Millroy: The protesters say they are all about freedom

By
Doug Millroy
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31

I said last week that I thought I was somewhat naive in believing that when the truckers’ convoy was originally being put together in B.C. its main goal was to attempt to get the federal government to drop its mandate requiring that all truckers entering Canada be vaccinated.

Well, it turns out I was even more naive in believing that by the time my column was being read that the convoy would have dispersed, “fading from the news columns and the public mind with nothing having been accomplished, just a lot of time wasted and a lot of money spent on gasoline.”

The convoy is still there as I write this on Saturday last and the egg on my face isn’t sitting well.

I actually thought common sense would prevail, that the truckers, now demanding that all mandates be eliminated, would realize that they were in the wrong place, that they should be in provincial capitals as most mandates were imposed by the provinces.

And if common sense was not going to do it, then I thought the rule of law would, that law enforcement would simply force them to move on.

I was wrong on both counts.

I realize police, in allowing the plugging of downtown Ottawa to continue, were worried about the violence that could erupt if they attempted to move the truckers.

But I do not believe that any group can be allowed to take over a portion of a city with no end game in sight, as is the case here.

Police at one point did raise the possibility of asking for military intervention to clear the downtown but the Canadian Armed Forces were quick to say they there were no plans for such CAF involvement. As well, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that a military response was “not in the cards right now.”

They might not be in the cards right now but if the occupying of a city cannot be resolved by police, they damned well will have to be.

Police made a mistake in allowing the convoy into the city in the first place and other cities facing similar protests, notably Toronto and Quebec City, indicated they had taken note. They said they planned to stop truckers short of their downtowns and their provinces’ respective Legislatures, minimizing the effect.

It wasn’t a total success last weekend.

In Toronto the truckers were kept away from the Legislature and major hospitals but they did manage to block several major streets and intersections. However, by Sunday it was all over.
In Quebec City truckers actually achieved their goal, about 100 semis and large trucks ending up parked along two lanes on René-Lévesque Blvd., the road that runs alongside the National Assembly. But they eventually left, with some vowing to return in two weeks.

In Ottawa, which has declared a state of emergency, the truckers have made it clear they intend to be there for the long haul and have erected a small building in Confederation park, described on social media as a community kitchen. A fenced area nearby showed dozens of fuel canisters and propane tanks being stored.

How did the truckers get this material into the area? How did they manage to erect the building without police moving in to stop construction?

Police are apparently now putting up barricades in certain places and seizing material and fuel that has been brought into the area, moves they should have made at the outset.

I have nothing against protests. I believe the right to protest is necessary in a democracy.

But they can be taken too far and that has now proved to be the case in Ottawa.

The Rideau Mall has been shut down as have many other businesses in the area. This not only has harmed the businesses but their employees as well. Also, residents in the area have been deeply affected by their loss of mobility and the continual blaring of horns.

The protesters say they are all about freedom, yet by their actions they have taken it away from many in Ottawa.

Those involved in the convoy probably thought they were going to be supported well financially as a GoFundMe campaign had brought in more than $10 million.

But the crowdfunding site pulled the plug on this last week, saying it would reimburse or redirect to charities the vast majority of the more than $10 million raised.

GoFundMe said it supports peaceful protest and that it believes that was the initial intention of the Ottawa event, but it said it now had evidence from law enforcement that the demonstration “has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity.”

I think one thing that a lot of people are missing in regard to the border mandate is that it only brings truckers in line with the rest of us.

The federal government announced in November that certain categories of travellers who were currently exempt from entry requirements, which included truckers as they had been designated as an essential service, would as of Jan. 15 not be allowed to enter the country if they weren’t fully vaccinated.

I couldn’t quarrel with that. I didn’t see any reason why essential workers should be treated any differently than the rest of us, something the government obviously came to recognize as well.

Anything can have happened in the days that will have passed before you get to read this, but I think I can be sure of one thing: The truckers will not have gotten what they want.

