Turmoil in Ottawa

by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC, FEC, CET, P. Eng. Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East As January comes to a close, a lot of things are happening in Ottawa, our National Capital. On the one hand, there is a huge trucker demonstration, initiated by the liberal federal government imposing compulsory vaccinations on them. One the other, we see more and more people who would like to return to a normal life, ending lockdowns and other measures limiting individual freedom. It seems to be the start of a symbiosis of these issues, which can no longer be ignored by the federal and provincial governments. In any case, Canadians are so fed up, that the pandemic seems to have undergone a phase change from political windfall to Canadians looking to politically spank incumbents who are not proactive. The truckers decided to organize and take their grievances to Ottawa. So they started by organizing a truck convoy from British Columbia to Ottawa. Once the news spread other truckers form Eastern Canada and southern Ontario joined, until truckers from all the provinces were heading for the capital. As they rolled towards Ottawa, they got an extremely positive reception from the general public. Their efforts to re-establish our freedom and end all the restrictions of the last two years that have crippled the economy and made ordinary Canadians suffer, really struck a chord with fellow citizens. The movement also got international attention and brought support from many truckers from many nations. So on January 29th they started to arrive in Ottawa by the thousands. Other organizations joined the truckers along the way, and the number of supporters swelled to many thousands. By January 30th thousands of people were on the grounds of parliament, probably constituting the largest demonstration which was ever held in Ottawa. The demonstration reached its peak on January 30th. There were speeches and a lot of excitement from the truckers and ordinary Canadians. To the surprise of many people the official news media minimized their presence and dismissed them as a fringe group of people who do not have a real motive to demonstrate, singing a chorus to the song of Prime Minister Trudeau, who declined to meet with them. In response to a reporter's question regarding whether or not he will meet with protestors, Trudeau said he's attended protests and rallies in the past when he "agreed with the goals, when I supported the people expressing their concerns and their issues-Black Lives Matter is an excellent example of that-but I've also chosen not to go anywhere near protests that have expressed hateful rhetoric, violence towards fellow citizens, and a disrespect, not just of science, but of the frontline health workers and quite frankly, the 90 per cent of truckers who have been doing the right thing to keep Canadians safe to put food on our tables." "Canadians know where I stand. This is a moment for responsible leaders to think carefully about where they stand and who they stand with," said Trudeau. Well, there were many, many protesters, and the government had a hard time ignoring them, so they resorted to underhand tactics to try to discredit them. The liberals in power used their docile shills, the main stream media, to paint them as white supremacist, racist, Nazis and the CBC even proposed that Russia has a hand on this demonstration. They continued to smear the demonstration, purposely reporting that the truckers are a group of rowdy people who came to the Ottawa bubble to make trouble for the brave citizens of Ottawa. The media focused on and emphasized exclusively negative incidents, blowing them out of proportion, in their desperate attempts to compromise the movement. I have seen these methods before. These actions are reminiscent of the methods used by former communist countries for controlling the information disseminated to the public, through a subservient apparatchik press. The difference is, that in those former regimes, the press was forced to co-operate under threat of imprisonment if they did not ply the government's rhetoric. The press in Canada today, have literally been bought by government funding. As the demonstrations continue in Ottawa, we do not know what will happen in the near future. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and democracy will win in the end. The work of parliament has resumed in Ottawa, and beside the issues related to the economy and the situation in the Ukraine, there was some excitement in the Conservative party. Surprising party leader Erin O'Toole, 35 signatory caucus MPs asked for a vote of confidence in the caucus over his leadership of the party. The thing precipitated and a vote by caucus members resulted in 73 votes for and 45 against ousting the leader. After being defeated, O'Toole resigned as leader, sparking a new leadership race in the Conservative Party. The next step will be the election of an interim leader from among Conservative MP's. We should pay careful attention to the unfolding of events, as a new chapter may be opening in the Conservative Party. More promising news reports that the premier of Saskatchewan, Scott Moe, will lift all restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic at the end of the month including the Covid passport. The fiery premier of Quebec, Francois Legault, has suddenly abandoned the proposed tax on unvaccinated Quebecers. These easing of restrictions coming from different provinces, including Ontario, give hope that things will get back to normal sooner or later. Recent polls indicated that 54% of Canadians are in favor of lifting restrictive pandemic measures. Let us see how this trend develops. People are tired, especially of the confusion generated by medical experts during the past two years. It might be interesting to analyze the facts in how these things were managed. Besides its developing snow storms, February promises to bring some new and interesting political events. The question remains whether we will finally see our political leaders making and taking responsibility for their own decisions or continue to leave us at the mercy of the contradictory 'experts' who have repeatedly shown themselves to be so inexpert. Let's see what is next