My adopted city has been under siege for 5 days. Ostensibly a demonstration by truckers against mandatory vaccines for cross border travel to and from the US. However it has also apparently been infiltrated by extreme right wing elements, some of whom are asking for all Covid restrictions to be lifted, others going as far as saying the liberal party (in government) should be disbanded! They are getting funding from donations online (which could be withheld) and have raised several million dollars. They say they will stay until their undemocratic demands are met.
The downtown core has blocked streets, businesses including the main downtown mall have closed to stop them invading without masks and hassling staff who ask them to wear them. They are also blasting their horns almost 24/7 which is a form of near torture for the residents, and many of them are afraid to leave their homes in case of confrontations. There has been little or no violence though until now but national monuments have been desecrated and people have been defecating on the streets. All this has taken place until today in incredibly cold weather, trucks are running all the time to stay warm, polluting the whole area with diesel fumes.
The police have done next to nothing even posing for pictures with some of the demonstrators (some of whom may be off duty cops) and no end is currently in sight. The RCMP (national police force) may need to get involved and the military may also be asked to intervene at some point.
A pretty depressing picture, some have speculated what the police response might have been should the demonstrators have been of the indigenous kind rather than these morons
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/truck-convoy-police-solution-1.6337051
They are so pathetic Dai…I hear the dreaded Confederate flags and even swastikas have been on display. A Canadian version of the dreadful Tea Party perhaps?
Yes I bumped into part of the convoy when they were coming in on Saturday. As a new(ish) Canadian I am extremely dispirited. Can’t just laugh at those kind of elements to our south any more
Can’t persuade, convince, or even talk with Fucking Idiots. They’re not interested in listening, don’t know how to. They don’t need facts, and they don’t want democracy, which they identify with the Democratic party (i.e. socialism and wokes). They believe to the core of their stupidity that not only are they in the right, but have the right, and are by definition Right. It doesn’t take a democratic majority of Fucking Idiots to bring a country to its knees.
Poutine Party 🤔
Syrup Pigs.
Checked the Facebook page of an antivax acquaintance and it appears there is to be one this Saturday in the UK. Deep joy, looks like it’s starting at Exeter services.
Yes, they’ve got their eyes on the M25 too.
Just about to add that as they meet up with the ‘North’. There’s also one heading to Brussels.
Pro-Extinction Rebellion?
A million Americans will have died of COVID by around Easter, the way it’s going. Freedumb, indeed. Who is dying? I assume the unvaccinated, however they see the world.
Seeing the world? That suggests getting a passport and travelling to other countries, which is ungodly and communist behaviour.
F***ing Idiots are not to be found just in Canada and Blighty. They also exist in the land of logic and efficiency.
My Stuttgart pal’s wife is a doctor. These morons protest outside her hospital. Going to work involves dodging abuse and/or projectiles.
Why don’t they pop round the corner to the walk-in vaccination centre while they’re there?
And this story, from Prague, is horrifying https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60111142
Words fail me.
In good old lovely tolerant England, there’s a tradition of calling ambulances so that you can physically assault the staff. Other, more backward nations have left it until Covid to start doing things like this. We lead the world in all the best things.
This may seem like a somewhat Malthusian sentiment, but it strikes me that the world needs a wholesale clearout of morons who lack a moral compass. Perhaps antivax and its associated idiocies will do the trick, but I’m not confident.
They also tend to be the kinds of people who don’t recycle. Or who do, but put things in the wrong bins. Ventilators are too good for ’em.
Are you suggesting we ‘ventilate’ them, in a Big Vern kind of way?
Feels like moider in the foist degree….
BLAM!
A million Americans, many of whom live far from big cities, don’t get out much, and live through their TV and social media bubbles might be thought to be salutary. But cognitive dissonance is powerful. Also, a lot of those dead Americans were poor folk pranged at the beginning of the epidemic in NYC, and would have had shots if they could have at the time. The Orange Idiot is responsible for hundreds of thousands more dying than needed to. A worthy recipient of the descriptive term, “cnut” (anag.).
I was thinking of the reports here on the weekend about drunken antisocial, menacing behaviour on the streets. Just a regular Sat night in a UK city …
Why wait to after hours or the weekend?
Quite. About ten minutes ago on my (residential) street, a lad of about thirteen came roaring down the pavement on a motorbike going about 40mph.
