America’s far right are finding new ways to send the occupiers cash. This through a different service.
Earlier, we reported on GoFundMe shutting down the donation page of the so-called “Freedom Convoy”. GoFundMe said the shut down was the result of unlawful activity as well as the fact that the protest is now an occupation. The funds got redistributed cash back to the donars in the form of refunds. What got refunded topped $9 million.
Of course, the question was, how does a few thousand “working class” Canadian’s somehow manage to donate over $10 million ($1 million of which got released) in the first place? Many Canadians who are working class frequently live paycheck to paycheck and are unable to do more than make ends meet. That question very quickly got answered when American Republican’s and far right cells immediately cried fowl. Some right wing lawmakers vowed investigations and urged American’s who donated to the occupation to contact their offices to assist in their “investigation”.
The reaction alone laid bare a simple fact: this was not just an uprising of some Canadian’s who are unhappy about the mandates and restrictions. This was not just a small group of anti-vaxxers who found some rallying point that galvanized their movement. What’s more is that this isn’t just some random racists that happened to latch on and hijack an otherwise innocuous protest of a small select number of truckers. No, what this is is a major foreign interference campaign of America’s far right to take their extremist agenda onto the international stage. Canadian anti-vaxxers, racists, and disgraces to humanity latched on and joined in with wide open arms in the process.
While it may be something Canadian’s can roll their eyes and flatly ignore, the actions of these occupiers have expanded this far beyond the realm of politics. With their non-stop 24/7 blasting of horns in Ottawa, the frequently forgotten residents in the area have had their lives completely turned upside down over something many didn’t have anything to do with what this foreign interference campaign has been delusionally fighting for. To be clear, non of them deserve the psychological and physical torture they are being subjected to on a 24/7 basis.
But of course, as I also noted earlier, residents also have very good reason to not only be afraid for their personal safety, but fearful for their lives. The situation is so toxic, that there was two people who claimed to be from the convoy attempting to light an entire apartment building on fire at 5AM while trying to seal the doors shut in a thankfully vain effort to increase fatalities. For what? Allegedly, for the crime of complaining about the noise levels on the streets outside. Those noise levels have repeatedly been reaching over 100db.
Perhaps most terrifying is the fact that some people who have condemned the actions of those two who tried this in the first place are, themselves, being attacked by convoy supporters. All it took was to the right thing and, for one, condemn the actions of those two individuals and, two, turn over any information leading to the arrest of those two individuals should they have that. From what we’ve seen, those supporters completely failed at this basic level of human decency.
If that wasn’t enough, Freezenet is learning of another disturbing incident where a woman was begging convoy protesters to let her brother in law through a blockade. The reason is that he is diabetic and he needs medication to help him live. The problem was that his condition was worsening and that he needed medical assistance soon or he might lose his life. The response from the convoy? “We’ve been waiting two years for freedom, sorry.”
That line in the recording pretty much said it all. The reaction from the woman: completely understandable where she basically held back tears saying that the convoy was perfectly fine to let her relative die waiting for medical treatment. How much did that convoy response say? Part of it is that human life means nothing to them. Other Canadian’s in the area are little more than trash to them. For the convoy, what matters to them reigns supreme no matter what. If it means someone dying due to their neglect or torturing the residents in the Ottawa neighbourhood or causing permanent psychological or physical harm, so what? That is a sacrifice they are willing to make.
Fighting for everyone’s freedom? If that wasn’t blatantly obvious that this was a flat out lie before, it is now. That response from the convoy protester is flat out disgusting and any convoy supporter that doesn’t immediately condemn that action and plainly say that this is not what they are about is complicit.
Now let’s assume the situation was reversed. Let’s say that this stuff is going on in the name of privacy rights (would not happen, by the way). If this was happening in the name of rights that I believe in. What would I do? I would immediately call on fellow supporters to track these maniacs down and tell them that they are no longer welcome in the movement. Failing that, I would say that this movement has lost all moral authority and I would loudly and clearly announce that I do not wish to be any part of what is going on. Further, I would call on others to do the same for sake of basic human sanity. There would not be any hesitation on my part.
Of course, this insanity is far from over. Earlier, police say that they were blocking off fuel and other supplies going to the convoy. Many residents, no doubt, cheered this on thinking that this might finally be the start of the end of this occupation of their city. While arrests were made and fuel supplies were seized, a number of occupiers started smuggling in the fuel past police lines, defying the order. Some were bringing in Jerry cans full of water or completely empty cans altogether in an effort to obstruct a police operation.
