B.C. pipeline protests continue to halt Ontario trains for 5th day in a row

[Mowich]

It sure is starting to look like Canada has been handed over to the native Indians of Canada. Pretty much nothing can be done anymore in Canada without the consent and the blessing of the feather and us all having to listen to them banging on their tom-tom drums.

I remember many decades ago when the air controllers went illegally on strike. I believe that the strike went on for a short while. They were ordered to go back to work. They refused. Ronald Reagan at the time told them once more to go back to work or else. They defied Reagan and Reagan signed an executive order and promptly said that they would all be fired if all of the approx. 11,000 of them did not go back to work in 48 hours. I believe that most went back to work. Now that is a leader. Airlines are like trains. The country relies on both of them to be able for people to be able to do business and for people to survive. The Indians are probably doing us a favor when they shut down the government. For awhile it stops the politicians from doing more damage to the country. Chuckle-chuckle.

Trudeau should be doing the same thing now and demand that those terrorists get off the train tracks now or else. He should tell them that I will charge you all with terrorism and throw all of you in jail if you do not comply. Marc Garneau is the federal transport minister and he said that he is leaving it up to the provinces. Typical of most gutless politicians who are scared to do the right thins. Pass the buck on to the other guy is the best way to do it.

We the people are being controlled by a bunch of politically correct scared cats rather than with a real and true no nonsense Reagan type of leader. I guess that most of them are scared that they might get called a racist for forcing the Native Indians off the tracks? Hey, you never know, eh?

On my way over to the store yesterday, I stopped to pick up a couple of guys from the reserve. On the way I asked them what they thought about the blockades. I was a bit chilled to hear that they had been told not to talk about it. I didn't ask by who. I just dropped the subject. Meanwhile, I am hearing a lot of angry talk from folks around here who are normally pretty equitable about FN issues. Many of them have relatives and friends in areas being disrupted and are getting daily updates on how the blockades are adversely affecting their lives. They are none too happy about what they are hearing.

 

[taxme]

Those arrested , should be jailed and made to see a judge prior to release .let them enjoy a night in the klink and a complimentary baloney sandwich . It might smarten some of the naive useful idiots up .

On the contrary. They should be all locked up for months. Maybe that will smarten them up. One day in jail will not work. It's for sure that they will not be just getting a baloney sandwich. How about a pizza or a nice steak dinner? They will be out the next day causing more blockade problems for we the people who have to work for a living. It is time for some tough justice here, not just more slaps on the wrist for those terrorists. Enough already with this let's not be too harsh on those decent and caring wonderful protesters who no doubt are always saying: screw Canada and jobs. Who needs them. We don't. We collect welfare checks every month for free. Why work if one does not have too.

 

[Mowich]

All VIA Rail trains, eastern CN rail network shut down due to pipeline blockades

​

www.houston-today.com/news/all-via-rail-trains-eastern-cn-rail-network-shut-down-due-to-pipeline-blockades/

 

[Mowich]

MacDougall: Canada’s resource impasse calls for a ‘Just watch me’ moment

We have indeed reached the boiling point; there is a fundamental – and unresolved – tension between resource development, environmental protection and the rule of law.

Is Justin Trudeau a hostage or a leader?

Given the four-term MP from Papineau has twice earned the title of prime minister, the answer should be obvious. But the drift plaguing his second mandate suggests hostage is becoming the more apposite description. Trouble is multiplying across our land and Trudeau isn’t even around, let alone in command of his brief.

The prime minister is certainly not in control of the agenda. While #ShutDownCanada activists have been busy paralyzing legislatures, bridges and railways across Canada in protest of British Columbia’s Coastal GasLink pipeline, Trudeau has been overseas shelling out money in search of support for Canada’s United Nations Security Council bid. Trudeau has apparently decided that a temporary seat at the end of an increasinglyineffective table is a better use of his time than taking his country off the boil.

And Canada has indeed reached the boiling point; there is a fundamental – and unresolved – tension between resource development, environmental protection and the rule of law. If legally approved and First Nations-supported projects such as Coastal GasLink can’t go ahead without lawless disruption, then Canada’s future prosperity will suffer. Canada is either a country of clear regulatory processes and enforceable laws or it isn’t. There is no middle ground, and Trudeau should be the one to say so.