If any government, federal or provincial, gave in to the demands of a rebel group as the truckers have turned out to be, there would be no end to it. Groups of all kinds would know that all they had to do was agitate in a harmful way to get what they wanted.
That can’t happen.

 


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31 COMMENTS

  2. Mr Millroy, I understand that you have been in the news business for a very long time, and as such you obviously know infinitely more than I do about these matters. However, when you say that their protests are in the wrong place, and they should be at the provincial capital, I am pretty sure the protestors got it right. They went there to protest their order to get vaccinated to come back into Canada. The international border is controlled by the federal government, not the provincial.
    I work in a service industry where I get to meet a lot of different people, and interestingly, they all have an opinion on the state of our nation. I like to think that I do more listening than talking, and it amazes me that most just regurgitate rhetoric that they heard on CBC. Disinformation runs rampant in this nation, both for and against the convoy. The truth is that there is going to be a cross-section of society in a crowd that big. Yes you are going to have some racists, and yes you will have some misogynists, but you will also have some pastors and social workers and firemen and nurses. There are people from every walk of life that have a common goal there, they want freedom restored in Canada.
    When I, and others, say we want freedom, that doesn’t mean that we aren’t free, because we most certainly are, for now. These people have taken up a cause that they feel strongly about because they love this great nation. They and I see a steady decline in our rights and freedoms, an erosion that is heading into dangerous waters. Take for example our national parliament. It is set up in a way that was intended to favor the Crown, not the people. Our Prime Minister has the right to unilaterally create a state of emergency. He does have to get the Governor-General to sign off on that, but for him, that’s easy because she is a former CBC journalist and the state-run media will always favor the Government. The opposition is powerless to stop him because even with a vote of non-confidence, the PC’s will lose because the NDP will always side with the Liberals. In short, this emergency that he created will give him even more power now. It was announced today that some of the emergency measures will not be repealed when this crisis is over.
    Canadians have their heads buried in the sand. We have always believed that Canada is one of the best countries in the world to live in, and that has always been true, but we are heading into Fascism. The people who recognize this are being arrested in Ottawa for fighting for freedoms for us all and being vilified as racists and lawbreakers. The Freedom Rally is more than just having the right to not get vaccinated and wear a mask. The rest of the world recognizes this, and that is why our American neighbors, who have their freedom under constant attack also, are protesting at Canadian embassies chanting “we are all Canadian now”.
    All we need to do is look back in history to see how we are paralleling some of the darkest periods. The American Revolution was sparked by excessive taxation and oppression, and it gave birth to a great nation. We are entering our dark hour in Canada. We will emerge as a free nation or we will be oppressed. We will decide our own outcomes based on our actions. Freedom doesn’t come for free, it has to be won.

    • @Greg Schuler, when you said:

      “Canadians have their heads buried in the sand. We have always believed that Canada is one of the best countries in the world to live in, and that has always been true, but we are heading into Fascism. The people who recognize this are being arrested in Ottawa for fighting for freedoms for us all and being vilified as racists and lawbreakers. The Freedom Rally is more than just having the right to not get vaccinated and wear a mask. The rest of the world recognizes this, and that is why our American neighbors, who have their freedom under constant attack also, are protesting at Canadian embassies chanting “we are all Canadian now”.

      A) We Canadians don’t have our heads buried in the sand as YOU say,

      B) Who exactly are the “We” you were referring to in your second sentence? Is it the respectful freedom protesters who were there because they’re tired of being isolated at home for sooooo… long, and just want to get their lives back to the way they were before the pandemic, AND who left the protests quickly and peacefully? Or was it the Fascist “We” you were referring to who are protesting in from embassies around the world with their gigantic pots of Fascist Dictatorial money, and who are being arrested and taken away in Police cars? One thing is certain, it’s not the Truck Drivers who started this convoy in order to simply get vaccination mandates lifted for truck drivers who wanted to cross freely into the US of A.

