Trucker Protests in Ottawa and Elsewhere

[China]

The trucker protests in Ottawa are starting to have international ramifications, and there are other trucker protests that may happen in the US that could affect the Super Bowl.  So now we have a separate thread to cover all the shenanigans.

 

Canada border protests start halting Detroit auto plant production

 

The anti-vaccination trucker protest that has paralyzed the Canadian capital, Ottawa, has spread to Michigan’s border and threatens to create chaos in an auto industry already struggling to cope with what industry experts have described as a “fragile supply chain.”

 

Demonstrators have been setting up blockades at the two bridges linking Ontario and Michigan since Monday. The Blue Water and Ambassador bridges together serve thousands of trucks every day, many of them carrying automotive parts and finished vehicles.

 

Traffic over the Ambassador Bridge has come to a virtual halt. Only a small number of trucks moved from Canada to Michigan on Wednesday. The situation at the Blue Water Bridge connecting Sarnia, Ontario, to Port Huron, Michigan, isn’t much better, with reported delays of at least 4½ hours.

 

On Wednesday, the Chrysler Pacifica minivan plant became the first direct casualty. Officials with the leading global automaker Stellantis temporarily halted production at the factory because it doesn’t have enough parts. Ford on Wednesday became the second manufacturer to take steps to deal with parts shortages. 

 

“While we continue to ship our current engine inventory to support our U.S. plants, we are running our plants at a reduced schedule today in Oakville [Ontario] and our Windsor engine plant is down,” Ford said in a statement.

 

General Motors, Detroit's largest automaker, confirmed late on Wednesday that it had temporarily cut the second shift at a plant in Lansing, Michigan producing SUVS for the Buick, Chevrolet and GMC brands. Toyota also shut down production at three of its plants in Ontario due to parts shortages from the trucker blockade.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

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Super Bowl May Be Disruption Target By Trucker Protests Mimicking Canada “Freedom Convoy”

 

The Department of Homeland Security said in a memo that it has received reports truck drivers may attempt to block roads at major events to protest vaccine mandates. This Sunday’s Super Bowl in Los Angeles at SoFi Stadium is a likely target, according to an internal memo cited by several major media outlets. 

 

Also potentially a target is President Biden’s March 1 State of the Union address in Washington, D.C.

 

The DHS memo was issued Tuesday by the department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, Current and Emerging Threats Center. While there are no threats of violence mentioned, the memo claims anything that happens could “severely disrupt” traffic, emergency routes, and federal government operations.

 

Like the Canada Freedom Convoy protests that snowballed as truckers joined in, social media posts indicate US truckers will start protests in California and journey to Washington, D.C., adding more truckers, the memo says. In Canada, the Freedom Convoy has been disruptive to traffic on the border and in the capital city of Ottawa.

 

The DHS memo said that social media posts with the hashtags #ShutDownSuperBowl and #SuperBowlTrafficking have been observed. The posts allegedly contained instructions on how an anonymous trucker convoy could disrupt the Super Bowl’s security operations.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[TradeTheBeal!]

It’s an Occupy Wall Street/6-month Antifa Portland Milkshake convention but even stupider because it’s right-wing and has Nazis and Qs.

Edited February 11, 2022 by TradeTheBeal!

[CobraCommander]

Get back to work, ****ing hippies. 

[China]

 

[China]

 

[China]

[China]

Why Canada’s ‘Freedom Convoy’ truckers, whose protest has blocked trade with the U.S., can’t just be towed away

 

On Wednesday, the Freedom Convoy trucker protests in Canada forced Ford Motor to halt production at two of its Canadian factories after protesters blocked the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Ontario in Canada to Michigan in the U.S. and carries 25% of all trade between the two countries.

 

“This interruption on the Detroit-Windsor bridge hurts customers, autoworkers, suppliers, communities, and companies on both sides of the border,” Ford said in a statement on Wednesday. Toyota suspended production at three Canadian plants the same day, owing to parts shortages caused by the trucker protests.

 

“We hope this situation is resolved quickly because it could have widespread impact on all automakers in the U.S. and Canada,” Ford Motor said.

 

Ordinarily, $350 million in goods flows across the Ambassador Bridge every day, including auto components and agricultural goods. Unblocking that vital economic artery is now a priority for authorities in Ontario.