Were it just GasLink causing the stink, the problem might eventually go away. But the prime minister is also faced with another potential foul smell in the form of the recently approved Teck Resources Frontier oilsands project. The jacked-up climate crowd the prime minister depends on to keep him in office isn’t likely to accept that any oilsands project could ever be beneficial to Canada, no matter how many regulatory hurdles it manages to clear. But if the prime minister says “no” to Frontier’s potential job-creation in the job-hungry province of Alberta, there is every chance the heretofore fringe #Wexit movement will metastasize into the mainstream.

The jacked-up climate crowd the prime minister depends on to keep him in office isn’t likely to accept that any oilsands project could ever be beneficial to Canada, no matter how many regulatory hurdles it manages to clear.

And so it’s time for Trudeau to pick a lane. Will it be resources and the rule of law? Or will it be mob rule, demobilization of the oilsands, and the attendant national unity battle?

If past is prologue, Trudeau will look to punt. And while the prime minister isn’t going to pull out the company credit card to buy up Frontier like he did the Trans Mountain expansion – at least not yet – he does have the option to delay. One even suspects the Alberta-born Chrystia Freeland is already being lined up to catch that particular hospital pass.

But what if Trudeau went another way and took the chance to make Frontier and Coastal GasLink his career-defining moment? The Wet’suwet’en protesters aren’t the FLQ but the time has still come for Trudeau to have his “Just watch me” moment. Either Trudeau sees off the vocal minority and approves the resource projects that meet his strengthened standards, or he accepts that further development is a planet killer and states that truth plainly, despite the huge short-term cost to the Canadian economy.

A clear choice would put Trudeau on the front foot and give his government a sense of direction. Forget the Security Council; it's at home that Trudeau will define his legacy. And while it's not fair to compare Trudeau pere et fils, it's hard to imagine Pierre Trudeau being afraid to take on an unruly mob, let alone be held hostage by one.

Whichever way he ultimately blows, Justin Trudeau must accept that, five years into his tenure, he can no longer please both crowds.

An approval on Frontier will be the final straw for climate alarmists, no matter how thorough the approval process has been. And they will never come back. But if Trudeau goes the other way and shuts Teck down, as at least one downtown Toronto Liberal MP would like him to do, then no amount of rhetoric will be able to convince investors looking to Canada that their ducats will be safe.

It is an unenviable choice but, hey, that's leadership. In politics there are few easy calls and no pleasing everybody.

ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/macdougall-canadas-resource-impasse-calls-for-a-just-watch-me-moment

 

[Mowich]

Les Leyne: Balancing right to protest and rule of law is a tightrope walk
​

The reason Premier John Horgan ducked all public comment about the legislature blockade was because he was too steamed to stand in front of a microphone.

He didn’t say it in so many words, but that was the impression left Wednesday after a lengthy news conference in the aftermath of the unprecedented attempt to shut down the seat of government.

He had cancelled a scheduled media appearance and instead issued a news release late in that very tense day after hundreds of protesters jostled and blocked workers trying to enter the legislature.

“I chose not to talk directly to you yesterday because of my personal feelings at the time,” he told reporters during an extended after-action report.

It was a lot more restrained than if it had been conducted in the heat of the day-long shoving match.

Because they were “strong” feelings, held by many, he said.

There was one brief glimpse of what might have been. Asked about the role of Victoria city councillor Ben Isitt, who attended and supported the protest and at one point criticized his own police department’s approach to it, Horgan said: “My thoughts on that individual are not printable.”

But after sleeping on it for a night, Horgan decided to try to walk the tightrope between supporting the fundamental right to protest and recognizing the rule of law.

It’s a tough balancing act and isn’t going to get any easier, as more protest blockades appear to be in the works, as early as this Friday. They’re going to push him steadily toward emphasizing the need to recognize rule of law, if Wednesday’s appearance was any indication.

Not that he has much choice.

The blockade was unacceptable to him and the vast majority of British Columbians, he said. Peaceful demonstrations are a fundamental right, “but to have a group of people say to others: ‘You are illegitimate, you are not allowed in here, you are somehow a sellout to the values of Canadians’ is just plain wrong.”