      So what exactly do you mean @Greg Schuler when say, “The Freedom Rally is more than just having the right to not get vaccinated and wear a mask. The rest of the world recognizes this”?

      To me it sounds like you, and your Fascist buddies from around the world, who want to be Canadian now, are tired of being oppressed for your Fascist Dictatorial beliefs.

      Sheesh, now the Fascists are calling our democratically elected Canadian government Fascists through their oppressed Fascist mouthpiece @Greg Schuler.

      Thanks for crawling out from underneath your rock @Greg Schuler it’s very interesting to hear how apparently reasonably a Fascist writes.

      I told you folks… Fascists come in sheep’s clothing.

      Have a great day @Greg Schuler, and wear a mask, and stay physically distanced so you don’t get Covid-19. That would truly be a tragedy were it to happen my Fascist friend.

      Like they say, I wouldn’t wish Covid-19 upon my worst enemy.

  3. My take on these protests is they are annoying the heck out of the politicians and the city residents, but they’re peaceful.

    How are you supposed to get politicians to change the rules if you don’t make it uncomfortable for them? The rudeness with respect to Trudeau is just that – rude, and uncalled for. There’s lots of things to complain about in terms of Trudeau’s leadership, or lack thereof, so the rudeness detracts from the effort to get the Federal Government to free us from our homes because the Liberals have almost half the seats in the House of Commons, and it will take getting the NDP MPs to join with the Conservative MPs to vote to pass any coronavirus lockdown freeing legislation, which, on the face of things, is, unfortunately, not too likely.

    But stranger things have happened.

    Our Prime Minister Trudeau has been disrespectful enough for all Canadians in his dealing with these protests, and us sincere protesters who are tired of being locked up in our homes like hostages because some people who shall remain nameless refuse to take the vaccine.

    Stay (or be) respectful, freedom protesters, and stay strong.

    We’re almost free!!!

  4. Has anyone tried to open an email .When I chick to open it , a message appears and it says , ” downloading message and pictures…(—) KB. I wait for it to open and it never does. This happens for all my email. It’s Mr. Trudeau’s Bill-C-10 …which is created to restrict communications with other Canadians. It only allows you to open and read messages that Mr. Trudeau wants you to read. Canadians it even gets better, soon Mr. Trudeau will pass a fossil fuel allotment Bill , this Bill will only allow each Canadian to burn a set amount of Carbon Fuels each day. That means you can only drive your car/truck etc. so many miles each day virtually keeping you prisoner in your own home. I would like to pass a Bill stating that’s it’s against the law to vote for Mr. Trudeau.

    • Hi Tug,

      Mr. Trudeau doesn’t pass any bills. He is just one MP (like all the others). And actually the Liberals don’t pass any bills. They don’t have half of the seats in our House of Commons plus one, which is what is required to pass anything.

      So, it’s actually all the other parties who are passing these bills.

      If all of the other parties just said no, then we wouldn’t have these bills everyone, including me, keep complaining about.

  5. Mr. Trudeau now seems to be locked into a destructive agenda. Canada is falling apart around him. Social conflicts exist as never before , our economy is in ruin. unemployment is record high. Canadians have taken to the streets to protest Government policy and there stands Mr. Trudeau, unwavering, doing nothing. Simple put– it makes no sense. How did Canada end up with a National Leader who behaves like a programed robot. The man is a Zealot in regards to immigration, refugees , multiculturalism and Globalism. Could it be that Mr. Trudeau was put in office, and said I will work for you without wavering from our covenant. Apart from this concept it makes no sense. Unless Mr. Trudeau is mentally ill.

  8. The truckers are doing a fabulous job. Even what I’ve been saying for along time Doug Ford is finally coming out saying the this VIRUS is here to stay and we just have to live with it. Now it’s time for Justin Trudeau, the top health officials and all the bond headed fillers have to accept.

