Summary
Pat King, a key figure in Canada’s 2022 “Freedom Convoy” protests, was found guilty on five charges, including mischief and counseling others to obstruct police, and faces up to 10 years in prison.
The protests, which blocked downtown Ottawa and key US-Canada border crossings for weeks, opposed COVID-19 mandates imposed by Prime Minister Trudeau’s government.
King was accused of inciting the blockade, coordinating disruptive actions like constant honking, and defying court orders.
He is the first protest leader convicted, while trials for other organizers are ongoing.
Good.
Fuck the Kanada Klown Konvoy.
Thanks for helping to re-introduce diseases into your “stollen” Freedoms.
Everyone’s for the right to protest until it’s a cause they disagree with. This guy is a hero who fought the tyrannical Covid lockdown regime, but I’m not surprised he didn’t receive justice given how willing most Canadians were to give up their rights without a fight.
No way you’re this dumb. No way.
Damn, I hope you were this upset about giving up your right to not wear pants on the bus.
Lol what rights were given up?
Hint: The answer is none.
It’s interesting all the psychopaths who loudly identify themselves by screaming that wearing a mask is too much of an inconvenience for them to help save peoples’ lives. Thanks for waving that banner so we know who you are.
yuck.
You’re not the sharpest knife in the drawer, are you?
“waaaaah I had to wear a mask for a little bit waaaaahhhhhh”
TLDR: The trucker protest was really just an anti-Trudeau protest and not about COVID restrictions
Time for a brief history of trucker protest, federal/provincial jurisdictions, and international borders.
Both Canada and the US exempted unvaccinated truckers when it came to crossing borders to help mitigate supply chain issues. Eventually, both Canada and the US decided that you need to be vaccinated to enter Canada or the US. The idea of a host country gets to control who enters their country is fundamental concept of international borders.
What this meant is that US truckers would need to be vaccinated to enter Canada and vice versa. As much as people think Trudeau is all powerful dictator, he doesn’t have the power to dictate to the US about their COVID restrictions.
The truckers should have protested at the US embassy or at the border to pressure the US to allow unvaccinated Canadian truckers in.
The protest morphed into general COVID restrictions. Cool, this is something that Canadian protesters can try affect change. The Constitution Act, doesn’t just lay out rights and freedoms. It lays out how governments are to operate (the legislative, executive, judicial), judges, the Courts, taxation, etc.
Section 92 lays out what is under Provincial jurisdiction.
- The Establishment, Maintenance, and Management of Hospitals, Asylums, Charities, and Eleemosynary Institutions in and for the Province, other than Marine Hospitals.
- Generally all Matters of a merely local or private Nature in the Province.
The Supreme Court in Schneider v. The Queen, 1982 CanLII 26 (SCC), [1982] 2 SCR 112 dealt with the issue of public health and Provincial jurisdiction.
The Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations (the Rowell-Sirois Commission) in 1938 commented on this absence of a specific head of power dealing with the administration of public health at pp. 32-33: In 1867 the administration of public health was still in a very primitive stage, the assumption being that health was a private matter and state assistance to protect or improve the health of the citizen was highly exceptional and tolerable only in emergencies such as epidemics, or for purposes of ensuring elementary sanitation in urban communities. Such public health activities as the state did undertake were almost wholly a function of local and municipal governments. It is not strange, therefore, that the British North America Act does not expressly allocate jurisdiction in public health, except that marine hospitals and quarantine (presumably ship quarantine) were assigned to the Dominion, while the province was given jurisdiction over other hospitals, asylums, charities and eleemosynary institutions. But the province was assigned jurisdiction over “generally all matters of a merely local or private nature in the Province”, and it is probable that this power was deemed to cover health matters, while the power over “municipal institutions” provided a convenient means for dealing with such matters.
Dominion rather than by the province". "Dominion jurisdiction over health matters is largely, if not wholly, ancillary to express jurisdiction over other subjects … " Thus historically, at least, the general jurisdiction over public health was seen to lie with the provinces under s. 92(16) “Generally all matters of a merely local or private Nature in the Province” although the considerable dimensions of this jurisdiction were unlikely foreseen in 1867.
This view that the general jurisdiction over health matters is provincial (allowing for a limited federal jurisdiction either ancillary to the express heads of power in s. 91 or the emergency power under peace, order and good government) has prevailed and is now not seriously questioned (see Rinfret v. Pope (1886), 12 Q.L.R. 303 (Que. C.A.), Re Bowack, supra, Labatt Breweries of Canada Ltd. v. Attorney General of Canada, 1979 CanLII 190 (SCC), [1980] 1 S.C.R. 914, per Estey J.).
