NEW from me:

The Mexican Embassy contacted me late last night to say they are pulling out of a festival featuring Maxime Bernier, Randy Hillier, Tom Quiggin and True North’s Andrew Lawton.

Multiple organizations listed as corporate sponsors say they never sponsored the event.

https://twitter.com/pressprogress/status/1784234381655105926

PBS-affiliate WCNY in Syracuse, New York told me they are “not a sponsor of this event” and “have never been a sponsor.”

“We emailed the organizer last year and asked for our logo to be removed from their website ... but did not receive a response back.”

pressprogress.ca/ottawa-book-fe…

Some arrests to report from Parliament Hill:

The Parliamentary Protective Service just arrested the convoy guy with the tinfoil hat, Claude Comtois, after he (allegedly) assaulted local activist Deana Sherif: Video from Sherif’s livestream appears to show a different convoy guy repeatedly bumping her with his backpack and aggressively confronting her.

The stream ends with some kind of altercation and the feed going dead. Tinfoil hat guy apparently joined the melee that followed:

So you can send a random PDF from a dodgy polling firm with no names attached to @CTVCalgary and they might publish it:

“NPRC says the polling was not commissioned. The company has no website and said it is a subsidiary of a voter contact firm, which it won’t name.”

https://twitter.com/CTVCalgary/status/1754583868953252222

Update:

@CTVCalgary has changed its headline and significantly rewrote its story:

calgary.ctvnews.ca/majority-of-al…

Witness tells Buffalo’s @WGRZ he saw someone barrel down Main St. in a Bentley at 100+ miles/hr swerve to avoid a car, hit a fence, go airborne 30 ft, then burst into flames.

According to the witness, the Bentley originated on the US-side, not Canada.

If I got this right, it sounds like someone was speeding in Buffalo, lost control of their Bentley, randomly flew into an unrelated border crossing booth and burst into flames.

Who is behind a conspiratorial far-right group training an army of election fraud “scrutineers” to dispute votes and sow doubts about Alberta’s election?

Let’s zoom in on Benita Pedersen, the main organizer and host of these scrutineer training sessions 🧵

#ableg

https://twitter.com/pressprogress/status/1658509085438820353

Benita Pedersen is a top Take Back Alberta organizer.

Pedersen emcees live events (see below) and is listed as an “admin” on the group’s Telegram channel – one of a small handful of people able to post messages to TBA supporters.

NEW: Danielle Smith asked about her comments on having police officers arrested for enforcing public health orders.

Smith dismisses her September 2022 comments as “grainy videos of things that I’ve said in the past,” pivots to attack Notley, then abruptly ends press conference. For background, here’s my original story on Danielle Smith’s comments suggesting police officers could face criminal charges for enforcing public health orders:

pressprogress.ca/danielle-smith… #ableg

The Emergencies Act Inquiry found Sgt. Chris Kiez, who prepared convoy intelligence reports for Ottawa Police, “expressed what could reasonably be seen as sympathy” towards the convoy in his reports.

Rouleau observes this “sympathy may have influenced his assessment.” Rouleau also questions Kiez’s “objectivity,” noting his reliance on “impressionistic statements by partisan newspaper commentators.”

As I reported in October, Ottawa Police relied heavily on a single Rex Murphy column for intelligence on the convoy.

pressprogress.ca/ottawa-police-…

Unless Lecce is claiming Ontario has 30-year-olds who are still stuck in high school because they missed 11 years of classes, I am not sure what relevance the number of days students missed since 1989 has to do with anything.

https://twitter.com/sflecce/status/1593026610936320002

In all seriousness, does anyone know how Lecce even arrived at this “2,246 days” number? This doesn’t sound right.

The 1997 teacher strike only lasted two weeks and was the longest province-wide teachers strike.

cbc.ca/archives/why-o…

Happening now:

Ottawa People's Commission is hearing testimony on the convoy's impact on journalists.

opc-cpo.ca/hearing/8-oct-… #ottnews First speaker is @EvanLSolomon.

Solomon thanks @ottpeoplescomm, noting Ottawa residents have gotten very little time to express their views at the Rouleau Commission.

#ottnews #cdnmedia

CUPE press conference is beginning, they’re on stage with dozens of leaders from what looks like nearly every major public and private sector union in Canada. “This is an unprecedented gathering of labour leaders because the attack against workers rights that we've seen from this government ... Bill 28 was a direct threat to workers' rights and to the Charter rights of all Canadians.”

