A dark day for Canadian democracy ?

[Badenoch]

I can agree that it was not necessary IF the local and provincial police could have taken care of the situation. It became clear after a week that they could not and were being embarrassed by the protestors (gas can fiasco). So why the shortcomings with the Ottawa police and the OPP?

The more pressing issue for the OPP was the Ambassador Bridge blockage which was cleared before the federal act was imposed. Reopening one Canada's vital trade links was vastly more important than pampered residents in the Glebe being inconvenienced because they couldn't sip a latte at their favourite Wellington Street bistro.

[Gilroy]

I will point out, you don’t share the same views as all the cops there, I’m friends with several. Was there some bad apples in the group of protesters sure, but those were a minority not a majority. I personally witnessed the man with the swastika get told to leave by protesters.

Cops can have their own views but the bottom line is that you are required to follow "lawful orders" . There was a time when officers could not hold or even attempt to hold political offices for good reason, they would not be impartial.

I agree that the bad actors were in a minority but there was a large enough contingent of them to cause the mess across the Nation and Capital and they stayed way to long therefore losing the support of the average Canadian.

[Gilroy]

I can agree that it was not necessary IF the local and provincial police could have taken care of the situation. It became clear after a week that they could not and were being embarrassed by the protestors (gas can fiasco). So why the shortcomings with the Ottawa police and the OPP?

Well pretty simple Chief Peter Sloly came up through the ranks mainly in administrative positions as opposed to a guy like Chief Billy Blair who was not only a great administrator but had been an excellent street Cop, undercover drugs officer and well respected. When you ask an administrator to take on a task like the protest he went right back on his only experience, pushing paper.

If Billy Blair had been put in charge of this protest he would have know exactly what to do, prepared a plan week's before their arrival and had most of them locked up before the end of the first weekend.

The OPP dragged their heels because Doug Ford seemed to be having some sort of crisis of confidence and they did not get their marching orders until way to late.

[Gilroy]

The more pressing issue for the OPP was the Ambassador Bridge blockage which was cleared before the federal act was imposed. Reopening one Canada's vital trade links was vastly more important than pampered residents in the Glebe being inconvenienced because they couldn't sip a latte at their favourite Wellington Street bistro.

Well the great thing about democracy is that those latte sipping folks who you assess were "inconvenienced" get a vote in the next election, along with all the other latte sippers across the country.

So the big question here is "has Justin Trudeau lost support across this nation by evoking this act " IMHO he has not but probably has gained support.

Pretty sure you will get to enjoy seeing numerous re runs of these occupiers on Political ad's in the next election and the Pierre walking with them for a coffee as they were taking over the City.

[73hunter]

The protest was certainly not "peaceful" but on the scale of protests in Canada it was not wildly violent either. Far more serious protests have been met and defeated under current legislation and the federal emergencies act was entirely unnecessary.

When the War Measures Act was used in1970 it was in the face of a serious terrorist threat that included kidnappings, murder and bombings. To use the current version of the legislation for a bunch of loud-mouthed yahoos in central Ottawa goes far beyond the original purpose of the legislation.

I can agree wholeheartedly with this.

[Birdbuff]

Well pretty simple Chief Peter Sloly came up through the ranks mainly in administrative positions as opposed to a guy like Chief Billy Blair who was not only a great administrator but had been an excellent street Cop, undercover drugs officer and well respected. When you ask an administrator to take on a task like the protest he went right back on his only experience, pushing paper.

If Billy Blair had been put in charge of this protest he would have know exactly what to do, prepared a plan week's before their arrival and had most of them locked up before the end of the first weekend.

The OPP dragged their heels because Doug Ford seemed to be having some sort of crisis of confidence and they did not get their marching orders until way to late.

My suspicion is that Doug being a conservative might have dragged his heels to allow chaos to fester and drag the federal liberals through the mud a bit. All in an attempt to help out his federal conservative colleagues’ position. Political games really.

[fishfood]

Dougy stayed out of it.

Trudeau said we all have a right to protest unless they disagree with what it's about. They didn't agree so it was unacceptable.

Can only protest if they think it's right.

Remember they were fringe ,misogynist, extremists and racist with unacceptable views. Non science believers before they even got to town.

Sent from my SM-G975W using Tapatalk

[Gilroy]

After all this discussion the bottom line to me would be HOW LONG SHOULD IT HAVE LASTED?

Does not matter if this Act was evoked or existing Criminal Code, Provincial Laws being used for their removal.

How long should a City or Border town have to suffer in this manner.

The answer to that is "not indefinitely" and that is why the majority of Canadian's I believe wanted to see an end to this.

Had they stayed in downtown Ottawa and still had funding coming in, every homeless person in Canada would have flocked there for a good old party paid for by others, we already saw that in evidence from some of the characters who who had camped out.

I have other nightmare scenarios where a group of Ottawa citizens banded together and took the law into their own hands, stationery parked vehicles mostly unattended would have been easy targets, thank goodness it never came to that.

Perhaps that was on the minds of the Cabinet also when making their decisions?

[huntervinni]

After all this discussion the bottom line to me would be HOW LONG SHOULD IT HAVE LASTED?

Does not matter if this Act was evoked or existing Criminal Code, Provincial Laws being used for their removal.

How long should a City or Border town have to suffer in this manner.

The answer to that is "not indefinitely" and that is why the majority of Canadian's I believe wanted to see an end to this.

Had they stayed in downtown Ottawa and still had funding coming in, every homeless person in Canada would have flocked there for a good old party paid for by others, we already saw that in evidence from some of the characters who who had camped out.

I have other nightmare scenarios where a group of Ottawa citizens banded together and took the law into their own hands, stationery parked vehicles mostly unattended would have been easy targets, thank goodness it never came to that.

Perhaps that was on the minds of the Cabinet also when making their decisions?

So how long should the rail blockade have lasted? Why wasn't the EA used in that scenario.......

[trimmer21]

So how long should the rail blockade have lasted? Why wasn't the EA used in that scenario.......

Nope,nope,no,no,no, that would be racist.