 

But moving the scores of trucks blocking the throughfare is much easier said than done.

 

In downtown Ottawa—the capital of Canada and a major city in Ontario province—truckers have parked themselves in protest for roughly two weeks. Areas of the city center, now known as the “red zone,” are blocked off by huge 18-wheelers positioned across the main streets. So far, police have been unable to move them.

 

"If you know anything about truck air brakes, once you pull that button, all 18 wheels are locked," one truck driver engaged in the protest told CBC on Wednesday. "Nothing can move it, except maybe a big wrecker. And no wrecker worth his salt is going to come anywhere near this, because they're on our side."

 

According to local media reports, even though some tow truck companies have the tools and machinery necessary to remove a large semi, few are willing to take the job. Some tow operators seem to be sympathetic to the trucker movement, while others simply don’t want to risk getting injured if protesters attempt to stop them from towing rigs away.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[CousinsCowgirl84]

42 minutes ago, China said:

 

Pretty disgusting…

[Simmsy]

So let me get this straight: if BLM or ANTIFA peacefully and legally protest in their designated area for the day, you can run them over. These same people are now cheering on white supremacists basically taking a city hostage.

 

Also, these same idiots complaining about mandates have done nothing to make the situation any better, in any way that would make these mandates go away. A bunch of fools complaining about a problem they caused.

[skinsmarydu]

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[GoCommiesGo]

You've seen the Canadian version, are you ready for the US version?

 

 

DHS bulletin warns trucker convoy could disrupt Super Bowl Sunday

Quote

The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement across the country that a convoy of truckers protesting Covid-19 vaccine mandates, similar to recent protests in Ottawa, Canada, could soon begin in the US -- with the potential to affect Sunday's Super Bowl in the Los Angeles area and cause other disruptions.

A DHS bulletin issued on Tuesday to state and local officials, obtained by CNN, said the agency "has received reports of truck drivers planning to potentially block roads in major metropolitan cities in the United States in protest of, among other things, vaccine mandates for truck drivers."

 

More in the link, the idea is they end in DC sometime in March. I'm not sure the US government would be as gentle as the Canadian if they start to clog major cities arteries and disrupt trade.  

[Simmsy]

30 minutes ago, GoCommiesGo said:

You've seen the Canadian version, are you ready for the US version?

 

 

DHS bulletin warns trucker convoy could disrupt Super Bowl Sunday

 

More in the link, the idea is they end in DC sometime in March. I'm not sure the US government would be as gentle as the Canadian if they start to clog major cities arteries and disrupt trade.  

Lets hope they're not.

 

P.S. Nice name btw.

[GoCommiesGo]

7 minutes ago, Simmsy said:

Lets hope they're not.

 

I can't see the US being as coddling if it starts disrupting cities and the flow of trade. Hell, they park those things in DC and the residents may just set them on fire. 

 

8 minutes ago, Simmsy said:

P.S. Nice name btw.

Thank you, we have to embrace the great republic. 

[Forehead]

Hmmm, I wonder what the rights reaction would be to firing pepperballs at these folks.  Arrest them, let them sit in jail cells and if necessary.  I suppose you could look into fining the companies that own the trucks, as not all truckers actually own the trucks they use.  If they own them personally, then impound them, let them try to make a living without one after they've decided to stop this game.  I'm sure the military can get rid of the trucks.

 

I'm speaking if this happened in this country.  I guess Canada will have to handle it however they choose,

[Fergasun]

What a bunch of selfish, jerk, aholes.  Are they denying that COVID is a serious global pandemic?  That's their cause?  COVID denialism?  Anarchy?  

 

Treat them the way the Standing Rock protestors were treated.  "Military style counterterrorism measures" coordinated between impacted companies and Federal, State and Local governments.  Hire private contractors to collect evidence against organizers.  Start a PR campaign that amplifies this as a "ideologicslly driven jihadist insurgency".  Clear then out with APCs, tear gas and rubber bullets.

 

Oh... we somehow give more deference to protestors who have the same skin color as police.  So while there were an abundance of people willing to clear out Standing Rock, no one wants to touch the truckers.

 

[GoCommiesGo]

From what I've read about the Canadian convoy the issue is removing the trucks. Once the air breaks are activated you need a specific too/skill set to free them, then you need a specialized truck to tow. Along with that, a lot of the truckers brought their families including kids. 

