Here’s a glimpse at how police are negotiating with protestors blocking the border near Coutts, Alberta, from the video of a protestor in the room with them. No one is masked. The cops’ goal is to allow the protest but allow border traffic/commerce.
Police admit the blockade caught them off guard. I’m not sure why when they printed posters and posted to social media.
And example of a social media flyer shared widely enough that even I saw one.
Protestors say they aren’t blocking *all* border crossings, just this one, and they’re mad people keep calling them terrorists. This is how they need to get attention, they say.
The police reassure them that no one in their chain of command has referred to the protestors as terrorists.
Police openly empathize with this and say if they do “one thing wrong” as police they are “villified” too.
Here’s a full pan over the group police say includes all the leaders of this blockade. What do you see?
I’m not sure the name of the person who took this video but there are 30 minutes. It’s important to remember the protestors here are demanding a drop to all vaccine mandates at the border. That’s their demand. calgaryherald.com/news/local-new…
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Harassment of politicians is part of the overall problem we have taking harassment and stalking seriously as a society. There are too many people who rationalize it or refuse to take it seriously as a threat, even when so many murders start with harassment and stalking.
People who do this, just like the woman who accosted Trudeau, often have a pattern of this inappropriate and threatening behaviour. Yet it's often difficult to even get a restraining order let alone get cops to do anything, even once it's escalated to open threats.
Behaviors that don't break the law and are seemingly harmless when performed separately (e.g., phone calls, gift-giving, texting) can become threatening and traumatic when they escalate in frequency, duration, & intensity. We need to start taking harassment far more seriously.
Loewen is a convoyer who actually went to Ottawa to try to overthrow the government. He employed a Diagolon member who just attended a meeting with an American NeoNazi in Edmonton. Don't ignore all that just because he's being forced to the table with Sajjan due to a crisis.
Minister Loewen has paid this man to be his constituency assistant in Valleyview and to take his official photos. The Leg under the UCP didn't see it as a security problem even though this is the guy who started the Alberta Diagolon telegram group.
Here's who Loewen's good friend and employee just hung out with in Edmonton. Do you really think Loewen respects Ottawa? When is someone going to care that the UCP government is ok with employing NeoNazis to interact with constituents?
It's been over 2 months since the "axe the tax" protests started. But before they started camps in Alberta. Ron Clark & Tyson "George" Billings helped start the convoy camp in Casselman, Ontario. Today one of the property owners posted about the huge mess they left. #convoywatch
It truly does look disgusting. This is the full aftermath of a convoy camp on private land.
Besides leaving a mess that's been taking WEEKS to clean, I've posted before that the convoyers also ran up a huge hydro bill for the property owners. Has that been paid off? Of course not. There's still $3000 owing. How exactly is that "helping Canadians afford their bills"?
Miranda Courts went live last night from the Lloyminster convoy camp because she's so angry more people aren't showing up. Throughout the live she struggles with why they don't have the millions she believes supported the convoy behind them now. #convoywatch
Miranda is upset & jealous that the "big names" like Ron & George can pull more people to their carbon tax protest events by Lacombe than she can to Lloydminster. Even her followers are starting to wonder if they're "missing" something.
Sitting by herself for hours at the carbon tax protest site, Miranda Courts has concluded the problem is "non-Canadians" & that white blue collar people are the ones being oppressed. She knows that sounds racist & doesn't care. (White nationalism alert.) #convoywatch
People wonder why I'm personally invested in following the convoy drama. A big reason is I started off reporting on some of them during covid while stringing for the Smoky River Express, covering High Prairie to Peace River. Freedom George is from High Prairie. A local.
Bob Blayone, another fixture on the Alberta anti-vaxx scene, is from Peace River. My longtime hometown now. I had to cover his failed attempts to decide the fate of our airport, which morphed into anti-mandate rallies, a failed run for council, & the "freedom" movement.
One of Bob's personal friends & a woman he has consistently platformed is Nancy O'Neill, who George interviews here on his latest live from Cochrane. Nancy is infamous in Peace River bec she was convicted of child abuse - of her own kid. Sometimes I see her at the grocery store.
So today Grande Prairie's angriest son Elliot "Moose" McDavid & his cronies were supposed to storm council again with their concerns about 15 minute cities after finally figuring out how to get added to the agenda and speak.
As you can see from this video McDavid posted to Meta, they had hundreds of upset people out to a pre-meeting - but oddly there's no word yet how many attended GP County Council's meeting today at 10 am. m.facebook.com/story.php?stor…
However, you can check out the county's responses to their concerns in the agenda for today - and they're kind of hilarious. Elliot McDavid was ANGRY they were changing the Reeve into a Mayor and making the county a 15 minute city. Not happening: