February 15, 2022
Back

Emergency Law Invoked As Canadians Mull Identity - Yahoo News

Joe Thottungal, the owner of the Thali restaurant in Ottawa, who has been cut off from many of his customers by the protesters occupying the city's downtown, in Canada, Feb. 8, 2022. (Ian Austen/The New York Times)
Joe Thottungal, the owner of the Thali restaurant in Ottawa, who has been cut off from many of his customers by the protesters occupying the city's downtown, in Canada, Feb. 8, 2022. (Ian Austen/The New York Times)

OTTAWA, Ontario — It seemed a classically Canadian moment in a scene otherwise torn from the book of Trump America.

Between the intersection transformed into a mosh pit and the graceful Parliament buildings cluttered with “fake news,” “the Great Resist” and “Covid red pill” signs, a middle-aged man named Johnny Rowe perched on a median last weekend with an amplifier and a simple greeting.

“Welcome to Ottawa,” he called out to the hordes streaming down the middle of the street, many hollering “freedom.” “Thank you for coming.”

If the outside world is baffled by the scenes unfolding in the streets of Canada, so are many Canadians. They are dumbfounded, perhaps none more so than the government officials who have stood by largely slack-jawed as giant trucks stake out ground in the normally placid capital, shaking and honking at night as people cheer and dance, neighbors be damned.

As demonstrations kept flaring, the government on Monday invoked the Emergencies Act, which greatly increases the government’s power to crack down on protest, and in Alberta the police arrested 11 people and seized a large cache of weapons. Earlier, traffic resumed over the Ambassador Bridge, a major international route blockaded for a week, and officials announced that they were lifting some contentious vaccine pass requirements.

The chaos of recent weeks has left many wondering if Canada is witnessing the birth of a political alt-right, or if it is a pandemic-induced tantrum that, once exhausted, will curl itself asleep, leaving behind a country bewildered but essentially unchanged. It could also be, some argue, that the so-called freedom convoy is not an aberration at all but a mirror to an integral part of the country that doesn’t fit the stereotype, and so is ignored?

The unrest seems a rebuff to the cherished mythology imposed on Canada’s citizens from abroad and held by many Canadians themselves as moderate, rule-following, levelheaded — and just plain nice.



source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/emergency-law-invoked-canadians-mull-124701926.html

Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.