  9. The current protesters are about freedom.

    No protest ever achieved its objective without being uncomfortable for the other side. So stop thinking the current protesters who are probably 90% vaccinated are just going to pack it in, and say “oh well”. It isn’t going to happen.

    What the protesters are actually saying is they want these covid lockdowns to end.

    But what the freedom protesters don’t realize is opening things wide up will crush our beloved hospital care system from all the serious unvaccinated covid emergency cases pushing everybody behind them in the hospital care line months and years away from their procedures.

    We can’t have that.

    Instead, the fully vaccinated freedom protesters should be protesting our governments to ban anybody who is eligible for a vaccine, but who does not get fully vaccinated, and then gets hospital-Covid-sick from entering our hospitals.

    No shirt. No service.

    Not fully vaccinated. No hospital access.

    As sad, and truly tragic as this solution is, it is the only way our governments can pass legislation that will open things wide up with a sustainably functioning Canadian hospital system no matter what coronavirus variant rears its ugly head in the future.

    Eliminating vaccination mandates won’t work even if freedom protesters get them.

    Protest for hospital access denial of the unvaccinated covid-sick, vaccinated freedom protesters.

    Promise to not elect them ever again if they don’t pass this hospital access denial legislation.

    Do it for the benefit of all Canadians (the unvaccinated will likely change their minds when they know covid will likely kill them).

    That’s if you truly love freedom, like I know you do.

    I am a freedom protester too.

  11. Have you noticed the change in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ?
    It is quite obvious that he is following a pre written script.
    I must admit I dont like him.
    But over the past year I noticed how detached he has become towards Canadians.What I have also noticed that anyone who has a different opinion he calls them racists and white supremists .

    The troubling thing I find is there appears to be somebody in the background controlling him.
    His actions speak for themselves.Justin Trudeau over the years has done some pretty out Charactor things.

    When this Virus arrived in Canada Justin was on a personal days and just got back from a 17 day Christmas Holiday in Costa Rica.
    JUSTIN Trudeau was overseas Partying with the international jet-set at the World Economic Form in Davos Switzerland.

    On January 31 2020 the President of the USA imposed restrictions on flights from China barring non citizens. Justin Trudeau waited another six weeks before making the same decision.Which I find was odd,usually when things like this happens Canada follows the USA.

    On Feb 6 2020,Trudeau left Canada and flew to Ethiopia meeting with some of Africa’s worst dictators,offering them massive foreign aid gifts in return for their votes for Canada to be given a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council. ” A Quid pro Quo

    What I found odd is a review of Trudeau’s international travel schedule since he became prime minister in 2015 shows there was no period of time in which he was away from Canada more than he was during those crucial first weeks of the pandemic.

    Here in Ethiopia on February 9th 2020 out of the blue and made a strange order than appear extremely odd as if he was given an order .Justin Trudeau ordered Canada’s national stockpile of face masks ,gloves,and doctor scrubs to be gathered up sixteen tons of personal protection equipment. And he put them on a plane to China!
    To one of the largest,richest countries in the world.
    The dictatorship that is still holding two Canadians hostages.
    This did not seem right as Canada would not have any PPE .

    At the time I was suspicious of what this virus was a Biological Attack .Then the Liberals made a odd statement .” This is vital to helping those affected and protecting the health and safety of
    people around thr world .”

    This virus was racing through Canada ;it was pouring into our country every day,on unrestricted
    Flights from China. PM Justin Trudeau just gave away our national stockpile of medical equipment .
    This was not the actions of a Prime Minister in time of a serious pandemic .Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister is to put Canada first.
    X
    He did not listen to experts ,what appeared was Trudeau’s personal laziness and inattentiveness.This was not the same Justin Trudeau .He appeared to be troubled he had this globalist ideology of open borders and submissivenes to Communist China.

