Capital of Canada Make Canada Great Again Meme
Justin Trudeau Condemns Convoy Protesting Pandemic Restrictions
The Canadian prime number minister, who tested positive for Covid-19, railed against protesters for violence, racism and spreading misinformation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada on Monday lashed out at protests against pandemic restrictions over the weekend in Ottawa, chastising demonstrators for desecrating state of war memorials, wielding Nazi symbols and stealing food from the homeless. The protest was a culmination of a grouping of Canadian truckers and their supporters who drove from Western Canada to Ottawa to challenge authorities vaccine mandates.
Speaking from self-isolation later he and 2 of his children tested positive for the coronavirus, Mr. Trudeau said he understood the frustrations of Canadians, exasperated past a pandemic that has taken a heavy toll. But he criticized the protesters for flying "racist flags," hurling corruption at small business concern owners, spreading disinformation and, in one case, going to a homeless shelter in downtown Ottawa and demanding food.
"In that location is no place in our land for threats, violence or hatred," he said, calculation that the convoy was not representative of a majority of truckers, 90 percent of whom are vaccinated.
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An Ottawa police force enforcement spokeswoman said Monday that the police had begun several criminal investigations following the desecration of monuments and other threatening behavior during the weekend protests in Canada'due south capital.
A loosely organized "Liberty Convoy" of trucks initially began equally a response to a regulation requiring truckers returning from the United States to show proof of vaccination. Only the protest grew into a more than general rallying cry by people opposed to pandemic restrictions and to Mr. Trudeau.
During the weekend protests, the House of Commons was not in session and many lawmakers were not in town. Some people said they planned to continue to protestation as Parliament resumed on Monday, even as the numbers of protesters were dwindling.
The demonstrations dominated social media in Canada and received wide media coverage. Ottawa police force on Monday said eight,000 protesters had been in downtown Ottawa on Saturday, a pocket-size fraction of the numbers claimed by some convoy participants and organizers. Ahead of the demonstrations, Mr. Trudeau dismissed the protesters as a "pocket-sized fringe minority" and said they would non atomic number 82 his regime to reverse the vaccine mandate.
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As in much of the rest of the world, Canadians are suffering pandemic exhaustion later on indelible months of truncated lives, illness and death, lockdowns, and shuttered restaurants, houses of worship and gyms. But in a country with a strong deference to scientific authority and a vaunted universal wellness care system, opinion polls have consistently shown stiff support for public health measures aimed at containing the coronavirus. More than than 77 percent of Canadians are fully vaccinated.
Prof. Andrew McDougall, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto, said the convoy had channeled public frustration with pandemic restrictions but did not represent a meaningful political shift in a country where a majority supported vaccination confronting the coronavirus.
While the convoy failed to become a national movement, organizers raised about 9.two million Canadian dollars, or $seven.2 million, on GoFundMe during the group'due south cross-state trip.
"To the extent that the convoy is anti-vax and anti-scientific discipline, it is on the margins of Canadian society," Professor McDougall said. "It is not the beginning of a motion but the about extreme manifestation we have seen of frustration near pandemic restrictions."
A key organizer of the "Freedom Convoy" was Tamara Lich, secretarial assistant of the relatively new Maverick Party, a correct-of-center group that was started to promote the separation of Canada's three western Prairie Provinces from the residue of the country.
Scott Moe, the premier of Saskatchewan, who leads the right-leaning Saskatchewan Party, referenced comments Mr. Trudeau made last week, suggesting he had mischaracterized the scope of the dissent against pandemic restrictions. "In that location are strong opinions on both sides of this issue, but neither side is a 'small, fringe minority' with 'unacceptable views,'" he wrote on Twitter, quoting Mr. Trudeau.
Candice Bergen, deputy leader of the Conservative Party, wrote on Twitter that Canadians fed upwards with lockdowns "deserved to be heard."
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While the protests were, at times, unruly, a majority of the protesters were peaceful. Nevertheless, urine stains were seen on snow covering the National State of war Memorial on Sunday morning. Police towed vehicles that protesters had parked on the memorial and Jim Watson, Ottawa's mayor, said protesters had disrespected the land's state of war dead.
Many Canadians reacted with cloy later images on social media showed anti-vaccine signs placed on a statue of Terry Fob, a national hero who lost a leg to cancer and who died in 1981 at age 22 later on running halfway beyond the country to raise money for cancer enquiry. Demonstrators were also seen dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Shepherds of Good Hope, a homeless shelter in downtown Ottawa, said that members of its staff were harassed by protesters who arrived on Saturday and demanded that the shelter feed them.
"Friends, information technology's been a hard 24 hours," read a post on the organization's Twitter account. "Staff harassed for meals. A service user and security guard assaulted. Through it all, you lot have donated and filled our hearts with gratitude."
The Rideau Center, a major shopping mall, closed its doors on Saturday after large numbers of protesters who were not wearing masks swarmed the mall, and yelled and hectored store employees and security guards trying to enforce public health measures.
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Residents in downtown Ottawa said online and on radio talk shows that the circular-the-clock horn-honking by truck drivers, the fumes of idling vehicles and the aggressive behavior of some had made them prisoners in their own homes.
Some protesters carried Canadian flags upside downward; at to the lowest degree one flag had swastikas fatigued on it.
Some people, who may not accept been involved with the convoy itself, had called for an attack on Parliament similar to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.Due south. Capitol. But such calls for violence have been criticized by the convoy'south organizers, as well as by many protesters on the streets.
David Hofmann, an associate folklore professor at the University of New Brunswick, who studies far-right groups, said the convoy had been seized upon by members of the far right as a vehicle for recruitment and mobilization.
"This is a small minority of far-right individuals who have glommed onto this larger protestation in order to gain visibility, to rabble-rouse and to recruit," he said. "This is a standard tactic that the far-right uses in Canada."
Ian Austen contributed reporting from Ottawa.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/world/canada/trudeau-truckers-anti-vax-protests.html
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