{"id":401812,"date":"2022-01-31T20:17:12","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T17:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/ottawa-protestors-plan-to-stay-put\/"},"modified":"2022-01-31T20:17:12","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T17:17:12","slug":"ottawa-protestors-plan-to-stay-put","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/ottawa-protestors-plan-to-stay-put\/","title":{"rendered":"#Ottawa protestors plan to stay put"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Ottawa protestors plan to stay put<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Politics Insider for Jan. 31: Protesting truckers settle in for the long haul; public opinion on the convoy waivers; Ottawa contradicts itself on Ukraine\n <\/div>\n
\n Welcome to a sneak peek of the\u00a0<\/em>Maclean\u2019s\u00a0Politics Insider\u00a0news<\/a>letter.\u00a0Sign up to get it delivered\u00a0straight to your inbox in the morning.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Not leaving:<\/strong> After a weekend in which they thoroughly disrupted life in downtown Ottawa, organizers of the \u201cFreedom Convoy\u201d plan to stay put<\/strong>, the Citizen<\/em> reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not leaving until all of you and all of your kids are free,\u201d Tamara Lich<\/strong>, one of the organizers, told an enthusiastic crowd gathered on the lawn and streets around Parliament on Sunday. \u201cWe\u2019re not leaving until you can open up your business. We\u2019re not leaving until you can hug your best friend. We\u2019re not leaving until you can go see your parents at a long-term care facility.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Unfree in Ottawa:<\/strong> That is not at all what people in Ottawa want<\/strong>, Mayor Jim Watson<\/strong> said Sunday, CBC reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuite frankly, [residents] feel they\u2019re prisoners in their own home. And so my hope is that at some point, the police reach the conclusion that it\u2019s time to have a serious discussion about moving these people on. They can\u2019t keep blocking routes that are emergency routes, that are bus routes, that allow people to get in and out of the downtown core,\u201d he told CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton on Rosemary Barton Live on Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Investigations:<\/strong> Ottawa police have a lot of work to do. They are trying to manage the massive, traffic-disrupting protest and also investigating\u00a0\u201cthe desecration\u201d of the National War Memorial, the Terry Fox statue and threatening, illegal and intimidating behaviour towards police and other city workers, Global reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Desecrations:<\/strong> The desecration of the war memorial<\/a> and the Terry Fox statue<\/a> were widely denounced, as was the app<\/a>earance of swastikas<\/a> and other objectionable symbols among the protesters. The protests got more terrible PR when Ottawa\u2019s Shepherds of Good Hope soup kitchen said its staff were harassed<\/a> and a client was assaulted by \u201cFreedom Convoy\u201d protesters. (Donate here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Lost the room:<\/strong> In the Citizen<\/em>, Kelly Egan writes that<\/a> the protesters lost the room<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Instead of talking about vaccine mandates and harmful lockdowns, all anyone could talk about Saturday evening was the video clip of a young woman dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial and using a statue of Terry Fox as a kind of political prop. It wasn\u2019t long before everyone from the mayors of Ottawa and Port Coquitlam, B.C., to the defence minister and Canada\u2019s top soldier were denouncing the violation of sacredness. So, straight away, you\u2019ve lost the audience, regardless of whether the offenders were just freelance agitators or just a little stupid. It\u2019s your convoy, you wear it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Popular elsewhere:<\/strong> While the protesters may have lost the room, they have raised $9 million, won the support of Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Elon Musk<\/a> and captured headlines around the world.<\/p>\n

Writing for the Daily Beast<\/em>, Justin Ling<\/strong> captures<\/a> the mood of the moment:<\/p>\n

\n

The blockade is perhaps the most drastic, organized, COVID-19-inspired demonstration the world has yet seen. Its organizers are a Voltron of various political factions: There\u2019s the right-wing nationalist who is vowing to blockade MPs\u2019 homes; the QAnon follower who wants Trudeau tried for treason; the political activist running a $7 million fundraiser, trying desperately to stop GoFundMe from seizing the dough; and a plethora of other characters who have assembled to shut down the capital.<\/p>\n

Their mix of pseudo-science<\/a>, grassroots organizing, and a dash of legal mysticism have combined to create a really potent rally cry. And while the parka-clad protesters, shivering in sub-zero temperatures, may look perfectly Canadian\u2014it may be a sign of things to come elsewhere.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Very real distress:<\/strong> In Le Journal De Montr\u00e9al<\/em>, Emmanuelle LaTraverse<\/strong> has a thoughtful column<\/a>\u00a0(translation<\/a>) in which she notes the incoherence of the protest\u2014full of \u201cnonsense and conspiracies,\u201d but points to the challenge of the moment\u2014\u201dvery real distress<\/strong>. That of thousands of people who can\u2019t take it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