By nightfall, enforcement of the blockade seemed non-existent as police reportedly were letting in convoy occupiers bring in supplies without a hint of enforcement. They ultimately defaulted back to their hands off approach of the situation, once again. As a result, residents are, once again, let down by the police who seemingly don’t have much motivation to really enforce the rule of law once the media camera’s stop rolling and the public pressure is backed off of those in authoritative positions.
There was another ray of hope for residents where the Ontario Provincial government, namely the Ford government, said that they were sending an additional 1,500 officers to assist with law enforcement in the Ottawa region. So, there was reason for residents to believe that things might finally be getting closer to being under control. It turns out, though, that those “1,500” officers were more like an additional 100. From CTV:
The Ottawa Police Service is disputing the number of Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers dispatched to help the city deal with a protest-turned-occupation that’s dragged on for more than a week.
Solicitor General Sylvia Jones issued a statement on Sunday claiming the province had sent “more than” 1,500 officers from the OPP, other local police forces, and the RCMP to assist Ottawa police in dealing with the “Freedom Convoy” occupation.
On Monday, however, Ottawa police disputed that claim saying the service received “100 Ontario Provincial Police officers to assist with demonstration” rather than the 1,500.
When asked for clarification, a spokesperson for the Solicitor General said the additional policing support was in place “since the beginning of the protest” and “works out to approximately 135-200 officers per day.”
“This is in addition to the support being provided by other police services from the Greater Toronto Area and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
Former OPP Commissioner Chris Lewis is casting further doubt on the province’s figures based on conservations he’s had with frontline officers in Ottawa.
“They’re saying it’s simply nowhere near what the Solicitor General said,” Lewis told CTV News Toronto. “It’s more like a hundred, maybe two hundred, but certainly no more than that.”
That, of course, only adds fuel to the fire that the Ford Government simply refuses to do anything about this – or will do the bare minimum while his province continues to be under siege.
Perhaps the best ray of hope came in the form of action that residents had to take on their own – the lawsuit against the convoy. A court granted an injunction against the convoy occupiers, ordering the horns to be silent during the evenings. From the CBC:
An Ottawa judge has granted an interim injunction seeking to silence the honking horns that have plagued residents of downtown Ottawa for the past 11 days.
“Tooting a horn is not an expression of any great thought I’m aware of,” said Justice Hugh McLean during a court hearing in Ottawa Monday.
The temporary injunction order is effective immediately and is meant to silence the horns at all hours for the next 10 days. It covers the zone north of the Queensway, the city’s main east-west artery.
Lawyer Paul Champ said air horns and train horns are blasted at sound levels of 105 to 120 decibels for prolonged periods and can cause permanent hearing damage.
“Every hour this goes by, there is harm to the people of Centretown,” he told the hearing.
Obviously, the hope is that this will grant the residents some reprieve (which they have been sorely lacking for 11 days now). While the injunction doesn’t stop the harassment’s, assaults, and threats, the hope is that maybe they’ll finally be able to get some proper shut-eye for a change. Quite frankly, we hope they get at least that out of this.
While it is a potential reprieve for now, there may be more bad news on the way. American Republican’s and their far right supporters are finding ways of funnelling cash to the convoy again. Reports are surfacing that they have found a new app to start sending their cash to fund their foreign interference operation. The app is known as GiveSendGo and American’s have reportedly raised over $5 million so far. The problem with this circumvention of the GoFundMe shutdown is that this stands to further fuel the demonstrations.
So, even if the police finally get around to doing their jobs, the funding could potentially cause more protests to sprout up across the country to an even larger degree than it is now. What’s more is that this funding could even be pushed to other countries across the world. So, the torture facing Ottawa residents could be felt in other cities as well – thus making Ottawa ground zero for the poisonous mob to spread out.
Obviously, this should be of immediate concern to the international intelligence community. After seeing how heavily the system favours right wing interests, though, it is more probable that they’ll sit on their hands and do nothing about it. When the situation spirals further out of control and serious questions are being made, it’s not out of the question that they’ll respond by throwing their hands up in the air and saying, “well, nothing we could have done about that!” Judging by the way things are going now, this outcome seems downright inevitable at this stage. We can only hope that this terrible situation gets turned around in a hurry. After all, lives could very easily be at stake here.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
