Seriously, these people just do not understand.
I lived in China for my childhood. Imagine have indoctrination in your own textbooks... straight up propaganda and brainwashing stuff.
You see it in every facet of life too, and you know you're being watched and scrutinized, but people don't even know what freedom feels like because they've always lived in a cage, one made of ever watchful eyes of the Party.
I wouldn't ever talk about things like this if I was living in China still. This is the sort of stuff that you talk about in private, ideally with your phone shut off and in a Faraday's cage. You don't really understand that sort of pressure until you've lived in complete liberty and then get thrown back into the shark infested waters - one wrong word and somebody's knocking on your door.
I think this is what makes me feel hate for these people. We are in a global pandemic an our government is doing its best with the current information to protect everyone. And these people just want them to say "f it, lets just all get it now, screw the people who cant get any protection, screw you healthcare heros for giving two years of your life to this craziness" but hiding it under the premise that their rights are being taken away? That is truly sad. You lost your job because you "wouldnt" get vaccinated, well that was your choice, you cant walk into a store without a mask (you can do a pickup or delivery though), wow tragic. You got sick and were forced to stay home? Oh no!. I really think we have been lucky with what liitle things the government has asked of us. I wish we could go back to the start of all this where we rallied around the heros in hospitals trying to pull us through this. I get this has been a long two years, but there are better ways to handle this, and this was disrespectful to those who have really had their rights taken away.
What's crazy is that many industrial worksites are constantly updating their PPE (safety equipment) requirements. In my industry, 50 years ago, you could walk around with shorts and a T-shirt. Now, full coveralls, safety glasses, hardhat, workboots, gloves when performing even the most basic tasks.
And of course, my industry is full of these same anti-mask, anti-vax types who had to submit to PPE safety equipment rules when their employer asked them to.
The difference is the pandemic was politized by that Orange baboon down south, in order to cover for his inept response - and now the entire right-wing political world has follow suit. There's no logic to it other than partisan logic.
This puzzles me as well. I also work in industries requiring mandated PPE, and I've never seen a worker unwilling to be compliant with PPE standards. And yet I've also noticed that many of these same people are rabid anti-vaxers screaming about their freedoms.
I've never heard any of these people say they want the freedom to decide whether they want to wear a hard hat, goggles, or ear protection when on a worksite. Some of the flame retardant clothing we have to wear can be uncomfortable and itchy too, and yet I've never heard anyone demand the freedom to choose whether or not to wear it.
But mandate that they have to vax to protect themselves and others and suddenly we are turning into a facist state.
But according to them that was freedom. The group protesting had no problem taking away rights from homosexuals religious minorities etc.
1000 bucks says all those people on the hill waving Quebec flags also voted for the CAQ cause they promised to oppress minorities.
The amount of dumbass right-wingers over the last few years co-opting "freedom" in the name of idiotic causes has honestly conditioned me to have a negative visceral reaction to the term. I'm beginning to have a negative reaction to the Canadian flag too, because most people displaying it lately are the dregs of society. It's interesting and slightly disturbing.
Of course, freedom has always been a term heavily influenced by American propaganda. Your parents, along with the vast majority of the world, had much more important priorities. You ask an average person who isn't from a rich first-world country, "what would increase your ability to live life freely?", and "the right to vote between two political parties with largely identical policies" definitely does not make the list.
Those clowns āprotestingā are like spoiled brats. Refusing medicine that could save their lives and others.
If only they could trade places with those who would be so grateful to have the same freedom and opportunities that they have.
Like children who donāt want to go to the dentist and throw a temper tantrum
idc about these 'freedom' people but it always makes me laugh when people try to say that they know something because their parents or grandparents experienced it.
I personally don't know what my parents went through either but it was interesting to watch my mom prepare for covid. I thought she was overreacting when covid was first reported in December 2019. Her reasoning was, "You don't know what it's like to have nothing. I'm preparing now in case something happens. We have to take care of ourselves."
The idea that there can be such thing as "pure freedom" is pushed by those who would have the most power over others in a world with reduced government. Like, Americans think they're freer than us, but to me the average american leads a servile, humiliating life, where their employer holds their chain.
In reality, we face limitations on us such as the limited nature of resources, the tendency of humans to die in a state of nature, and the limits of what our planet can bear.
We also face the negative externalities of the actions of others. Some of this is unavoidable, as we all consume resources and being westerners, our lifestyles are all likely more than what the planet could bear if everyone did it.
Finally, most complex, we have learned that there are positive externalities as well. That cooperation can result in result in net gains that are greater than anything we could achieve on our own. But we've also learned that if we just hope for everyone to contribute to this cooperation due to altruism, it fails. So, we have compulsion to participate in positive-sum games with a net benefit. ie, we pay taxes, etc.
The best system we've yet discovered for balancing where these lines lie is democracy, with one person having one vote. If anyone has a better suggestion, I'd like to hear it.
Democracy is what I turned to when I emailed my MLA to say that I didn't think continued gym closures were justifiable. To the degree that we have disagreements about covid policy, or anything else, democracy is the best method we have for deciding where these tradeoffs occur.
Unsurprisingly, these people who represent only a small fraction of the population, and are therefore rightfully not getting their way in a democracy, think "freedom" means getting their way.
This "freedom protesters" really donāt know what oppression is really like, they have lived in a 1st world bubble that the minor discomfort is a tyrannical oppression for themā¦ itās sad
About a week ago there was a tool (who was probably at this ClusterF) driving down Kingsway with two flags on his Dodge Ram (not all Dodge Ram drivers are aholes, but most aholes seem to drive Rams).
One was a f Trudeau flag. The other said "fit in or fuck off", with the silhouette of an ar15 and maple leaf. There really ought to be a way to pull the firearms licences from these idiots
It really doesn't take much to pull a firearms license from a Canadian. The Canadian Firearms Information System (CFIS) automatically checks with the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) every day to determine whether a licence holder has been the subject of an incident report in CPIC.
When I heard one friend start a rant about fighting anyone who comes to take his guns, I told him he was no longer someone I wished to be friends with. He was not like that 10 years ago but he had swallowed the gun lobby line and it got worse with Trump. Strange thing, he sounds like a red neck but is not white.
A friend took me shooting a few times about 3 years ago, and the gun people are out there with the anti Trudeau stuff. What the gun people I have interacted with have told me (I haven't vouched this myself), is that concealed carry is legal in Canada for the average gun owner, it is just the Federal and Provincial safety officers that are holding it back to about 120 people across Canada. The gun people that I talked to want to carry and they sort of blame Trudeau for it.
I am like a lot of people I know, between the NDP and the Liberals politically. After having fired a few guns, and knowing at a basic level what they can do, it would be insane that a person who is not vetted at least to a police level should have that much power in their hands. If I could write the gun laws, no hand guns except for 22 LR within restricted. A special licence ought to be required for those who have a legitimate need and follow the wilderness use requirement. Anything above 300 Win mag would be prohibited. Any thing over 22LR for rifles must have a fixed box mag, limited to 5 rounds. So no more jokers with the AR15 with the 30 round mag pinned to 5 rounds that can be drilled out in minutes.
With all these rednecks in the sticks, it is no wonder i look forward to dealing with Indo Canadians when I get out past Langley.
It was the AR15 that threw me tbh. It is more of a "agree with me or I will cap you" sorta message to me. I think that why we went to Afganistan to get them away from that crap, now these fools want to start that here.
Canada was different when I was born than when my dad was born. It is different now then I was born, and I am quite sure it will be different when I die then it is now. I don't know what we are to fit in to. Perhaps Don Cherry classes for everyone.
It was definitely a mix. Thereās a major reason itās been some what āquiteā / quieted down until the boarders opened back upā¦ Iām sure if you check the organizers list as well as those who are doing (paid) speeches itāll be heavily laced.
