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Media coverage of these protests is vastly negative. I remember only a few years ago (2020) when protests were undoubtedly violent across the United States. Vid

by ahthat 5y ago

Media coverage of these protests is vastly negative. I remember only a few years ago (2020) when protests were undoubtedly violent across the United States. Video evidence of this violence as well as mass crowd driven theft was widely documented and distributed. I have yet to see video evidence of any violence from freedom convoys, and the ground based video evidence I have seen appears vastly peaceful. This does not mean there isn’t violence. Indeed, blockading roads could be construed as violence based on an argument for different definitions of the word. Yet, from my personal observations, it seems that the protests are essentially peaceful, citizens living in these cities are in support in large numbers, and this is running counter to the narrative being espoused in mainstream media sources, with the possible exception of Fox News. More or less it seems as though media sources are mischaracterizing these protests overall. Furthermore, it can be effectively argued that forcing workers to get vaccinated or lose their jobs is inherently discriminatory and perhaps even anti-freedom. But these are only my personal observations and conclusions, be what they are, a single individuals insight into the times occurring around him, debate as you will.

mplewis 5y ago
There's a lot to unpack here, but Ottawa residents are largely against the truckers occupying the roads of their city.
- gengelbro 5y ago
  How about citizens of Seattle when the CHAZ was operating? Were they majority for that?
  - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
    Considering that the CHAZ was in Capitol Hill, I assume the people in that neighborhood were supportive. As for the rest of us in Seattle, most of us never even visited or saw the place (how often does someone who doesn't live in Capitol Hill visit Capitol Hill?), so it was just something we would see on CNN if we were bothering to watch the news at all (it was cool to see FoxNews have some of our buildings burning down even if it wasn't true, their media narrative was pretty messed up).
    - nostrademons 5y ago
      I've got a friend who lives on Capitol Hill in Seattle. She hated it - it had all the negative effects of the convoy in Ottawa, about not being able to get where you want to go safely. I suspect that's how it goes for most instances of protest or civil unrest - the apolitical people in the area hate it, because they're the ones you're inconveniencing to make a point, while distant folks' feelings are determined by whether the protesters are on their side.
    - lenkite 5y ago
      > Considering that the CHAZ was in Capitol Hill, I assume the people in that neighborhood were supportive... Frustrated residents near Seattle's 'CHOP' zone want their neighborhood back: https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/frustrated-residents-near-seattles-chop-zone-want-their-neighborhood-back/281-b4c94c67-9183-4c8f-91ef-7371c86fe5f7 https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/frustrated-resident... Capitol Hill residents and businesses sue city of Seattle for failing to disband CHOP: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/capitol-hill-residents-and-businesses-sue-city-of-seattle-for-failing-to-disband-chop/ https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/capitol-hill-resid... Two teenagers shot in Seattle's Chop autonomous zone: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53224445 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53224445 Another Fatal Shooting in Seattle’s ‘CHOP’ Protest Zone: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/us/seattle-protests-CHOP-CHAZ-autonomous-zone.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/us/seattle-protests-CHOP-... > It was cool to see FoxNews have some of our buildings burning down even if it wasn't true, their media narrative was pretty messed up What do you mean "it wasn't true" ? It was certainly true. People were formally charged for carrying out the act. https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/spd-rioters-tried-trap-officers-inside-burning-precinct-using-rebar-concrete/5AERWGBGYJE7DC6CLW3PEKKAEE/ https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/spd-rioters-tried-trap-offi... "According to the criminal complaint, DAVID-PITTS had arrived in Seattle from Alaska just three days before Monday’s protest. After marching with the group in downtown Seattle, DAVID-PITTS is seen on surveillance video piling up trash against the sally-port door at the Seattle Police East Precinct. Over an eleven minute period the surveillance video captures DAVID-PITTS not only piling up the trash, but repeatedly lighting it on fire and feeding the flames with more trash. While DAVID-PITTS was lighting the fire, other people who appeared on the surveillance were attempting to use crowbars and cement-like materials to try to disable the door next to the sally-port to prevent officers from exiting the building" https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/alaska-man-charged-federally-setting-fire-seattle-police-east-precinct https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/alaska-man-charged-fede...
