With the help of social media & its troll farms, a well funded Astroturf movement has allowed a number of truckers to lay siege to Ottawa. The Canadian city has endured horns honking and mayhem resulting from the convoy created by chaos agents. Some of these truckers have children with them essentially using them as human shields. Ottawa police have been slow to respond and only recently have court orders begun spurring action.
The majority of Canadian truckers (90%) are vaccinated. The fact that a few truckers can cause so much chaos using a warfare tactic should concern us all, especially since the astroturf has links to Republicans & far-right movements across the globe and very deep pockets.
These sieges most probably will be coming to the USA.
Any Kossack. with better chops on creating a diary about this topic, really should give it a go. But such an important story needs attention, IMO. This is simply my attempt to get a discussion going.
The whole world should be worried by the ‘siege of Ottawa’. This is about much more than a few anti-vaxx truckers
What the truck is going on in Canada? No offence to Ottawa, but it’s not the most exciting place in the world. Over the past couple of weeks, however, the Canadian capital has been embroiled in drama: hundreds of truckers, ostensibly protesting against vaccine mandates, have brought the city to a standstill. Members of the so-called “Freedom Truck Convoy” have been blaring horns, desecrating war memorials and setting off fireworks. Residents are being driven to distraction. The police chief has called the situation a “siege”; the Ontario premier called it “an occupation”. On Monday, the city’s mayor, Jim Watson, declared a state of emergency.
There’s a lot going on in the world right now. If you’re not Canadian, then the protest in Ottawa might not be top of your list of things to worry about. But I’m afraid you should be worried. You should certainly be paying attention. What’s unfolding in Ottawa is not a grassroots protest that has spontaneously erupted out of the frustration of local lorry drivers. Rather, it’s an astroturfedmovement – one that creates an impression of widespread grassroots support where little exists – funded by a global network of highly organised far-right groups and amplified by Facebook’s misinformation machine. The drama may be centred in Canada, but what is unfolding has repercussions for us all.
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They may be a fringe minority, but that doesn’t mean you should (as Trudeau seems to be doing) downplay or dismiss them. For one, they have a lot of powerful supporters. The usual crowd of rightwing politicians in the US, including Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, have been cheering them on. They have also been getting millions of dollars in funding across crowdfunding sites from international donors.
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….. Meanwhile, on Telegram, a social network favoured by the right, people across the world are urging each other to replicate the tactics in Canada in their home towns. Canada may not be on the brink of civil war, but what is happening in Ottawa is one small front in a global information war. And the baddies, I’m afraid to say, are winning.
www.theguardian.com/...
Canada's 'nationwide insurrection' is bringing together an unlikely and alarming alliance
Around the world, far right activists are watching what’s happening in Canada with fantasies of similar resistance in their own countries.
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It has been nearly two weeks since the truckers descended on the Ottawa neighborhood surrounding the Canadian Parliament. But in the days since, the protests themselves have ballooned into broader anti-government opposition, with a reported 5,000 protesters in the streets, including some who allegedly are promoting vaccine disinformation and conspiracy theories and engaging in criminal activity. Some protesters reportedly carried swastika flags, while others wore white supremacist extremist logos. An apparent arson attempt in a nearby apartment building is under investigation. A hotline for hate-motivated crimes has received over 200 calls.
The vast majority — about 90 percent — of Canadian truckers are already vaccinated, which means these protests are less about vaccinations than the concept of mandates themselves. The protests coalesced after the new Canadian policy requiring Canadian truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border to be vaccinated or quarantine for 14 days took effect Jan. 15. The focus of the protests is on “freedom” and “political overreach,” but the protests have also been used to stoke fear about supply chain disruptions and other shortages. The Canadian Trucking Alliance has disavowed the drivers involved in the protests.
Global support has been consequential. Canadian officials reported that a “significant” number of protesters are coming from the U.S. and that financial support is coming from across the border. A fundraising campaign raised over $8 million in donations on the crowdsourcing site GoFundMe before the site shut it down due to violations of terms of service after the protests ceased being a “peaceful demonstration,” and the site offered to reimburse donors. A Christian fundraising site immediately took up the cause, raising over $5 million within a few days, at twice the speed of the original fundraiser, as the financial crime analyst Jessica Davis reported.