The first step is stop framing the political spectrum as “left” = urban; “right” = rural; “centre” = suburbs.

Inequality cuts deeper in working-class suburbs than gentrified urban neighbourhoods. Climate change is a direct threat to rural livelihoods.

ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new… This column is right to note our political system amplifies divisions between urban, rural, suburban communities (amalgamation, first-past-the-post, etc.)

But these are not ‘ideologically monolithic’ places – and working people have shared interests no matter where they live.

Chief Sloly says he was recruited to deal with significant preexisting “culture” issues at Ottawa Police and was given a “change mandate.”

Sloly specifically notes “workplace harassment” and declining trust with “racialized and marginalized communities.”

#POEC #ottnews Elaborating on the “culture” problems in Ottawa Police, Sloly references former Deputy Chief’s resignation following sexual harassment charges, as well as the arrests of multiple OPS officers in an anti-corrpution probe.

cbc.ca/news/canada/ot…

cbc.ca/news/canada/ot…

One thread I've been following in #PEOC is the bizarre sub-plot about why leadership at Ottawa Police weren't getting OPP intelligence reports.

Interim Chief Bell's witness statement provides additional details about what happened 🧵 Bell says Supt. Mark Patterson, head of intelligence for Ottawa Police was of the “view that intelligence information be kept within the Intelligence Directorate.”

Bell claims he disagreed with this view and “specifically challenged” Patterson’s views on intelligence sharing.

Sentencing hearing happening now at the Ottawa Court House for former PPC candidate / No More Lockdowns owner Chelsea Hillier.

Chelsea was found in contempt of court last month:

ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new… #ottnews #cdnpoli Justice Narissa Somji is currently summarizing the facts of the case / reasons why Hillier was found in contempt.

More details here:

canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc…

Some reader feedback from Pierre Poilievre supporters:

Here’s the location of another base camp at a farm 5 minutes outside Arnprior.

One faction of convoy leaders appear to be broadcasting this info in hopes of luring convoy people away from other base camps to their base camp.

They plan to throw a dance party tomorrow night. Base camp organizers have authorized livestreamers to broadcast images from inside the base camp in order to show off how cool their base camp is.

Here are some images:

I’ve gotten a few tips and heard reports that the base camp at Ottawa’s baseball stadium relocated to a location 30 minutes south of Ottawa outside Greely.

Decided to check it out 👇

#ottnews It appears something is going on over here, though it is not clear exactly what.

The location is marked by an upside down Canadian flag. I saw 5 or so pick-up trucks show up in the span of several minutes.

Yeah, that was the Church of Bubbles guy.

He’s throwing a dance party down at Metcalfe and Slater.

https://twitter.com/MariekeWalsh/status/1494869534859169792

Jim Kerr (aka “Church of Bubbles”) was featured in our comprehensive round-up of extremists and social media influencers behind the occupation.

He drives around in a school bus that looks like the creative byproduct of an LSD trip.

pressprogress.ca/meet-the-extre… #cdnpoli #ottnews

This hasn’t gotten as much attention as the one at the baseball stadium or the one briefly at Confederation Park, but there is a base camp located 30 minutes outside Ottawa in a farm field near Embrun.

This morning, there were 50 or so vehicles at the Embrun base camp.

#ottnews For those unfamiliar with the Ottawa Valley and Eastern Ontario, this is where it is located on a map:

#ottnews

Ottawa Councillor Rick Chiarelli, who is the subject of numerous controversies re: allegations of sexual harassment, went on a video stream run by Laura Lynn-Tyler Thompson, a well-known figure in the anti-lockdown / COVID conspiracy movement:

ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new… #ottnews Here are a few highlights from Rick Chiarelli and Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson’s listening tour:

Asked if he has anything to say to an Ottawa councillor, one convoy member asks Chiarelli if he’s heard of the “Great Reset” or “the 2030 Agenda” (Chiarelli says he has not).

#ottnews

Here’s the view of the illegal base camp at Ottawa’s baseball stadium, which appears to be growing – easily 100 vehicles.

One protester told me a “rich man from Ottawa” dropped off 3 months worth of food (they didn’t know his name, just that he “owns a lot of land”).

#ottnews They’re storing all their food and supplies in these tents.

They described it as kind of like a potluck, where people bring over whatever they can. But they said there are growing fears in the camp donated food could contain “poison.”

The saunas are next to the tent.

#ottnews