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.
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.
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.
35.
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.
38.
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."
1/ It's been a while since I've done a thread here, but the recent focus on Pat King got me to wondering what was up with his own Salacious Crumb, Tyson "Freedom George" Billings.
2/ Last time I looked at Billings he was a part of the efforts to set up a permenant camp outside Ottawa so there could be daily protests, though the original plan involved surrounding the police and arresting politicians.
Suffice to say it didn't go anywhere.
3/ Billings and Ron Clark soon headed home, but they both soon got involved in other protests including the anti-carbon tax protests occurring in the province. The numbers at these events have been small but that hasn't stopped from politicians from courting the fringes it seems.
1/ Though I'm not especially active these days, I'm still sometimes gobsmacked by some of the ridiculous (though sadly effective) rage farming by some on the right. Harrison Faulkner of "True North" is just a recent example of that.
2/ So a bit of background. Musical artist Karan Aujla won the 2024 TikTok Juno Fan Choice Award at the award ceremony this past weekend.
I think it was this weekend. Truth be told I don't pay a lot of attention to awards shows.
3/ It should be noted that Aujla has been in Canada for years emigrating as an orphan. He graduated from high school in Canada. The album was produced by a Canadian on a Canadian label.
1/ A couple of days ago self-proclaimed leaders of the "freedom movement" held a press conference in Ottawa which was about as unhinged as you might have expected.
2/ Apparently the person who set this up was Derek Noonan who was also one of the speakers.
That would be this guy and I shall get back to him shortly.
3/ Because these "freedom patriot" types are SUPER jealous of anyone getting even a tiny bit of the noteriety they seem to believe they deserve and are entitled to, Gordon Berry was not happy with the press conference.
1. Misinformation has always been a feature on Twitter but prior to Musk's ownership there appeared to be a minimal effort (very minimal) to counter it. Those days are clearly over.
Case in point, Theo Fleury shared this with his 285.8K followers today:
2. Before I go any further, no. This is not in fact true at all and a fact check would indicate that it isn't true.
Pictured here with Chrystia Freeland is her mother and sister.
3. When asked about the photo, the original poster said it was taken in 1967:
2. I am NOT going to post a clip covering every part of the video, but I do think there are a couple that are important.
First, Venne claims that he wasn't able to be himself and had to be careful how he spoke.
3. It appears that for people who complain about controlled narratives, Norm Blanchfield and Gordon Berry are really determined to control the narrative.