  - ahthat 5y ago
    I’m a Seattlelite, my perception from amongst friends was that the Capitol Hill experiment was very supportive, at least initially
    - simfree 5y ago
      There certainly was quite a bit of community support for the protests on Capitol Hill and the liberation of Cal Anderson Park and the surrounding area from being flooded with tear gas for weeks on end. Most of the people who were in my scout troop participated at one point or another, the Capitol Hill Business Alliance was broadly supportive, albiet they were focused on business centric issues. Many of the businesses in the area operated like normal as well. Eventually though the park was looking like a Nicklesville (old Seattlites know the etymology of this), and the crowd that had driven back the cops, painted the street with a mural, and acted in solidarity with their neighbors had dwindled, leaving just those that saw free food, free camping and few people left encouraging sociable behavior.
  - gopher_space 5y ago
    It didn’t really affect anyone who wasn’t on tv. I’d only think about it when a friend from out of state would ask what it’s like. The BLM marches closed freeways once in a while but it’s hard to make I5 noticeably worse. I’ve sat in longer backups more frequently in Seattle due to drunk drivers in Tacoma, for example. It really wasn’t a big enough deal for there to be a majority opinion either way, I’d imagine. I’d completely forgotten about it until I read your post.
- giantg2 5y ago
  Support in large numbers and largest against are not necessarily contradictions. There can be a majority against something and still have a large minority for something. For example, if 1 in 4 support something, that 250k Ottawa residents.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- ahthat 5y ago
  https://youtube.com/c/Ottawalks https://youtube.com/c/Ottawalks Hours of footage here
alspacka 5y ago
11 people were arrested on weapons charges at the Alberta blockade (handguns and body armor) and one person was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder for trying to run over police with his tractor
- jterrys 5y ago
  That's still a considerably small number of people considering the protesters number in the tens of thousands
- giantg2 5y ago
  That says a lot if that's what a violent protest looks like in Canada when the "peaceful" ones in the US involve millions of dollars in property damage and numerous injuries or deaths.
  - danudey 5y ago
    Well yeah, it's not like we lost a hockey game or anything. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Vancouver_Stanley_Cup_riot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Vancouver_Stanley_Cup_rio... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Vancouver_Stanley_Cup_riot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Vancouver_Stanley_Cup_rio...
    - OJFord 5y ago
      Strangest to me there is actually the realisation that 'loo' being a mainly British word (I knew that), over there they're not called 'portaloos'. ('Porta-potties'!) (Further, both trademarks. Or at least were.)
  - flyingcircus3 5y ago
    While we're on the subject of the fallacy of relative privation, you'll surely acknowledge that the closure of the Ambassador Bridge for a week is a couple orders of magnitude worse than the 2020 protests. After all, the appropriate measure of a protest is dollars lost, and hundreds of millions of dollars of goods cross the bridge every day.
colinmhayes 5y ago
> citizens living in these cities are in support in large numbers Source? The US polls I've seen show 60% support for vaccine mandates, which is probably why the government feels so confident in shutting down the protests. The media I've seen isn't portraying the protestors as violent but as a nuisance.
- ahthat 5y ago
  Hours of footage https://youtube.com/c/Ottawalks https://youtube.com/c/Ottawalks
- giantg2 5y ago
  Do the polls have how many support the protest? If 20% do, then that would be 200k residents in the city. I consider 200k, or 20% of the population to be a large number. Still a minority, but a large minority.
- danudey 5y ago
  It does irritate me that the media are referring to it by their own name, "The Freedom Convoy", when it should be something more neutral and objective, like "the Harassment Convoy".
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