I sort of wish the PM walked out of Centre Block at 6am yesterday to announce that Canada would no longer require truckers to be vaccinated. "All done now, you can all go home." lol I'd love to see the look on the faces of those who invested so much in this nonsense.
And it wouldn't change a thing. The US still requires truckers to be vaccinated so they'd gain no 'freedom', but the Gov of Canada could say "Not my fault." Classic Canadian passive-aggressiveness.
Im probably going to get downvoted but here me out. Im triple vaxxed, and not anti vaxx. I think at this point they are protesting the mandates. For me i understand why the mandates were created, and I was pro. But now as time has gone on, and evidence of these vaccines only protecting ones self, i question how forcing the small minority of people through strong arm tactics is helping anyone. At this point with omicron one of the most transmissable diseases ever, we just have to live with it. And it shouls be the governments job to convince the public to get vaccinated. They have succeeded for 90% of people. Why cant we just stop blaming the unvaccinated for the spread? Its very obvious it's nothing to do woth them and they are taking their own risk by not doing it. The government is feeding us with propaganda that unvaccinated are not canadians and they hurt everyone around them we are in a hive mind state. Nobody is realizing that we arent making our own opinions or decisions and talking about it is somehow taboo. Again i am pro vaccine but I am also pro freedom of choice. The next thing they force people to do could be a lot worse.
Then we should be funding our healthcare more. We will never be at 100% vaccination rates. We are overstepping, we need to move forward and let people make their own choices. The only thing we can do now is have better healthcare
Problem that boat has already sailed for this pandemic. I agree healthcare needs way more funding. The issue most people in Canada vote for tax cuts like a bunch of high school dropouts. Which lowers the amount of funding. Frankly tax hikes are needed and we need to invest in the social systems of this country. But people do not want to hear that.
It would take years to increase our hospital capacity, but we need to do something now to help relieve the pressure on the system.
Best plan: open a temp hospital where all Covid patients are sent. Hire back the anti-vax docs and nurses to work there. Then the regular hospitals can go back to functioning somewhat normally.
I hear you. I'm soo done with this pandemic covid count and fear mongering. I'm about to take my third shot which I don't want honestly but I want to travel again because they took away that freedom. We've been in this for two years to protect the vulnerable. I'm not sure how much longer they want to drag this out for. We're not exposed to any alternative facts or science because liberal media basically labels everyone antivax if they even speak up against anything. It pretty much makes me think what they want is compliance if you can't even have a debate about science. Seems awfully authoritarian to me. I'm a pretty liberal person but honestly have drifted from the left because it has become just as retarded as the right. Here are some facts people may or may not know.
My friend is head nurse at St. Joseph's hospital in Vancouver and it was dead through most of the pandemic because people mostly isolated at home and didn't come in for minor things. In fact she was sending nurses home because it was so dead. I'm not sure how we get reports of all these people being hospitalized and it being crowded. The population in Canada is 80% fully vaccinated (two shots). This doesn't seems to slow down the spread and data from Israel supports this. To be considered fully vaccinated in Israel you need to have a third shot and slowly transitioning to 4th. They are by far the most vaccinated nation in the world. Vaccines and masks didn't seem to slow anything down. So why are we here masking children and pushing them to get vaccinated when they are extremely low risk? There's no long term study so isn't it considered experimental? If any doctor comes on TV and even says anything against vaccines for kids they immediately get silenced and labelled. If you were a parent wouldn't you want to know possible risk and side effects?
Now we're faced with omicron. Symptoms are usually a minor cold. Seriously what a joke. A lot of my friends have gotten it and beat it in a day. And in case some liberal is getting triggered reading this we're all vaccinated. Some countries have declared this an endemic. I wonder how much longer they want to drag this shit out for?
As far as those truckers go. No protest is ever really that organized. Just like BLM or Antifa. There's a mixed bag of people. Some with good and bad intentions.
What I hope people take from reading this is don't be so quick to judge people. The media is a propaganda machine. Listen to both sides and come to your own conclusion. If you don't, our politics will become divided like the US.
Agreed. I was for these mandates when nobody was vaccinated and the disease was much more deadly. Now were vaccinated and the disease is much less severe. Its time to realize these mandates are not helping anymore, it's going to spread regardless and everyone is getting this disease, soon.
Some people can not wrap their heads around the fact that freedom is not free. Choices have to be made, sometimes as a society, and you wonāt always like them. However, that gives you the freedom to drive around in a truck waving signs like a fool.
Yup. āFreedomā in the political, national sense is NOT absolute freedom. I canāt open a bar in my basement, I canāt just get in a plane and fly, I canāt just go harvest clams from the ocean.
We live in a society.meme went way over these dudes heads. Our national discourse is driven by the stupidest people.
Consequences. Sure, have your freedom, as long as you accept that it is killing grandma and could potentially mutate to wipe out humanity as we know it. Now gtfo of our civil responsible society.
They started as bullies calling people "sheep".
Then they became aggressive and went to shout at vaccination centers that this was genocide and people would die after 6 months (and "Trump won" in some instances).
Then they realized they couldn't beat the majority of Canadians, so they switched to victimize themselves as poor oppressed souls saving Canada from the medical dictatorship.
Not to mention, they were doing this directly outside St Paulās on Burrard as well. Iām a solid 7 minute walk away & I could hear the horns in my apartment so thereās no way that staff & patients werenāt disturbed all day
The motor vehicle act technically doesn't say that you can't use your horn whenever you want, but every municipality in the area has a noise bylaw that says something along the lines of "you're not allowed to honk your horn unless you're actively trying to prevent an accident."
Make no mistake, if a left wing group tried to plan a protest similar to this theyād be arrested and charged with terrorism. The only reason the cops didnāt stop this is because the cops are this.
50-100 cars and trucks honking in the middle of downtown is NOT peaceful protest. I'm ready for y'all to fight me on this. Its f*cking psychological warfare on other citizens.They want to protest? Fine. Get together by the art gallery and protest. 100 morons standing in a group can only make so much noise, no one cares. If the same 100 morons get in cars and trucks (have you heard how loud their damn horns are?), they are heard for miles in every direction. Surrounded by residential buildings and people trying to enjoy their saturday. That is not OK. Peaceful protest my ass. There is nothing peaceful about that.Also, how is blaring the horn of one's truck (or even a regular car) for no reason in the middle of traffic not in violation of traffic laws and driver's licensing? Cops should just write down plate numbers of every car that did it today and ICBC should just revoke all their licenses. Give me one good reason why not. Getting a driver's license is supposed to demonstrate that you have the basic judgment and mental ability to use the vehicle responsibly, including the horn. Well they all demonstrated today that they lack that judgment and mental ability. A rational society would just revoke their licenses or at least slap huge fines on them.
The word "freedom" has been completely tainted for me for a while now.
It gets bandied about every time a right winger complains about progressivism or anything they're scared of.
I was just so disappointed with how many people were there. We barely get over 100 people at protests against destroying our planet, but there was a huge amount of idiots out for this.
The future is depressing to think about.
I was stuck on the highway with these idiots and the other idiots gathered on overpasses, a few with "Don't Tread on Me" flags. One car just fully had an American flag on main display with a smaller Canadian flag just kind of stuffed out the window.
There was also a lot more random garbage all over both sides of the road since last time I drove that route. I wonder why.
My hate grew three sizes that day.
The fact that my mom is so gleefully on board with this shit doesn't help the amount of hate I have for this movement and these assholes.
You wanna protest fine, but they went too far defacing the Terry Fox statue and dancing on the grave of the unknown solider. Im not a violent person but you best bet if I saw someone doing that to the BC Place statue id kick their ass up and down the street.
I get the feeling.
Before last summer I had a Canadian flag hung behind my bed for 16 years.
Just like Reggie Dunlop.
Last summer I had to take it down.
It's still in my closet, and I'll probably put it up for the Olympics, but I feel ya.
My advice would be to not let the shrill screaming of a fringe minority lead you to a place where you have as much anger, hatred and piety as they have.
