Surreal being back here after everything that’s happened. Couple of hundred Freedom Convoy protestors are back at Parliament Hill.
From a couple of hundred people a few minutes ago to now about a thousand? Freedom Convoy protestors are back at Parliament Hill.
The smiles, dancing and hugs are back in Ottawa. 😅
Part of todays protests will move to Innes road at the Ottawa Carleton Detention centre where some Freedom Convoy organizers like Tamara Lich are being held.
Shelley, 25 from Ottawa is back to protest. She says the protestors needed some time to heal but now they’re back to protest for their freedoms.
Great running into Alex Cabana @Alexand41222492 , a veteran who’s served in many places including Afghanistan. During the convoy protests, he kept watch over the war memorial along with other veterans. A true patriot.
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I come from a part of India that gave Jews sanctuary two thousand years ago, and more recently again a few hundred years ago. Two thousand years ago, there was even a Jewish kingdom in what is now the southern state of Kerala. I've always been proud of that history and the fact that India stands out as one of very few countries in the world to have no indigenous antisemitism.
My former hometown Mumbai also has a rich Jewish history. This is the Knesset Eliyahu, one of the city's oldest synagogues established by Elias Sasoon, grandson of David Sassoon, a Baghdadi Jew and one of the merchant princes of Mumbai. David Sasoon arrived in Bombay in 1832 from Baghdad escaping persecution. He went on to become one of India's richest men. His legacy lives on today in the famous Sassoon docks and the Sassoon library.
The synagogue was one of the targets of Pakistani Islamists on India's 9/11 known as 26/11 in 2008. They killed the rabbi and his wife and orphaned their baby. To this day, there's a military tank and police protection outside the synagogue each and every day.
There’s a long tradition of young Israelis who come to India after their compulsory service in the military as a place to unwind and regroup. Some places in India have signage in Hebrew because there are so many visitors of Israel. Jewish visitors to India have never faced any indigenous anti-semitism and that’s something very few countries and cultures can boast of.
As a Hindu, I'm not a big fan of the concept of Hinduphobia. This is another manufactured term like Islamophobia and all it does is drive people into their identitarian corner. Hinduism for thousands of years is a religion that accepts multiple views on everything and there's no such thing as a unitary Hindu view, so Hinduphobia by definition is an illogical term. Once again, Canada is importing diaspora grievances which we don't need or want here. Dumb and counterproductive.
The term Hinduphobia animates the Hindu right in India. It helps them electorally. The fact that this concept is being imported to Canada is an indictment of Canada's failed multiculturalism and diaspora grievance politics.
Am disappointed that the Conservatives are pushing this petition to recognize Hinduphobia. They should be above identitarian politics which some of them have correctly criticized in the past. How are they different from the Liberals, the NDP or the Bloc when you play identity politics? We're all Canadians. That's where the conversation should took place.
In 2017, the Russian embassy in Canada pointed to the presence of a monument in Oakville Ontario, honouring Ukrainian soldiers who fought in a Nazi Waffen SS unit. The Russian tweet was correct. But incredibly @JustinTrudeau government went into high gear to smear the correct Russian claim and anyone who repeated it as "disinformation".
@davidpugliese wrote about this incident in 2018 in the @OttawaCitizen and makes the observation:
"But in Canada, the federal government is more than happy to play along with defending Himmler’s SS divisions and Nazi collaborators".
"The Russian tweet sent bureaucrats at Global Affairs Canada into overdrive as they tried to defend the SS unit and Ukrainian Nazi collaborators. The bureaucrats came up with a strategy. The would label the tweet as “disinformation” and they came up with a plan to spread the word to the news media as part of their efforts to defend Ukraine’s Nazi collaborators."
"Graffiti on monument commemorating Nazi SS division being investigated as a hate crime by police".
Halton Police: “This incident occurred to a monument and the graffiti appeared to target an identifiable group".
Toronto principal Richard Bilkszto was a passionate educator who cared about underprivileged kids. For refuting a claim in a DEI session that Canada is a "bastion of white supremacy", he was bullied and tarred a white supremacist, called a weed by the trainer and faced severe… https://t.co/pAlzJIQC12twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Do listen to the audio excerpts we provide from the DEI training session and you'll hear how school principal Richard Bilkszto was bullied not just by the DEI trainer but by other educators. The event left him traumatized which eventually led to his suicide.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
CEO @KojoInstitute Kike Ojo-Thompson: “I just want to thank everybody for a proper, thorough session today. We got into the weeds and got the weed whacker out apparently. It was hot today. It was good. It was really good.” #RichardBilkszto thefp.com/p/a-racist-sme…
A year ago, I stepped out of my home in Ottawa to check out a protest unfolding in my part of town. Little did I know the #FreedomConvoy protests would go down as one of the greatest cultural moments in Canada's history, inspire the world,and that it would change my life forever.
I expected #FreedomConvoy protests to be your garden variety protest on the hill with a couple of hundred people at the most. Would end that day. I'd heard from the legacy media that they were racists and we should be afraid. I went with an open mind and am glad I did.
These were the very first images of the trucks I saw on the evening of the 27th from my perch, driving around and honking. What's the big deal, right? I get on to Rideau street first thing in the morning on the 28th and this is what awaits me.I hadn't seen anything quite like it.
Brendan Miller, lawyer for the convoy: "Not a single witness alleged to have suffered violence at the hands of the protestors that the protestors are being collectively blamed for has been presented to the inquiry". Exactly. #POEC
Ottawa Coalition lawyer argues lack of evidence that witnesses suffered violence at the hands of the protesters doesn't mean it didn't happen.
"Lack of evidence doesn't mean you can't infer it didn't happen." What kind of a kangaroo court is this?Are we in North Korea?🤡 #POEC
Lawyers for the police (OPS, OPP) desperate attempts to keep videos out of the hearing of alleged police brutality and witnesses who can attest to that have failed. Commissioner allows more evidence and witnesses. #POEC