He stressed how unprecedented the attempt to shut down the legislature was, compared to the protests he routinely used to attend in the past.

“Game-changer,” was the phrase he settled on to describe it.

Horgan said he is not responsible for security or law enforcement but was “sincerely apologetic” to the legislature staff who had to endure the blockade.

“These are extraordinary times, these are extraordinary events.”

Horgan also dwelled on the Indigenous rights aspect of the pipeline protest, where it’s linked to some hereditary Wet’suwet’en chiefs’ opposition to the line, despite widespread support from elected Indigenous leaders.

He said: “I don’t believe for a minute, knowing Indigenous peoples broadly speaking as I do, that what they viewed yesterday in their name was how they want to go forward.”

Coming just a few months after the legislature unanimously adopted the UN declaration on Indigenous rights as the new template for all future dealings with First Nations, the demonstrations raise fresh new questions about how it’s all going to work.

In the premier’s view, “the only way forward is through hard work and commitment to each other.” Horgan also appeared sensitive to any criticism that he didn’t take any obvious action to put an end to the blockade. “I don’t want to live in a society where politicians direct police to take action against other citizens without appropriate reason for doing so. That’s why we have courts. That’s why injunctions are sought.”

He was outlining due process in the abstract, but it may become a reality.

Just So You Know: The NDP is wracked with conflicting emotions on the protests, given their previous warm relationships with some of the anti-pipeline factions. The two-member Green caucus — bullied like everyone else on the way in Tuesday — was profoundly troubled by the showdown, too. But they’re less conflicted, because they opposed LNG from the start and still do.

Green MLAs Adam Olsen and Sonia Fursteneau — and newly independent Andrew Weaver — will be watching the government’s response closely if the attempted shutdowns continue. Their support is still crucial to the government.

Right to protest versus rule of law isn’t the only tightrope Horgan is walking.

www.timescolonist.com/opinion/columnists/les-leyne-balancing-right-to-protest-and-rule-of-law-is-a-tightrope-walk-1.24075245

 

[Mowich]

VicPD says four assault victims identified in legislature rally allegations
​

The Victoria Police Department says it has identified four assault victims from a rally at the BC Legislature on Tuesday.

In a statement released Wednesday, VicPD says it is still looking for additional victims and witnesses after receiving reports people were assaulted and injured outside the government building.

The police department says four people reported assaults – three of which received non-life-threatening injuries and a fourth who says they were not physically injured but equipment they were carrying was “reported to have been damaged.”

Hundreds had gathered outside the provincial building Tuesday morning in solidarity with We’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and supporters in opposition of the Coastal GasLink pipeline. The rally was planned to disrupt the speech from the throne. The group blocked some MLAs and members of the press from entering the building, yelling “shame” as they tried to enter.

Ceremonial proceedings were cancelled but the throne speech went ahead. A group of people occupied the front steps of the BC Legislature for just over six days but left their post Tuesday night.

City of Victoria Coun. Ben Isitt has been vocal about the local police department’s call for witnesses, which was first released Tuesday evening. In a Tweet, Isitt said the police investigation into reports of violence is “fake news.”

His post received backlash from many, including VicPD Chief Del Manak, who called the councillor’s comments “off-base and disrespectful.”

www.vicnews.com/news/vicpd-says-four-assault-victims-identified-in-legislature-rally-allegations/

 

[Mowich]

A protest is a constitutionally protected right. A railway blockade isn’t

​

The rule of law in Canada can feel like a rather fluid thing. One minute it’s an absolute that must be rigidly respected, even if doing so results in the indefinite and illegal detention of two innocent Canadians in China; the next minute there’s wiggle room when it relates to injunctions against protesters whose illegal actions are harming the economy and hurting working people. You can forgive Canadians for being confused. The fact is, though, it has become the practice in this country to tread lightly when dealing with protests involving Indigenous people, even when the rule of law offers a quick remedy for illegal blockades. Handled properly, this can be a good thing.

Canadian governments have lately made a show of defending the rule of law.

Ottawa has firmly stood by the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the Chinese telecom executive who was detained in Vancouver 14 months ago at the request of the United States government, in the face of China’s imprisonment of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig.