 

I think, the US has a greater capability to remove the trucks and impound them if needed. 

 

 

 

[Bang]

Tanks could move them, I bet.
if not, they can make them into pieces that are easier to cart away.

 

~Bang, reload, repeat

[Ball Security]

Hard not to get behind automated trucks now.  **** the truck drivers.

[TradeTheBeal!]

5 minutes ago, Ball Security said:

Hard not to get behind automated trucks now.  **** the truck drivers.

It’s like 2% of truckers and the rest of the protest is the usual MAGA hodgepodge of racist clowns and Qs.

 

Dont get it twisted…like they want you to,

[Ball Security]

5 minutes ago, TradeTheBeal! said:

It’s like 2% of truckers and the rest of the protest is the usual MAGA hodgepodge of racist clowns and Qs.

 

Dont get it twisted…like they want you to,

Yet no one in the trucking industry (on the Canada side) is willing to tow these trucks.

[PleaseBlitz]

I'm not a fan of civil asset forfeiture, but this seems like a good use case for it.  

[TradeTheBeal!]

35 minutes ago, Ball Security said:

Yet no one in the trucking industry (on the Canada side) is willing to tow these trucks.

Theyll tow em just fine once the Nazis have been cleared out. It’s not safe down there right now.

[China]

1 hour ago, Ball Security said:

Hard not to get behind automated trucks now.  **** the truck drivers.

 

 

[PleaseBlitz]

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22926134/canada-trucker-freedom-convoy-protest-ottawa

 

The Canadian trucker convoy is an unpopular uprising
The “freedom convoy” that has besieged Ottawa isn’t a people’s revolt. It’s a fringe movement protesting its defeat.

 

 

Quote

Since January 28, Canada’s capital city of Ottawa has been under siege by a convoy of angry truckers — a two-week running protest that has drawn support from right-wing extremists in Canada and abroad.

 

The so-called “freedom convoy” is nominally protesting a vaccine mandate for truckers, implemented in mid-January on both sides of the US-Canada border. But the demonstrations have swiftly ballooned into a broader far-right movement, with some demonstrators waving Confederate and Nazi flags. Protester demands include an end to all Covid-19 restrictions in Canada and the resignation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

 

The demonstrators, which have included as many as 8,000 people at their peak, have terrorized Ottawa: blockading streets, harassing citizens, forcing business closures, and honking their extremely loud horns all night. Ottawa police, who have proven some combination of unwilling and unable to restore order, have even set up a special hotline to deal with a deluge of alleged hate crimes stemming from the protests. In the first week of February, it received over 200 calls.

 

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson has declared a state of emergency, and Trudeau’s government has deployed hundreds of Royal Canadian Mounted Police to the protests. As the situation in Ottawa continues, the freedom convoy movement has expanded across the country. Demonstrators have shut down at least two border crossings between Canada and the United States.

But while the protests are generating a lot of noise and attention, the eruption actually points up a counterintuitive fact: The Canadian far right is weak and ineffectual, especially when it comes to pandemic restrictions.

 

Canada’s provinces have generally employed strict Covid-19 measures such as school mask mandates and vaccine passports, including during the recent omicron surge. They have enjoyed broad public support in doing so; even the strictest restrictions are less controversial in Canada than in the US. The current demonstration is quite unpopular with the general public, divisive even inside the center-right Conservative party.

 

This doesn’t mean the movement will accomplish nothing. It has already contributed to a revolt against the Conservative party’s leader and is serving as an important organizing node for far-rightists. The border crossing blockage is putting more stress on the US-Canada supply chain, costing (by one estimation) $300 million a day in economic damage. Internationally, the freedom convoy has inspired copycat efforts in both the United States and France.

 

But it’s important to understand the broader context in Canada. News coverage of the convoy, especially from sympathetic anchors on Fox News, may lead Americans to believe that Canada is in the midst of a far-right popular uprising. In reality, the mainstream consensus in Canada about Covid-19, and the nation’s institutions in general, is holding. The so-called trucker movement is on the fringe, including among Canadian truckers — some 90 percent of whom are vaccinated.

 

They are angry because they have lost.

 

More at link.