To suggest these ordinary citizens are "fascists" solely on the basis of the fact that you disagree with their political view demonstrates how far out that you really are. Do you actually think all these people in Canada (of all places) are "fascists" including pastors? LOL.
Itac reported that supporters of the convoy have “advocated civil war”, called for violence against prime minister Justin Trudeau, and said the protest should be “used as Canada’s ‘January 6’”, in a reference to the storming of the US Capitol.Itac also drew attention to a constellation of other demonstrations across the country, including in Quebec City where “the QAnon flag was observed, and the extremist group La Meute stated that approximately 100 members participated in the protest.” La Meute, or The Pack is one of the most visible and influential far-right, anti-Islam organizations in Quebec. It also claimed to have sent supporters to the Ottawa protests, the report said.To suggest these ordinary citizens are "fascists" solely on the basis of the fact that you disagree with their political view demonstrates how far out that you really are. Do you actually think all these people in Canada (of all places) are "fascists" including pastors? LOL. What is truly creepy is to come to a JFK forum day after day for years cutting and pasting news articles to the tune of thousands of posts. It is downright bizarre.
Canada was warned before protests that violent extremists infiltrated convoy
Exclusive: intelligence assessments warned in late January that it was ‘likely’ extremists were involved in protestsDays before the so-called Freedom Convoy reached Ottawa, starting a weeks-long occupation of Canada’s capital and triggering a string of copy-cat blockades, the federal government was warned that violent extremist groups were deeply involved in the protest movement.
Intelligence assessments – prepared by Canada’s Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (Itac) and seen by the Guardian – warned in late January that it was “likely” that extremists were involved and said that the scale of the protests could yet pose a “trigger point and opportunity for potential lone actor attackers to conduct a terrorism attack”.
The assessments offer the first real glimpse into how federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies have assessed the threat of Canada’s anti-vaccine and conspiracy theory movement.
“We knew these people were coming,” said a federal government source, who indicated that the Security Intelligence Service Canada – Canada’s main intelligence service, of which Itac is a part – had flagged the involvement of extremist groups and individuals in official briefings.
The intelligence reports also show that clear warnings were sent to Ottawa police ahead of the convoy’s arrival in the capital. The city’s police has become the focus of a fierce debate over whether they should have done more to prepare for, or prevent, the occupation.
Itac reported that supporters of the convoy have “advocated civil war”, called for violence against prime minister Justin Trudeau, and said the protest should be “used as Canada’s ‘January 6’”, in a reference to the storming of the US Capitol.An early report, dated 27 January, Itac concluded that “a coordinated, complex terrorist attack or planned storming Parliament or other federal locations is unlikely”.
But it concludes that the potential for violence remained very real.
“While the organizers have declared that this is an act of peaceful protest, some ideologically motivated violent extremism followers in Canada have seized upon this rally to advocate for their own ideological objectives,” the January document reads. “Extremists and other individuals supporting Covid-19 conspiracy theories and violent anti-authority/anti-government views have expressed intent to participate in the convoy and to attend the accompanying protest in Ottawa.”
The assessment warns that protesters, and possible extremists, “could use rudimentary capabilities, such as trucks, cargo and fuel, to cause disruptions to infrastructure”.
Presciently, the report warned that the 31 January return of Parliament “could motivate a dedicated group of protesters to prolong their protest in Ottawa”.
Included in the report is a meme, which was shared widely in the early days of the convoy, which shows a map with a circle surrounding Ottawa and reads “permanent gridlock zone until freedom restored”.
As the occupation dragged into its second week, Itac issued another report on 8 February.
“All events remained relatively peaceful, with limited low-level conflict,” it reads. “However, violent online rhetoric and the physical presence of ideological extremists at some gatherings remain a factor of concern.”
The report makes particular mention of the QAnon figure Romana Didulo, the self-styled “Queen of Canada”, who has instructed her followers to kill healthcare workers and politicians. She and some of her followers appeared in Ottawa for the occupation, waving flags representing her supposed kingdom.