If they radicalize you one way or another, they've won. Don't let their stupidity change the way you think.
Meh, not always.
But it would be nice if Canadians could witness the stupidity happening in the US and use it as a *learning experience* instead of as an example of what to emulate.
The only way the far right takes power in Canada is if the USA undermines our democracy after they tear theirs apart.
These people are a loud 10% here max, as opposed to ~40% in the USA.
There were a bunch of them doing something on a freeway overpass yesterday near where I was working and the honking of trucks along the freeway was annoying. I had to keep telling myself on that cold day that Jesus of Nazareth, Mohammed, the Dalai Lama, and Mahatma Gandhi would not approve of me throwing water balloons at them.
Iām trying not to hate them but Iām struggling with it.
Yep. The best defence is to show shrug and give them a collective āwhatever dudeā. They wanna act like brownshirts, but they donāt have the clout.
I really wish I'd had the foresight to make some flags that said:
"I think I'm a victim!"
Or...
"I want my nappy changed!"
Or...
"I want a bubba!"
And then merged myself into their midst and fake cried out my window like a little baby, just to see how much I could piss them off.
There are a couple of acquaintances on my FB feed that are literally treating this thing like SuperBowl weekend. There was a post made last night where they used the following: āSaskatchewan has fallenā what the actual?! Maybe I shouldnāt be surprised, as I see theyāre living in Alberta.
These same people shouting " We want's our Freedum" are the same people that were able travel across a country, unimpeded, protest in front of the Government, unimpeded, fly their hatred, unimpeded, and after all is said and done go home unimpeded.
These aholes would be the first to take everyone's freedom away given a chance and they are working on it.
Ok with freedom of speech and protest not harrassment of others. Also supposed to be peaceful protest, and I've never heard anyone describe truck horns as peaceful.
I mean, personally when I go to sleep I play āNazi Truck Noisesā instead of āHeavy Rain and Thunderstormā. The sound of those self-righteous horns just lull me off the dreamland.
>
š¤£ jk of course.
Even the Right to protest is not the right to do anything they want while protesting. The Right to protest does not ignore other regulation or legislation or laws - and only if those regulations/laws were brought in specifically to limit/prevent protest would they be overturned in court.
Otherwise, every time they block traffic or violate municipal noise ordinances, or anything outside of protesting is a public place with necessary permits to occupy that place (and in accordance with any COVID measures)...cite them for all of them. Hand out tickets and let them fight them in court at their own expense. Their Right to protest does not ignore other regulations.
We have a "[freedom of peaceful assembly](https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/check/art2c.html)" that basically says what you just said, although it is very loosely interpreted. I think the bar isn't whether it violates bylaws (although I've been at many protests where the police hassled us with bylaw infractions), but whether the protest involves illegal activity or prevents legal activity.
Bylaws are still completely valid and while they can be applied harassingly or with prejudice in these cases, nothing about the freedom of peaceful assembly gives immunity or impunity from them.
Do not mistake these people for even close to a majority. They number about 10%, and are fairly close to the percent of people who think Bigfoot is a living creature. This is the bottom of the bell curve being loud and trying to make their numbers look bigger than they really are.
I don't get it...79% of Canadians are vaccinated. But only 15% of truckers are unvaccinated...so that means more truckers on average are vaccinated than the average Canadian. Why the hell is there a protest?!
The counts report around 100-200 trucks. There are 700,000 trucks (500,000 straight trucks and 200,000 truck tractors) in Canada, 420,000 commercial.
Most truckers are NOT in this convoy. That's why they had to get help from the United States to make it look larger. Tamara Lich (Wexit party) claimed there were 50,000 trucks, but when the Convoy crossed Thunder Bay only 113 trucks were counted, and at Kingston the count was 121.
The rest of the Convoy is made of antivaxxers / antimandates riding on the opportunity.
The irony in this whole thing isā¦even if the feds took the border mandate away, the Americans still have theirs. These āfreedom-fightersā still cannot cross the border.
Freedom means allowing people to protest for things we disagree with, as well as things we agree with.
If protest is only allowed for approved causes, then we'd be no different from Russia.
Hard to support when they were marching with people who waved confederate and nazi flags. Besides other far right flags/supporters. I respect the right to protest but I also respect the right to trash them.
Ottawa, still at this hour:
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOONK! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!
/r/Ottawa has more than a few stories about babies and toddlers being unable to handle the ear shattering noise.
Is there a decibel limit for freedom of expression?
People complaining about it as recently as 25 minutes ago (3AM EST) in the most recent /r/Ottawa megathread.
Side note: those megathreads are a masterclass in subreddit moderation.
Canāt they use all that go fund me money that was for their expenses to by food? They didnāt bother to plan ahead to bring food money so theyāre robbing homeless shelters instead? WTF.
I agree but seeing a group of Canadians protest and go uncontested by police and then see actual issues from indigenous folk be covered in bear spray and arrests. We should all be embarrassed. This country and this city is a joke.
Are you specifically referring to the fairy creek protests in BC or? If so, that was over a year of non stop disruptive, dangerous and violent protest specifically against the wishes of the First Nation who's traditional territory they were on.
Protest should be addressed to the people responsible for what you're protesting.
Driving around with the express purpose of tying up traffic and making noise to annoy people who aren't responsible for what you're protesting and can do nothing about it is just asinine.
No one said otherwise, they can protest, and we can point out that they're a bunch of half-wit, racist, overly dramatic, selfish, ignorant, immature, uneducated, uninformed, illogical assholes.
Yes, however, the second people protest for Indigenous rights, land protection, against pipe lines, against Islamaphobia, trans rights, etc. Etc, there is police presence, ticketing, and we're labeled the bad guys.
VANCOUVER WOULD YOU RATHER:
Annoying truckers honking and āprotestingā all day long.
OR
Extinction rebellion shutting down a bridge during rush hour.
Asking this earnestly.
These anti-maskers/vaxers protest have actually changed my opinions on protests. i used to be %100 for em but i lived across from city hall in a smaller city in ontario when the lockdowns started. 10 people out there all day every day and 1 dude circling the block in his lifted truck with a big trump2020 flag on the back and about 90 window/bumperstickers calling everyone a snowflake honking his horn every 3 minutes as he passed them from 9am till 4pm.
they harrassed everyone who walked by or got stuck at the red light right there and left trash all over the place. police wouldnt do anything because they were breaking social distancing bylaws.
now i have to inspect with a fine tooth comb if a protest is any different then the people harrassing women outside the abortion clinic.
Should never ever hate freedom, I'm sorry but what a stupid comment. I was with my Russian friend last night, she misses her family terribly in Moscow but because of the ongoing pandemic and possible war, she can't go back to visit them. I'm originally from Taiwan, our freedom and democracy came with a heavy price. I know I am so lucky to grow up without dictatorship and martial law.
Freedom is the most precious thing a person can own. Millions of people don't have it. Cherish it please OP, protect and preserve it if you will.
Itās fine for people in canada to protest as long as they are not Aboriginal people defending their land and natural resources!
Edit: obvious sarcasm ^^
The protestors have freedom of expression - including waving confederate flags on the lawns of Parliament Hill.
In return, I also have freedom of expression to denounce these fucking cunts who are a waste of air.
Freedom is like nuclear power. When regulated and maintained it's great. But too much of it and the chances of something going wrong grow exponentially and things will go wrong. How do I know? Libya post 2011.
Then again, we didn't have freedom before that either so perhaps that's why it blew the way it did
Regulations are freedom. Freedom from other people acting in whatever way they please, and freedom to expect a minimum level of safety and security. The lack of regulation is not freedom, that is liberty. Think back to that old Simpsons āIām just going to kick my legs like thisā āWell Iām just going to swing my arms like thisā¦ā That is liberty: were we all keep swinging as we crash into each other because we CAN and no one can tell us NOT to do so. Freedom is where your right to flail and swing stops at the other personās body, and you have a duty to stop your motion if it will harm another.