    This virus crisis has revealed many things about Trudeau that we had only seen flashes of before.
    It showed how beholden to foreign interests that Trudeau and his liberals had become and how time and again,Trudeau chose to obey or even copy Communist China as a role model ,It showed an authoritarian streak in Trudeau– how he has used Covid 19 as an excuse to weaken Canada’s Parliament ,to reduce our civil liberties and to rack up more debt in two months than Canada did in two world wars.

    It showed that Trudeau really meant it when he once said to Liberal donors ” there’s s a level of admiration I actually have for China because of their basic dictatorship.”

    22 Months into this social distancing , the pushing and demanding people to get vaccinated to a vaccine that is not working .Justin Trudeau told us to get two jabs and we could get back to normal.That at 60 % we would reach herd immunity then it became 80% .Now Trudeau is not asking us he is telling us .

    Trudeau told the Premiers to pass Vaccine mandates to cross the border,travel on airplanes ,go into restaurants Bars arenas.What we are witnessing is Canada slowly descind into Basic dictatorship like China.

    Many Canadians are waking up and realizing that something is wrong with Parliament. Canadians have been lied to for the past 22 months.

    CANADA as we know it is being lost to a globalist who is hiding out in an undisclosed location refusing to get any true answers to CANADIANS during Question Period .
    Justin Trudeau repeats the same script telling Canadians to get vacinated He refuses to talk to the Truckers who are peacefully and protesting respectively the loss of Rights and Freedoms From these mandates and EMERGENCY ACTS.
    Who has sold us out to The World Economic Council and its cast of Shady charactors and its Agenda 21 .And one World Goverment run By Communist China Canada ”s last hope is the “Convoy of Freedom ” who is Doing what our Fathers and Grandfather’s did in the First World War at Vimy Ridge ,Passendale,The Some.
    WORLD War 11 on JUNO Beach ,Begium , The Netherlands ,Korea,Peacekeeping Missions,Afghanistan.

    GOD Bless Our Truckers.
    LIBERAL caucus you need to remove Trudeau as leader of the Liberal party now before It is too late.

    Again Mr Millroy you got this all wrong ,and you have your right to your opinion .Just like I have mine .

    With all the live streaming coming out on smartphones on the ground from Parliament Hill the truth is coming out and the lies spread by press ,media and by you who follow that misinformation. Your obvious still in the misinformation mode for your years in journalism .

  14. Doug, your not naive , your deceptively clever. You write a Pro Liberal story that contains information and half truths that are days old. The Canadian Trucker Protesters are all about saying that they are sick and tired of Mr. Trudeau’s totalitarian neo/Fascism style of Government. Dictators rarely speak to protesters , they just dictate laws and like Mr. Trudeau they consider themselves above the common man and disassociate themselves from them. It’s a shame that people lives are being disrupted but Mr. Trudeau has been doing that since 2015 . Canadians are sending a clear message in the only way that the Government will listen , we don’t like what you are doing to Canada and we want you gone next election.

  15. It is sad how out to lunch all you liberal supporters are. These brave people are standing up for our rights and freedoms that have to trampled on by trudeau for the last 2 years. No these people are not “trumpers” or “racists” they are ordinary people that are tired of this brainless dictator controlling our lives. Trudeau works for us not the other way around and he is trying to divide Canada with hate. I hope the truckers dont leave until him and all his evil elites are thrown in jail for crimes against humanity.

    • They’re all evil racist white supremacist misogynists.

      Not one of them is a person whose business was destroyed by shock doctrine and lies from our federal and provincial governments.

      Not one of them is a person whose x-border family was destroyed by nanny state liberalism

      Not one of them is a person who lost a daughter or a son to suicide over lockdown’s toll on mental health.

      Not one of them is a person who recognizes our government hides behind pandemic measures to obscure their complete inability to respond to wider concerns around housing or inflation.

      They are exactly what Trudeau cries about on his pulpit. They are all Cletus, they are all Trumpist wannabes, all bigots and transphobes. All dangerous KKK terrorists.