And British Columbia’s government didn’t waver this month when the RCMP executed an injunction in a remote part of the province, reopening a bridge and road that are critical to the Coastal GasLink pipeline project, and arresting 28 people.

The $6.6-billion natural-gas pipeline has received all the necessary regulatory approvals, and the company behind it has met its obligations to consult with Indigenous communities along the project’s path.

Of the elected band councils affected by the pipeline, 20 out of 20 support it. Their members will benefit from much-needed construction jobs and from hundreds of millions of dollars in payments made over the project’s life. The pipeline will also boost the province’s economy.

At the same time, a group of hereditary chiefs from the Wet’suwet’en Nation is adamantly opposed to the project, and has been organizing blockades and protests for more than a year. In December, the Supreme Court of B.C. granted an injunction against those blockades, leading to the RCMP’s actions this month.

The hereditary chiefs’ position has to be respectfully heard, and there is no question that land claims in B.C. are a complex and sensitive issue. But a minority voice can’t be allowed to unilaterally declare that it is the only true voice, or use blockades to prevent a company from going about its lawful business.

Nor can the B.C. government or the courts allow protesters to sabotage a project supported by both a majority of the Indigenous population directly affected by it and the population at large, and which has met all the legal requirements to proceed. Removing the Wet’suwet’en blockade on the Morice River Bridge was the right thing to do.

But given that logic, it has been a bit confusing this week to watch police in Ontario decline to enforce an injunction against week-long Indigenous protests that have come close to shutting down commercial and passenger rail traffic across the continent.

Those protests are in support of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs. Canadian National Railway has obtained court injunctions against blockades in B.C. and in Ontario, but so far police in Ontario have tried to negotiate a peaceful resolution, rather than rushing in and making arrests.

Meanwhile, other protests are affecting operations at the ports in Halifax and Vancouver. Business groups say their supply chains are drying up, and are calling for the immediate enforcement of the injunctions against protesters camped along railway lines.

It is critical to the economy, and to people whose jobs are in jeopardy, that railway service return to normal. It is also essential to society’s sense of legality. Patience is a virtue but, at some point, it becomes incumbent on the police to remove protesters who defy the courts.

It is worth remembering that the right to protest is part of the right to free speech and peaceful assembly. You can make your voice heard in a public place, but there’s no constitutional right to physically block or occupy anything.

Given the fraught history of their relations with Indigenous people, the police in Ontario have been wise to tolerate illegal blockades while trying to negotiate a resolution, or waiting for the protests to peter out on their own.

But at the end of the day, the rule of law must be enforced.

www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-a-protest-is-a-constitutionally-protected-right-a-railway-blockade/

 

[pgs]

If this goes on for a month or two our economy will be in the tank, people will be starving and freezing in the dark and our hospitals will be over-flowing with the sick and dying. That may seem like a very dire prediction but the fact is that the rails carry all manner of goods to every point of our country - including oil to heat our homes. People in the north are already being impacted by the rail closures especially those communities that are totally dependent upon them.

www.interior-news.com/news/rail-services-continue-to-feel-brunt-of-anti-pipeline-protests-across-canada/

Tax time is right around the corner. I wonder how many Canadians would join a peaceful revolt by refusing to send in their tax returns? That just might get the attention of our governments. Probably pie-in-the-sky thinking but I'd support such a response in a heartbeat. If they are going to allow the ongoing disruption to responsible Canadian's lives while throwing millions of dollars at African countries in a blatant bribe for the holy grail of a UN Security Commission seat, they most certainly don't deserve another dime of our money.

They don’t and haven’t for a long time however most of us are to busy surviving to pay enough attention . And the attention they do pay is generally mainstream media , which is of course all the news that is fit to print . If you can seriously ask a friend about any issue facing Canada , most could not provide an answer looking at two different sides of the equation.