  What do US polls have to do with Canadian protests? I mean aren't those just arm chair supporters in the USA?
  - colinmhayes 5y ago
    I'd be interested to see canadian polls if you've got them.
908B64B197 5y ago
> Media coverage of these protests is vastly negative. Keep in mind that in Canada a lot of the media is state owned and operated. So the media coverage might reflect more on what the ruling party wants the people to think of the protests. On the livestreams they had music blasting and children playing in the snow near the trucks. Doesn’t look like an “insurrection”, as the state media described it, by any stretch (unless they fear snowballs!).
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > On the livestreams they had music blasting and children playing in the snow near the trucks. Doesn’t look like an “insurrection”, Except for the existence of snow, it sounds like things I’ve seen around fighters in the Palestinian intifada. I think you have an unrealistic view of what an insurrection looks like.
- SketchySeaBeast 5y ago
  > Keep in mind that in Canada a lot of the media is state owned and operated. So the media coverage might reflect more on what the ruling party wants the people to think of the protests. Sure, there's the CBC but the rest of our media is not state owned, so that's a weird claim to make.
  - ghettoCoder 5y ago
    You’re partially correct. Don’t forget the goodie bag the media gets to “support journalism” which basically is a huge pot of money. Or Telford bragging she could get articles written published to smear to smear someone. It not too hard to make the connection between money and favours now is it?
  - lowkey 5y ago
    Except in this case the major private Canadian media all participated in taking something like $600 million Canadian dollars in subsidies from the government. Justin Trudeau even had the audacity to joke about having bribed the media. [0] I think it is reasonable to consider the possibility that these handouts may have biased the media to the point where they may be reluctant to bite the hand that feeds them. [0] https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2022/justin-trudeau-600-million-dollar-media-bribe/ https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2022/justin-trudeau-60...
skeeter2020 5y ago
>> citizens living in these cities are in support in large numbers, what are you possibly basing this on? >> But these are only my personal observations and conclusions Oh, opinion. So you complain that the media coverage is "vastly negative" because... you feel it is.
- giantg2 5y ago
  Well they did say they were watching videos of it and it seemed peaceful. Basically that the videos they are seeing don't support the message they are hearing. I would be interest to see evidence either way.
- dang 5y ago
  Please don't cross into the flamewar style here. Your comment is a noticeable step in that direction, which is against both the letter and the spirit of the site guidelines. You can make your substantive points without that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- fbnhA 5y ago
- ahthat 5y ago
  https://youtube.com/c/Ottawalks https://youtube.com/c/Ottawalks Hours of footage
danudey 5y ago
> it seems that the protests are essentially peaceful, citizens living in these cities are in support in large numbers This is not true in any of the relevant cities; it is an extremely vocal, and very small, minority of people who are in support, and I can guarantee you that most of the few people who do support it would change their minds if it was their neighbourhood people were honking in all night. Note that over 90% of Canadian truckers are already vaccinated, and similar percentages of the large urban centres being harassed are vaccinated as well. Most people are entirely against these "protests", and will be happier when they're over. > Furthermore, it can be effectively argued that forcing workers to get vaccinated or lose their jobs is inherently discriminatory It cannot be effectively argued, because it is not discriminatory; "people who refuse to believe in medical science" is not a protected class. If you need to get a background check to get a job, that is not discriminatory. If you need to have a license to do a job, that is not discriminatory. If you need to be vaccinated to do your job (not just COVID, but otherwise), that is not discriminatory. > and perhaps even anti-freedom. Freedom has limits. You don't have the freedom to endanger others. Freedom does not mean "I get to eat my cake and have it too"; it means you're able to make a choice. Do you want to get vaccinated and do your job, or do you want to refuse to get vaccinated and leave that job so that you aren't endangering others? What these people are protesting is that they made their choice and have to deal with the consequences of that choice. If you don't want to get a driver's license, you can't protest that you should still be allowed to drive a car; if you don't want to get a passport, you can't protest that you should still be allowed to travel internationally. The rules and restrictions are clear and up-front. Also: I have friends in Ottawa, and am hearing multiple reports of people being harassed or threatened by these "protesters" (many of whom are acting more like terrorists, trying to intimidate everyone around them) for something as simple as wearing a mask.