He was wearing a proper crash helmet, to be fair. And maybe he was going so fast because he’d just had the realisation that he was frightfully late for school.
No need to wait for an ambulance, you can assault medical staff on their days off as well. Especially if they look a bit gay.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-wales-60249602
@fentonsteve My wife’s family in Berlin report that Anti Vaccers are very prevalent in Bavaria and also the east of the country. Intimidation of those advocating the vaccine or working in healthcare and even tracking down the home addresses of those openly criticising them.
It seems that idiocy is more contagious than the virus.
With Omicron seemingly fading and the possibility of moving to an endemic state then come the summer some of the vaccine requirements may be lifted. These bozos will then probably declare they were right all along and got what they wanted through protests.
If they’re still alive.
There’s a hint of that here in Ireland, @dai. Knuckledraggers claiming that it was their pressure that has brought about the relaxation on restrictions.
Re: trucks running constantly: get a bag of spuds and a rubber mallet. Place one large spud over the end of an exhaust pipe and whack the bugger home with the mallet. Repeat for any other pipes. Retire and wait for the blockage to take effect.
And the truckers will just stand by and let you do this? Some of them are armed apparently. Also many trucks have the exhaust pipe in a high position above the main cab, not easily accessible.
A counter demonstration is planned for the weekend. Could get nasty, we will see.
You assumed Foxy was being serious? This int 4Chan, y’know
Then he should use emoticons like 🙂 or 😉
Also, potatoes are bulky and heavy. Sneaking through lines of parked trucks with a sack of spuds over your shoulder would be risky. Dai’s right about the exhaust pipes, too – those American-style uprights would be a challenge to scale, especially with a sack of King Edwards over your shoulder, and dangerously hot. Foxy just hasn’t thought this through, and I for one applaud Dai’s rational analysis.
Curse you, Red Baron! Your logic defeats me. There’s me, fool that I am, having watched countless hours of Ice Road Truckers, forgetting about the ‘stacks’ thrusting upwards like, er, well, you know. I was imagining line upon line of modest little Ford Transits coughing out particulates through thin wobbling exhaust pipes, gagging to be choked to death by a well-placed spud plug. Us Extinction Rebels have it easy over here in Blighty.
Use emoticons. I don’t know if you’re joking or not.
If he’s not using them, he’s not joking, is he? The Mallet & Spud Boys have a chip on their shoulder.
Spud and mallet
Spud and mallet
Go together like a horse and carriage
…..oooh I feel proper poorly now
Back on form after a shaky couple of years, Moose, kudos 😀
Meanwhile, where we live, biosecurity restrictions are in place in the bush communities. No-one in, no-one out.
Not a whisper. Everyone accepts that there is no alternative.
Oh lord…they’re burning books in Tennessee.
https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pithinthewind/theyre-burning-books-in-tennessee/article_1f8c631e-850f-11ec-bc9f-dbd44d7e14d7.html
And banning them too it seems. Art Spiegelman’s Maus, the first and only graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize.
To be fair, it does feature naked female mice.
It boggles the mind that Maus has been banned.
Ironically, given the other thread, a consequence of comics being perceived as an art form primarily for children; you cannot have naked characters in art for kids. The holocaust? Fine, but not nudity.
The thing that surprises me is that this is happening in Canada. How do I say this without offending my Canadian friends? As a nation they are quite passive to say the least. Can’t imagine them getting steamed up to the point that they apparently are.
It’s a few thousand people (that dwindles to a few hundred midweek) in a country of 35 million. People in the city are aghast that the police did nothing to prevent them effectively setting up camp downtown and are now building structures in nearby parks to facilitate their occupation
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/mobile/video?clipId=2376223
NSFW but the directness of this response to a NZ version amused me.
https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1vOGwypaQMqxB?t=22s
Speaking of undemocratic demands, I see that the latest iteration of Extinction Rebellion / Insulate Britain are planning on taking direct action in the UK at the end of March. What they have in mind seems similar to those of the ( equally undemocratic) fuel protesters 20 odd years ago.
They are placed in a difficult position, given that the things one can do legally within this democracy have been and continue to be restricted, redefined and narrowed.
I’m starting to think that XR are some kind of Black Ops thing designed to alienate the general population from environmentalism. The people they inconvenience end up angry, but not about climate change.