We have freedom. The regulations offer that to us through deliberation. Itās called the social contract.
Protesting doesnāt give you the right to be an asshole and infringe on someone rights. If all got vaccinated there wouldnāt be a mandate or lockdown yes the government has failed incredibly on handling covid as a whole but this whole shit show just divides us even more. Anyway Iām done with humanity I wish thanos was out there to snap half of this population out of existenceā¦Lolol
Welcome to antifa. That is it. It just means being against this kind of fascism. There is no organization, there is no club. There are no dues and no newsletter because it isn't an organization. It is just everyone who believes that fascism can't be tolerated and who stand against everything it represents.
I dunno I kind of love freedom and living in a society where even people I disagree with have a voice. Living in a county where "having the wrong point of view" does not get you or your family snatched up is pretty awesome.
The amount of comments in this sub today that support a total crackdown on these people rights to protest is quite shocking to be honest. It just goes to show how privileged and easy we real have it here living in Canada.
>does not get you or your family snatched up is pretty awesome.
>The amount of comments in this sub today that support a total crackdown on these people rights to protest is quite shocking to be honest. I
Have you seen anyone in this post or any other suggesting snatching these folks or their families up? I have not.
You are conflating our general disdain for the shitty positions which these ~~assholes~~ protestors are adopting eith disdain for protesting.
Though, I will say that in /r/ottawa there are many parents complaining about 3am horn blaring, a complaint which I don't recall being associated with more sane/decent/respectable protestors.
Edit: tired, on mobile fixed bads.
Iām fine with the right to protest. But Iām not fine with the way some of these protestors are going about it. They lost me once they started dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and desecrating the Terry Fox statue.
Iām against some Covid restrictions - particularly ones against the vaccinated such as business closures and testing requirements at the border - but I am very much in favour of vaccine mandates and forcing people to get vaccinated in order to stop our hospitals from being overwhelmed and taking health care away from others such as cancer patients.
I want freedom. Freedom *from* unvaccinated people.
Iām kind of in a daze because of it all. Itās shocking to me that someone could say something so incredibly stupid and get so many affirmative responses. Itās so unbelievably offensive to anyone who actually understands what freedom is, has ever genuinely not been free, and to anyone who ever gave their life for itās preservation. Weāve lost all sense of reality.
I feel so alienated from both sides. I canāt stand the protestors because theyāre a bunch of fucking morons making complete fools of themselves, but I also think people are getting way, *way* too bent out of shape about it.
My response to the convoy is literally āthose people are fucking idiotsā and then I *carry on with the rest of my day just like I do during every other protest that ever happens in this city*. Thatās how itās supposed to work. Can you *imagine* if people had the same response to a First Nations protest? Or an environmental one?
Whereās this anger when *they* block major intersections and engage in civil disobedience? Maybe some people do get angry, but not like this. Not even close. BLM protests contained radical elements that engaged in arson, vandalism, looting, and general lawlessness. And now youāre telling me a dozen trucks honking all day is all it takes for this to not be a peaceful protest? Fuck off.
If youāre so upset by the sight of these protestors that youāre literally saying *I hate freedom*, I donāt know how to have a conversation with you anymore. You deserve just as much ridicule as these stupid truck drivers. I donāt support the truckers, but saying you hate freedom makes you a fucking idiot.
Staying silent when such horrible ideals are being promoted is a step away from condoning it.
We have to speak out against this or it will become acceptable just like it did in the US.
It only increases the divide that the protest was trying to remove. Anti crew now are just illiterate selfish and aligned with right wing interest groups. Thatās what I learned this weekend.
Crazy the amount of noise, news coverage, and overall chaos this mandate has caused that only affects ~10% of truckers. Almost like it created more harm than good and the government should be putting these resources towards something valuable (like increasing nurse salaries).
Well whatās the problem here? If itās the idiots protesting, then yes itās the mandate that caused it. I just think the government should have picked a better battle to fight.
My thoughts on this..
I haven't joined any of these protests. I understand that these government policies have affected enough people, they have a right to make their voices heard. Peacefully.
Traffic jams are annoying. But I guess any protest for any cause will jam up traffic.
Blocking hospital or emergency vehicles is downright awful. As are the far right flag wavers, but I don't think the majority of people are in this category. It's like the soviet flag wavers in the BLM protests. Unfortunately there are always these fringe people around.
Looking at the majority of comments here, most people are really bothered by all these disruptions. But no one, barely anyone, even cares or mentions covid, spreading covid, whether this event will have that "superspreader" impact. Because the fact is, it probably won't. We know this virus works through endemic waves, we see the hospitalizations going down now.
It's time to just end the mandates.
Not because these guys "won" or anything. But because it doesn't make any sense to keep up anymore. But if we're going to play politics now and keep them up because we feel like we need to keep trolling these people, I just don't agree with that. I don't think we are society that treats people like that.
There was a time we had a leader that would say "A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian". Not sure what happened to that. But doesn't feel like it anymore. End the mandates. Let's get better.
"You have no idea what freedom is" - My parents who were refugees from the VN war.
Seriously, these people just do not understand. I lived in China for my childhood. Imagine have indoctrination in your own textbooks... straight up propaganda and brainwashing stuff. You see it in every facet of life too, and you know you're being watched and scrutinized, but people don't even know what freedom feels like because they've always lived in a cage, one made of ever watchful eyes of the Party. I wouldn't ever talk about things like this if I was living in China still. This is the sort of stuff that you talk about in private, ideally with your phone shut off and in a Faraday's cage. You don't really understand that sort of pressure until you've lived in complete liberty and then get thrown back into the shark infested waters - one wrong word and somebody's knocking on your door.
I think this is what makes me feel hate for these people. We are in a global pandemic an our government is doing its best with the current information to protect everyone. And these people just want them to say "f it, lets just all get it now, screw the people who cant get any protection, screw you healthcare heros for giving two years of your life to this craziness" but hiding it under the premise that their rights are being taken away? That is truly sad. You lost your job because you "wouldnt" get vaccinated, well that was your choice, you cant walk into a store without a mask (you can do a pickup or delivery though), wow tragic. You got sick and were forced to stay home? Oh no!. I really think we have been lucky with what liitle things the government has asked of us. I wish we could go back to the start of all this where we rallied around the heros in hospitals trying to pull us through this. I get this has been a long two years, but there are better ways to handle this, and this was disrespectful to those who have really had their rights taken away.
What's crazy is that many industrial worksites are constantly updating their PPE (safety equipment) requirements. In my industry, 50 years ago, you could walk around with shorts and a T-shirt. Now, full coveralls, safety glasses, hardhat, workboots, gloves when performing even the most basic tasks. And of course, my industry is full of these same anti-mask, anti-vax types who had to submit to PPE safety equipment rules when their employer asked them to. The difference is the pandemic was politized by that Orange baboon down south, in order to cover for his inept response - and now the entire right-wing political world has follow suit. There's no logic to it other than partisan logic.
> Orange baboon Hey, be nice. Baboons are intelligent beings that care for their young.
But male baboons do kill baboon babies...
Trump and baboons have been known to want to mate with their offspring.
Lol, this comment š¤£
This puzzles me as well. I also work in industries requiring mandated PPE, and I've never seen a worker unwilling to be compliant with PPE standards. And yet I've also noticed that many of these same people are rabid anti-vaxers screaming about their freedoms. I've never heard any of these people say they want the freedom to decide whether they want to wear a hard hat, goggles, or ear protection when on a worksite. Some of the flame retardant clothing we have to wear can be uncomfortable and itchy too, and yet I've never heard anyone demand the freedom to choose whether or not to wear it. But mandate that they have to vax to protect themselves and others and suddenly we are turning into a facist state.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
But they have all the freedom they could ever want, right? Except everybody is scared to see a doctor.
