Tweet from Bob Rae the Canadian ambassador to the UN

[AZProgressive]

Link to tweet

[Chainfire]

1. No wonder he is a diplomat.

He about summed it up.

[hlthe2b]

2. Excellent summation.

[PoliticAverse]

3. "An occupation is not a protest" - really?

Occupy wall street wasn't "a protest"?

Sit-ins aren't "a protest"?

The bonus marchers weren't "a protest"?

Etc.

"A lie is not the truth" - even if it appears in a tweet.

[Justice matters.]

5. A demand from a fringe minority to overthrow a Liberal government or...

they'll harass, intimidate, insult residents with children wearing masks, honk 24/7 to leave local residents (who have done nothing to deserve it) sleepless for three weeks is not a protest... it's a hostage-taking illegal occupation.

[Cha]

18. Well said, TY!

[PoliticAverse]

25. The primary demand was for the removal of vaccine mandates/covid restrictions.

Please provide evidence the leaders were calling for "overthrow" of the government.

As to the horn honking, do some critical thinking - if residents have gone sleepless for 3 weeks, why haven't the truckers also?
Wouldn't they want to sleep?

All "occupations" (even down to occupying lunch counters) are illegal. Civil disobedience is still protest.

[luvtheGWN]

34. One of the stated demands by the leaders of this so-called

"Freedom Convoy" was to get the Governor-General to toss out Trudeau and the Liberal government and to have another election. (The G-G has no power to do so in a parliamentary democracy).

A majority of the "truckers" were not even truckers - many of them were grain and feed farmers who actually own their semis which they use to transport grains (mostly corn and soybeans) to ports on the Great Lakes.

The leaders of the Convoy are also leaders of the Maverick Party in Alberta, the primary goal of which is to get the province out of Canada.

[LiberalLovinLug]

46. What???

"As to the horn honking, do some critical thinking - if residents have gone sleepless for 3 weeks, why haven't the truckers also?
Wouldn't they want to sleep?"


That is the most twisted piece of "logic" for the defence of these entitled, selfish, deluded fellow Canadians I've ever read.

[Swede]

49. They honked their horns for 24 hours a day for weeks.

Where people live and work. They harassed mask wearers, women and visible minorities. They harassed news crews.

&ab_channel=The4KGuy-Fire%26Police

[Justice matters.]

52. Put yourself in their shoes much?? How insensitive! Colateral damages, I guess...

Complaints range from idling trucks that impede traffic and makeshift wooden structures in city parks to lost income and fears of harassment and even violence.

Stuart, a chef at a downtown restaurant, told the BBC his work had been disrupted because food and alcohol deliveries could not make it past the blockade of trucks and police cordons.

He said: "I have no doubt that the vast majority are peaceful. But, as was seen last year with protests in the US, a small minority of people with bad intentions can very easily and quickly escalate the situation."

Monica Chohan, an Indian-Canadian lawyer living in central Ottawa, said: "There were men walking in groups in front of our house with 'Make Canada Great Again' hats. I just started to feel like I don't want to go and put myself out there. There's a feeling of unease."

There is "a sense of lack of safety for anyone who is not Caucasian, straight or on board with the protests", said Jessica Seguin, who fears for her child, who identifies as transgender.

https://ca.style.yahoo.com/fear-loathing-ottawa-more-protests-220756585.html

So you stand for the confederate and nazi flags... noted (and blocked soon)...

Never thought I woud see such BS on DU...

[judesedit]

9. They are peaceful protests. 20% the intrusion on peoples' lives

.01% the noise level

[txwhitedove]

12. The protest name "Occupy Wall Street" did not mean blockade. "While some smaller

groups did civil disobedience, the larger groups made an effort to slow, not stop traffic with their numbers on the Financial Districts tiny sidewalks."

[Cha]

17. TY!

[PoliticAverse]

24. "All day, all week, shut down Wall street"...

https://nbcnews.com/id/wbna45335208

[druidity33]

23. That line got me too...

I disagree. As apparently you do.