 

[pgs]

If this goes on for a month or two our economy will be in the tank, people will be starving and freezing in the dark and our hospitals will be over-flowing with the sick and dying. That may seem like a very dire prediction but the fact is that the rails carry all manner of goods to every point of our country - including oil to heat our homes. People in the north are already being impacted by the rail closures especially those communities that are totally dependent upon them.

www.interior-news.com/news/rail-services-continue-to-feel-brunt-of-anti-pipeline-protests-across-canada/

Tax time is right around the corner. I wonder how many Canadians would join a peaceful revolt by refusing to send in their tax returns? That just might get the attention of our governments. Probably pie-in-the-sky thinking but I'd support such a response in a heartbeat. If they are going to allow the ongoing disruption to responsible Canadian's lives while throwing millions of dollars at African countries in a blatant bribe for the holy grail of a UN Security Commission seat, they most certainly don't deserve another dime of our money.

I don’t send my tax return , they don’t send my pension , I lose .

 

[pgs]

On my way over to the store yesterday, I stopped to pick up a couple of guys from the reserve. On the way I asked them what they thought about the blockades. I was a bit chilled to hear that they had been told not to talk about it. I didn't ask by who. I just dropped the subject. Meanwhile, I am hearing a lot of angry talk from folks around here who are normally pretty equitable about FN issues. Many of them have relatives and friends in areas being disrupted and are getting daily updates on how the blockades are adversely affecting their lives. They are none too happy about what they are hearing.

There are doers and takers in every society , the reserve is no different . I suspect the reason the hereditary chiefs are not on the council is because they were voted out for greed , incompetence and nepotism . Purely speculation , yet plausible . Ain’t democracy a bitch .

 

[Twin_Moose]

On the contrary. They should be all locked up for months. Maybe that will smarten them up. One day in jail will not work. It's for sure that they will not be just getting a baloney sandwich. How about a pizza or a nice steak dinner? They will be out the next day causing more blockade problems for we the people who have to work for a living. It is time for some tough justice here, not just more slaps on the wrist for those terrorists. Enough already with this let's not be too harsh on those decent and caring wonderful protesters who no doubt are always saying: screw Canada and jobs. Who needs them. We don't. We collect welfare checks every month for free. Why work if one does not have too.

How about the court order for them to labour at a construction site, with no pay or benefits, since they seem to have too much time and money on their hands. This way as they share their concerns about the industry, they can hear the benefits from workers on the worksite outside their peers in a controlled environment, while putting in a honest days work.

 

[Twin_Moose]

Maybe it is time to call these communist type thugs for what they really are? A bunch of terrorists thugs. They are terrorizing the public with their many threats that this is going to continue on until they get their way. They are tring to bring this country to a halt. Imagine if this were some conservative group doing the same thing which these so called environ"mental"ists terrorists are doing? They would be arrested right away even before an injunction was put in place. The leftists in this country appear to get away with a lot more than what they should be allowed to get away with. The country needs those trains and trucks up and running. We all depend on them. This is anarchy plain and simple.

And they did by painting the pro pipeline and Oil rallies as far right anti immigrant protests, with full MSM bias.

 

[Twin_Moose]

Pipeline Protests Cripple Canadian Railways, Raising CEOs’ Ire

Canadian National Railway Co., the country’s largest rail provider, has canceled 400 trains in the past week and said on Thursday that it will shut down its operations in Eastern Canada, possibly leading to temporary layoffs. Via Rail, which operates passenger train service across the nation, is canceling all services effective immediately.
The cancellations mark the most severe fallout yet from protests that have spread across Canada in recent days, disrupting shipments of oil, grain, propane, lumber and consumer goods. Environmental and indigenous-rights activists are blockading rail lines, ports and other infrastructure to show solidarity with portions of the Wet’suwet’en Nation that are protesting construction of TC Energy Corp.’s planned C$6.6 billion ($5 billion) Coastal GasLink pipeline through their territory in British Columbia.
“This is a good case of insanity,” Don Walker, chief executive officer of auto-parts maker Magna International Inc., said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg on Thursday. The protests are a “very bad situation” that hurts Canadian business and its perceived competitiveness on a global scale......Much more

 

[captain morgan]

Pipeline Protests Cripple Canadian Railways, Raising CEOs’ Ire

“This is a good case of insanity,” Don Walker, chief executive officer of auto-parts maker Magna International Inc., said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg on Thursday. The protests are a “very bad situation” that hurts Canadian business and its perceived competitiveness on a global scale...

