The economic attack on Canada by the operators of trucks now blockading major border crossings to the United States and occupying Ottawa is certainly causing more damage to the national economy than the sporadic land-defender rail blockades in 2020.
Things have gotten so far out of hand that the governor of Michigan, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, called on Canada to get off its collective duff and reopen the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit.
Gov. Whitmer called the closing unacceptable, noting that it is was “having a significant impact on Michigan families who are just trying to do their jobs.” She didn’t bother adding that it’s hurting Canadians, like the Ontario autoworkers whose plants are being shuttered by parts shortages, presumably because she figures our leaders ought to be on top of that.
But she did say it’s “imperative that Canadian local, provincial and national governments de-escalate this economic blockade.”
Meanwhile, Canadian Conservatives who were shrieking that rail blockades in 2020 would bring Canada’s economy to its knees have not had much to say about the economic crisis created by the blockaders, who seem to imagine they can be part of a coalition government to oust the federal Liberals elected less than five months ago.
That’s probably because so many Conservative Party of Canada MPs and provincial Conservative politicians are at least complicit with the illegal blockades, and a few appear to be actively involved.
To be fair, in the past few days, Conservatives have started changing their tune and calling for the blockades to end.
“It’s time to remove the barricades and the trucks for the sake of the economy,” said interim federal Conservative Leader Candice Bergen on Thursday. Bergen was photographed in the first hours of the occupation cheerfully breakfasting with “Freedom Rally” activists.
As pollster Angus Reid observed on Twitter, the Conservatives must be “starting to see the political cost of supporting these blockades which block the free movement of people and goods.” After all, he said, “CPC supporters are most likely to call for law & order. What we’ve seen for past couple of weeks is exactly the opposite.”
But the CBC reported on Thursday that Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s Conservative government was continuing to refuse to participate in meetings with federal officials on how to deal with the continuing blockades.
That is until Ford announced a province-wide state of emergency on Friday.
The Ontario government also persuaded a court to freeze access to millions of dollars donated to the blockaders through online crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo. The supposedly Christian U.S. fund-raising site defiantly vowed to ignore Canadian authorities.
As for other Conservative provincial leaders, Whitmer would be within her rights to call Alberta Premier Jason Kenney “brain dead,” as he once insulted her over her environmental views, for sitting on his keester while the blockade at the Coutts border crossing continues day after day.
But she’s probably not all that worried about the impact of the disruption on Montana, let alone Albertans, seeing as the Treasure State has its own governor, Kenney’s pal Greg Gianforte, who can speak up if he wishes. We Albertans will have to deal with Kenney ourselves.
Meanwhile, you have to wonder how Canada’s multi-billion-dollar security and intelligence agencies managed to miss the convoy coming down the pike.
Canadians pay about $1.5 billion every year just to operate the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Communications Security Establishment, plus another $3.4 billion for the RCMP, and who knows how much more for oxymoronic military intelligence and numerous smaller agencies.
Yet not one of them apparently had a clue this was about to happen.
It didn’t take CBC reporter Judy Trihn long to put it together that the convoy includes many former police officers and soldiers, including a former member of the prime minister’s security detail and a former military intelligence officer, whose tactics have helped entrench the trucks in downtown Ottawa.
So what were CSIS and CSE looking for when they weren’t looking for domestic threats to Canada’s national security?
As for our hapless prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and his deputy, Chrystia Freeland, apparently they were too busy running Ukraine to pay attention to what was obviously about to happen in Canada.
That’s not as bad as serving coffee to people whose activities meet the legal definition of terrorism in Canada’s Criminal Code, as many Conservatives were doing, but it’s still not a good look.
With the potential economic and democratic impacts for Canada becoming obvious, why is the federal government so reluctant to deal firmly with the problem before American politicians start demanding all auto industry jobs be relocated inside the borders of the United States to avoid disruptions by Canadian conservatives?
“The one thing that couldn’t be more clear is that we have to bring American manufacturing back home to states like Michigan,” Democratic Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin tweeted last week. “If we don’t, it’s American workers … who are left holding the bag,” said the former CIA analyst.
And surely it must be excruciatingly embarrassing for Trudeau and Freeland to know that their senior security officials are now getting calls from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security offering a hand with the problem on the border and suggesting Ottawa get cracking to end the blockade.
That might not be an offer a Canadian prime minister wants to take if we expect to maintain the appearance of sovereignty, but if we intend to restore order ourselves it suggests there might be some urgency to the matter.
If the Trudeau government is still wondering how to deal with the situation, New Zealand offers a hint. It took the country’s police only three days to shut down the Parliamentary precinct and start evicting copycat protesters.
Faculty strike begins at University of Lethbridge
Negotiations between the University of Lethbridge broke down Friday morning and the institution’s faculty members walked off the job at 11 a.m.
“Our members have been in negotiations for over 600 days, and have seen minimal movement at the bargaining table regarding outstanding key issues such as working conditions, collegial governance, and equitable pay and benefits,” the University of Lethbridge Faculty Association said in a statement.
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