Itac also drew attention to a constellation of other demonstrations across the country, including in Quebec City where “the QAnon flag was observed, and the extremist group La Meute stated that approximately 100 members participated in the protest.” La Meute, or The Pack is one of the most visible and influential far-right, anti-Islam organizations in Quebec. It also claimed to have sent supporters to the Ottawa protests, the report said.
In the second report, Itac continued to assess the likelihood of a January 6-style insurrection as unlikely, but began warning that “the most likely ideologically motivated violent extremism-related scenario involves an individual or small group using readily available weapons and resources such as knives, firearms, homemade explosives and vehicles in public areas against soft targets, including opposition groups or members of the general public.”
Earlier this week at a blockade at the Coutts border crossing in Alberta, police arrested four men and charged them with conspiring to kill police officers and civilians.
On Wednesday, the public safety minister, Marco Medicino confirmed that some of those arrested had ties to some extremist elements in Ottawa. Some of the men arrested are believed to belong to a loose-knit group known as Diagolon.
Itac reports are largely based on open source intelligence, meaning information already available in the public domain, and law enforcement sources – the centre does not actively monitor individuals or conduct its own investigations.
The purpose of Itac is to provide various levels of local law enforcement with reliable information on emerging threats, said Stephanie Carvin, a former intelligence analyst with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service who now teaches at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa.
“They seem to recognize the nature of the event, and who’s coming to the event,” she said. But, the analysts appear to have missed some of the extreme elements of the leadership of the convoy, Carvin said. “It was a movement led by extremists to begin with, and we should not be surprised they turned to extremist tactics.”
Itac’s warning that only a dogmatic few would brave the Ottawa cold for parliament’s return on 31 January proved to be a significant underestimation. Yet, even that warning wasn’t heeded. The deputy chief of the Ottawa police service said in early February that they planned for “a potentially weekend-long demonstration”, and were caught off guard when the convoy parked in front of Parliament.
“Was the problem that he didn’t have the information?” Carvin said. “Or was the problem that they just don’t take white supremacy seriously?”Carvin said intelligence agencies had been briefing the Canadian government as far back as late December on the possible threat posed by the convoy.
“[The protest leaders] were exceptionally clear on what they wanted to do, and how they were going to go about doing it,” she said.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/17/ottawa-protests-anti-terror-agency-warned-violent-extremists5G and QAnon: how conspiracy theorists steered Canada’s anti-vaccine trucker protest
Ottawa’s occupation was a result of unrivaled coordination between anti-vax and anti-government organizationsThousands of demonstrators have successfully occupied Canada’s frigid capital for days, and say they plan on staying as long as it takes to thwart the country’s vaccine requirements.
The brazen occupation of Ottawa came as a result of unprecedented coordination between various anti-vaccine and anti-government organizations and activists, and has been seized on by similar groups around the world.
It may herald the revenge of the anti-vaxxers.
The so-called “freedom convoy” – which departed for Ottawa on 23 January – was the brainchild of James Bauder, an admitted conspiracy theorist who has endorsed the QAnon movement and called Covid-19 “the biggest political scam in history”. Bauder’s group, Canada Unity, contends that vaccine mandates and passports are illegal under Canada’s constitution, the Nuremberg Code and a host of other international conventions.
Bauder has long been a fringe figure, but his movement caught a gulf stream of support after the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, announced last year that truckers crossing the US-Canada border would need to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19. The supposed plight of the truckers proved to be a compelling public relations angle and attracted an array of fellow travelers.
Until now, a litany of organizations had protested Canada’s strict public health measures, but largely in isolation. One such group, Hold Fast Canada, had organized pickets of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s headquarters, where they claimed that concentration camps had already been introduced in the country.
Another group, Action4Canada, launched legal challenges to mask and vaccine mandates. In one 400-page court filing, they allege that the “false pronouncement of a Covid-19 ‘pandemic’” was carried out, at least in part, by Bill Gates and a “New World (Economic) Order” to facilitate the injection of 5G-enabled microchips into the population.
Both groups are listed as “participating groups” on the Canada Unity website, and sent vehicles and personnel to join the convoy.