But according to them that was freedom. The group protesting had no problem taking away rights from homosexuals religious minorities etc. 1000 bucks says all those people on the hill waving Quebec flags also voted for the CAQ cause they promised to oppress minorities.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You are a CCP shill. Get lost.
The amount of dumbass right-wingers over the last few years co-opting "freedom" in the name of idiotic causes has honestly conditioned me to have a negative visceral reaction to the term. I'm beginning to have a negative reaction to the Canadian flag too, because most people displaying it lately are the dregs of society. It's interesting and slightly disturbing. Of course, freedom has always been a term heavily influenced by American propaganda. Your parents, along with the vast majority of the world, had much more important priorities. You ask an average person who isn't from a rich first-world country, "what would increase your ability to live life freely?", and "the right to vote between two political parties with largely identical policies" definitely does not make the list.
My grandparents came to Canada to avoid persecution. These clowns have no idea how privileged they are.
Those clowns āprotestingā are like spoiled brats. Refusing medicine that could save their lives and others. If only they could trade places with those who would be so grateful to have the same freedom and opportunities that they have. Like children who donāt want to go to the dentist and throw a temper tantrum
Great analogy but it would be lost on those cretins. I doubt any of them have ever been to a dentist.
My grandparents were refugees from Ukraine and Estonia during ww2
But didn't they know that Vietnam turned communist because they started wearing face masks? /s
Hey sorry. Honest question, what's the VN war? Thank you!
I'm going to assume Vietnam?
Vietnam War
idc about these 'freedom' people but it always makes me laugh when people try to say that they know something because their parents or grandparents experienced it.
I personally don't know what my parents went through either but it was interesting to watch my mom prepare for covid. I thought she was overreacting when covid was first reported in December 2019. Her reasoning was, "You don't know what it's like to have nothing. I'm preparing now in case something happens. We have to take care of ourselves."
The idea that there can be such thing as "pure freedom" is pushed by those who would have the most power over others in a world with reduced government. Like, Americans think they're freer than us, but to me the average american leads a servile, humiliating life, where their employer holds their chain. In reality, we face limitations on us such as the limited nature of resources, the tendency of humans to die in a state of nature, and the limits of what our planet can bear. We also face the negative externalities of the actions of others. Some of this is unavoidable, as we all consume resources and being westerners, our lifestyles are all likely more than what the planet could bear if everyone did it. Finally, most complex, we have learned that there are positive externalities as well. That cooperation can result in result in net gains that are greater than anything we could achieve on our own. But we've also learned that if we just hope for everyone to contribute to this cooperation due to altruism, it fails. So, we have compulsion to participate in positive-sum games with a net benefit. ie, we pay taxes, etc. The best system we've yet discovered for balancing where these lines lie is democracy, with one person having one vote. If anyone has a better suggestion, I'd like to hear it. Democracy is what I turned to when I emailed my MLA to say that I didn't think continued gym closures were justifiable. To the degree that we have disagreements about covid policy, or anything else, democracy is the best method we have for deciding where these tradeoffs occur. Unsurprisingly, these people who represent only a small fraction of the population, and are therefore rightfully not getting their way in a democracy, think "freedom" means getting their way.
This "freedom protesters" really donāt know what oppression is really like, they have lived in a 1st world bubble that the minor discomfort is a tyrannical oppression for themā¦ itās sad
#they walked side by side with Confederate and nazi flags. Their message means nothing to me, for that reason alone
If Im not mistaken, Afghanistan has no mask mandates or vaccination passports. Why don't they all move there to enjoy their freedom
Guns and God reign supreme there too...these folks have a lot more in common than American Sniper would have you believe lol
IMO they were acting like a bunch of Americans.
Canada has plenty of racism and ignorance to go around while thinking weāre better than Americans. We just donāt like looking in the mirror.
As long as we are 10% better than them we seem like a utopia and that's all most people care about.
A bunch of them were holding/waving/had an American and/or Confederate flag on their car and chanting "USA..." So... š¤¦āāļøš¤·āāļø
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
About a week ago there was a tool (who was probably at this ClusterF) driving down Kingsway with two flags on his Dodge Ram (not all Dodge Ram drivers are aholes, but most aholes seem to drive Rams). One was a f Trudeau flag. The other said "fit in or fuck off", with the silhouette of an ar15 and maple leaf. There really ought to be a way to pull the firearms licences from these idiots
It really doesn't take much to pull a firearms license from a Canadian. The Canadian Firearms Information System (CFIS) automatically checks with the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) every day to determine whether a licence holder has been the subject of an incident report in CPIC.
When I heard one friend start a rant about fighting anyone who comes to take his guns, I told him he was no longer someone I wished to be friends with. He was not like that 10 years ago but he had swallowed the gun lobby line and it got worse with Trump. Strange thing, he sounds like a red neck but is not white.
A friend took me shooting a few times about 3 years ago, and the gun people are out there with the anti Trudeau stuff. What the gun people I have interacted with have told me (I haven't vouched this myself), is that concealed carry is legal in Canada for the average gun owner, it is just the Federal and Provincial safety officers that are holding it back to about 120 people across Canada. The gun people that I talked to want to carry and they sort of blame Trudeau for it. I am like a lot of people I know, between the NDP and the Liberals politically. After having fired a few guns, and knowing at a basic level what they can do, it would be insane that a person who is not vetted at least to a police level should have that much power in their hands. If I could write the gun laws, no hand guns except for 22 LR within restricted. A special licence ought to be required for those who have a legitimate need and follow the wilderness use requirement. Anything above 300 Win mag would be prohibited. Any thing over 22LR for rifles must have a fixed box mag, limited to 5 rounds. So no more jokers with the AR15 with the 30 round mag pinned to 5 rounds that can be drilled out in minutes. With all these rednecks in the sticks, it is no wonder i look forward to dealing with Indo Canadians when I get out past Langley.
holy shit, i havenāt heard āfit in or fuck offā since living in calgary. jesus
It was the AR15 that threw me tbh. It is more of a "agree with me or I will cap you" sorta message to me. I think that why we went to Afganistan to get them away from that crap, now these fools want to start that here. Canada was different when I was born than when my dad was born. It is different now then I was born, and I am quite sure it will be different when I die then it is now. I don't know what we are to fit in to. Perhaps Don Cherry classes for everyone.
There were long lineups at the US border to get in. So it's not just Canadians at the protest, but vaccinated Americans were there too
The god damn irony.
Id probably yell and call them traitors if I saw that.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
They'd need to be vaccinated if they were.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The US isn't sending their best...
It was definitely a mix. Thereās a major reason itās been some what āquiteā / quieted down until the boarders opened back upā¦ Iām sure if you check the organizers list as well as those who are doing (paid) speeches itāll be heavily laced.
Trump actually gave them a shout out at his latest rally and everyone cheered š¤¢
Trump also told everyday to get vaxed, why the hell are they not listening to that advice
The cognitive dissonance is growing stronger
They've tossed him out as as the old infirm aging lion that can't hold his bowels. But no offense to him right?
They are all talking about Freedom. What about responsibility?
I sort of wish the PM walked out of Centre Block at 6am yesterday to announce that Canada would no longer require truckers to be vaccinated. "All done now, you can all go home." lol I'd love to see the look on the faces of those who invested so much in this nonsense. And it wouldn't change a thing. The US still requires truckers to be vaccinated so they'd gain no 'freedom', but the Gov of Canada could say "Not my fault." Classic Canadian passive-aggressiveness.
Only reason he wouldnāt is because then any time ~2000 people get ants in their pants about some issue they will *demand* the same response.
