A SAD DAY FOR THE MOUNTIES AND FOR CANADIANS
OTTAWA, Canada—Police put the number of arrests at over 100, and the number of vehicles towed at 21 on Feb. 18 as law enforcement escalated its confrontation with protesters in Ottawa.
Mounted police and officers on foot advanced on crowds to push them away from the designated secured area, in some instances knocking down protesters.
A mounted police unit lines up behind public order units on foot to clear protesters in Ottawa on Feb. 18, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)
The police slowly pushed back the crowd for most of the day, but in the afternoon increased pressure by deploying pepper spray and using police on horseback to gain more ground while advancing against the protesters.
Some police officers carried assault rifles and what appeared to be rubber bullet launchers.
Earlier in the day, protest organizer Benjamin Dichter took to Twitter to urge protesters to leave and pleaded with the OPS to let the truckers “leave in peace.”
“One of Freedom Convoy Canada drivers had his truck windows smashed by Ottawa Police, guns drawn & dragged out of his vehicle by force. It’s time to leave. Ottawa Police please allow the remaining trucks to leave in peace.”
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Dichter confirmed to The Epoch Times that the decision to leave was made by convoy leadership.
“We had a meeting with all the road captains and they came to the conclusion that it is the safest option,” he said.
Meanwhile, protesters could be seen making snow barricades on Wellington and Metcalfe streets to slow the police advance toward the core of the protest in front of Parliament Hill.
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The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) called out the OPS for telling media earlier in the day to stay away and warning that “anyone found within areas undergoing enforcement may be subject to arrest.”
“Warning journalists about safety risks in the protest zone is reasonable. Threatening them with arrest for doing their jobs is not,” wrote the CCLA on Twitter.
Organizers Arrested
Two Freedom Convoy organizers, Chris Barber and Tamara Lich, were arrested on Feb. 17. Former RCMP officer Daniel Bulford, who coordinated security at the protest, was also arrested on Feb. 18.
Barber is charged with “counselling to commit the offence of mischief,” “counselling to commit the offence of disobey court order (s. 127,” and “counselling to commit the offence of obstruct police.” Lich is charged with “counselling to commit the offence of mischief.”
Both were scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 18.
Dichter said on Twitter on the afternoon of Feb. 18 that in the case of Barber, the presiding judge ruled that he can be released on condition he goes home.
“This is why de-escalation is important & to communicate it to law enforcement. I do not want my friends stuck in jail or other drivers to get injured,” Dicther said. “To everyone who has shared #love & support for #CanadasTruckers, thank you, we love you all. I & many others have left Ottawa.”
The House of Commons sitting on Feb. 18 was cancelled due to the expanded police operations, the Speaker of the House said.
“Given these exceptional circumstances, and following discussion with all recognized party leadership, the sitting today is cancelled,” said a post on the official Twitter account of Anthony Rota.
On Feb. 14, the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act to confront the ongoing protests. The House of Commons is currently debating the measures under the Act. While the Tories are opposed to the move, so far NDP have spoken in support of the use of the Act, giving Liberals enough support for its passage once it goes to vote.
“To deal with the current threats, our government is invoking the Emergencies Act. The scope of the Act is time-limited and targeted, reasonable, and proportionate–and it gives law enforcement agencies more tools to restore public order and protect people,” Trudeau said on Twitter about his government’s decision to invoke the act.
Ottawa police have set up fences and barriers in downtown Ottawa to establish a secured area, banning travel and assembly of people within the zone. The secured area is from Bronson Avenue to the Canal, and the Queensway to Parliament Hill.
Only local residents or people who work in the area will be allowed to go into the secured area.
“We want you to be aware that entering the Secured Area for the purpose of contravening the Emergencies Act, may result in you being arrested and/or charged,” Ottawa police said in a statement.
Interim Ottawa police chief Steve Bell said on Feb. 17 that the secured area includes close to 100 checkpoints, to ensure those who want to enter the area for an “unlawful reason, such as joining a protest, cannot enter the downtown core.”
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), which has provided legal representation to Freedom Convoy organizers, said in a statement that it has issued a “cease and desist demand letter” to Bell.