II2II 5y ago
> Furthermore, it can be effectively argued that forcing workers to get vaccinated or lose their jobs is inherently discriminatory and perhaps even anti-freedom. From my understanding, this is only the case for truckers crossing the border. Most of the vaccination mandates I have heard of have been at the provincial or municipal levels and only affect employees of the government or publicly controlled institutions (health, education, police). Even then, it is typically on unpaid leave. Relatively few mandates have come from Ottawa, simply because it isn't their jurisdiction. They aren't leaving much room for human rights complaints, particularly since I believe employers were already within their rights to demand certain vaccinations. I very much doubt that it would even qualify as discriminatory, since it does not affect protected classes.
- glennvtx 5y ago
  It is not the employers that are demanding these people be vaccinated, They just want their products delivered. The government wont allow drivers to cross an imaginary line without submitting to vaccination: an even more egregious trespass of an individuals liberty than their usual practice of extortion and/or delay.
  - sudosysgen 5y ago
    If by imaginary line you mean an international border and by government you mean the US government, at least the first part is factual. As for the second part, the US has been asking for a whole host of vaccinations in order to get a visa for multiple decades, same for the Canadian one, so I don't see how it's "an even more egregious trespass of an individuals liberty than their usual practice".
  - Teever 5y ago
    Do you actually think that referring to borders as 'imaginary lines' is productive? Like do you think that it ads to the conversation, or persuades people to agree with you? Why do you do it?
pyuser583 5y ago
Near where I live, one of the BLM protestors tried to burn down the local 911 center. He’s currently in prison for arson. Haven’t seen anything like that in this protest, but honestly I haven’t been looking too close.
- mwarkentin 5y ago
  Obviously a lot of details unknown at this point, but: https://globalnews.ca/news/8600592/trucker-convoy-police-investigating-arson-apartment/ https://globalnews.ca/news/8600592/trucker-convoy-police-inv...
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
  Was he really a BLM protestor or just an arsonist looking for an opening to burn something down?
  - pyuser583 5y ago
    He had been involved in the protests for a while. He was part of a crowd of very angry protestors when he threw the incendiary. He had no previous convictions of arson.
    - stjohnswarts 5y ago
      You are trying to associate all BLM protestors with arson and it's simply a logical leap that I don't see how anyone can make.
- flyingcircus3 5y ago
  Why are the extreme examples of other events the baseline threshold for problems at subsequent events?
  - pyuser583 5y ago
    Because we evaluate the extremity of events relative to each other.
toss1 5y ago
Yeah, they intend fully peaceful protests and bring long guns, body armor, large cache of ammunition...[0] and call for the overthrow of the democratic government. This doesn't even resemble a spontaneous protest, it's organized and funded as part of the global push to fascism. The anti-vax component is a thin pretext. [0] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/coutts-protest-blockade-arrests-rcmp-monday-1.6351112 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/coutts-protest-blocka...
- lenkite 5y ago
  Far better than CHAZ which established a "no-police zone", did not even recognise the US government and where gangs regularly carried assault rifles. And of-course the shootings and the deaths were just glossed over and the whole movement glorified by the media. The global push to communism is far, far stronger than any step to fascism. https://www.the-sun.com/news/980814/heavily-armed-leftist-gun-club-seattle-chaz/ https://www.the-sun.com/news/980814/heavily-armed-leftist-gu... What deeply amueses me is Trudeau's quote: "When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern" https://twitter.com/justintrudeau/status/205322201187106816 https://twitter.com/justintrudeau/status/205322201187106816 Protest is terrific only when it doesn't happen in my backyard.

