I’m more concerned about the border crossing shut downs than the occupation of Ottawa at this point. More supply chain disruptions are good for no one. Those vehicles should be seized and drivers arrested, they’re disrupting critical infrastructure.
Isn’t that the real point of their demonstration? The truckers believe that the vaccination mandates for trucks crossing the border are wrong and disrupting the critical supply chain infrastructure?
I don’t give a shit if that’s their “point”.
If they’re criminally disrupting critical infrastructure it’s time to jail them.
What is surprising is that there have not been US trucker demonstrations as the US and Canada impose the same restrictions on cross-border truckers. Even if Canada lifted its restrictions both countries’ truckers would still require vaccination to enter the US.
Buddy who drives trucks in Nebraska says I-80 is crawling with cops, and they’ve brought out their armored vehicles.
No idea if there’s a protest planned in that area, but might be worth noting. Or, might be “we have to put on a show to justify getting a shitload of money and a shitload of unnecessary stuff.”
The only winners in the Ottawa occupation are the Ottawa police. The additional shifts and overtime pay have been staggering. Overtime pay is pensionable under the police pension plan so there is a deferred as well as an immediate cost to the City of Ottawa. I expect the City will be seeking a provincial and/or federal handout as the cost may be too much for them to pass on to property owners. The work has consisted of paroling without the dangers that US police often face in US demonstrations so it has been easy money for the police.
One person’s response to the Ottawa protests:
The Bee had a bit of fun, it appears:
Donor identity info on the follow up site after go fund me was shut down was inadvertently publicly accessible.
One IT person out there is having the best guffaw of their life.
Isn’t the answer simply that you slowly tow away each truck one-by-one for illegal parking…?
Assuming Canadians have a similar right to protest then all for them exercising that right but I’d assume Canadians don’t have a right to illegally park their truck.
The issue at the moment is there are only a few companies that can do the towing, and they’re all saying no because they don’t want to be blacklisted.
Similar to Jan 6 in the US this is made worse by former police and army people being involved in organizing things
Ah that makes things tricky. Does the military have a means to tow the trucks?
Or if things are really tricky like that I could see having a judge give a warrant to seize the truck or something so you can drive it to the pound
The military probably could, but the optics of escalation wouldn’t look great.
I think the focus should be on the border crossings, those are causing real harm to a lot of Canadians. Arrest them, seize their trucks, de license them.
I suppose, but having a bunch of trucks illegally occupying your downtown for an indefinite period of time undermines any kind of order. You don’t need some kind of heavy duty military involvement but if the only option to tow the trucks away are military tow trucks then fair enough, imo.
I am thinking that Canadians are less willing to agree to use force to clear out protesters than Americans are. Some of these folks are armed and there’s a lot of kids.
I think the idea is to wait until the protesters blink. Someone screws up and does something heinous and the police will have the moral authority to move in. Til then, wait.
Fair enough, I agree there’s probably a cultural difference. Nice to take some of the attention off all the silly things that happen south of the border
It’s my understanding that one of the complications with the situation in Ottawa is that the private heavy tow operators don’t want to help, perhaps due to sympathy with the protest, or a concern for protecting future business opportunities, or the practical difficulties of moving a truck that the owner doesn’t want moved.
If this were being held in the US, I expect that the gazpacho police would have been dispatched by now.