Act. Ottawa residents are safe.

You have too much to prove for me to care a damn what you think.

You’ve got a lot of work to do to earn respect on here. I mean I respect you in the universal sense that God loves everyone, but Smitty and I have been debating on here for almost four years.

Ha good luck. Smitty’s honour speaks for itself.

We get it, loud horns at all hours bad. An injunction was applied and the late night honking stopped. This isn’t one-sided CBC coverage, right? Lol. I guess this lady represents the views of all of Ottawa. It’s funny watching these last gasps of officialdom in legacy media.

Yes I think they should be allowed to get on a plane freely and enjoy the same rights as vaccinated people.

Ah you’re the voice that knows what’s good for everyone.

Then get all the vaccines you want. I have. Just don’t impose your health choices on others.

Again this is painting everyone with the same brush. The blockades were the extreme end of the protest, but no property was damaged. It needed to end and it did without the Emergencies Act. People walking around protesting in Ottawa is a constitutional and important citizen right. Freezing the bank accounts of protest supporters and laying criminal charges against protesters is pretty heavy handed stuff. There may have been some justifiable charges, but the public generally doesn’t have enough information to make accurate assessments right now. The weapons bust in Alberta was already explained by police. Those people grafted themselves onto the protest at the 11th hour. People are individuals and accountable for their own actions.

Torture? The only violence I saw came from police last night, and I don’t even blame the police as a whole because I think most of them genuinely want a good resolution to this and not to hurt anyone. All along you have been extreme in your characterization of the protesters, supporting the language of vilification and division. We all agreed that blockades need to be removed and they were. It was the fact that there was no effort by government to acknowledge the valid concerns of the protesters and the state-sanctioned humiliation of the unvaccinated and their supporters that is the bigger issue than some closed streets and honking horns in Ottawa. Bringing in the Emergencies Act added insult to injury. Anyway, it’s all on record for the world to see and judge according to people’s natural proclivity towards freedom. Let’s just be thankful that no one appears to have been killed. Let’s hope that government can see the light of day, dial down the rhetoric, and stop the vilification. I pray that our full compliment of rights and freedoms are restored, that vaccine mandates are dropped, and that the country will return to true inclusivity.

What a strange comment

Yes we’ve had these discussions, which is how I know you’re a good guy. The state is not and must never pretend to be God. This has been tried. The Soviets did it with the myth of V. Lenin. It was done with Mao. It’s been done with Hitler. Any promise by a political group or individual to provide heaven on Earth through political power is a snake oil salesman. That’s why we have freedom of religion, speech, bodily autonomy, etc. We’ve learned from history and sacred texts (which are also histories) that history is the account of various periods of enslavement and liberation. Our constitution is supposed to ensure individual liberties against abuses of power by the state upon individuals, because the Leviathan (state power) inherently seeks greater power and control. That’s why we have checks and balances, a Supreme Court, and a constitution. We’re living in a period of profound government overreach. It was arguable for some of the pandemic that the suspension of our civil rights was justified to address a serious public health emergency. Now, however, the state has held on to those special powers and supplemented them with the Emergencies Act. This is tyrannical.

Your support of oppression is so heroic.

Was having protesters and trucks in Ottawa after the border blockades were removed enough reason for the government not to provide any plan for the removal of vaccine mandates and digital vaccine passports? Was it enough reason to invoke the Emergencies Act, freeze bank accounts, trample a disabled lady, and beat protesters? The default rights for all Canadians must be the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, not the suspension or conditional selection of them.

I don’t know the personal histories of the organizers, I didn’t read any manifestos or whatever weird shit one or two people are peddling. The protests are about removing vaccine mandates, nothing more, for the vast majority of protesters. That’s all it’s ever been to me. I will say that more rights are at risk with these expanded government and police powers in the Emergencies Act. All Canadians should be very concerned.

Exactly right. The NDP really do have an undemocratic faction too. Don’t forget that they lobbied to keep property rights out of the Constitution. The current NDP are not the workers’ party of Jack. The Liberals are no longer the folksy lessez faire party of Chrétien. I just hope there are enough sane members within all parties to see how dangerous the vaccine mandates, Emergencies Act, and vilification of the opposition are to the very fabric of Canadian liberal democracy.

I actually think you’re working against the human rights of all Canadians when you keep orienting the discussion around some guy that was involved with the protests. What does it mean to the thousands of protesters who are clamouring to have their constitutional rights respected? It’s irresponsible, Hardner. I’m not impressed.

That is what’s happening. The other exceptional counter-examples are just that. It’s of critical importance that Canadians and the world understand what’s unfolding. I genuinely don’t know where we’ll land in the coming days as a country, but it’s a real crisis and what’s at stake is literally the constitutional rights of all Canadians.

This is what happens when a people forgets the value of the freedom our soldiers fought to protect and when our people stop respecting those soldiers for their service. I keep hoping that mainstream Canadian media will tell this story, which is the real story of why we’re in trouble as a country. The longer Trudeau leads in this direction and has enough of a following to maintain this assault on the constitutional rights of all Canadians, the more this will drive our greatest Canadians into a crisis of meaning and purpose. These soldiers and police will ask themselves, what am I doing in this role and why am I doing it when my own government doesn’t respect me or the freedoms I swore an oath to defend?

No, the reason it’s called “No longer a democracy” is because at some point in recent Canadian history freedom became a dirty word. People just asking that their constitutional rights be respected came to be characterized by the Canadian government as racist and misogynist. It’s what irresponsible leaders do to discredit opponents. There have been less harsh derogatory remarks. Heather Mallick of the Toronto Star said the truckers looked like potatoes. The rhetoric is all similar in that it takes a group of people united by a legitimate cause, ensuring that constitutional rights are respected, and characterizes these people as morons or somehow retrograde. Trudeau has leaned heavily on his privilege as a man from a family that has had great political power in Canada. He has used his personal charisma to bring national loathing upon the unvaccinated and those who would defend them. This has been and continues to be the darkest hour in modern Canadian history. I hope that the members of all political parties, left and right, are taking careful note of what has unfolded in Canada and are asking themselves, Does my Canada really include all Canadians? Are we standing up for the civil rights of all Canadians?

I don’t know anymore. Individuals vary widely and there are sadistic people. I’d like to think the commanders aren’t sadists, but our leaders are up to some pretty oppressive stuff. On the ground it’s on the individual police or soldiers to remember their oaths. There has been the trampling of a disabled woman and the beating of a wounded war vet. Another individual was beaten with a rifle. Who did the beating? These are the individuals who must be called to account. Of course these police are also under pressure, but keeping a cool head is essential to effective law enforcement. In the end the police have the weapons and personnel. They have to be extra careful to keep their own members from misuse of force.

Lol

You saw the clip of the guy saying he heard the man carrying the swastika say he came from Eastern Europe and is scared that Trudeau is acting like a Nazi. Trudeau saying the opposition is standing with people carrying swastika flags is one of the most cynical smear campaigns in Canadian history.

Enjoy it. I’m steering clear of all that crap.