So I decided to shake things up and I'm here at Dundas Square where a few demonstrators have arrived. Rally is supposed to kick off at 12 but there's far fewer demonstrators here compared to the crowd at Queen's Park
First speaker got into megaphone thanking demonstrators and said that Chris Sky is on the way before going on a little blurb on how suddenly everything in Canada is communist
Interesting hat here. The hashtag is the de facto QAnon slogan, "Where we go one we go all." Another concerning signs that more radical elements are in the crowd. Though I can't say that the PPC stands for what we think, I wouldn't be suprised #cdnpoli#Toronto#onpoli#antivax
Chris Sky is here! But on the other end of the street. According to legal reasons he can't be close to someone in the crowd. When he speaks he must do it from the street and the other person must leave.
When I approached to ask about the legal issues I did catch the tail end of a rant. Sky said he was disappointed by the turnout today and that after his speech that a lot of Canadians won't like him
Speaking of, the Queen's Park March typically comes down Yonge and past Dundas. It'll be interesting to see if they do the same. Typically the marches start about now so we'll see if the two groups meet
So I'm not going to put a picture of this but they have a literal child speaking about "indoctrination" at schools. They encouraged other children to spread the same disinformation.
The kid also went on a bit of a fear mongering spread saying that teachers are brainwashed and that they're worried that vax passes are coming to school. Seeing kids at this rally isn't uncommon but having a kid as a speaker is new
They've got a second kid up, a teenager, who said she's being "discriminated" for a personal choice and that her social life has taken a hit. Both kids are using similar language with the other kid calling the situation "segregation"
So this speaker is plugging a NEW weekly protests. They're calling for people to come in front of City Hall on Wednesday's. They're trying to not organize just in Toronto, but across Canada
So this speaker is a familiar face as well. He was the one in the Eaton Centre video that's inspired the protest at Scarborough Town Centre yesterday and he has a LOT to say
So Sky has first off alleged that his phone was hacked and that he was attacked by "4 hooded men" downtown, saying "they're scared of us" (They being the government)
Sky is considerably combative and aggressive in tone, comparing vaccinating kids to selling their soul to the devil and that Ontarians have been too compliant and not doing enough to fight the measures
There's a lot to dissect from that speech deserving of its own tweet but the TL;DR Sky has told the crowd to engage in non compliant while alluding to some personal story that sounds suspiciously similar to what you would hear from QAnon.
Current situation. A group split north. This fellas jam has quite a bit of the crowd while some remain on the side walk. They are trying to walk north #cdnpoli#antivaxxers#Toronto#onpoli
It's started to rain most people have scattered. A crowd remains by the loud speaker and Chris Sky
Hey folks! I'm back. For some reason Twitter's algorithm felt the need to restrict and I had to verify on my end. The rain has scattered most everyone. Things seem to be over today!
A few hours has passed and a has been calm. Today was interesting for various reasons. I'll have a thread breaking down some of what was said in morw detail soon.
Last night I detailed one of the main #misinformation narratives surrounding #TruckerConvoy2022 of "antifa" infiltrating the demonstration to discredit it via violence. There's been a few concerning updates 🧵
So a few people have been taking this alleged threat very seriously and have been calling on convoy supporters to perform "citizens arrest" on those they suspect of being "antifa"
Out of all the #misinformation narratives surrounding the #TruckerConvoy2022, there is one that I think needs highlighting. There are claims that "antifa" has infiltrated the demonstrators and are planning for violence tomorrow. 🧵
It's important to note that the universal belief of what "antifa" is in this context is a group paid by Justin Trudeau to riot and or stage a false flag attack in a similar vein to the January 6th incursion.
This is of course a conspiracy theory, and not an original one either. There are numerous mentions of the #January6th incursion, where the similar claims of antifa infiltrators was spread in the aftermath
So for the past week I've been keeping an eye and an ear on the #TruckerConvoy2022 and tracking some of the prevailing narratives. Here's a rundown on the misinformation and concerning rhetoric I've been hearing
First bit of misinformation is the number of trucks participating. The numbers range from 10,000 to 150,000 and seemingly got larger with media visibility. The most common number cited around 50,000, how this is almost certainly false
Now this has been met with some mixed reviews. Some see Sky as a "fraud", others see him trying to hijack the movement and some have accused him of being "controlled opposition" #cdnpoli#antivaxxers#Toronto#onpoli
Naturally the differing views on his demonstration has caused internal divisions and argument among the community.
So I decided to come by Scarborough Town Centre and can confirm that's there's a small antivax demonstration happening here. Many familiar faces from the video taken at Eaton Centre. #Toronto#Cdnpoli#antivaxxers#Scarborough
Compared to the Eaton Centre video where they kept to themselves this time the group could be seen gojng out of their way to interact with other patrons at Scarborough Town Centre #cdnpoli#Toronto#Scarborough#ONpoli
Immediately following that interaction a bunch of them left their tables and began to hound @ConsumerSOS who was there for @globalnews accusing the journalists of working for the Government or CSIS #cdnpoli#Toronto#ScarbTO#onpoli
Last minute thing but it seems like Antivaxers might be coming to Scarborough, specifically STC today. The goal is to eat indoors without a vax-pass. This was posted this morning so turn out may be low but this form of demonstration is a growing trend #cdnpoli#Toronto#onpoli
This seems in part to be inspired by the recent arrest of a PPC candidate after they tried to enter a Tim Hortons without a mask or a vax-pass
In response several copycat style demonstrations around Ontario are being planed at Tim Hortons and generally any indoor dining space similar to what's allegedly happening today at Scarborough Town Centre #cdnpoli#Toronto#onpoli