On the Canadian bridge
The Canadian authorities have moved in on the truckers, who have mostly dispersed:
A lot of the people who were there last night went home and haven’t come back yet. It’s not clear if they will ultimately leave, although some did…The protesters are now talking with the police and chastising them for not supporting freedom. The protesters are saying that the government is concerned about the blockage at the bridge being bad for the economy, but they didn’t seem to mind how the restrictions and mandates in Canada have truly harmed the economy, the country, and people’s lives.
Police have moved to push them out. But so far, they have not arrested anyone yet; they just seem to be standing there right now.
That was written this morning. This article indicates that the dispersal may be complete, but it’s not totally clear whether that is the case. If so, though, I’m not surprised. They may regroup elsewhere. I doubt this is over, and of course it has spread to other countries.
But the bottom line with these things is always this: how far each side is willing to go. The ironic thing is that the truckers – who have been so vilified by the government – are so nice. They don’t want to hurt anyone or be hurt, and they don’t want to lose their jobs.
Above all, they don’t want to go to prison and be locked away like the January 6 demonstrators in the US, about whom they’ve probably heard. Our government’s coming down so hard on the 1/6ers (as opposed to on the Antifa/BLM rioters) was extremely purposeful and sent a message that this will be your fate if you defy the government, even peacefully (as all of those charged with trespassing demonstrate) – if you’re on the right or even in the middle, that is.
A turning point would be if the police refused to cooperate in clearing the demonstrators away. That turning point has not been reached, and I don’t know whether it ever will.
The truckers could now just go home. And stay there. No deliveries. No food. No fuel. Nothing in Canada moves without truckers.
Maybe convince some other essential people to join in a general strike. Does the worker shortage extend to Canada also?
See how long Castreau lasts when that happens.
Related (just a reminder):
“Trudeau Ally Accuses Him of Politicizing Pandemic and Dividing Nation”
https://freebeacon.com/coronavirus/trudeau-ally-accuses-him-of-politicizing-pandemic-and-dividing-nation/
(Would be “nice” if the Democrats could muster up something similar….
Here in northern Italy there is a priest, from thediocese of Bergamo, who decided to go on pilgrimage for some weeks: his intention is to bring peace in a divided country where the non-vaccinated are severely restricted in their constitutional and human rights: without the GreenPass one cannot enter in postal-offices and banks, cannot buy goods deemed “non-essential” (!), cannot travel on the public transport vehicles, among other niceties.
You can listen to his message and invitation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmFS7wsdH5k
He brings two letters, one addressed to each parish and one to the Pope, where he shares his experiences with people discriminated for their choice, which is legal and harmless for others. He’s against the GreenPass, against the vax obligation, against blackmail.
His bishop, without listening to him and using stone-cold labels like “anti-vax”, has suspended the priest, who continues his pilgrimage. I intend to join him as soon as I end my current quarantine.
I couldn’t imagine a head of state so brazenly deceitful, against all evidence and law, without any consequence. The media has entered a terrible mindset where they feel justified in their lying for “the good cause”, or better: against the wrong people.
Today, in France, Macron has authorized his police to use tear gas against peaceful demonstrators.
Paolo, you’re amazing.
Good luck!
Perhaps—one fervently hopes!—that “the science” will soon “change” in Italy, just as it has—apparently(!)—in the US….
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/02/the-liberal-retreat-from-mandates-2.php
Trudeau is living on borrowed time. The rationale for vx mandate is that it protects the rest of the public from infection by the person forcibly vx’d. But omicron (and the decaying protective effect of the vx with all strains) shows that the rationale is weak or, IMHO, completely incorrect.
So the truckers were not wrong to object to being forced by the State to accept a strange and unproven substance into their bodies. The overreaction of the State to their rejection of its “care” was strong evidence that the State had no case, moral or legal, in forcing this result. The truckers exposed this.