by ahthat 5y ago

mplewis 5y ago

There's a lot to unpack here, but Ottawa residents are largely against the truckers occupying the roads of their city.

gengelbro 5y ago
How about citizens of Seattle when the CHAZ was operating? Were they majority for that?
- seanmcdirmid 5y ago
  Considering that the CHAZ was in Capitol Hill, I assume the people in that neighborhood were supportive. As for the rest of us in Seattle, most of us never even visited or saw the place (how often does someone who doesn't live in Capitol Hill visit Capitol Hill?), so it was just something we would see on CNN if we were bothering to watch the news at all (it was cool to see FoxNews have some of our buildings burning down even if it wasn't true, their media narrative was pretty messed up).
  - nostrademons 5y ago
    I've got a friend who lives on Capitol Hill in Seattle. She hated it - it had all the negative effects of the convoy in Ottawa, about not being able to get where you want to go safely. I suspect that's how it goes for most instances of protest or civil unrest - the apolitical people in the area hate it, because they're the ones you're inconveniencing to make a point, while distant folks' feelings are determined by whether the protesters are on their side.
  - lenkite 5y ago
    > Considering that the CHAZ was in Capitol Hill, I assume the people in that neighborhood were supportive... Frustrated residents near Seattle's 'CHOP' zone want their neighborhood back: https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/frustrated-residents-near-seattles-chop-zone-want-their-neighborhood-back/281-b4c94c67-9183-4c8f-91ef-7371c86fe5f7 https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/frustrated-resident... Capitol Hill residents and businesses sue city of Seattle for failing to disband CHOP: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/capitol-hill-residents-and-businesses-sue-city-of-seattle-for-failing-to-disband-chop/ https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/capitol-hill-resid... Two teenagers shot in Seattle's Chop autonomous zone: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53224445 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53224445 Another Fatal Shooting in Seattle’s ‘CHOP’ Protest Zone: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/us/seattle-protests-CHOP-CHAZ-autonomous-zone.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/us/seattle-protests-CHOP-... > It was cool to see FoxNews have some of our buildings burning down even if it wasn't true, their media narrative was pretty messed up What do you mean "it wasn't true" ? It was certainly true. People were formally charged for carrying out the act. https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/spd-rioters-tried-trap-officers-inside-burning-precinct-using-rebar-concrete/5AERWGBGYJE7DC6CLW3PEKKAEE/ https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/spd-rioters-tried-trap-offi... "According to the criminal complaint, DAVID-PITTS had arrived in Seattle from Alaska just three days before Monday’s protest. After marching with the group in downtown Seattle, DAVID-PITTS is seen on surveillance video piling up trash against the sally-port door at the Seattle Police East Precinct. Over an eleven minute period the surveillance video captures DAVID-PITTS not only piling up the trash, but repeatedly lighting it on fire and feeding the flames with more trash. While DAVID-PITTS was lighting the fire, other people who appeared on the surveillance were attempting to use crowbars and cement-like materials to try to disable the door next to the sally-port to prevent officers from exiting the building" https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/alaska-man-charged-federally-setting-fire-seattle-police-east-precinct https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/alaska-man-charged-fede...
- ahthat 5y ago
  I’m a Seattlelite, my perception from amongst friends was that the Capitol Hill experiment was very supportive, at least initially
  - simfree 5y ago
    There certainly was quite a bit of community support for the protests on Capitol Hill and the liberation of Cal Anderson Park and the surrounding area from being flooded with tear gas for weeks on end. Most of the people who were in my scout troop participated at one point or another, the Capitol Hill Business Alliance was broadly supportive, albiet they were focused on business centric issues. Many of the businesses in the area operated like normal as well. Eventually though the park was looking like a Nicklesville (old Seattlites know the etymology of this), and the crowd that had driven back the cops, painted the street with a mural, and acted in solidarity with their neighbors had dwindled, leaving just those that saw free food, free camping and few people left encouraging sociable behavior.
- gopher_space 5y ago
  It didn’t really affect anyone who wasn’t on tv. I’d only think about it when a friend from out of state would ask what it’s like. The BLM marches closed freeways once in a while but it’s hard to make I5 noticeably worse. I’ve sat in longer backups more frequently in Seattle due to drunk drivers in Tacoma, for example. It really wasn’t a big enough deal for there to be a majority opinion either way, I’d imagine. I’d completely forgotten about it until I read your post.
giantg2 5y ago
Support in large numbers and largest against are not necessarily contradictions. There can be a majority against something and still have a large minority for something. For example, if 1 in 4 support something, that 250k Ottawa residents.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
ahthat 5y ago
https://youtube.com/c/Ottawalks https://youtube.com/c/Ottawalks Hours of footage here

alspacka 5y ago

11 people were arrested on weapons charges at the Alberta blockade (handguns and body armor) and one person was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder for trying to run over police with his tractor

jterrys 5y ago
That's still a considerably small number of people considering the protesters number in the tens of thousands
giantg2 5y ago
That says a lot if that's what a violent protest looks like in Canada when the "peaceful" ones in the US involve millions of dollars in property damage and numerous injuries or deaths.
- danudey 5y ago
  Well yeah, it's not like we lost a hockey game or anything. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Vancouver_Stanley_Cup_riot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Vancouver_Stanley_Cup_rio... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Vancouver_Stanley_Cup_riot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Vancouver_Stanley_Cup_rio...
  - OJFord 5y ago
    Strangest to me there is actually the realisation that 'loo' being a mainly British word (I knew that), over there they're not called 'portaloos'. ('Porta-potties'!) (Further, both trademarks. Or at least were.)
- flyingcircus3 5y ago
  While we're on the subject of the fallacy of relative privation, you'll surely acknowledge that the closure of the Ambassador Bridge for a week is a couple orders of magnitude worse than the 2020 protests. After all, the appropriate measure of a protest is dollars lost, and hundreds of millions of dollars of goods cross the bridge every day.

