Earlier on Monday, as Jeff covered, Canada's Justin Trudeau announced his resignation as prime minister. Such news is hardly a surprise, not only because reports came out on Sunday indicating as much, but because Trudeau has been floundering for some time now. While reacting to the news on Monday over at CNN before it was made official, Scott Jennings offered a key reminder as to who played a role in that: Canadian truckers.
"God bless the truckers, that's what I'm saying," Jennings offered as he and Bakari Sellers were on "CNN News Central" to make clear they indeed wanted to talk about Canada "There's a direct line from those truckers to what's happening today. Good riddance!"
The segment then cut to "breaking news" further confirming that Trudeau was indeed going to resign as party leader that same day, as a source had indicated to the network.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian truckers dared to use their voices to oppose vaccine mandates. They engaged in the freedom convoy in the winter of 2022, as Townhall covered extensively. Despite dismissals from Trudeau about how the truckers supposedly were a "small, fringe minority," they were anything but.
The truckers were routinely demonized by their own government and harassed by police, who were relentlessly targeting protesters, as they even confiscated fuel. There were also video clips of police visiting the homes of those who even just supported the convoy. As another form of demonization, truckers were referred to as "Russian actors" by the media. The truckers and those who donated to support them were also punished by GoFundMe. The Ontario government even made it illegal to donate to the truckers through a similar fundraising platform, GiveSendGo.
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To end the convoy, Trudeau even invoked the Emergencies Act, becoming the first Canadian prime minister to do so. The government continued to approve such an abuse of power. The Trudeau Administration even announced they were going to freeze crowdfunding institutions, cryptocurrency transactions, corporate, and personal bank accounts that support the Canadian truckers. Those being targeted even included Americans.
The use of the Emergencies Act angered civil liberties groups and media outlets in Canada as well as the United States. As Jeff mentioned when covering Trudeau's announcement, a judge didn't agree with such a use:
The prime minister responded by sending thousands of police officers to arrest protesters under the Emergencies Act even though they were not engaging in violence.
A federal judge in 2024 ruled that Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act led to violations of constitutional rights. She noted that “there was no national emergency justifying the invocation of the Emergencies Act and the decision to do so was therefore unreasonable.”
Not only did we see the vaccine mandates and the harsh treatment of the truckers, but of other protesters as well. In February of 2022, a woman was trampled by a police horse, as was a man who appeared to be trying to help her. Despite the incident, the Ottawa Police dared to post over social media that "No one has been seriously injured or passed away in any of today's police actions. Safety is our priority."
"Good riddance" is right!
New elections in Canada must take place by October. Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, is considered a favorite and has been calling on Trudeau to step aside for some time now. It is not yet known who will replace Trudeau as the Liberal Party's leader, though Trudeau will step down once his party picks a new leader.
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