I’ve no doubt that XR/Insulate Britain have their fair share of undercover cops and spooks.
If there’s one thing that motivates recruits to the secret service, it’s an implacable ideological opposition to insulation.
“Bastard fibreglass! I need more draughts in my house!”
Ottowa makes the news in a small island thousands of miles away.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60281088
Took him long enough and it seems the police are finally trying to do something, first ticketing for illegal parking, traffic offences etc and also confiscating large amounts of stockpiled fuel. They need to act with much more vigour this week before more arrive next weekend. A similar (smaller) protest in Toronto was easily dealt with this weekend
Here in London, a group of them were protesting near parliament when Keir Starmer and Labour MP David Lammy were spotted on the street and harrassed. They had to be rescued by police. A man and a woman were arrested for throwing a traffic cone at police.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60294483
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, anti-vaxxers are blasted with a loop of Baz Manilow, Baby Shark and James Blunt.
I could lend them my Metal Machine Music CD. It’s not the remastered version, so sounds a bit crap.
Sorry, I forgot the link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-60371895
And in Ottawa still going on, nearly 3 weeks. PM has declared a political emergency, police chief has resigned and chaos in city council meetings with resignations, finger pointing and backstabbing. Meanwhile the truckers remain ….
Crikey… we stopped hearing about it when they started handing out parking fines, I had assumed they’d all gone away.
Looks like the final warning could be being issued:
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ottawa-police-increase-downtown-presence-issue-new-warning-to-convoy-protesters-1.5784834
Repercussions in the city after this sh*t show will be long lasting I think.
@fentonsteve
Parking fines?
Fuck me, that’s like the Canadian equivalent of the electric chair.
Could be worse. If this happened in England, people would tut.
That’d learn ’em.
Illegal Parking fine per vehicle per day. Plus towaway charge and release fee. Impound their vehicles until they’ve paid in full.
Some speculation some have been ticketed every 4 hours so and will have huge fines, however tow companies have been reluctant to get involved either because they support the protestors or have been threatened. The best way to get the trucks out of there is for the drivers to drive them out. Allegedly some have removed wheels though.
Been watching this live stream to see if there is any action today.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.5783786
To the right is Parliament Hill just south of the Ottawa river (and Quebec) and to the left is the downtown core (centretown)
I have a feeling things are going to kick off in Wellington, NZ. Police taking a very hands-off approach and the campsite is looking more established every day. Cenotaph is in the centre of the camp and is covered in graffiti and being used as a toilet. Distinct possibility that the Govt will deploy the Army and clear them out by force,
Record-breaking covid cases in NZ, today, sadly. Perfect timimg, then 😒
Yes, I guess it couldn’t be put off forever. With a 94% vaccination rate hopefully that’ll help the majority of us get through it.
In the UK the government have come up with a sure-fire way of getting the numbers down: stop handing out testing kits.
The don’t appear to be free in much of the rest of the world.
Personally, I think the £10bn cost of free testing could be put to better use in terms of supporting other parts of the healthcare system.
True, but making people pay for tests means they just won’t take tests – or say they’re taking tests when they aren’t (which is probably happening a lot anyway). Which means they’ll get the virus and unwittingly pass it around. More infections, more mutations…. happy days.
As things stand, if you don’t officially log/register your test result, via the gov.uk site, it doesn’t count.
In the case of Lateral Flow Tests you have to scan the individual QR code from the test cassette to register a result, either positive or negative. It’s obviously easy to lie about the result you get, but you do need to use the test kit. Not sure how it works with the PCR tests as thus far I haven’t needed to take one, but they are done by others at test centres and recorded so you can’t claim to be negative if you’re not.
If employers or venues or whatever are just taking people’s word without checking then the whole system is pointless.
I’ve been using the LFT kits for a good while and so far I’ve always tested negative. Hopefully that status will remain. I ordered a new box of 7 tests a few days ago via the NHS Covid website and they arrived in today’s post.
Just used the last test from the previous box a few minutes ago. Negative result again and registered as such.
Police (some on horseback) finally moved in seriously yesterday after a snow storm, making lots of arrests and are very slowly clearing the area so far without much violence. Still some way to go. I have escaped to Toronto for a few days, quiet here