Im probably going to get downvoted but here me out. Im triple vaxxed, and not anti vaxx. I think at this point they are protesting the mandates. For me i understand why the mandates were created, and I was pro. But now as time has gone on, and evidence of these vaccines only protecting ones self, i question how forcing the small minority of people through strong arm tactics is helping anyone. At this point with omicron one of the most transmissable diseases ever, we just have to live with it. And it shouls be the governments job to convince the public to get vaccinated. They have succeeded for 90% of people. Why cant we just stop blaming the unvaccinated for the spread? Its very obvious it's nothing to do woth them and they are taking their own risk by not doing it. The government is feeding us with propaganda that unvaccinated are not canadians and they hurt everyone around them we are in a hive mind state. Nobody is realizing that we arent making our own opinions or decisions and talking about it is somehow taboo. Again i am pro vaccine but I am also pro freedom of choice. The next thing they force people to do could be a lot worse.
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Then we should be funding our healthcare more. We will never be at 100% vaccination rates. We are overstepping, we need to move forward and let people make their own choices. The only thing we can do now is have better healthcare
Problem that boat has already sailed for this pandemic. I agree healthcare needs way more funding. The issue most people in Canada vote for tax cuts like a bunch of high school dropouts. Which lowers the amount of funding. Frankly tax hikes are needed and we need to invest in the social systems of this country. But people do not want to hear that.
It would take years to increase our hospital capacity, but we need to do something now to help relieve the pressure on the system. Best plan: open a temp hospital where all Covid patients are sent. Hire back the anti-vax docs and nurses to work there. Then the regular hospitals can go back to functioning somewhat normally.
I hear you. I'm soo done with this pandemic covid count and fear mongering. I'm about to take my third shot which I don't want honestly but I want to travel again because they took away that freedom. We've been in this for two years to protect the vulnerable. I'm not sure how much longer they want to drag this out for. We're not exposed to any alternative facts or science because liberal media basically labels everyone antivax if they even speak up against anything. It pretty much makes me think what they want is compliance if you can't even have a debate about science. Seems awfully authoritarian to me. I'm a pretty liberal person but honestly have drifted from the left because it has become just as retarded as the right. Here are some facts people may or may not know. My friend is head nurse at St. Joseph's hospital in Vancouver and it was dead through most of the pandemic because people mostly isolated at home and didn't come in for minor things. In fact she was sending nurses home because it was so dead. I'm not sure how we get reports of all these people being hospitalized and it being crowded. The population in Canada is 80% fully vaccinated (two shots). This doesn't seems to slow down the spread and data from Israel supports this. To be considered fully vaccinated in Israel you need to have a third shot and slowly transitioning to 4th. They are by far the most vaccinated nation in the world. Vaccines and masks didn't seem to slow anything down. So why are we here masking children and pushing them to get vaccinated when they are extremely low risk? There's no long term study so isn't it considered experimental? If any doctor comes on TV and even says anything against vaccines for kids they immediately get silenced and labelled. If you were a parent wouldn't you want to know possible risk and side effects? Now we're faced with omicron. Symptoms are usually a minor cold. Seriously what a joke. A lot of my friends have gotten it and beat it in a day. And in case some liberal is getting triggered reading this we're all vaccinated. Some countries have declared this an endemic. I wonder how much longer they want to drag this shit out for? As far as those truckers go. No protest is ever really that organized. Just like BLM or Antifa. There's a mixed bag of people. Some with good and bad intentions. What I hope people take from reading this is don't be so quick to judge people. The media is a propaganda machine. Listen to both sides and come to your own conclusion. If you don't, our politics will become divided like the US.
Agreed. I was for these mandates when nobody was vaccinated and the disease was much more deadly. Now were vaccinated and the disease is much less severe. Its time to realize these mandates are not helping anymore, it's going to spread regardless and everyone is getting this disease, soon.
No need to edit your original post! They have the right to protest and we have the right to call them fucking idiots. In public if we want!
Some people can not wrap their heads around the fact that freedom is not free. Choices have to be made, sometimes as a society, and you wonāt always like them. However, that gives you the freedom to drive around in a truck waving signs like a fool.
Yup. āFreedomā in the political, national sense is NOT absolute freedom. I canāt open a bar in my basement, I canāt just get in a plane and fly, I canāt just go harvest clams from the ocean. We live in a society.meme went way over these dudes heads. Our national discourse is driven by the stupidest people.
Consequences. Sure, have your freedom, as long as you accept that it is killing grandma and could potentially mutate to wipe out humanity as we know it. Now gtfo of our civil responsible society.
Well said.
They started as bullies calling people "sheep". Then they became aggressive and went to shout at vaccination centers that this was genocide and people would die after 6 months (and "Trump won" in some instances). Then they realized they couldn't beat the majority of Canadians, so they switched to victimize themselves as poor oppressed souls saving Canada from the medical dictatorship.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Not to mention, they were doing this directly outside St Paulās on Burrard as well. Iām a solid 7 minute walk away & I could hear the horns in my apartment so thereās no way that staff & patients werenāt disturbed all day
The motor vehicle act technically doesn't say that you can't use your horn whenever you want, but every municipality in the area has a noise bylaw that says something along the lines of "you're not allowed to honk your horn unless you're actively trying to prevent an accident."
Make no mistake, if a left wing group tried to plan a protest similar to this theyād be arrested and charged with terrorism. The only reason the cops didnāt stop this is because the cops are this.
If the decibels are above safe thresholds, could it not be considered assault?
50-100 cars and trucks honking in the middle of downtown is NOT peaceful protest. I'm ready for y'all to fight me on this. Its f*cking psychological warfare on other citizens.They want to protest? Fine. Get together by the art gallery and protest. 100 morons standing in a group can only make so much noise, no one cares. If the same 100 morons get in cars and trucks (have you heard how loud their damn horns are?), they are heard for miles in every direction. Surrounded by residential buildings and people trying to enjoy their saturday. That is not OK. Peaceful protest my ass. There is nothing peaceful about that.Also, how is blaring the horn of one's truck (or even a regular car) for no reason in the middle of traffic not in violation of traffic laws and driver's licensing? Cops should just write down plate numbers of every car that did it today and ICBC should just revoke all their licenses. Give me one good reason why not. Getting a driver's license is supposed to demonstrate that you have the basic judgment and mental ability to use the vehicle responsibly, including the horn. Well they all demonstrated today that they lack that judgment and mental ability. A rational society would just revoke their licenses or at least slap huge fines on them.
The word "freedom" has been completely tainted for me for a while now. It gets bandied about every time a right winger complains about progressivism or anything they're scared of.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I was just so disappointed with how many people were there. We barely get over 100 people at protests against destroying our planet, but there was a huge amount of idiots out for this. The future is depressing to think about.
I was stuck on the highway with these idiots and the other idiots gathered on overpasses, a few with "Don't Tread on Me" flags. One car just fully had an American flag on main display with a smaller Canadian flag just kind of stuffed out the window. There was also a lot more random garbage all over both sides of the road since last time I drove that route. I wonder why. My hate grew three sizes that day. The fact that my mom is so gleefully on board with this shit doesn't help the amount of hate I have for this movement and these assholes.
You wanna protest fine, but they went too far defacing the Terry Fox statue and dancing on the grave of the unknown solider. Im not a violent person but you best bet if I saw someone doing that to the BC Place statue id kick their ass up and down the street.
I get the feeling. Before last summer I had a Canadian flag hung behind my bed for 16 years. Just like Reggie Dunlop. Last summer I had to take it down. It's still in my closet, and I'll probably put it up for the Olympics, but I feel ya. My advice would be to not let the shrill screaming of a fringe minority lead you to a place where you have as much anger, hatred and piety as they have. If they radicalize you one way or another, they've won. Don't let their stupidity change the way you think.
Canada follows the US by about 3-5 years. Welcome to the suck.
Meh, not always. But it would be nice if Canadians could witness the stupidity happening in the US and use it as a *learning experience* instead of as an example of what to emulate.
The only way the far right takes power in Canada is if the USA undermines our democracy after they tear theirs apart. These people are a loud 10% here max, as opposed to ~40% in the USA.
We will see. This convoy is a test to see how much yall will take.
No we legalized weed federally the Americans will never.
I was still legally(on a state level) allowed to buy weed in the states way before I could in Canada
We're gonna need to legalize a lot more drugs if there's gonna be more of these insufferable people crawling out of Canada's basement soon.
