Correction: An earlier tweet incorrectly suggested that Trudeau would temporarily suspend civil liberties. We deleted the incorrect tweet.
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 14, 2022
Having 2 friends separately inquire about my view of the impact of the Emergencies Acr in Canada: something such as that rarely happens. There were a lot of unknowns in answering that question.
The Emergencies Act created in 1988 under the Brian Mulroney government. This essentially replaces the War Measures Act. The Emergencies Act had never been implemented before now.
After considerable debate in the House of Commons, as required to happen within 7 days, the House passed a motion affirming the Emergencies Act 185-151. The NDP gave "reluctant support" while the Conservatives and the Bloc Quebecois were on the other side of the debate.
The New York Times got the Emergencies Act completely wrong in headlines and the actual story. Civil liberties are intact. From what we've heard, there have been steps to go after the funding for the right-wing convoy groups.
The newspaper also had demonstrators arrested at gunpoint, which also was not true.
Quality journalism becomes so important when misinformation is out there such as a woman allegedly trampled by a police horse, which is very much not true.
"It's not a blank cheque. We are prepared to pull our support as soon as … the act is no longer needed," NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said yesterday.
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As we noted, this legislation came under the Progressive Conservatives in 1988. In a normal political world, this would seem significant. The Progressive Conservatives fall in a Switzerland type realm where the current Conservative Party and the current Liberal Party consider the party to be in opposition.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford also declared a state of emergency on a provincial level. The only reaction has been why Ford waited so long (as is his pattern) to go that route. Critics have wondered if Ford knows Ottawa is in Ontario.
There is a perspective that Ford and Trudeau waited way too long to resort to such measures. The people who live in Ottawa would agree as would the auto workers in Windsor and Detroit.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet argued that the government needed to provide additional officers to remove the protesters as opposed to invoking the Emergencies Act. Almost everyone would have agreed with that approach.
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While the convoy people got carte blanche in their takeover of Ottawa and other places, they see themselves as the victims. Playing the Emergencies Act card will make them feel even more of the victims. The people who lost sleep over the truck horns: real victims but they can't be as whiny as the people who perpetrated the noise.
This was the drawback to invoking the Emergencies Act; damned either way. Again, this is the same anger that infiltrated the last election campaign. Disagreeing with the prime minister is a thing that happens in democracy. What we saw last fall and this winter is above and beyond normal and rational behaviour.
Apparently this is Conservative Party of Canada senator Mike MacDonald supporting the occupiers, and is sick of the privilege and spoiled citizens of Ottawa. This is what the Conservative Party of Canada believes. He sure has a lot to say. #cdnpoli #FreedomConvoy2022 pic.twitter.com/XOxP4Ik6Jr
— Neil Before Zod™ (@WaytowichNeil) February 20, 2022
Stephen Harper has been out of office since 2015 but his legacy of poor human beings promoted to the Canadian Senate is the gift that almost no one wants.
Mike Duffy. Pamela Wallin. Don Meredith. Patrick Brazeau. Lynn Bezak. Michael MacDonald hasn't been as bad as his fellow Conservatives but he is trying to get into that club.
"I don't care if they leave in Windsor or in the other places with the shutting down transportation, but in Ottawa, I don't want them to leave," MacDonald was caught saying on the recording.
Canadian senators aren't usually on the front lines for a lot of reasons.
MacDonald calls out the Ottawa residents whose lives have been turned upside down with the noise and abuse.
"It's everybody's f--king city, this is the capital of the country. It's not your god-damned city just because you have a 6 figure salary and you work 20 hours a week, you haven't worked a full week in two years. It's sickening, it's sickening."
Canadian senators earn $160,800, plus pension and benefits. The Senate only sat for 47 days last year.
MacDonald likely won't get kicked out of the Conservative section of the Senate. Just another embarrassing Conservative federal senator.
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Looking forward to @FrontBurnerCBC and other #cdnjournalism shows talking with #Indigenous, Black, and anti-misogyny protesters in the future in the same manner, tone, and empathy they are treating #convoy2022. Not holding my breath. https://t.co/pV4o4QlGyx
— Chad Rubel (@canadian_xing) February 20, 2022
We've seen countless abuses of reporters on the ground just in Ottawa alone. A French Canadian reporter being shoved in the back while doing a live shot. Reporters and cameramen being spit on. Loud yelling during live shots.
A convoy person telling a Global News reporter that he has to ask permission to film him in public, which is not true. The idea of giving a false law while breaking several real laws: hubris.
We feel really bad for the people on the ground in Ottawa, Windsor, and elsewhere for the abuse they have taken during this ordeal. They treat those who abuse them in their reporting better than those who don't abuse them in other protests. When liberal people protest, they beg the media to talk to them. When conservatives protest, the media does the begging.
We know Jayme Poisson has her loyalties on the conservative side of issues. She has shown her bias on Front Burner countless times. Her extra-long edition (noted above) is embedded to the 5th power. Poisson desperately wants to point our how normal the convoy people are. Poisson would never dream of doing this for an Indigenous protest.
Poisson says at one point that they asked her to turn off her equipment. That is something a real journalist refuses to do. Otherwise, we would not have heard what Sen. MacDonald had to say.
Shame on Party Lines and The Current for cross promoting this episode. If they were forced to promote the episode, then shame on CBC News. Pardon us if we laugh the next time CBC News is portrayed as "liberal."
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Les Ordres from Michel Brault tells the stories of Quebecers who were arrested as part of the War Measures Act. Then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the act for the first time during peacetime. This was during the October Crisis in 1970. The Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped provincial Deputy Premier Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James Cross.
Different times, different eras, different Trudeaus.
Twitter captures: @nytimes; @WaytowichNeil; @canadian_xing
photo credit: CTV News
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