      Keep on boosting that Kool-Aid, bub.

  16. I’m trying to recall if Mr. Millroy spoke out against BLM’s or Antifa’s violent protests which did millions of dollars worth of damage to property. Hmmm, I don’t remember hearing a peep out of him then.

  17. This whole fiasco just further illustrates how out to lunch and weak Justin Trudeau is. He is quick with words but slow to react. Instead of telling Ottawa that it is THEIR problem he should be sending in the troops to clear the streets. This an occupation…not a rally….not a demonstration. It is a mini Trump-like insurrection.
    When you see police officers allowing truckers to haul fuel for their trucks right past them you know this has gone too far. When an order from a judge to stop the horn honking is overlooked it has gone too far. IT IS NOW THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PM to end this NOW.

    • Can you please explain how it’s the responsibility of the prime minister. These are Canadian Citizens on municipal streets, which under current law is the problem of local law enforcement. If this were on parliament hill itself then its federal jurisdiction, but it is not.

    • This is a policing issue, not military. Law enforcement is jurisdictional. So while I agree it should be ended NOW, right now the ball is in Doug Ford’s court.

  18. I totally agree, I was actually surprised this morning to read an article where the Ottawa mayor suggested that negotiations needed to take place as a resolution. If you start negotiations with rogue occupiers, than it will just promote the fact that if people do not get their way they just have to block roads in front of parliament for a while and then they get what they want… Its no different than a child having a tenter tantrum. I see pictures on facebook daily of the local attendees, and it just makes me laugh. This has become more of a spectacle than a protest. A “how can I piss off the authorities”, “how can I circumvent the system” this is simply not the Canadian Way. I get it, we are ALL exhausted of the restrictions, but if you think for a second that this is a government conspiracy to take your rights away, you literally need to get your head checked. If anything, this pandemic is being dragged on because of the limited restrictions actually imposed. When you look at the data projections for Omicron, it was because restrictions were too little, too late that caused us to have the explosion of cases we did, because the Ontario government was reluctant to impose restrictions on peoples freedoms, contrary to the protesters beliefs that the goal was to lock the world down for political reasons. They have made their point, now its time to move on… This was a failure on Ottawa Police Service, but somewhat understandable as I don’t think anyone predicted they were moving in. For the federal government to just swoop in and clear up the mess is not in their jurisdiction and people need to understand that, as they articulated yesterday correctly “it is our responsibly to write the laws, not to enforce them”. But at this point something needs to be done. All these protests are taking away the very thing they are fighting for, they are taking away the freedom of others, but not on a principle reasonable to do so… A lot of selfish people in this country where only their position or only their views count, what a world we have come to live in.

  19. this was never about truckers. it’s organizers are white supremacists and separatists.
    their “MoU” seeks to overthrow the government.

    These are seditionists.

    • And the Liberal Party of Canada are all blackfaces with affluenza because their leader blacked himself up more times than he can remember?

      But of course, you are entirely relying on propaganda for your broken record worldview. Maybe it’ll be booster 7 and week 124 that flattens the curve, huh? We’re all in this together.

    • Believe it or not, there are white supremacists that are Canadians, equal under the law and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Because you and I don’t agree with them does not give us the right to decide that they cant protest for freedom. That’s their choice, and if Komrade Trudeau says otherwise, which he regularly does, he is wrong. Have an original thought before you criticize, don’t just spew rhetoric.

  20. The Church of COVID and their click-happy media advocates can continue to spin this protest as fringe misogynistic firebombing racists – one Nazi flag spoils the bunch, but one radical anarchist running down protestors in an SUV can be swept under the rug – but we’re not buying it anymore.

    Unsure how somebody can read a headline like “Ottawa under siege amid nationwide insurrection” without realizing this is rhetoric framing the simple fact that our government has completely lost its grip on the electorate.

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