I think the truckers are very thoughtful, that is, they are following leaders who have thought this through. The next move IMHO should be to work inside their adversary’s OODA loop. Do a “flash jam” of trucks where the authorities least expect it. Make it come and go unpredictably: and keep the tone light, humorous. The media will be compelled to cover it, and the State will appear bitter, clumsy and vicious as it tries to chase the flash-jammers from hither to yon.
I like clear highways and no traffic, but in this case I think the truckers deserve a big nod.
The ‘authorities’ will use whatever amount of force is necessary to get their way.
The media’s portrayal of the protesting truckers as insurrectionists is preparation by the left for their justification in using force.
maybe, this is zoolander’s denoument
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/this-could-cost-him-his-job-a-blockaded-canada-turning-on-trudeau-poll-finds/wcm/d47e1e09-cbeb-402c-b1d3-e62ed7fc9ef4
Paolo Pagliaro–
Pope John XXIII was born in the diocese of Bergamo, was he not? I expect he will bless Don Emanuele’s pilgrimage.
Thank you for the video link; I don’t speak Italian, but my French is good enough that I could follow the closed-caption Italian text.
Best wishes to you and the priest on your pilgrimage.
miguel cervantes
I expect by now a share of Canadians are unhappy with the blockades. However, the elitist slagging of the drivers is not going to be restricted to the drivers. There are a lot of blue-collar workers who might feel the social insults, the class insults, splash on to them.
A plumber might or might not support the blockade, but he’s a blue-collar guy, too. Like his neighbor. One need not support the blockade to feel annoyed at the insults, the baseless insults, aimed at one’s neighbor. And if you resent the vax and other mitigation restrictions….goes double, no matter that your livelihood doesn’t involve trucking.
While the trucks and other vehicles blocking the road to the bridge have been dispersed, Ontario Provincial Police put up concrete barriers blocking bridge traffic in both directions. My guess is that they are worried about trucks stopping on the bridge itself.
There are what looks like a few hundred protesters on foot but the fact remains that it is Canadian authorities that are currently closing the bridge.
Imagine what would happen if truckers stopped on the U.S. side of the bridge. The Ambassador Bridge is not a public road, it’s privately owned and the bridge owners have been staying neutral, obviously trying not to offend truckers. Ontario authorities have no jurisdiction on the U.S. side of the bridge and Michigan and U.S. authorities don’t have any legal right to go on private property without the permission of the bridge owners as no Michigan laws would be broken.
I wonder if the truckers could just start slowly moving on the bridge and gum up the works on the Detroit side with customs and all that stuff. Then, they can visit Detroit for a while, turn around and return to Windsor, go through customs, then return back to Detroit, and so on.
If they have been vaccinated, I don’t think they are subjected to the 2 week quarantine. If I remember correctly, it is only the unvaxxed that has to deal with the 2-week quarantine on return.
This would really mess up the Customs and the truckers would not be delivering any goods to America or Canada.The bridge would just be filled with empty trucks slowly going back and forth.
Heck, I used to go to Windsor for lunch and shopping and I know Canadians would go to Detroit for shopping as well as health care.
It appears that EVERYBODY who has money in Toronto-Dominion Bank should immediately withdraw ALL FUNDS, as they cannot be assured that their funds are safe there.
“The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) has announced that it will not be handing over $1.4 million in donations to the Freedom Convoy, and is planning to surrender the money to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice instead.”
https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/272290857/bank-freezes-freedom-convoy-donations
miguel cervantes,
Trudeau is a front man. No doubt alternative standins are available.
Count on it, the rot is as deep and wide in Canada, as it is in any other Western nation.
The ‘takeaway’ from this is the next time you organize a protest don’t use decent, working family people. Do what BLM does and get a lot of thugs that already have a criminal record and don’t give a sh__ if they get arrested or not. Now THESE people know how to ‘fire bomb’ their way onto the front pages to accomplish their goal.
Hello Barry, thank you very much. I’m not optimistic about my country, our democratic system is quite compromised: in the last 9 years the left has regularly lost the election but then a little crisis arises – usually caused by friction with the EU – and here it comes a “technical government” led by the PD (Partito Democratico, which is the old Communist party minus some openly Stalinist fringe) which is totally aligned with the high-class ruling elite in Bruxelles.
