Trudeau Threatens to Freeze Protestors’ Bank Accounts
In Canada, you’ve had these truckers who are protesting vaccine mandates which has stirred up a whole bunch of controversy. I wanted to look at the recent response from Justin Trudeau’s government and what it has done to crush this protest. People were donating to these truckers who again are blocking bridges and bringing trade with the United States to a standstill. They were sending money to these truckers to support them on GoFundMe. The first thing that happened is that GoFundMe removed the donation page for the Canadian truckers. GoFundMe has taken down a page accepting donations in support of truck drivers protesting against vaccine mandates in Canada, adding that it would refund all donations. The freedom convoy obviously refers to the trucker’s campaign. People say truckers, as well the “freedom convoy 2022”, began as a movement against the Canadian vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers that has turned into a rallying point against public health measures in Canada. They’re saying that it’s gained support among Republicans and Trump.
This made a lot of people upset with GoFundMe. People were saying you should boycott GoFundMe and they’re never using GoFundMe again. Then more things happened. So February 10th a Canadian judge has frozen access to donations for the trucker convoy protest. The Ontario superior court of justice issued an order halting access to funds collected via the GiveSendGo website. GiveSendGo is not GoFundMe but it’s similar to it in which you can send donations on that website. A judge ordered halt ordered halting access to funds on GiveSendGo. Protesters had raised millions via “Freedom Convoy 2022” and adopt a trucker campaigns on the site but government officials in Ontario asked the court to stop organizers from accessing and doling out those funds, a request that was granted Thursday, said a spokesperson. So they were able to garner 7.8 million dollars on GoFundMe which I just mentioned before which was put to a halt.
First point is that you have these financial services, donation sites like GoFindMe and GiveSendGo, pulling the money or being ordered to pull the money and then a judge banned the truckers from honking! When I first saw the headline, I was wondering if it’s real. Honking? Yeah, it’s true! So a Canadian judge has ruled this on February 8th. a Canadian judge has ruled that protesting truckers blocking the streets of Ottawa can’t honk their horns for 10 days. It’s like one of those weird specific laws you see in in the UK from some 17th century. When I saw that I was wondering whether it’s a parody or not! I thought it’s an onion headline. But, No! It’s true. They banned them from honking because what the truckers have been doing is not just blocking the traffic but making noise as part of the protest.
Now let’s delve a little bit deeper than that. As you can imagine these truckers have been there for a couple of weeks now. They required gas so people who are supporting this movement were coming with jerry cans and gas canisters and giving them fuel so they can keep their vehicles going. Let’s look at a headline from yahoo news. It says: Ottawa police threaten to arrest anyone caught bringing fuel to Canadian truckers protesting vaccine mandates. They’re saying that if you support these truckers, you’re going to be arrested for giving them fuel which is something that also made me wonder whether it real like or not. You can be arrested for giving someone fuel. How does that work exactly? Do they have to be in a truck in a specific geographical area? Or if I give my neighbor fuel, am I arrested? How does it work exactly? So there’s a video on the twitter in which you can see all these Canadians bringing tons of jerry cans with them in defiance of this new law or court order. So, that’s everything until now.
But there’s something else about to happen. Now, what I wanted to get to, is the latest development. Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, issued something else, a new decree in order to crush this protest. This is from the BBC the headline reads Trudeau vows to freeze anti-mandate protesters bank accounts. You read that correctly.
“After consultation with premiers from all provinces and territories after speaking with opposition leaders the federal government has invoked the emergencies act to supplement provincial and territorial capacity to address the blockades and occupations. I want to be very clear the scope of these measures will be time limited geographically targeted as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats. They are meant to address the emergencies act will be used to strengthen and support law enforcement agencies at all levels across the country. This is about keeping Canadians safe protecting people’s jobs and restoring confidence in our institutions”, Trudeau said.
Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has taken the unprecedented step of invoking the emergencies act to crack down on anti-vaccine mandate protests with no need for court orders. Banks can freeze personal accounts of anyone linked with the protests. I’m going to be very clear here because a lot of people are very split on these truckers. Some people say: Well, this is strictly a workers’ movement and everyone should support it, especially as a leftist! And then you have others who are saying no it’s not a workers movement it’s an AstroTurf, a fake protest that’s been being bankrolled by right-wing billionaires and it’s a right-wing protest. There are a lot of racist people involved. Some people carry confederate or Nazi flags. I want to make something very clear, I don’t care what you think about the truckers. This is worrying!
This is very worrisome because this is how it starts. Today, they say these are nut jobs. They’re anti-vax loonies, so we need to quell the protest to stop this public disorder and protect people’s jobs, as Justin Trudeau said, and so that’s why we’re going to freeze bank accounts of anyone associated with this. Most people might look at that say: “Yeah, okay! Well, these people are lunatics, after all. Who cares?” That’s how it starts. But what happens next time there’s a mass mobilization about a leftist policy? They use this precedent to freeze your bank account to take your money away because you’re participating in a left-wing protest. That’s how it always starts. They always use these authoritarian measures against a fringe group that no one cares about, so that people accept it socially and politically. After that, they’ve set that precedent, they start using it against a larger swaths of people and it’s always leftists who get demolished in these actions. In the beginning, they said well you know these drone strikes are just for terrorists. They justified mass surveillance as we’re only spying on terrorists and then turns out the NSA and the CIA are spying on you and me and everyone else. Every telecommunications traffic in the world is being monitored by them. They’re collecting [data] in bulk. What happened to it’s just for terrorists? Do you see how the state is mobilizing to crush a form of direct action and a protest?
