Stephen Roney's Blog, page 151
February 18, 2022
Night Falls
What Happens Next?
Daniel O'Connell, the man who invented the modern concept of non-violent resistance.Whether or not the government clears out all or most of the trucker protest in Ottawa by Monday, their precipitate action suggests they do not have the votes to pass the Emergency Act. If they did before, they are less likely to now: if the convoy is all or mostly cleared out, the claim of an emergency gets weaker: where? And any scenes of violence by the police will make it politically more difficult for MPs or Senators to support it.
Now let’s say the protestors are driven out.
As I have noted, this is not significant, since they are mobile. The problem may be solved only long enough to kill the Emergency Act.
Why wouldn’t the truckers, even spontaneously, take a leaf from Daniel O’Connell’s playbook, and subvert the government dictat through excessive obedience?
The government does not want them in Ottawa. They are not allowed to come to Ottawa. Very well. They will not come to Ottawa.
Why wouldn’t truckers now refuse to take deliveries for Ottawa?
Blockade? They are not preventing anyone else from delivering to Ottawa, are they?
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
Choose Your Canada
Liberal campaign ad, 2006:
Getting Rougher?
Not a Great Orator but an Important Message
I turned away from the Liberal Party and voted for several elections for the NDP because in 1970, the NDP was the only federal party that voted against the War Measures Act. I was shocked at the time that the Conservatives did nothing to protect our civil liberties. They just joined in the herd.
It is consoling to know that Robert Stanfield admitted later that it had been a grave mistake.
Let's pray and hope the Canadian Parliament does not make a graver mistake now.
A note: Pat King is not one of the organizers of the convoy. He's clearly a bit of a nut. Some suspect he is a government plant.
February 17, 2022
Statement from Ottawa Lawyers
Canadian Civil Liberties Association Launches a Lawsuit
The Illegal Occupation
It annoys me to so regularly hear the protest in Ottawa called an “illegal occupation”; and it annoys me that this is so rarely challenged.
This is not an occupation. It is a peaceful, and as I understand it, therefore legal, protest.
Merriam-Webster defines occupation as:
a: the act or process of taking possession of a place or area : SEIZURE
“Spain's occupation of the island.”
b: the holding and control of an area by a foreign military force
“the Roman occupation of Britain”
c: the military force occupying a country or the policies carried out by it
“The occupation addressed the concerns of the local population.”
None of these apply. The truckers are not claiming possession of Wellington Street. They are merely parking there.
They are ordinary Canadians, not a foreign military force. It is their capital.
Oxford defines occupation as:
2. The action, state, or period of occupying or being occupied by military force.
“The Roman occupation of Britain”
2.1The action of entering and taking control of a building.
“the workers remained in occupation until October 16”
The truckers are occupying no buildings. They are parking in the public street, and anyone else is free to come and go. This includes traffic—the truckers have left one lane open. Acccordingly, there is also no “blockade.”
If there is anything illegal here, it is only a parking violation.
And the government is declaring a national emergency and taking on dictatorial powers to deal with parking violations? And threatening years in prison and seizure of assets?
If you catch one side in a dispute lying, and lying consistently, it is proof they are in the wrong. If you believe truth favours your side, you will insist on it.
The government has been lying about the protests with consistency.
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
My Letter to My MP
Dear Mr. Erskine-Smith:
The Prime Minister’s invocation of the Emergency Act is exactly the sort of dangerous overreaction of which I warned in a previous email. Use it now to suppress an inconvenient peaceful protest, and any government in future can use it to suppress dissent. Canadian democracy itself is thereby endangered, if not ended. Should this happen, the only way to restore the integrity of our institutions will be to revoke the act altogether, leaving Canada defenseless in a real emergency.
This is a reckless path that is certain to escalate tensions. There is no possible way this will not leave divisions and ill-feelings in our civil society, even if our democracy and our nation survives.
I call on you to act to pull us back from this brink.
Sincerely,
Stephen K. Roney
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
View from New York