For 22 months, the political class led the battle to set an example.\u00a0Obligatory passage to ensure essential social<\/a> cohesion in the face of an unprecedented crisis.\u00a0The vaccination obligation has become a weapon of choice in this political and health war.\u00a0But at the end of this fifth wave<\/span>, the population expects more nuance from its leaders.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Bad for O\u2019Toole:<\/strong> While Justin Trudeau<\/strong> said nothing<\/a>, having left his official residence for security reasons, the pressure seemed to mount on Erin O\u2019Toole<\/strong>, whose MPs stayed away from cameras<\/a> on Sunday after taking heat<\/a> for being too close to the heart of the action on Saturday.<\/p>\n

In the Star<\/em>, Supriya Dwivedi <\/strong>laments<\/a> that the Conservatives keep \u201cpandering to the extremist elements of their base,\u201d and Robin Sears<\/strong> suggests<\/a> O\u2019Toole may soon be replaced by Pierre Poilievre<\/strong>, although he predicts that under his leadership the party \u201cwould probably do worse that any leader since Kim Campbell<\/strong>. Liberals and New Democrats will be drooling at the prospect of a contest with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trapped:<\/strong> In Maclean\u2019s<\/em>, Philippe J. Fournier takes a close look at O\u2019Toole\u2019s dismal personal approval numbers and concludes that he\u2019s in deep trouble<\/strong> with his own party, which may be be why he met with truckers.<\/p>\n

The available data could hardly be clearer: There is simply little to no room to grow for O\u2019Toole among non-CPC voters, which may partly explain why O\u2019Toole has looked and sounded like he\u2019s running for the CPC leadership again of late, and not like the leader of a government in waiting. Obviously, we cannot ignore the elephant in the room: All these numbers predate this weekend\u2019s hectic events in Ottawa, so it will be fascinating to see whether they move the needle at all for O\u2019Toole and the CPC in the coming days.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Fournier wonders is something else is going on.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it is a toxic minority trying to take over the CPC that is sinking O\u2019Toole in public opinion and hindering any efforts to grow the party, not the other way around. Perhaps the true division decried by politicians right now lies not with the average Canadian voter, but within the Canadian conservative movement itself.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Leadership politics:<\/strong> Making a similar point on CTV, Gerald Butts noted<\/a> that the data collected by the convoy organizers could be valuable in a CPC leadership struggle.<\/p>\n

Border closed: Jason Kenney<\/strong> has called for the end of a demonstration blocking a southern Alberta border crossing, the Calgary Herald<\/em> reports<\/a>, although he failed to mention that the protest was attended by one of his own MLAs.<\/p>\n

Troops moved west:\u00a0Anita Anand<\/strong> said Sunday all Canadian troops in Ukraine have been moved west of the country\u2019s Dnieper River as worries about a Russian invasion grow, the Globe<\/em> reports<\/a> from Kyiv.<\/p>\n

Not coherent:<\/strong> In Maclean\u2019s<\/em>, Paul Wells<\/strong> takes a close look at the government\u2019s action and rhetoric on Ukraine and finds they don\u2019t match.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think it\u2019s nitpicking to say that the government\u2019s actions and rhetoric are starkly out of proportion. Freeland is describing an existential threat to democracy; Trudeau is packing for a weekend road trip<\/a>. If this test is in any way comparable to the one \u201cour own parents and grandparents\u2026 fought and died\u201d for, then don\u2019t send a smaller deployment then you sent last year to the old-folks\u2019 homes of Quebec and Ontario, and don\u2019t promise to airlift the drill sergeants home at the first sign of trouble. And if it\u2019s\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0that kind of test, then stow the Patton speeches and the back-patting.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Joni unstreamed:<\/strong> As anti-mandate Canadians in trucks made headlines on Friday, one of Canada\u2019s greatest musical legends\u2014Joni Mitchell<\/strong>\u2014made headlines of another sort, when she announced that she would follow Neil Young<\/strong> in yanking her music from Spotify to protest people \u201cspreading lies that are costing people their lives.\u201d The move will cost her and Young\u2014both childhood polio survivors\u2014a lot of money, Billboard reports<\/a>. Spotify, which has lost a lot of money because of this, announced Sunday it would put \u201cadvisory notices\u201d on some content, the Times<\/em> reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Stephen Maher<\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n