Thread by @ARCCollective

1. Yesterday was the first protest in Calgary after the injunction was granted to stop protesters from harassing residents in the Beltline.

There are a few excellent threads and I will get to those soon, but I thought I would offer my own $0.02.

2. First, the injunction didn't make protesting "illegal."

For what the injunction did do, take a look at the link.

cbc.ca/news/canada/ca…

3. Prior to the protest and in anticipation of the injunction being acted upon, one of the organizing groups (Calgary Freedom Central) posted this on their Facebook page.

4. The responses clearly suggest that the continued protests and disruptions have little to do with mandates as some commentators discussed other means of harassing Beltline residents.

5. Others suggested they could still basically do what they wanted since there were not enough police to arrest them all.

6. Not surprising were the numerous posts claiming the municipal government were communists/Nazis and that the mayor was fraudulently elected.

7. And though some valiantly tried to dissuade them from their erroneous ideas about the Charter and that they could simply use the Bill of Rights (they can not), we saw the usual "this is tyranny!" rants.

8. Those who would counter-protest did not have legitimate concerns themselves.

No, they HAD to be paid agitators.

9. For me however what was so striking is how dismissive they are of the rights of others.

You see, their right to demand services and not abide by job requirements is legitimate.

Those suffering as a result of this tantrum however? Snowflakes!

10. As for the protest itself, the following are a representative sample of what people experienced.

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16. In the end, 6 people were arrested.

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19. @JaneQCitizen posted this threat concerning Misty Wind, a Covid conspiracist (who was in Ottawa with Pat King) being arrested.

20. She also noted the presence of some people who had been on my radar for some time.

21. For me though, the most significant part of the video is the first post in the thread where "peaceful" protesters claim they will riot if they don't get their way.

22. A lot of the usual suspect were there, but one person present was someone who I featured prominently during my month-long tweet spree during the #OttawaOccupation.

antihate.ca/holocaust_deni…

23. Alex Vriend (originally from the Ottawa area but now residing in Calgary) appears to have returned and has not yet found a new hobby.

24. This clip again shows that the protests have become an end unto themselves and that mandates are simply a pretext to harass people.

Basically Vriend's ideological position amounts to "you're not the boss of me!"

I half expect he will hold his breath until he gets a cookie.

25. So let's take a look at some of the "good stuff" in the video recorded by my best friend who TOTALLY never thinks about me all the time, shall we?

26. Well we start with harassing a journalist (which, given this journalist works for the very conservative @westernstandard run by @Dfildebrandt who is no friend of Kenney or mandates, sort of suggests Vriend sort of just wants to be a dick).

27. He also meets up with "based" Dawid Pawlowski and misrepresents the reason why Dawid's brother Artur Pawlowski is still in jail while also throwing out some "antifa" boogeyman red meat.

28. But really, the main event is Vriend harassing the media and egging on others to do the same as he does here with a @CBCCalgary crew.

29. Eventually the police do get involved, though Vriend is too excited to stop.

30. He promises the media (CBC specifically) will continue to be harassed and intimidated because, and I choose to paraphrase, he and people like him don't like the media reporting what the anti-mandate people really are.

31. "They shove their cameras in our faces and try to make us look bad."

No sweetie, you are able to manage that all on your own.

32. The thing is people like Vriend always complain that the media (and lil'ol me) "try" to make them look bad.

All that is happening is that people are being provided with clips of these peoples' behaviour. How viewers choose to respond based on those clips is up to them.

33. "I'm so glad I started recording this!"

So am I, but I suspect not for the same reasons.

34. Another rather fascinating part of Vriend's Telegram posts about his participation in the protest was concerning "antifa" because of course it had to be "antifa" and not just people sick of these disruptions.

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36. At one point there was some sort of confrontation and the police moved in, bowling over some of the counter-protesters.

See, when it was #OttawaOccupiers who were gently (relatively speaking) arrested (including Vriend), the Diagolon crew suggested it was to worst barbarism.

37. When state violence is visited on those Vriend and his supporters view as the enemy, well, the response seems rather different.

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39. So in the aftermath, and with protesters mostly (if begrudgingly) abiding by the injunction, all that was left was for the supporters of the protest to declare total victory!

40. Of course, there were no more protesters than at any of the other events held on Saturday these past several months and as other Twitter users noted the protests were not illegal.

41. But at least the protesters were able to strike a blow for the right of college kids to get wasted on a beach in Cancun or Fort Lauderdale.

42. Hey, I missed this, but it looks like @JaneQCitizen identified one of the people arrested that protest supporters had suggested was "antifa."

Spoiler: he was not, indeed, "antifa".