“The Charter ensures that Canadians are free to peacefully assemble, to express their ideas, to gather to discuss them and communicate them widely to other people, including vigorous political dissent. These activities are basic forms of individual liberty. They are essential to the basic functioning of a democratic society like Canada. In Canada, people are free to discuss matters of public policy, to protest and to criticize governments,” JCCF said in a statement.
“The Interim Police Chief’s improper attempts to scare Canadians from exercising their Charter rights is disturbing,” added Keith Wilson, JCCF lawyer and external lead counsel for the Freedom Convoy 2022.
Civil liberties and constitutional rights groups have launched legal challenges against the government’s use of the Emergencies Act in the face of the protests.
“The government’s emergency declaration is unprecedented and seriously infringes the charter rights of Canadians,” Canadian Civil Liberties Association executive director Noa Mendelsohn Aviv said at a press conference on Feb. 17, after announcing that her organization is intending to take the government to court over its use of the act.
The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) also said it’s taking legal action against the government over its use of the act on Feb. 17.
“Prime Minister Trudeau has set a dangerous precedent by invoking the never before used federal Emergencies Act to address the current situation. The high threshold for declaring a public order emergency in the Emergencies Act has not been met,” said CCF litigation director Christine Van Geyn in a statement on Feb. 17.
With the new powers granted under the Emergencies Act, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Feb. 17 that information is now being shared by law enforcement with Canada’s financial institutions to cut off funding for the ongoing protests.
“The names of both individuals and entities, as well as crypto-wallets have been shared by the RCMP with financial institutions, and accounts have been frozen, and more accounts will be frozen. Crowdfunding platforms and payment service providers have started the registration process with FINTRAC,” Freeland said at a press conference.
The ongoing protests against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions were inspired by a movement initiated by truck drivers opposed to the federal government’s requirement that truck drivers crossing the U.S.-Canada border need to have COVID-19 vaccination. As large convoys of trucks and other vehicles drove to Ottawa to protest the vaccination mandate, more people joined the movement, opposing various COVID-19 mandates and restrictions.
Many protesters have said they intend to stay in Ottawa until the mandates are lifted.
“We will remain peaceful, but planted on Parliament Hill until the mandates are decisively ended,” protest organizer Tamara Lich said at a press conference on Feb. 14.
Isaac Teo and Andrew Chen contributed to this report.
@Michael S FYI
I just bought The Failure to Rescue on Amazon (used/acceptable) because it is too much pain to read it online on my tabletop PC.
When it shows up, I’ll finish reading it in a comfier position at my leisure.
It has some interesting stuff that Wyman’s book doesn’t have.
@Sebastien Zorn
This is the book :
David Wyman The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945
I finished reading it the other day (got it used from Amazon) – it may not be to everyone’s liking because it is full of source notes and is not written as a novel (which most people prefer).
I like history books which (ideally) are devoid of emotion and full of citations and quotes.
@Michael S
I highly recommend that you read it – it is extremely well documented.
The British, American, and Canadian governments (I am not listing the occupied countries because what they did is obvious) were more than just passive accomplices – they actively aided and abetted the Nazis’ Final Solution by their conscious and active sabotage of rescue and trapping the Europe’s Jews by slamming shut the gates of Palestine, etc. (the book doesn’t say it outright but the conclusion is also obvious).
You know why? Because of the Evian conference initiated by the US after which the Dominican Republic was the only country that was still willing to shelter Jews.
The American Jews did a lot more than I ever thought (maybe not enough/too timidly – the constant infighting didn’t help) but were met with active sabotage by the government including by their beloved FDR (who wasn’t just a “toy in the hands of Rosenman”).
They didn’t until the D-Day in the middle of 1944 when they decided to take over whatever part of Western Europe was left before the Soviets got there.
If the “accursed Soviets” didn’t overpower the German army and then swept though the Eastern Europe, not only your statement would be correct but the Holocaust might have continued on the American soil.
You don’t have to be a leftie or a rightie to be able to distinguish facts from fiction.
