J.P. Tasker Profile picture
Senior reporter in the @CBCPolitics parliamentary bureau. Secretary of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. Proud 🇨🇦. Email: jp.tasker@cbc.ca

Feb 18, 2020, 11 tweets

"Bringing down the blockades doesn't mean that you surrender. It doesn't mean we're going to lay down and let them kick us around, no, it would show compassion," Mohawk Council of Kanesatake Grand Chief Serge Otsi Simon said this morning. This is the scene now at his office.

"I'm simply pleading with these protesters - have you made your point yet? Has the government and industry understood? I think they did," Chief Simon said.

"People are suffering across the country because of this blockade - and not just non-Indigenous people. Indigenous people as well. Shortages in propane and probably food supplies are going to start getting critical if this continues," Chief Simon said.

"We are creating a space for peaceful honest dialogue with willing partners. We need to resolve this through dialogue and mutual respect," Trudeau says in the Commons of the blockades. Scheer says: "That was the weakest response to a  national crisis in Canadian history."

New — 'We need Canadians to show resolve': Trudeau asks for patience as rail blockades continue. CBC.ca/1.5466878 #cdnpoli

Trudeau invited party leaders Blanchet, May and Singh to meet over the continuing rail blockades in his office. Scheer was *not* invited, my colleagues at Radio-Canada are reporting. @MaBlaisMorin #cdnpoli

The Prime Minister's Office has confirmed to CBC that Scheer was not invited.

.@ElizabethMay says Scheer was excluded from the Trudeau-led meeting of opposition leaders because "the speech that Mr. Scheer gave following the PM's statement was viewed as disqualifying him from participation in a discussion on how to find solutions." #cdnpoli

@ElizabethMay "Mr. Scheer disqualified himself from constructive discussions with his unacceptable speech earlier today," Trudeau says when asked why he didn't invite Scheer to a meeting of opposition leaders on the blockade #QP #cdnpoli

@ElizabethMay .@theJagmeetSingh says Scheer's speech on the blockades this morning was "reprehensible. What he said was divisive. It was purposely designed to pit some groups against another - and to me it needs to be denounced. What he is suggesting is not a way forward." #cdnpoli

(You can watch Scheer's speech this morning here: cbc.ca/news/politics/…)

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