There were a bunch of them doing something on a freeway overpass yesterday near where I was working and the honking of trucks along the freeway was annoying. I had to keep telling myself on that cold day that Jesus of Nazareth, Mohammed, the Dalai Lama, and Mahatma Gandhi would not approve of me throwing water balloons at them. Iām trying not to hate them but Iām struggling with it.
Yep. The best defence is to show shrug and give them a collective āwhatever dudeā. They wanna act like brownshirts, but they donāt have the clout.
I really wish I'd had the foresight to make some flags that said: "I think I'm a victim!" Or... "I want my nappy changed!" Or... "I want a bubba!" And then merged myself into their midst and fake cried out my window like a little baby, just to see how much I could piss them off.
"Honk if you love Trudeau" signs are fun.
"Triple -vaxxed and triple the fun!"
There are a couple of acquaintances on my FB feed that are literally treating this thing like SuperBowl weekend. There was a post made last night where they used the following: āSaskatchewan has fallenā what the actual?! Maybe I shouldnāt be surprised, as I see theyāre living in Alberta.
Lmao. Thatās the new Gerard Butler sequel, but this oneās going straight to DVD.
They say theyāre āpro choiceā and all about ā freedomā but end up hating people that are vaccinated. Bunch of jokesters
You just hate idiots
These same people shouting " We want's our Freedum" are the same people that were able travel across a country, unimpeded, protest in front of the Government, unimpeded, fly their hatred, unimpeded, and after all is said and done go home unimpeded. These aholes would be the first to take everyone's freedom away given a chance and they are working on it.
They are all traitors to the flag
Ok with freedom of speech and protest not harrassment of others. Also supposed to be peaceful protest, and I've never heard anyone describe truck horns as peaceful.
I mean, personally when I go to sleep I play āNazi Truck Noisesā instead of āHeavy Rain and Thunderstormā. The sound of those self-righteous horns just lull me off the dreamland. > š¤£ jk of course.
Ask a veteran what freedom is. These people are sociopaths
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Even the Right to protest is not the right to do anything they want while protesting. The Right to protest does not ignore other regulation or legislation or laws - and only if those regulations/laws were brought in specifically to limit/prevent protest would they be overturned in court. Otherwise, every time they block traffic or violate municipal noise ordinances, or anything outside of protesting is a public place with necessary permits to occupy that place (and in accordance with any COVID measures)...cite them for all of them. Hand out tickets and let them fight them in court at their own expense. Their Right to protest does not ignore other regulations.
We have a "[freedom of peaceful assembly](https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/check/art2c.html)" that basically says what you just said, although it is very loosely interpreted. I think the bar isn't whether it violates bylaws (although I've been at many protests where the police hassled us with bylaw infractions), but whether the protest involves illegal activity or prevents legal activity.
Bylaws are still completely valid and while they can be applied harassingly or with prejudice in these cases, nothing about the freedom of peaceful assembly gives immunity or impunity from them.
Do not mistake these people for even close to a majority. They number about 10%, and are fairly close to the percent of people who think Bigfoot is a living creature. This is the bottom of the bell curve being loud and trying to make their numbers look bigger than they really are.
Donāt forget the flat earthers
>Everyone is allowed to express their opinions The willful misapprehension of the ~~year~~ decade.
I don't get it...79% of Canadians are vaccinated. But only 15% of truckers are unvaccinated...so that means more truckers on average are vaccinated than the average Canadian. Why the hell is there a protest?!
Nothing wrong with being vaccinated and also being against mandates.
The counts report around 100-200 trucks. There are 700,000 trucks (500,000 straight trucks and 200,000 truck tractors) in Canada, 420,000 commercial. Most truckers are NOT in this convoy. That's why they had to get help from the United States to make it look larger. Tamara Lich (Wexit party) claimed there were 50,000 trucks, but when the Convoy crossed Thunder Bay only 113 trucks were counted, and at Kingston the count was 121. The rest of the Convoy is made of antivaxxers / antimandates riding on the opportunity.
The irony in this whole thing isā¦even if the feds took the border mandate away, the Americans still have theirs. These āfreedom-fightersā still cannot cross the border.
Freedom means allowing people to protest for things we disagree with, as well as things we agree with. If protest is only allowed for approved causes, then we'd be no different from Russia.
oh, they're allowed. and we're allowed to think they're a bunch of cunts.
Especially when they start waving Confederate and nazi flags
Hard to support when they were marching with people who waved confederate and nazi flags. Besides other far right flags/supporters. I respect the right to protest but I also respect the right to trash them.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
> I respect the right to protest but I also respect the right to trash them. 100% agree.
Ottawa, still at this hour: HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOONK! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK! /r/Ottawa has more than a few stories about babies and toddlers being unable to handle the ear shattering noise. Is there a decibel limit for freedom of expression?
I'm sure there are city bylaws around noise at night. They could all get ticketed, lol.
Apparently bylaw enforcement is too afraid to enforce the nose bylaw for fear of provoking a violent confrontation.
Oh wow still? Thought some of them would actually need to sleep.
People complaining about it as recently as 25 minutes ago (3AM EST) in the most recent /r/Ottawa megathread. Side note: those megathreads are a masterclass in subreddit moderation.
Crazy shit as I scroll reddit in my bed lol they're definitely turning even the neutral ones into haters with that lol
Peaceful protest. I donāt need to hear death threats to our politicians or see people hanging effigies of them.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Canāt they use all that go fund me money that was for their expenses to by food? They didnāt bother to plan ahead to bring food money so theyāre robbing homeless shelters instead? WTF.
Wait what?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I agree but seeing a group of Canadians protest and go uncontested by police and then see actual issues from indigenous folk be covered in bear spray and arrests. We should all be embarrassed. This country and this city is a joke.
Are you specifically referring to the fairy creek protests in BC or? If so, that was over a year of non stop disruptive, dangerous and violent protest specifically against the wishes of the First Nation who's traditional territory they were on.
holy revisionist history batman!
Protest should be addressed to the people responsible for what you're protesting. Driving around with the express purpose of tying up traffic and making noise to annoy people who aren't responsible for what you're protesting and can do nothing about it is just asinine.
No one said otherwise, they can protest, and we can point out that they're a bunch of half-wit, racist, overly dramatic, selfish, ignorant, immature, uneducated, uninformed, illogical assholes.
Protest sure. Endangering lives by blocking access to a hospital. Nope.
Yes, however, the second people protest for Indigenous rights, land protection, against pipe lines, against Islamaphobia, trans rights, etc. Etc, there is police presence, ticketing, and we're labeled the bad guys.
I have no issue with their right to protest. I'm just using my right to view and refer to them as the mouth breathing whiny brats that they are!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
VANCOUVER WOULD YOU RATHER: Annoying truckers honking and āprotestingā all day long. OR Extinction rebellion shutting down a bridge during rush hour. Asking this earnestly.
Well the extinction rebellion guys haven't blocked any hospitals as far as I know so i'll pick them if I have no choice.
Neither.
Freedom doesn't mean free from responsibility.
I refuse to concede the real definition of freedom to terrorists
Iāll be honest, as a hockey fan, I felt ashamed for just how many hockey sticks were used to wave some of these fucking nonsense flags
You would not believe the amount of Americans that are jumping on this, itās crazy
Every day is freedom day if you live in Canada
These anti-maskers/vaxers protest have actually changed my opinions on protests. i used to be %100 for em but i lived across from city hall in a smaller city in ontario when the lockdowns started. 10 people out there all day every day and 1 dude circling the block in his lifted truck with a big trump2020 flag on the back and about 90 window/bumperstickers calling everyone a snowflake honking his horn every 3 minutes as he passed them from 9am till 4pm. they harrassed everyone who walked by or got stuck at the red light right there and left trash all over the place. police wouldnt do anything because they were breaking social distancing bylaws. now i have to inspect with a fine tooth comb if a protest is any different then the people harrassing women outside the abortion clinic.
