The suit is not about peaceful protest. It does not impact anyone’s Section 2 rights.
The suit is about harassment, intimidation, torture, air pollution, racism, sexism, intolerance, shutting down businesses and putting people out of work for weeks, and other criminal activities that are not protected by Section 2.
No one gave a fuck about these idiots and their tantrum until they started committing crimes.
They fucked around and they are now finding out. That’s what they always say, isn’t it?
They came to Ottawa to commit their crimes they should be tried in Ottawa. Want to be tried in Upper Rubber Boot, Alberskatchetoba? Commit your crimes there.
There’s still very low understanding of how devastating and threatening the convoy protests were for the residents and businesses in the core of Ottawa.
Residents, businesses and people who work downtown in Ottawa roll with protests day-in and out. Large ones usually are usually respectful of the legal limits, and local people know how to plan their days to avoid them if they need to.
This protest damaged hearing with unremitting high decibel air horns, polluted the air with weeks of nonstop truck emissions, actively harassed, intimidated and threatened local residents trying to get to work and essential services, filled the streets with garbage and feces.
They also created significant fire hazards and risked major explosions, including by creating a large stash of gasoline in tanks in Confederation Park - directly across the street from city hall, an armoury, and close to a high school as well as right across the narrow Rideau canal from National Defence headquarters.
But it was the utter lack of consideration for the most vulnerable that truly showed the incredible selfishness and lack of compassion of the protesters.
There are many lower income, disabled and senior residents in coop apartments downtown. Many rely on visiting services from care workers who could not get through the protests on most days. A small proportion had family and friends who were able to host them outside the area of the protests, most were trapped, isolated and terrorized.
Low understanding is an understatement. I have heard too many neighbours refer to it as a trucker strike and state they actually came close to deposing Trudeau because that’s what facebook told them. I hope I’ve convinced a few of them to start getting their news from actual journalists, but I’m not very confident.
Alberskatchetoba is the center of white rage in Canada. The feel that the majority look down on them as dumb, backwards, intolerant, hateful, racist, bigots and that makes them angry. Their seething resentment at their belief that everyone else thinks they are better than them drives them. For many all that matters anymore is hurting the people that they think think are better than them.
I grew up in Saskabush, have lived in Alberta (and BC & Ontario) and currently live in Manitoba.
You’re right on the money with your assessment.
I have a friend who grew up in a northern town in Alberskatchetoba. Her family went all in with the tantrumists. They were protecting our rights and they were going to stay in Ottawa until Trudeau was gone and all the mandates were lifted. She tried but ended up cutting off contract with some of her family.
I mean the way Alberta votes and squanders its oil wealth is really dumb
Yes. They voted for successive governments that gave them a pittance while allowing corporations to take billions of dollars of provincial resource wealth out of the province without contributing anything to the eventual cleanup costs. Then, when the wells dry up or demand drops and they abandon the wells the people who received that pittance will pay it back 100 fold to clean up the mess.
But at least the government told them they were spacial that whole time which is all that matters to them. That’s where the white rage comes from. You’re not special because you live in Alberta anymore. You’re not special because you’re “christian” anymore. You’re not special because you’re white anymore. You’re not special because you’re male anymore. You’re not special because you’re straight anymore. You’re not special because you were born here anymore. That leads to aggrieved entitlement which results in seething resentment.
They need to listen to more Kris Kristofferson:
Everybody’s gotta have somebody to look down on
Whom they can be better than at any time they please.
Someone doin’ somethin’ dirty the decent folks can frown on
If you can’t find nobody else then help yourself to me.
Upper Rubber Boot, Alberskatchetoba
I’m fucking dying. This is poetry.
Please distribute freely.
I love that the government suddenly cares about air pollution when it comes to the protests but doesn’t otherwise care about air pollution in our cities by investing in walkability, transit and more green infrastructure.
Who said anything about the government? It’s private citizens who were the innocent victims of the tantrum who are suing because they were subjected to weeks of diesel and other fumes.
Don’t forget the fires.
Freedom Fires?
Hey look! A wild whataboutism! Don’t move too quickly or you may startle it.
I hope we throw the book at them.
I left Ottawa right before this happened and it’s the only thing I regret about leaving. I would’ve loved to buy those guys a few jerry cans for their trucks. With plenty of added sugar, of course!
Ottawa sees protests all the time. This wasn’t a protest, it was an occupation.
James Manson (the lawyer)'s LinkedIn lists his position as “senior lawyer as Self-Employed” since Sept 2022.
If you have actual prospects, taking a case like this will kill your career unless your career is already over, or you’ve already joined an embarrassing firm like the JCCF.
I wonder how much money he’s scamming off the convoy-coup-crowd.
Edit: Even if you believe in the same causes as the JCCF, there is no denying that they are a firm of losers. They are happy that they have not-lost over 30 cases in the past 23 years.
Their website says that they have 14 lawyers and 7 paralegals. They should not-lose (or even better, win) more than 30 cases a month.
Why would it be a career killer? I thought a major point of being a lawyer was that you can set your personal feelings aside to perform in court. A firm passing judgement on a lawyer because they don’t like the people he defended sounds like exactly the kind of personal judgement lawyers aren’t supposed to be doing.
(I work with lawyers, but I am not one.)
It’s true that a major part of being in law is setting your personal feelings aside, but you also need to use critical thinking through the scope of professional ethics to represent the best interests of your client.
The issue that I see others in the profession having isn’t with the client of the case, it’s with the case and argument(s) themselves.
The lawyer is wasting the court’s time with indefensible arguments, which is likely to end up harming the clients not only in this case, but in their upcoming criminal cases as well.That seems really obvious now you point it out lol
Thanks
Throw the book at these traitors.
I hate it that I see people actually support these damn rioters. I would’ve been fine with them (though I don’t believe in their cause) if it was simply a protest. Occupying capital hill? Sure, that’s okay. A group of natives did that a few years ago and I supported that.
But disrupting the peace, especially when all the MPs went home and was comfortably sleeping half a city away while the locals were desperately covering their ears at four in the morning? That’s not protesting, that’s borderline domestic terrorism.
It was an occupation, not a protest. Protests target the powerful and in charge. Occupations target the weak and vulnerable. And only one of those groups were anywhere close to the truckers past the usual 9-5.
People across the country supported the police terrorizing, physically attacking, and pointlessly arresting thousands of innocent bystanders in Toronto in June 2010. I have no love for my country or its citizens left.
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