It was painful to see a grown human being having to be carried stretcher style because he refused to walk when arrested for his illegal acts. How has it come to this?
I am relieved that when the occupiers go home, they live in surrounding towns and other provinces. Especially western provinces. While there are racists in Ottawa, for there to be a menacing mob, they can’t rely on locals only. I feel safer knowing these aren’t my people.
I am sickened that parents have deliberately put their children between themselves and police. Children as human shields.
I am stunned that someone brought their 2 year old child into the crowd on a sled, DURING the aggressive police action. Insurrection as a spectator sport?
I am unsurprised by the lack of education and wild beliefs of the protestors.
I am unsurprised by the disconnect of people singing and dancing and professing this is a love-in, while two blocks away their fellow occupiers were assaulting police with fists and teargas. Whatever you are smoking, can I have some too?
I am tired. I haven’t slept in days. I mean nights. Last night I ended up glued to the TV long past the time all the reporters had gone home. If the police had told me that their workday starts at 9:00 (when they began to surge), I could have had a good night’s sleep.
While much of the problem is that the occupiers are uneducated and unemployed, I also think we are seeing the consequences of an absence of source material. Before internet, people had to do research from newspapers, public news services, and encyclopedias. Politicians and academics would share their analysis of what is true (the world IS round). Now, all information comes online from undetermined sources and we have learned that even the wildest ‘news’ (vaccines turn you into a robot) are believed. It is just too easy to dupe people.
Watching the grace and flawless precision with which the RCMP horses made their formation on Elgin Street, took my breath away.
Watching CBC and CTV reporters shivering in the freezing windy cold day after day and night after night has perplexed me. We do need a street shot, but why can’t they go inside for their reporting? Inside, away from the honking horns, where we can hear them. Hypothermia is a good cause too.
I just learned that Bank Street was named after the Bank of Canada. I never made the connection, even having worked at the Bank of Canada. It might be because the Bank isn’t really situated on Bank Street. Maybe it was in the olden days.
I haven’t mentioned the racism within the occupiers. I don’t need to, wherever that are a bunch of white radicals, the racists are there.
I will mention that in the old days (a month ago), racists wore sheets and did their nasty deeds under the cover of dark. Now they wear racist T-Shirts, carry racist flags, yell racist slogans, in broad daylight. And for weeks they were untouched. Welcome to Ottawa racists.
I am glad the media is covering the racism as a thing. Racism hasn’t always been a story in white Canada.
I have been freaked out that being a black woman, I walking down the street downtown would have put me at risk of violence and assault.
I am pissed off that white people can take their masks off and walk through the occupiers, with no concern for their safety. White tourism.
I am frustrated that if you tell me the representative being interviewed, I can tell you, in advance, what they are going to say. Conservative Candice Bergman (occupier sympathizer) blames the PM. As an aside, I would like to know where she stays when in Ottawa, so we can send the occupiers there, to encamp outside her room. Running their diesel engines, honking through the night). The Civil Liberties group is outrages that the emergency act has been activated. They deserve the same treatment as Candice. If they had sleepless nights, it might feel like more of an emergency to them. The Mayor, used the entire situation for crass political gain, he played dirty sexist racist politics, and has set back the progressive police agenda, by ridding the city of two black leaders and two women.
I think I am deeply feeling this because that stretch of Wellington Street where the occupiers have been, only last year was my ‘hood. When Covid hit, I would walk 3-5 times a week along Wellington from Bay Street to Elgin and back. EXACTLY where they have been. I know every crack in the sidewalk. I take their desecration personally.
I am angered that they are using our Canadian flag as a symbol of their thuggery. Clever though. I did know it is illegal to fly the flag upside down.
I see the irony with the arrested leader not being able to fly home because she isn’t vaccinated.
I see the irony that the arrested leader’s husband arrived in Ottawa by private plane.
I wonder about the freezing of cryptocurrency accounts. If criminals can’t use it, will the value drop?
I am perplexed about why my friends aren’t as seized by this as I am. Probably because they are white. Their outrage is theoretical.
Catherine McKenney. Our hero. We should give them the keys to the city, but they probably wouldn’t want them. Seriously, what an inspiring role model.
When I see the methodical and moderate policing approach, I am proud for the Canadian way. I pray they remember this the next time there are black or Indigenous protesters. It is very Canadian. I would have started by shooting and then deescalated from there.
I am highly amused at the number of times law enforcement and our politicians said “please” when asking the thugs to go home. We said please. Why didn’t it work?
I was jarred by the juxtaposition of our nation’s capital being taken over by lawless thugs, living the unprecedented test of our democracy in real time, while the PM was tweeting about his daughter’s birthday and the olympic games. No criticism, I don’t know what I would have done. It was jarring. Oh, I said that already.
I shake my head at my white friends who want to give them a cup of tea and talk it out. My white friends. They are not taking abhorrent values and low IQ into account. You can’t reason with everyone.
The scale of the police operation astounded me. And yet, they are calling it ‘routine’. Thousands of officers from all over the country. Where are they sleeping? Hundreds forming human shields to literally push the occupiers out of our city. Where to the officers pee? Police people, police dogs, police horses, police trucks, police batons (do they own them or are the batons on loan? What if you don’t like the one you are given?), police pepper spray, police helmets and shields. Police megaphones. Police flyers (please leave, we said please). Police tweets. (Everything written had grammatical mistakes, sigh). Ten foot fencing. Concrete barricades. Yellow plastic handcuffs (what? Yellow is a happy colour. A kid’s colour). Speaking of children, Children’s Aid Services.
I am impressed (and terrified) at the self-sufficiency of the occupiers. I just learned that trucks have full living units in them (who knew?), but that aside, they had fuel (to idle trucks 24/7), BBQs, stocks of socks, concert stages, a crane (wtf?), concert speakers, bouncy castles, hot tubs, food, water, tents. Deodorant. OMG Deodorant!! And of course, millions of dollars.
They were escorted out of town yesterday. They have left me and my city totally shaken.