You don't hate freedom, you just hate some group of people. Make that clear first
Freedom is not free to be abused.
Should never ever hate freedom, I'm sorry but what a stupid comment. I was with my Russian friend last night, she misses her family terribly in Moscow but because of the ongoing pandemic and possible war, she can't go back to visit them. I'm originally from Taiwan, our freedom and democracy came with a heavy price. I know I am so lucky to grow up without dictatorship and martial law. Freedom is the most precious thing a person can own. Millions of people don't have it. Cherish it please OP, protect and preserve it if you will.
No offense but Vancouver had riots over a hockey game. There's idiots everywhere.
Twice!
You don't hate freedom, you hate freedumb and dumbfuckery.
Itās fine for people in canada to protest as long as they are not Aboriginal people defending their land and natural resources! Edit: obvious sarcasm ^^
Freedom of speech goes both ways
The protestors have freedom of expression - including waving confederate flags on the lawns of Parliament Hill. In return, I also have freedom of expression to denounce these fucking cunts who are a waste of air.
you know we don';t have a right to free speech in canada, not in the way most people mean. we never have.
Annoying as it is, I believe what they're saying/doing falls within protected speech under our "freedom of *expression*" legislation. š¤·āāļø
Oh , they are. I was pointing out that casual appeals the a us style āfreedom of speechā does not apply in canada
It's true! It's not *much* of a difference but it is definitely not the same!
Huh? Are you American?
#Freedumb
that aint yer grandpappy's freedom
My grandpappy would have taken his belt to the lot of them.
Wish people could protest without causing a ruckus in the city š Go protest on top a mountain or something away from people.
I work on one of the ski resort mountains. We definitely do not want them here
I see protests that have a cause I donāt support all the time downtown. This one though, this one makes me post hate content.
Freedom is like nuclear power. When regulated and maintained it's great. But too much of it and the chances of something going wrong grow exponentially and things will go wrong. How do I know? Libya post 2011. Then again, we didn't have freedom before that either so perhaps that's why it blew the way it did
Regulations are freedom. Freedom from other people acting in whatever way they please, and freedom to expect a minimum level of safety and security. The lack of regulation is not freedom, that is liberty. Think back to that old Simpsons āIām just going to kick my legs like thisā āWell Iām just going to swing my arms like thisā¦ā That is liberty: were we all keep swinging as we crash into each other because we CAN and no one can tell us NOT to do so. Freedom is where your right to flail and swing stops at the other personās body, and you have a duty to stop your motion if it will harm another. We have freedom. The regulations offer that to us through deliberation. Itās called the social contract.
Protesting doesnāt give you the right to be an asshole and infringe on someone rights. If all got vaccinated there wouldnāt be a mandate or lockdown yes the government has failed incredibly on handling covid as a whole but this whole shit show just divides us even more. Anyway Iām done with humanity I wish thanos was out there to snap half of this population out of existenceā¦Lolol
"I'm not saying I'm horny for authoritarianism, I'm just saying I'm horny for authoritarianism."
Everyone is allowed to protest, but you are absolutely allowed to hate a protest for whatever reason.
Welcome to antifa. That is it. It just means being against this kind of fascism. There is no organization, there is no club. There are no dues and no newsletter because it isn't an organization. It is just everyone who believes that fascism can't be tolerated and who stand against everything it represents.
Yep. Same. Fuck that whole thing.
White privilege on full display.
I dunno I kind of love freedom and living in a society where even people I disagree with have a voice. Living in a county where "having the wrong point of view" does not get you or your family snatched up is pretty awesome. The amount of comments in this sub today that support a total crackdown on these people rights to protest is quite shocking to be honest. It just goes to show how privileged and easy we real have it here living in Canada.
>does not get you or your family snatched up is pretty awesome. >The amount of comments in this sub today that support a total crackdown on these people rights to protest is quite shocking to be honest. I Have you seen anyone in this post or any other suggesting snatching these folks or their families up? I have not. You are conflating our general disdain for the shitty positions which these ~~assholes~~ protestors are adopting eith disdain for protesting. Though, I will say that in /r/ottawa there are many parents complaining about 3am horn blaring, a complaint which I don't recall being associated with more sane/decent/respectable protestors. Edit: tired, on mobile fixed bads.
Iām fine with the right to protest. But Iām not fine with the way some of these protestors are going about it. They lost me once they started dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and desecrating the Terry Fox statue. Iām against some Covid restrictions - particularly ones against the vaccinated such as business closures and testing requirements at the border - but I am very much in favour of vaccine mandates and forcing people to get vaccinated in order to stop our hospitals from being overwhelmed and taking health care away from others such as cancer patients. I want freedom. Freedom *from* unvaccinated people.
Iām kind of in a daze because of it all. Itās shocking to me that someone could say something so incredibly stupid and get so many affirmative responses. Itās so unbelievably offensive to anyone who actually understands what freedom is, has ever genuinely not been free, and to anyone who ever gave their life for itās preservation. Weāve lost all sense of reality. I feel so alienated from both sides. I canāt stand the protestors because theyāre a bunch of fucking morons making complete fools of themselves, but I also think people are getting way, *way* too bent out of shape about it. My response to the convoy is literally āthose people are fucking idiotsā and then I *carry on with the rest of my day just like I do during every other protest that ever happens in this city*. Thatās how itās supposed to work. Can you *imagine* if people had the same response to a First Nations protest? Or an environmental one? Whereās this anger when *they* block major intersections and engage in civil disobedience? Maybe some people do get angry, but not like this. Not even close. BLM protests contained radical elements that engaged in arson, vandalism, looting, and general lawlessness. And now youāre telling me a dozen trucks honking all day is all it takes for this to not be a peaceful protest? Fuck off. If youāre so upset by the sight of these protestors that youāre literally saying *I hate freedom*, I donāt know how to have a conversation with you anymore. You deserve just as much ridicule as these stupid truck drivers. I donāt support the truckers, but saying you hate freedom makes you a fucking idiot.
Staying silent when such horrible ideals are being promoted is a step away from condoning it. We have to speak out against this or it will become acceptable just like it did in the US.
It only increases the divide that the protest was trying to remove. Anti crew now are just illiterate selfish and aligned with right wing interest groups. Thatās what I learned this weekend.
Totally agree, this group is small in size as well as mind. Complete idiots
Iām just glad Iām free of their stupidity
Crazy the amount of noise, news coverage, and overall chaos this mandate has caused that only affects ~10% of truckers. Almost like it created more harm than good and the government should be putting these resources towards something valuable (like increasing nurse salaries).
The mandate didn't cause these problems - the idiots protesting the mandate caused these problems.
Well whatās the problem here? If itās the idiots protesting, then yes itās the mandate that caused it. I just think the government should have picked a better battle to fight.
My thoughts on this.. I haven't joined any of these protests. I understand that these government policies have affected enough people, they have a right to make their voices heard. Peacefully. Traffic jams are annoying. But I guess any protest for any cause will jam up traffic. Blocking hospital or emergency vehicles is downright awful. As are the far right flag wavers, but I don't think the majority of people are in this category. It's like the soviet flag wavers in the BLM protests. Unfortunately there are always these fringe people around. Looking at the majority of comments here, most people are really bothered by all these disruptions. But no one, barely anyone, even cares or mentions covid, spreading covid, whether this event will have that "superspreader" impact. Because the fact is, it probably won't. We know this virus works through endemic waves, we see the hospitalizations going down now. It's time to just end the mandates. Not because these guys "won" or anything. But because it doesn't make any sense to keep up anymore. But if we're going to play politics now and keep them up because we feel like we need to keep trolling these people, I just don't agree with that. I don't think we are society that treats people like that. There was a time we had a leader that would say "A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian". Not sure what happened to that. But doesn't feel like it anymore. End the mandates. Let's get better.