colinmhayes 5y ago

> citizens living in these cities are in support in large numbers Source? The US polls I've seen show 60% support for vaccine mandates, which is probably why the government feels so confident in shutting down the protests. The media I've seen isn't portraying the protestors as violent but as a nuisance.

ahthat 5y ago
Hours of footage https://youtube.com/c/Ottawalks https://youtube.com/c/Ottawalks
giantg2 5y ago
Do the polls have how many support the protest? If 20% do, then that would be 200k residents in the city. I consider 200k, or 20% of the population to be a large number. Still a minority, but a large minority.
danudey 5y ago
It does irritate me that the media are referring to it by their own name, "The Freedom Convoy", when it should be something more neutral and objective, like "the Harassment Convoy".
stjohnswarts 5y ago
What do US polls have to do with Canadian protests? I mean aren't those just arm chair supporters in the USA?
- colinmhayes 5y ago
  I'd be interested to see canadian polls if you've got them.

908B64B197 5y ago

> Media coverage of these protests is vastly negative. Keep in mind that in Canada a lot of the media is state owned and operated. So the media coverage might reflect more on what the ruling party wants the people to think of the protests. On the livestreams they had music blasting and children playing in the snow near the trucks. Doesn’t look like an “insurrection”, as the state media described it, by any stretch (unless they fear snowballs!).

dragonwriter 5y ago
> On the livestreams they had music blasting and children playing in the snow near the trucks. Doesn’t look like an “insurrection”, Except for the existence of snow, it sounds like things I’ve seen around fighters in the Palestinian intifada. I think you have an unrealistic view of what an insurrection looks like.
SketchySeaBeast 5y ago
> Keep in mind that in Canada a lot of the media is state owned and operated. So the media coverage might reflect more on what the ruling party wants the people to think of the protests. Sure, there's the CBC but the rest of our media is not state owned, so that's a weird claim to make.
- ghettoCoder 5y ago
  You’re partially correct. Don’t forget the goodie bag the media gets to “support journalism” which basically is a huge pot of money. Or Telford bragging she could get articles written published to smear to smear someone. It not too hard to make the connection between money and favours now is it?
- lowkey 5y ago
  Except in this case the major private Canadian media all participated in taking something like $600 million Canadian dollars in subsidies from the government. Justin Trudeau even had the audacity to joke about having bribed the media. [0] I think it is reasonable to consider the possibility that these handouts may have biased the media to the point where they may be reluctant to bite the hand that feeds them. [0] https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2022/justin-trudeau-600-million-dollar-media-bribe/ https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2022/justin-trudeau-60...

skeeter2020 5y ago

>> citizens living in these cities are in support in large numbers, what are you possibly basing this on? >> But these are only my personal observations and conclusions Oh, opinion. So you complain that the media coverage is "vastly negative" because... you feel it is.

giantg2 5y ago
Well they did say they were watching videos of it and it seemed peaceful. Basically that the videos they are seeing don't support the message they are hearing. I would be interest to see evidence either way.
dang 5y ago
Please don't cross into the flamewar style here. Your comment is a noticeable step in that direction, which is against both the letter and the spirit of the site guidelines. You can make your substantive points without that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
fbnhA 5y ago
ahthat 5y ago
https://youtube.com/c/Ottawalks https://youtube.com/c/Ottawalks Hours of footage

danudey 5y ago

> it seems that the protests are essentially peaceful, citizens living in these cities are in support in large numbers This is not true in any of the relevant cities; it is an extremely vocal, and very small, minority of people who are in support, and I can guarantee you that most of the few people who do support it would change their minds if it was their neighbourhood people were honking in all night. Note that over 90% of Canadian truckers are already vaccinated, and similar percentages of the large urban centres being harassed are vaccinated as well. Most people are entirely against these "protests", and will be happier when they're over. > Furthermore, it can be effectively argued that forcing workers to get vaccinated or lose their jobs is inherently discriminatory It cannot be effectively argued, because it is not discriminatory; "people who refuse to believe in medical science" is not a protected class. If you need to get a background check to get a job, that is not discriminatory. If you need to have a license to do a job, that is not discriminatory. If you need to be vaccinated to do your job (not just COVID, but otherwise), that is not discriminatory. > and perhaps even anti-freedom. Freedom has limits. You don't have the freedom to endanger others. Freedom does not mean "I get to eat my cake and have it too"; it means you're able to make a choice. Do you want to get vaccinated and do your job, or do you want to refuse to get vaccinated and leave that job so that you aren't endangering others? What these people are protesting is that they made their choice and have to deal with the consequences of that choice. If you don't want to get a driver's license, you can't protest that you should still be allowed to drive a car; if you don't want to get a passport, you can't protest that you should still be allowed to travel internationally. The rules and restrictions are clear and up-front. Also: I have friends in Ottawa, and am hearing multiple reports of people being harassed or threatened by these "protesters" (many of whom are acting more like terrorists, trying to intimidate everyone around them) for something as simple as wearing a mask.