The medical treatment of drug addiction is a bona fide concern of the provincial legislature under its general jurisdiction with respect to public health. The constitutional question to be answered is whether the “dominant or most important characteristic” of the Heroin Treatment Act is the medical treatment of drug addiction.
Public health squarely falls into the jurisdiction of the Provinces. Great, we know who have to protest. That would be the Premiers, so let’s all head down to the…Canada’s capital to protest the Federal Government who doesn’t have jurisdiction over public health matters outside very specific situations such as border controls and prisons.
Let’s all be clear that the trucker protest really was just an anti-Trudeau protest.
Section 2?
They freely associated in downtown Ottawa.
Section 6? They freely moved from one oprovince to another, could have left Canada at any time if any country would have taken them and returned at any time with the requirement to quarantine for a few days.
Section 8?
No one was forced to be vaccinated. The tantrumists were mostly non-vaccinated while complaining about forced vaccination.
It was all fucking nonsense.
Tell me you weren’t here without telling me you weren’t here. Their right to protest was never in question. There is no attendant right to restrict the movements of residents leaving their homes for necessities, psychologically torture residents with blaring horns at all hours, harrass staff at restaurants and soup kitchens, and so on.
I basically had to evacuate my kid when they first rolled into the mall nearby, because screaming at a bunch of teenagers working a fucking food kiosk about mask policies (along with some lovely racial epithets to the black and indian kids) is apparently good praxis.
Once the trucks were finally cleared, no one said they had to stop protesting. Quite a few didn’t, actually. I don’t agree with those people, but I can respect them for a commitment to their stupid beliefs and almost willful ignorance of Canadian governmental structure when not holding residents hostage.
You want real heros? Look at the people who organized deliveries of food and necessary goods to people who couldn’t get out of the core. Look at The Battle of Billing’s Bridge, when we decided no one was coming to help and enough was enough. Look anywhere but the direction of this two-bit timbit terrorist.
How was it tyrannical, and what rights?
Also, define the word tyrannical
Nice to know there’s one part of North America that still has good news on occasion.
Lets see how it goes next October
Oh, we’re electing some greasy conservative who’s never worked a day in his life, somehow convincing absolute fuckwits that he represents “the people”. But we’re gonna get there through a massive campaign about theatre make-up and some charity.
My heart says oh fucking no… my head says, yeah, we’re fucked.
What happened to the electoral reform the liberal party promised? If they passed it, people would be able to vote for another political party while still counting their vote against the conservatives.
The Liberals wanted ranked choice, because they’d be most people’s second choice and thus likely to win every future election. NDP wanted mixed-member proportional, and the Conservatives opposed changing it at all. Inertia won out, nothing changed
I really do hate people who conflate freedom with some notion that they get to be an asshole without any repercussions.
People in the US like to cry first amendment (freedom of speech, etc) any time something they say has consequences.
- Sexually harass a coworker? Freedom of speech!
- Business owner says something bigoted and people stop patronizing their business? Freedom of speech!
Funny how the same people with wE tHe PeOpLe bumper stickers are the ones who haven’t actually bothered to read the bill of rights.
Convites in Canada like to cry first amendment too. Just not Canada’s first amendment in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Citing the US constitution. In Canadian courts.
Dwayne Lich, husband of arrested convoy leader Tamara Lich, told the judge at his wife’s bail hearing that he was relying on his “First Amendment rights.” CBC Feb 22
imo worse than Yanks confused and offended they can’t bring their guns when they go shopping in Toronto. Just dumb over-entitled main characters.
Holy crap that’s wild. I can’t believe the right-wing disinformation campaign in the US is so extreme that it’s leaking beyond our borders.
Kinda reminds me of when the “sovereign citizens” claim that they are a “vessel” and therefore fall under maritime law.
“Whoa, you sure do know some words that are tangentially related to the matter at hand.”
It’s been bonkers. We had one qanon grifter declare herself Queen of Canada and she has irl cultists follow her from town to town. During the worst of the pandemic, she had them sending death threats to healthcare workers (because Freedom). But even the main followers of the border shutdown and capitol occupation were frothy screwballs.
Like, they really shouldn’t have turned her facebook off!
From my point of view, the right-wing disinfo campaign is global. Copy-paste. Conservatives up north are even using a lot of the exact same media relations people as yours down south.