[PoliticAverse]

26. I'm an old civil libertarian, I kinda like protests even the ones whose goals I disagree with. n/t

[Swede]

48. It was coup against a recently elected government, they wanted to be part of this new government.

https://www.netnewsledger.com/2022/02/05/the-canada-unity-memorandum-of-understanding/

[blue sky at night]

4. I love the precise use of the language...

too bad it will have no affect on those who practice all of the above. Lock them the fuck up!

[malaise]

6. He got that right

Rec

[judesedit]

7. Absolutely!

[Native]

8. I loved this response...

Link to tweet

?t=Ot98oqE6-2NLtBVEmPDuAw&s=19

[Cha]

21. Wow.. TY! That kid is Brilliant!

Link to tweet

[Kali]

10. I disagree with a couple of those

I think an occupation can be protest and trucks (or tractors, or tents, or other "structures" ) can be a part of all of it. hell, in this country campaign money is legally speech now, right?

[sdfernando]

13. This country (the U.S.A.???) is NOT Canada

Canada has their own laws. See post #8 just above.

[Kali]

14. yes,

as in contrast to Canada

[Cha]

20. Thank You! Amb Rae knows

what he's talking about. The Trucker Obstruction in Canada was an Illegal Blockade.. Disrupting People's Livelihoods.. & Sleep!

Link to tweet

[PoliticAverse]

28. An "illegal blockade" like the farmers' protest in India that Trudeau supported. n/t

[Hiawatha Pete]

29. Trucks are not protesters

They are businesses. They can be sued.

If you want to protest, you do it on your own two feet without a 10 ton weapon / compensating toy to make your so-called "protest" look bigger than it is.

And:
- threatening to sexually assault a woman,
-Attacking a guy in a wheelchair ,
-being assaulted by so-called freedom fighters for taking pictures,
-Mobs forcing people to remove masks to get on the LRT,
-Mobs assaulting/tearing mask off seniors at bus stop,
-Mobs throwing rocks at ambulances and shouting racist slurs,
-Women at a local emergency shelter terrorized by the constant honking and angry men outside
-Staff and volunteers at a downtown shelter were threatened until they provided food to mob instead of homeless people,
-assaults on homeless people,
-racial slurs at Black personal support workers,
-Noise torture by constant horn blowing
and attempting a coup of our democratically elected parliament is not protesting.

It's domestic terrorism. Period.

Link to tweet

[PoliticAverse]

30. Farm tractors are though? n/t

[Hiawatha Pete]

31. I don't give a flying fuck about your whataboutisms.

And trying to burn down an apt bldg with all its inhabitants also isn't protesting.
It's domestic terrorism. Period

Link to tweet

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ottawa-police-investigating-attempted-arson-in-centretown-high-rise-1.5771579

[PoliticAverse]

32. Of course not because it refutes the trucks aren't protests.

As to the fire starting, that is a very serious crime and those involved should face serious charges. Do post when an arrest has been made.

[Hiawatha Pete]

33. It refutes nothing. It's a lot harder to use farm tractors as weapons due to their much slower speed

or to hide firearms in due to lack of a cab/sleeping compartment
or for noise torture with airhorns.

[PoliticAverse]

35. I see, you think trucks are weapons. n/t

[Cha]

22. P.S. "That's Not the Way Democracy Works"..

Link to tweet

[wnylib]

36. But what is being occupied determines

whether it is a protest or a siege/blockade.

Occupying border bridges between nations is an international blockade with international repercussions.

Occupying the capital city of a nation that blocks government workers, including the national leader, from access to offices is a siege with subversive overtones.

Neither one is just a protest or act of civil disobedience. They are destructive, seditious attacks.

Civil disobedience is a refusal to abide by laws deemed unjust, e.g. registering to vote when laws deny that citizen's right to you, or refusing to give up a seat that you, as a citizen have a right to.

Blockading international bridges and government offices, and laying siege to a nation's capital so that goods and services cannot reach people are acts of overt aggression.

Civil disobedience protesters know that they will be arrested. But they accept it as part of the protest to bring awareness to their cause.

[Kali]

38. pretty sure there were some international brigdes blocked between the US and Mexico

during protests that I 100% agreed with. probably a few other DUrs as well.