II2II 5y ago

> Furthermore, it can be effectively argued that forcing workers to get vaccinated or lose their jobs is inherently discriminatory and perhaps even anti-freedom. From my understanding, this is only the case for truckers crossing the border. Most of the vaccination mandates I have heard of have been at the provincial or municipal levels and only affect employees of the government or publicly controlled institutions (health, education, police). Even then, it is typically on unpaid leave. Relatively few mandates have come from Ottawa, simply because it isn't their jurisdiction. They aren't leaving much room for human rights complaints, particularly since I believe employers were already within their rights to demand certain vaccinations. I very much doubt that it would even qualify as discriminatory, since it does not affect protected classes.

glennvtx 5y ago
It is not the employers that are demanding these people be vaccinated, They just want their products delivered. The government wont allow drivers to cross an imaginary line without submitting to vaccination: an even more egregious trespass of an individuals liberty than their usual practice of extortion and/or delay.
- sudosysgen 5y ago
  If by imaginary line you mean an international border and by government you mean the US government, at least the first part is factual. As for the second part, the US has been asking for a whole host of vaccinations in order to get a visa for multiple decades, same for the Canadian one, so I don't see how it's "an even more egregious trespass of an individuals liberty than their usual practice".
- Teever 5y ago
  Do you actually think that referring to borders as 'imaginary lines' is productive? Like do you think that it ads to the conversation, or persuades people to agree with you? Why do you do it?

pyuser583 5y ago

Near where I live, one of the BLM protestors tried to burn down the local 911 center. He’s currently in prison for arson. Haven’t seen anything like that in this protest, but honestly I haven’t been looking too close.

mwarkentin 5y ago
Obviously a lot of details unknown at this point, but: https://globalnews.ca/news/8600592/trucker-convoy-police-investigating-arson-apartment/ https://globalnews.ca/news/8600592/trucker-convoy-police-inv...
stjohnswarts 5y ago
Was he really a BLM protestor or just an arsonist looking for an opening to burn something down?
- pyuser583 5y ago
  He had been involved in the protests for a while. He was part of a crowd of very angry protestors when he threw the incendiary. He had no previous convictions of arson.
  - stjohnswarts 5y ago
    You are trying to associate all BLM protestors with arson and it's simply a logical leap that I don't see how anyone can make.
flyingcircus3 5y ago
Why are the extreme examples of other events the baseline threshold for problems at subsequent events?
- pyuser583 5y ago
  Because we evaluate the extremity of events relative to each other.

toss1 5y ago

Yeah, they intend fully peaceful protests and bring long guns, body armor, large cache of ammunition...[0] and call for the overthrow of the democratic government. This doesn't even resemble a spontaneous protest, it's organized and funded as part of the global push to fascism. The anti-vax component is a thin pretext. [0] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/coutts-protest-blockade-arrests-rcmp-monday-1.6351112 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/coutts-protest-blocka...

lenkite 5y ago
Far better than CHAZ which established a "no-police zone", did not even recognise the US government and where gangs regularly carried assault rifles. And of-course the shootings and the deaths were just glossed over and the whole movement glorified by the media. The global push to communism is far, far stronger than any step to fascism. https://www.the-sun.com/news/980814/heavily-armed-leftist-gun-club-seattle-chaz/ https://www.the-sun.com/news/980814/heavily-armed-leftist-gu... What deeply amueses me is Trudeau's quote: "When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern" https://twitter.com/justintrudeau/status/205322201187106816 https://twitter.com/justintrudeau/status/205322201187106816 Protest is terrific only when it doesn't happen in my backyard.