Tag: Freedom Convoy

Ottawa People’s Commission final report on Convoy Occupation omits the anarchists

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Anonymous Submission to North Shore Counter-Info On April 4 the community-led Ottawa People’s Commission released the second part of its final report. The first part documented what local residents experienced during the winter 2022 occupation of downtown Ottawa by the ‘Freedom Convoy’ – the second part consists of the official recommendations from the Commission. The title of this post is based on the fact of the recommendations being almost solely Read More …

Ottawa: The “Battle” of Billings Bridge

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A year ago now, on February 13, 2022, Ottawa residents blocked convoy vehicles on Billings Bridge and held it for hours. Since then, much has been written about this mass mobilization from left and liberal commentators. This generally celebrates it as an immense, glorious victory over the convoy, and the beginning of the tide turning in the convoy’s occupation of Ottawa—and don’t get me wrong, it was. But in speaking to friends outside of Ottawa, it feels more and more necessary to complicate this narrative by adding some of my and my comrades’ experiences on that day. Read More …

From Embers: The Public Order Emergency Commission

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Interview with an anti-fascist observer about insights gained from the Public Order Emergency Commission hearings, a public inquiry into the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act to repress the so-called Freedom Convoy in February 2022.

We discuss why governments invoke emergencies, OPP’s Project Hendon, how the Convoy was funded, the relationship between convoy organizers and police, comparisons with #ShutDownCanada, liberal conspiracy theories, the scale of economic disruption during the Convoy, and more. Read More …

Peterborough: Charges Dropped Against Convoy Counterprotester

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From the International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund When local chuds in Peterborough, Canada decided to hold their very own #FluTruxKlan convoy, one brave soul literally stood in their way, by blocking their progression down city streets. The anti-health chuds very aggressively went after him, while the cops looked on and did nothing. When that altercation was done, the cops did weigh in and press intimidation charges against our guy! We heard Read More …

Gridlocked: The Freedom Convoy and the New Canadian Populism

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From Submedia Click here to watch and download video Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, a popular movement demanding an immediate end to vaccine mandates and other restrictions on daily life has shaken the Canadian state to its core. Its calls have deeply resonated with members of settler-colonial society in which public health measures and other forms of collective solidarity are seen by some as an affront to individual freedom Read More …

Ill Winds from Ottawa

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Opponents of vaccine mandates have established protest encampments in Ottawa and elsewhere around Canada, blockading several routes crossing the United States border. Far-right organizers and former police officers have prominent positions in this movement, and police have taken a relatively hands-off approach thus far; it appears likely that the model currently being tested in Canada will appear elsewhere around the world shortly. In the following extensive report, our correspondent in Montréal explores the sequence of events that led up to these developments, reviews the agendas of the various forces vying for control, and reflects on what we can do in a situation in which the far right has gained the initiative. Read More …

Ottawa, the Far-Right, and the State: Inside the Convoy Protests and the Unfolding Three Way Fight

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From It’s Going Down Podcast Click here to listen and download On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with two anarchists involved in the Punch Up Collective, a group which is currently mobilizing in Ottawa, the capitol city of so-called Canada, in the midst of an ongoing far-Right protest occupation made up of several hundred vehicles in the downtown area. During our discussion we talk about Read More …

Trip Report: Ottawa on Saturday, February 5

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We took the train downtown to avoid getting caught in the traffic jam of the protest itself. I’ve spent the ride alternating between preparing myself for what we’re about to see by mentally going over all of the things I should expect to see and hear in the next few hours at the convoy protest and distracting myself by contemplating whether or not I like Ottawa’s new transit system. I haven’t been to downtown Ottawa since before the pandemic. I know what stop we’re going to but it is unmistakeable anyway, a wave of people dressed in Canadian flag capes, maskless and bearing protest signs prepares to dismount just as we do. I remember using a similar tactic to find the right subway stop to get to Zucotti Park in 2011. There are so many surface-level similarities between here and there that I can’t help but feel a pang of the jealousy and perhaps even empathy with the protestors that I’ve been experiencing all week, watching their moment unfold and remembering moments where I have felt joy, camaraderie and anticipation of the kind that I imagine they are feeling this week. Read More …

Punch Up Collective: Organizing Against the Occupation of Ottawa

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Points of crisis can usefully reveal contradictions and opportunities for organizing. Crisis can also shut us down and make it hard to connect, think, and act. The mobilization of the right-wing anti-mandate crew in Ottawa and elsewhere in Canada is one such crisis. Direct confrontation with the far right is important and can be effective, but in the present moment in Ottawa it’s complicated to mobilize in that way. Read More …