I don’t care what you think about the truckers, focus on what I’m trying to say. The point is that when the economy comes to a standstill or when workers stop producing wealth, you see how drastic the state you know how drastic the measures are taken by the state to crush, will be. When you start messing with their money and stop producing wealth for the capitalists or people sitting on top, when you stop being a good little citizen and going to work and making sure that the economy is flowing properly, then they come out with the police and this shows how the police are really just serving as a tool of the elites, of the capitalists. You can see this phenomenon in in France. Look at the Gilets Jaunes which is in France. People try to discredit it and say well that’s a right-wing movement. To be fair, it is a broad movement in which you have people from literally the entire political spectrum. France has an actual left not like the United States that has a right-wing democrats trying to masquerade as the left. There is no left in the U.S. government but there is an actual left in France and they have a very strong culture of direct action. My teachers would regularly go on strike in solidarity with other teachers. The French have a really good understanding of what it means to protest or what it means to have solidarity with other workers. My point is when you look at the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) in France, look at the response from the state. Look at the response from the police. CRS which is the riot police are known for violence but even by their own standards this was overkill! There were first-hand footage in Paris of how they were just beating everyone mercilessly with just unbelievable violence. It’s just there to make you get in line and do your job and stop protesting. [They say] Go back and do your job!
The reason for the protest is not the point here. The concept is that when you have workers who go on general strike, people who refuse to cooperate and go to the factory and make the gears move forward, make money for the capitalists on top, then you really see how these democratic states are not really democracies. They will come and say: You’re banned from honking! Once again, I have to say that I thought that was an onion headline! They ban you from giving gas. They take your bank account away. They’re try all these measures which if someone else had done, for example Vladimir Putin in Russia, then the Canadian press or the Western press in general would call them authoritarian. They would have no problem saying that this is overkill or it’s way too much or say that this is a totalitarian state, or saying that Putin puppets, all over the place, are trying to crush any sort of dissent. Look at what the action is, not who’s doing it! If someone had done it in Syria or Russia or North Korea, they would have no problem calling that authoritarian but when they do it here it’s okay! They say we’re here to protect you. We’re doing this for your own good. Don’t mind the CRS or the police bashing your head in France or Canada or wherever!
This is really important to understand how when you start messing with their paper, when you start messing with the economy and you go on a general strike or any form of direct action that is fairly large scale, then you really start to see the true colors of the state. It is then that you see what kind of democracies they are. So this is very worrying because it sets a precedent. Who gets hurt the most when the state acquires or starts using these expansive powers? It’s always the left! It’s always the left who suffers. I have to emphasize that they always initiate these policies by justifying their use by asserting a group is comprised of terrorists & neo-Nazis. Why would you care about them? So people acquiesce! They’re okay with that and then before you know, it’s being used against everyone. That’s the issue real here. When you say you’re going to freeze bank account of people are associated with the protests, what does that mean exactly? Does that mean someone who posts on twitter in support of it or someone who brings a can of gas to one of the truckers? Or is it someone who’s in the vicinity as he says it’s geographically limited? What does that mean? Because it’s still extremely broad.
I have to once again bring this up that this it always starts against fringe groups because it’s so easy to censor them or to use surveillance on them because most people are going to accept but before they know it, States will be using it against everyone. It’s just like the censorship issue in the West, but broader, in which social media companies who say we got to ban Trump from twitter and since no one likes Trump, no one objects. Who care about Trump!? But it starts with Trump and then turns out they’re also using it against stories that are not favorable to Hunter Biden What does that mean to have just a little bit of censorship? That’s always the problem! At first, they use it against people that Alex Jones & who’s going to stand up and defend Alex Jones with all the crackpot that he said? Not really a lot of people. But the problem is that it starts like that and then before you know they’re using it against the left. They’re using it against anyone who’s expressing dissent. That’s the problem!
The problem is with the precedent it creates. It makes it okay in people’s minds that this is all right. It’s not such an egregious thing to do to censor people or to freeze their bank accounts or whatever the draconian or authoritarian be. The issue is that people acquiesce to this and then before you know it’s being used on mass. I think the mass surveillance is a perfect example of that censorship as well as another one especially the censorship we see on social media. You see how they even demonetize my channel because I was talking about Israel too much! It’s just on a whim. You have very limited avenues of appeal and sometimes none at all.
I would also add people were banned on Instagram for posting things that have been banned like posting pictures of General Soleimani. And some say he’s just a terrorist so who cares? Oh, man! You don’t know what you’re talking about. This is how it works and I’ve documented this. It’s been well documented and I’ve talked about this with you here on the channel, how they were banning or at least removing posts of people posting in favor of Palestinians or you know exposing Israeli crimes that was being committed on Facebook and Instagram to the point that they had to come out and say we’re going to change our behavior. So you were doing it?! Because now, you’ve owned up to it!