Man that just sucks. I’ve seen a lot of reporting about the more “conservative” ideologies growing in several EU countries as well. It’s so disheartening. The whole movement is just convincing average people to vote/protest/etc against their own best interests, and oh by the way, education is bad too so don’t get educated or you might see through the charade!
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What they want is 4chan but in real life.
That’s the thing tho, 4chan only works because no one gets to punch you in the face regardless of what you say.
Absolutely
Feels like it took far too long, but glad it happened
“… and I’m just gonna say this out loud. The only way that this is gonna be stopped is with bullets. And yah, I said it.” - Rat King, filthy fucking nazi, Dec 2021.
King has been found guilty of five charges: two counts of disobeying a court order and one each of mischief, counselling to commit mischief and counselling to obstruct a public or peace officer.
He’s been found not guilty of four charges: three of intimidation and counselling to commit intimidation, and one of obstructing a public or peace officer. cbc yesterday
Piece of crap was smiling through all the “not guilties.” So brazen - I remember he even wore a Sons of Odin hoodie at his bail hearing back in '22.
Is Sons of Odin a band or is it something else? I remember a Norse metal band having a name like that.
It is. Or was. I don’t know if the hoodie in question was for them.
EDIT: not Norse though. They’re from the US.
I wonder why they were relevant to what they were saying then. They used to come up on my Pandora every once in a while when I was listening to Korpiklaani or Alestorm. Just wasn’t 100% sure of the name.
Sons of Odin is also an anti-immigration organization, though in trying to get more details I’m having some difficulty differentiating between Soldiers of Odin in the reporting (and there’s a claim they aren’t related). Anyone have some better sources? I didn’t follow this side of things too closely. Lowest hanging fruit was this: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/sons-of-odin-hamilton-1.4152874
Do you have a good source on that?
The article from the post said
The judge did not convict King on three intimidation-related charges, finding that King “did not make threats of violence or threats of property damage to anyone.”
So I’m curious if there is an obvious call to violence.
Enough wiggle room where it would not be considered a credible threat. There’s a compilation video of statements he made on livestreams but I don’t want to link to Twitter, and can’t find it elsewhere quickly. It’s discussed in the following article re: the Emergencies Act inquiry, among others - https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/emergencies-act-inquiry-hears-from-protester-pat-king-freedom-convoy-lawyer-1.6135959
He allegedly coordinated the repeated periods of honking, telling the protesters to lay on the horn every 30 minutes for 10 minutes at a time […]. “Hold the line,” he said in video posts, appearing also to delight in the gridlock and misery of locals: “Pretty hilarious that people haven’t been able to sleep for 10 days.”
Yeah, hilarious alright.
I’m glad he’s going to prison
Honestly I’m surprised I didn’t see more stories of people trying to beat the fuck out of those truck drivers.
Slashed air lines would have been on my todo list if it was in my area.
Bags of dog shit would be landing in the rigs left and right too.
Bags of dog shit would be landing in the rigs left and right too.
Oh man it’d be so fun giving the local kids hands-on learning in constructing and operating trebuchets and catapults. :D
Sling shots using medical hose too!
But he just wanted to save the children from the evil drag queens ! /S
True! I hate how drag queens are always making kids sleep in freezing cold trucks in the middle of winter and carry gas cans on their backs; using them as human shields and road blocks; making “the littles” (puke) sing and make freedom speeches “for the truckers” over their radio while their minders get shitfaced at noon on a Tuesday…
And when Canadians started asking out loud, “where tf is child services??? these kids should be in school!” the convites got a bunch of orange tshirts and Every Child Matters flags. Sneered about it on social media. Absolute filth.
Die in prison, asshole.
This is what I don’t get about the convoy and I’ve had many heated arguments with supporters that ignored this one point:
Aren’t the restrictions over now? Doesn’t that mean the lockdowns and all that were in fact a temporary measure due to an illness and not the government taking your rights and never giving it back?
Seriously!!!?? Where is the crowd that claimed we were never be allowed outside again or that we permanently lost rights?
Honestly, I think the whole conservative ideology just comes down to poor long term thinking.
Bold of you to assume that conservatives are capable of thought.
It’s because the protests worked!!1! they won!! Without their hard work, we would have still been stuck inside. /s
The liberal media want you to be afraid of fabricated threats of perfectly natural, harmless things with no real world consequences when we should be talking about boys kissing each other!
This article has zero mention of this guy being a white supremacist. Like he is on video saying white people are the superior race.
Omitting this is enabling right wing extremism.
Journalistic malpractice
At last, some good news!