... And tater tot has decided that being out of the country is the best option

 

[Decapoda]

... And tater tot has decided that being out of the country is the best option

I would say it's the final nail in the coffin for any remaining support for him, but after the last year of moronic behavior and sad performance from this clown, followed by the country actually re-electing him, I'm reluctant to believe people generally have any logical sense left. This won't do a thing to weaken his support base in this country.

If things fall apart, I would expect him to sacrifice Freeland...chuck her under the bus as he typically does to his female MP's, and arrogantly declare that he left her in charge of things and she screwed it all up. Freeland's days are numbered. She's merely a stunned pawn protecting the king.

 

[captain morgan]

I would say it's the final nail in the coffin for any remaining support for this idiot, but after the last year of moronic and sad behavior from this clown, followed by the country actually re-electing him, I'm reluctant to believe people generally have any logical sense left. This won't do a thing to weaken his support base in this country.

If things fall apart, I would expect him to sacrifice Freeland...chuck her under the bus as he typically does to his female MP's, and arrogantly declare that he left her in charge of things and she screwed it all up. Freeland's days are numbered. She's merely a stunned pawn protecting the king.

I think that tater tot has no place to hide and if he attempts to burn Freeland, it will be highly advertised as him ruining the career of yet another female in an attempt to further himself.


Traditionally, this kind of disruption affects the sitting gvt more than it helps them regardless of who is at 'fault'.


It's interesting that Kenney has taken such a open and loud stance on this in pointing his finger at the Fed gvt. I wonder if he is attempting to position the situation to have a real negative impact for the Liberals

 

[Twin_Moose]

I would say it's the final nail in the coffin for any remaining support for him, but after the last year of moronic behavior and sad performance from this clown, followed by the country actually re-electing him, I'm reluctant to believe people generally have any logical sense left. This won't do a thing to weaken his support base in this country.
If things fall apart, I would expect him to sacrifice Freeland...chuck her under the bus as he typically does to his female MP's, and arrogantly declare that he left her in charge of things and she screwed it all up. Freeland's days are numbered. She's merely a stunned pawn protecting the king.

This isn't resonating in the 500 sq. miles of Ont. that support all things he does and keeping him in office. Now if they blame PMJT for the VIA shutdown and the rise of Carbon pollution because of it, then all bets are off. Their support will go Green or NDP but never to resource supporting CPC.

 

[Jinentonix]

But if the prime minister says “no” to Frontier’s potential job-creation in the job-hungry province of Alberta, there is every chance the heretofore fringe #Wexit movement will metastasize into the mainstream.

Alberta isn't going anywhere. If they think they're having a hard time getting product to market now, it'll be virtually impossible for them to do so if they separate, other than to the US.


But of course the man-child we call PM is busy fiddling with Africa while Canada "burns".

But after sleeping on it for a night, Horgan decided to try to walk the tightrope between supporting the fundamental right to protest and recognizing the rule of law.

What f*cking tightrope? It's pretty self-explanatory. There are rules to legal protest. Shutting down transportation corridors and preventing access to private property are NOT legal forms of protest. Maybe these leftist shit bag politicians should explain what legal protest is and what illegal protest is to their mindless drones.



Meanwhile, back to Groper. Didn't he spout off during the Meng Wei (whatever her name is) flap and admonish China that Canada follows the rule of law?


Groper wouldn't know what the rule of law was if it knocked him to the ground and repeatedly ass-raped him. As for Marc Garneau, dumbest ex-astronaut on the planet. Roads, highways and commuter trains fall under provincial jurisdiction. Railways that cross provincial borders are federal responsibility. So just because some half-wits are blockading a CN line in Ontario doesn't make it an Ontario govt responsibility, it's a federal govt responsibility. Same with VIA. It doesn't matter if the trip begins and ends in the same province, CN and it's rail lines are national, not provincial. Ergo, it's the Fed's responsibility to do something about the illegal protests blocking CN's lines.

 

[Ron in Regina]

I wonder how much this is mentally justified by those that are defined the law or think that their causes above the law.... By following the example of Justin Trudeau himself with respect to the SNC Lavalin goat rodeo or the Admiral Mark Norman fiasco, or his laughing off of the PP whacks in parliament due to his shenanigans contrary to the ethics committee???

 

[Twin_Moose]

If he waits and let's Ford do the dirty work he can have a 2 for 1 hit job