Recently we had the President election and, after clownish confusion, Sergio Mattarella has been re-elected. the President mandate lasts 7 years, so we are going to be stuck with this apparatchik man for 14 years. In Italy the President *was* mainly a representative role, but now he’s become decisive: it’s not like in the US, where the elected President is in charge for 4 years barring extraordinary events – here, if there’s a crisis and the running government cannot find the majority in the Parliament, then that government is over and a new one has to be put together among the elected representatives, not necessarily those who won the election. Traditionally, the President simply ratifies the new Prime minister chosen by the Parliament, but in the last years he has assumed a much more active role, conferring the authority only to those who are liked in Bruxelles, such as the current Mario Draghi, who’s the EU Banks’ man in politics. Moreover, he’s the chief of the Magistrature – also traditionally a representative role, but no more.
The (further) bad news is that both the (whole) left and (a big chunk of) the right have embraced the Scare Pandemic politics: the fear-inducing media battage has been so overwhelming and successful that it’s a political suicide to assume “ethorodox” (e.g. non apocalyptic) positions, even while many European countries are abandoning or relaxing restrictions. One big problem is that most Italians don’t have any source of information beside the national TV, which is almost as corrupted as the Canadian – in other words, their main job is suppressing unwelcome news and smearing any one who ask questions.
Of course, there’s always hope (I mean, political hope: Christian and genuinely human hope and nobility cannot be suppressed, even in a Gulag or Lager). There are a number of public figures, also on the left (eminently, the philosopher Cacciari, a very good person; or the art critic Vittorio Sgarbi, a force of nature!), who are very bravely opposing the politics of fear and I think that things will begin to change abruptly as soon as fear looses its grip. Then I expect everybody suddenly changing their position and saying: “I’ve always been critical about the GreenPass” – a very Italian turnaround, like when everybody changed from Fascist to Partisan overnight, when Mussolini got hung in Piazzale Loreto.
Sorry for the long reply. I wish you the best, God bless.
Hello PA+Cat
Yes, Giovanni XXIII was from Sotto il Monte, a small town near Bergamo – wonderful city, btw, a jewel: go to visit it, if you come here.
I strongly believe that he would bless this priest, but he was also a very naive man who was fooled by radical progressive – and possibly soviet agents – many times.
I say hello to everybody here, you are good people and this blog is one of the most interesting and intelligent I know.
God bless your country, and Canada as well.
I just learned that the insurrection in Ottawa is over: the police has caught the ringleader.
https://twitter.com/Gray_Mackenzie/status/1492639882250006528
The Windsor bridge has been cleared out. Looks like we now know where the Canadian police stand. Eventually, this all goes to pieces unless the police refuse their orders.
Bigger question now here in the US: we’ve supported the police over the past year protesting the “defund the police” by the Ds. What if the police now turn on US citizens as the US convoy begins its journey? What do the Buffalo police do if the NY governor orders them to break up the protest there? Do we keep supporting the police if they turn on citizens?
Thanks Paolo.
Wishing you and the people of Italy courage in this fight.
We may be at the beginning of the end (as the expression goes)… I hope so.
I came across the following videos, which I don’t know if you’ve seen.
They are in Italian (or translated)
https://rumble.com/vt2u6c-victory-italian-court-overturns-the-governments-deadly-covid-policy.html
https://rumble.com/vsrpfl-nobel-laureate-warns-doctors-vaccines-are-not-for-killing-they-are-for-shie.html
Looks like we now know where the Canadian police stand.
Funny, the OPP were happy to sit on their hands in other cases. This went on for over a year:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_River_land_dispute#Allegations_of_police_inaction.
Paolo Pagliaro,
Che Dio ti benedica e ti protegga durante il tuo pellegrinaggio!
I remember another Paul who went on a journey and had his life changed near Damascus…