[wnylib]

40. When? Got a link?

Was the goal to stop international business and to block all government functioning? Or was it to save lives and protect people from imminent danger due to inhumane treatment?

[Kali]

41. here are a couple

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/migrant-protesters-occupy-u-s-mexico-border-bridge-close-crossing-n1064786

even though I put US Mexico bridge protest in the google machine it is returning mostly US Canada results, I assume due to recent news. will post more if I find them.

edit - this is a better one https://www.vice.com/en/article/gyz39w/what-life-is-like-for-the-migrants-who-occupied-a-us-mexico-bridge-in-protest

hereis a recent one, not about migration and just a few hours - https://www.kgns.tv/2021/04/09/laredo-port-closes-amid-protest-in-nuevo-laredo/

and I also have a recollection of blockages by protesting truckers a number of years ago as well, but the details are foggy. I think it was over allowing Mexican trucks to operate on this side.

[wnylib]

43. Do you see an equivalency between

desperate people seeking asylum for themselves and their families in the occupation of one bridge and the planned, coordinated shut down of multiple bridges AND a capital city for a political rally?

I don't.

Do you kid yourself into believing that the trucker caravans were about vaccine mandates?

[Kali]

44. I am not comparing motivation or judging causes claimed, just the actions.

I don't want to be a hypocrite saying I would never support an action done for a cause I do support just because the same type of action was used by supporters of a cause I find to be ridiculous.

[wnylib]

45. Not only different causes, but completely

different actions with totally different goals.

I have no problem condemning the Canadian trucker siege and supporting the migrants. Not at all hypocritical in my view because of the differences between them.

[bringthePaine]

11. a tasty and refined distillation - cheers🍸

[KurtSteiner]

15. Former Ontario NDP Premier

If it is the same Bob Rae I'm thinking of, he used to be the Premier of Ontario of the New Democratic Party (social democratic).

I like him, and of course he is spot on here.

I wish we had an equivalent to NDP here, but we really don't...so I suppose the best we can do is support Democratic progressives and hope they catch President Biden's ear.

[roamer65]

39. Yes, he was Premier of Ontario.

Damn good one too.

[Cha]

16. Brilliantly stated! Rt TY & Amb Bob Rae!

[Cha]

19. Yes, and Canadians aren't divided; the vast majority of us support science

Link to tweet

[KurtSteiner]

54. Canadian friends

I have FB friends in Edmonton and Toronto.

What they think of this lot would likely violate DU TOS.

The guy in Edmonton is the son of a former long haul trucker.

I am the son of a former long-haul trucker/diesel mechanic.

We agreed that both our dads would have had enlightened colourful language for this lot.

My old man could not stand crybabies.

[Cha]

55. And, that's what the Obstructionist

Truckers are.. a bunch of Whiney ass Whiners.. Honking for Dumb Free Shit.

TY for your post!

[ymetca]

27. I can understand

a protest occupying space to prevent an unjust action against a people or place, especially when such injustice has been legally authorized.

I'm willing to allow that people may be justified in breaking the wheels of the machinery of injustice.

But what these so-called "truckers" were doing seems like a whole lotta astroturfing bullshit to me.

[wnylib]

37. +1000.

[Kali]

42. agree

although it looks like people think my point was actually agreeing with these assholes. I do not, but I also don't want to be a hypocrite and say I would never support occupation/disruption/noise as a form of protest.

[BSdetect]

47. k&r

[maxrandb]

50. In a just world

The UN Security Council would sanction the entire Retrumplicans Party for attempting to overthrow a sovereign nation.

Canada should file suit against the entire Retrumplican Party and Faux News for the damage done to their economy.

They should sue EVERY FUCKING LOCAL HATE-RADIO station that provided aid and comfort to this illegal economic blockade, including the 80+ American Universities that support HATE-RADIO.

[L. Coyote]

51. VIRAL message. 21.2K Retweets 2,010 Quote Tweets 68.5K Likes

[peppertree]

53. Try telling right-wingers that, though

They love the lies; they want the overthrow.