OTTOWA -- The heavy police presence remains in Ottawa and on Thursday afternoon Ottawa cops began arrests of key Freedom Convoy leaders, including Chris Barber, aka, “Big Red,” who spoke to Townhall last week in an exclusive interview and chief fundraiser Tamara Lich.
But with more protesters expected on Friday and throughout the weekend, the police have sealed off the city and begun to evict the truckers from Wellington St. In Canada’s capitol. Although warnings have been issued and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act on Valentine’s Day, the truckers and protesters remain calm and there is no sign of an emergency except the one created by the Trudeau government.
Trudeau claims that the Emergencies Act will not violate the Canadian Charter of Rights, a document introduced by his father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. But, it stigmatizes the truckers essentially as domestic terrorists, authorizes the state to freeze their bank accounts and nullify their vehicle insurance and label their anti-vaccine mandate protest as a criminal act.
Another revelation is that people who donated to the widely-circulated GiveSendGo fund to support the protestors are now at risk of having their bank accounts seized by the state. Canadian Justice Minister David Lametti told CTV News on Wednesday that anybody who supports a “pro-Trump” movement, like the “Freedom Convoy,” should be “worried” about the security of their finances and the government freezing their accounts.
This is happening in one of the world’s most stable democracies and the closest ally of the United States.
The GiveSendGo donor list was hacked apparently by a member of cyber attack group Anonymous and he claims to have worked for the CIA and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
The Canadian media has gone one step further and began calling out citizens on that list and interrogating why they chose to donate money to the convoy. Even Democratic “Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has called this most yellow of journalism “unconscionable.”
Trudeau continues to insist that anyone who supports the convoy is a Nazi or domestic terrorist. During the prime minister’s Question Period on Wednesday, he accused a Jewish Conservative Member of Parliament from Toronto of standing “with people who wave Swastikas.”
Melissa Lantsman, a Member of Parliament representing the Conservative Party, immediately rose from her seat in the House of Commons to demand an apology from Trudeau. As the room erupted in chaos at his remarks, the prime minister had already left the room.
The Freedom Convoy organizers continue to host news conferences – by invitation only. Most mainstream media are not included on the list and most truckers will not even speak with reporters from CBC, CTV or Global News, three major television networks in Canada.
I spoke to Eric Mueller, who escaped communist East Germany to become a Canadian citizen. He said that he has been parked in Ottawa since Day 1 of the protest and what he has witnessed has been completely at odds with what Trudeau, senior cabinet ministers, and much of Canada say of the protest when they describe “white supremacists” threatening locals and using violence.
Mueller said the only act of violence he witnessed was “only from the police when they arrested someone who was carrying a jerry can.”
Although he thought Trudeau was anxious to throttle the protesters with the Emergencies Act, he was still shocked when the prime minister acted.
“I said it was unbelievable. Where’s the emergency? When is a legal protest the cause to declare an emergency? Unbelievable.”
Mueller joked that it is unfair to say Trudeau is acting like a dictator because “he is one.”
“The government is supposed to be representing Candians but they are not even listening, they are not even asking, they just mandate stuff, illegal mandates; they do everything on their own, filling their pockets. They;ve completely lost their purpose,” he said.
The trucker said he remains committed to non-violence.
“I hope we can go peacefully out like we came in. I’m not thinking about another option.”
Mueller called Trudeau “the crime minister” but said the truckers could take pride in moving many provinces to end COVID-19 mandates.