Hi, Sebastien
Reader has been reading a book I recommended,
Druks, Herbert M., “The Failure to Rescue”
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5587737W/The_failure_to_rescue
PDF: https://www.cpsonline.info/The-Failure-To-Rescue%7CHerbert-Druks.cgi
Reader then recommended another book, by a different author, of which I read the review.
@Michael S. Did I miss something? What book?
HI, Reader
Thank you for checking out Herbert’s book. At 85, he’s apparently still teaching at Brooklyn College. I talked to him a few times several years ago, when I was getting in touch with Jewish relatives. He’s written several books about the Holocaust, to which he lost some close family. All his books are all concise and informative.
Concerning David Wyman’s book, I haven’t read it; but I did look up a review:
“Contending that a substantial commitment by the United States to rescuing Jewish people could have saved hundreds of thousands of Nazi victims, this reissue is in response to controversies surrounding the role of the Swiss, the French, the Americans and others during the period in question. The author sets out to show that, whilst the Nazis were the murderers, Americans were all-too-passive accomplices.”
I notice that the review manages to lay a guilt trip on the Americans, French and Swiss — always a popular thing to do, among Lefties. In reality, only the Dominican Republic offered to take in Jews; all the rest ignored their plight. On the other hand, if Roosevelt hadn’t stood with Churchill in resisting Hitler, we can be certain that hardly any Jews at all would have survived to today.
The times we are now going through, in which once country after another is becoming a tyrannical dictatorship, is more dangerous than the time of the Nazis; because unless this movement is stopped, those resisting the tyranny will have no place to flee to.
@Michael S.
I borrowed your cousin’s book from archive.org, they claim it is downloadable but I have to read it on the website for some reason.
Here is another good book on the topic David Wyman The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945 (he is not Jewish).
Premier Peckford issued the following statement on Dr. Alexander’s substack and requested that it be shared:
Dr. Paul Alexander to MSM and Gov’t –You Failed!:
https://rumble.com/vvahvk-dr.-paul-alexander-epidemiologist-breaks-down-covid-myths-and-corruption.html
A rumor has been going around that there was an arrest warrant for Dr. Alexander, Dr. Roger Hodkinson and Premier Peckford for their role in the Freedom Convoy and the open challenge to a public debate by Alexander, Hodgkinson and Bridle to which the govt did not attend or respond.
@MICHAEL S-
Welcome to the Tribe, Chaver……A hidden Jew…..Ho Ho Ho….!!.
TED, THE EDIT BOX SAYS I AM LOGGED IN AS “Levi”.
I am NOT “Levi”.Who is hacking this site?
steven1
It’s an idiotocracy. The stupid government will pay dearly at election time, maybe even before. They are a minority govt right now I think.
I hope a new govt will severely punish those police and RCMP who assaulted peaceful protesters and make a severe example of them
I can see new unrest amongst the Western Provinces and a new break-away project begun. The country is far too big and unwieldy to have Provinces 3000 miles away under a really foreign rule.
Oy Canada ….by the great David Solway – Requiem for a Nation
https://pjmedia.com/columns/david-solway-2/2022/02/19/requiem-for-a-nation-n1560630
The elitocracy doesn’t give a damn!
The American people may have to face an attempt to suspend their rights.
Hi, Laura. Some earlier reports seemed to say the woman had been killed. I’m glad to hear she was only injured — so far. Bannon’s War Room was right on top of it today:
https://rumble.com/vvc889-episode-1652-rcmp-riot-in-ottawa-cpac-live-the-desecrators-ohio-primary-rac.html
God bless the truckers; God bless the Canadian people. RCMP ____ (I can’t say it).
I don’t suppose the media will condemn this the way they condemned our border patrol on horseback who didn’t knock down or hurt anyone even though they were trying to illegally enter our country. The media, though, didn’t hesitate to falsely accuse them of “whipping” the illegal aliens. But blatantly thuggery and violence against patriotic and peaceful Canadians on the part of a left wing regime is fine by them.
Effeminate beta male trudeau, who bowed before the violent terrorists of blm, now cracks down on peaceful, patriotic truckers. He is a filthy fascist.
Older disabled Canadian lady, peaceful protester, knocked down and injured by police horseman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7KwFyHh1E0