convoy

Tuesday August 30, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday August 30, 2022

Neanderthals and Strong Women

May 26, 2021

From a makeshift studio and with a news anchor’s measured tones, one of Canada’s most familiar faces shocked viewers, created a PR disaster at a national broadcaster and set off intense conversations about how employers treat women as they age.

She did it with a polite, unexpected farewell.

“I guess this is my sign-off from CTV,” the news anchor, Lisa LaFlamme said in a video that announced the abrupt end of her 35-year career at the network.

The dismissal of Ms. LaFlamme, who was most likely one of the newsroom’s highest-paid employees, followed a torrent of layoffs and budget cuts at CTV’s network and local news operations over the past seven years, which were made despite government assistance to news organizations. As in the United States, the internet and years of collapsing advertising revenue have left many Canadian news organizations in dire financial straits. The executive put on leave, Michael Melling, had overseen recent layoffs and cuts at CTV.

Friday August 26, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday August 26, 2022

Diagolon: What to know about the group whose founder shook Pierre Poilievre’s hand

Conservative leadership front-runner Pierre Poilievre came under fire this past weekend after an image of him shaking hands with Jeremy Mackenzie, the founder of a group known as “Diagolon,” emerged.

August 4, 2022

Shortly after the image surfaced on Mackenzie’s public Telegram channel, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called on Poilievre to “denounce Jeremy Mackenzie and Diagolon,” who he said are “designated as violent extremists by Canada’s Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre.”

Singh was referring to a report from Press Progress, which last week published a document it obtained through access-to-information from the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre, a federal organization that assesses threats of terrorism to Canada.

The document, dated Feb. 17, 2022, classifies Mackenzie as one of the “key anti-government IMVE (ideologically motivated violent extremism) adherents” that attended the so-called “freedom convoy” protests in Ottawa earlier this year.

The Canadian government has not expressed formal concern about Diagolon nor does it list the group as a terrorist entity.

“Over the course of my campaign I have shaken hands with literally tens of thousands of people at public rallies. It is impossible to do a background check on every single person who attends my events,” Poilievre’s campaign team said in response to Global News’ request for comment on Aug. 20.

“As I always have, I denounce racism and anyone who spreads it. I didn’t and don’t know or recognize this particular individual.”

So who is Mackenzie — and what is Diagolon? 

A drug-addled demonic goat named Phillip. A fictional diagonal country running from Alaska to Florida. An alleged plot to kill RCMP officers in Coutts, Alta.

There’s a common thread uniting these topics: they’re all, in some way, tied to Diagolon.

June 30, 2022

Founders of the group say it’s all one big joke, a meme, and they’re just a group of anti-establishment comedians. The demonic goat and fictional country were the product of “several edibles,” to hear Diagolon founder Jeremy Mackenzie tell it.

His telegram channel has more than 13,000 members, and he has at least 10,000 subscribers on YouTube.

But after a patch bearing the group’s insignia was found alongside weapons seized by the RCMP near the border in Coutts in February, some extremism experts say they are concerned about what the multi-hour livestreams could inspire their viewers to do.

“It’s not just an innocent podcast. It’s not just irony,” said Amarnath Amarasingam, an assistant professor at Queen’s University and expert on extremism.

These podcasters are giving their viewers a new “lens” through which to interpret their struggles, he said – one that paints government as the villain and societal collapse as inevitable. (Global) 

 

Thursday June 30, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday June 30, 2022

Ottawa braced for Canada Day protest by ‘freedom convoy’ supporters

Members of anti-vax convoy have vowed to maintain a presence over the summer initially mingling with the annual celebrations

April 30, 2022

Residents of downtown Ottawa are bracing for a Canada Day unlike any other, after “freedom convoy” protesters vowed to return to Parliament Hill on 1 July, and maintain a presence over the remainder of the summer.

Every Canada Day, people congregate on Parliament Hill in Ottawa to watch musical performances and fireworks on the anniversary of Canadian confederation. This year, it will probably be difficult for police to distinguish between celebrators and convoy members – which is what protesters are banking on.

In late January, groups opposed to vaccine and mask mandates drove tractor-trailers and other large vehicles into Ottawa’s downtown core and set up camp. The ensuing three-week occupation of the capital city was a traumatic experience for many locals, who faced harassment, incessant noise and other unwelcome encounters, said Ariel Troster, a candidate for city council in Ottawa’s Somerset ward.

“Many people were driven from their homes, many were subjected to harassment, there were at least two cases where people defecated on people’s front steps. There were reports of apartment buildings where convoy people took over the laundry room and wouldn’t leave,” said Troster. “Not to mention the symbols of hatred, which were quite visible not just on the Hill but in the neighbourhoods.”

February 8, 2022

Group communications on Telegram, YouTube videos and other channels show convoy sympathisers believe in white replacement theory and other conspiracies. QAnon activists and propaganda were often seen at the wintertime occupation.

It ultimately cost the city $36m in policing costs and has resulted in a proposed class action lawsuit against protest organisers.

Now that Canada has dropped most mandates, the convoyers appear to be demanding Justin Trudeau’s resignation as prime minister. They have been gaining traction with Conservative politicians, recently having held a meeting with their “allies” in parliament.

The Ottawa police service (OPS) has pledged to foil any new attempt to occupy the city. The force is under immense pressure to get Canada Day right after its many failures to police the previous occupation.

June 30, 2021

At a police services board meeting on Monday, the interim OPS chief, Steve Bell, said a heightened police presence and road barricades limiting the number of vehicles permitted downtown may not be able to keep convoyers arriving on foot away, but it will prevent people from setting up camp.

“Canada Day’s a very important day to Canadians. It’s a day where we celebrate our country and all the good things in it. But people, when they come, they need to be lawful. And they need to be respectful of our community,” Bell said. (The Guardian) 

 

Wednesday May 18, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday May 18, 2022

Conservative Party leadership race divides along Harper, Mulroney lines

Nov. 12, 2007

Stephen Harper and Brian Mulroney are at war again over the future of the Conservative Party.

While neither former prime minister has said so publicly, everyone knows Mr. Harper opposes the efforts of former Quebec premier Jean Charest to become Conservative leader, while Mr. Mulroney is a Charest supporter.

Mr. Harper speaks to a conservatism that supports lower taxes and balanced budgets, that places a lower priority on fighting climate change than on developing oil and gas. As leader, he paid careful attention to the needs of Western voters.

Mr. Mulroney’s supporters place a stronger emphasis on environmental issues and are less dogmatic on taxes and deficits. As leader, Mr. Mulroney paid careful attention to the needs of Quebec.

Friday May 13, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 13, 2022

Pierre Poilievre’s inflation disinformation

April 26, 2022

For every serious, stubborn and complicated problem, there’s an ambitious politician peddling a bogus plan to fix it. And if you need any proof, just listen to Pierre Poilievre’s simplistic explanation for runaway inflation, and then his troubling proposal for saving the economy. The narrative being spun by this federal Conservative leadership hopeful is that the Bank of Canada’s leadership is “financially illiterate” and its incompetence punished the country with the worst inflation in three decades. As prime minister, he would sort the bank out, pronto. And to make sure that happens, he announced at a leadership debate Wednesday that if he forms the government, he would fire Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem.