4 ms·

The police, by ignoring the threat and letting the truckers set up, left Trudeau's hands tied here. Towing a semi in a very crowded downtown core is difficult w

The police, by ignoring the threat and letting the truckers set up, left Trudeau's hands tied here. Towing a semi in a very crowded downtown core is difficult with the drivers help. With a driver that does not want to be towed, the truck would stay there for much longer. And doing that with several hundred trucks, many of whom are the biggest customers of the towing companies, means towing them after they were allowed to set up would take months. The protestors had been told to remove their vehicles - telling them they could protest if they gave up their semis was not gonna happen. I think we can agree that it left us with 3 things: a dangerous precedent, a reminder to everyone that a centralized, cashless society has downsides, and a protest that ended after a week instead of being dragged on for months.

pas 4y ago
I don't understand the towing argument. If the driver/owner does not cooperate get a different driver, trucks are not that special, right? (Do they have so so so extra ignition locks?) Police not doing their job. Yep, and Ottawa did not want to rock that boat too much. (I can imagine they had some initial guess as how quickly they will give up, so it could be that that's why the police was lenient with them. But who knows.) While from a power and monopoly on violence perspective going after finances is very similar to using other means to get people to do this or that, but it sets a very bad precedent. Even if it's the easier way compared to doing the hard work of separating the truckers from their trucks one by one, and removing the trucks.