Other organizers joined Bauder, including Chris Barber, a Saskatchewan trucker who was fined $14,000 in October for violating provincial public health measures; Tamara Lich, an activist for a fringe political party advocating that western Canada should become an independent state; Benjamin Dichter, who has warned of the “growing Islamization of Canada”; and Pat King, an anti-government agitator who has repeatedly called for Trudeau to be arrested.
Since they have arrived in Ottawa, the extreme elements of the protest have been visible: neo-Nazi and Confederate flags were seen flying, QAnon logos were emblazoned on trucks and signs and stickers were pasted to telephone poles around the occupied area bear Trudeau’s face, reading: “Wanted for crimes against humanity.”
The official line from Bauder and his co-organizers, however, has remained focused; in a Facebook live broadcast, Bauder instructed his supporters to “stop talking about the vaccine” and instead stick to message of “freedom”.
Such strict message control has attracted mainstream support. Numerous members of the Conservative party, Canada’s official opposition, have come out to meet the protesters. Elon Musk and Donald Trump have both endorsed the convoy. Fox broadcasters Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson have provided glowing updates on the continuing occupation.
Bauder vowed the convoy would camp out in Ottawa until their demands are met, insisting to his followers that a “memorandum of understanding” would force the government’s hand, possibly even triggering fresh elections, if enough people sign.
A Canada Unity organizer went further, saying it would require the Senate to “go after the prime minister” for “corruption” and “fascism”. There is no legal basis for those claims.
King has laid out a more direct plan of action to the occupiers: “What we want to focus on is our politicians, their houses, their locations,” he said in a January Facebook stream. If political pressure doesn’t work, King said, blocking major supply chains “will be later on”.
Soon after, the head of security for parliament issued an extraordinary warning to members of parliament to avoid the protest entirely, for their own safety.
The occupiers have deliberately made life difficult for anyone in Ottawa’s downtown core. Trucks have been laying on their air horns throughout the day, often well into the early morning hours. An Ottawa court granted an injunction on Monday afternoon, ordering that the honking must cease.
In the shadow of parliament, a flatbed truck was converted into a stage – functioning as a speaker’s corner during the day, where far-right politicians and occupiers took the microphone to decry Trudeau and Covid vaccines. At night, the stage functions as a DJ booth for raucous dance parties.
Technology has made the occupation even easier: drivers share information on routes and the best ways to evade police barricades via the walkie-talkie app Zello. Organizers in other cities use the secure messaging app Telegram to share information, coordinate messaging and plan solidarity protests.
The occupiers now have the resources to stay for an extended period of time: they have raised more than C$6m (US$4.7m) through various crowdfunding platforms, in cash and bitcoin, despite having been booted from GoFundMe’s platform after raising over C$10m.
The Ottawa occupation is proof that a few thousand determined protesters can overwhelm police and shut down major cities with enough vehicles and coordination. Solidarity convoys have shut down the busy Coutts border crossing between Alberta and Montana, strained police resources in Toronto and Quebec City, and activists as far away as Helsinki, Canberra, London and Brussels have taken note. On the convoy channels, protesters warn this is just the beginning.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/08/canada-ottawa-trucker-protest-extremist-qanon-neo-naziCanada’s public safety minister draws direct tie between Coutts, Ottawa protestsCanada’s public safety minister suggested Thursday at least one of the protesters arrested at an Alberta blockade on weapons changes had spent “some time” at the Ottawa protests.
The federal government has suggested there is coordination between the convoys that have blockaded international border crossings and those that have paralyzed downtown Ottawa in recent weeks.
Speaking to Global News Thursday, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino cited “public reports” to suggest at least one protester at the Coutts blockade was also present in Ottawa’s occupation.
“We are starting to see more and more public reports that show that those individuals who were a part of the Coutts illegal blockade also had spent some time in Ottawa,” Mendicino said in an interview.
“That’s in the public domain. Again, as to anything else that police and intelligence may be doing, those functions will be exercised independently of the government.”
In documents released late Wednesday evening, the government suggested the ongoing protests have become a magnet of “anti-government and anti-authority, anti-vaccination, conspiracy theory and white supremacist groups throughout Canada and other Western countries.”
The government also suggested that ex-police and ex-military members were providing security and logistics support for the blockade.
On Thursday, Canadian journalist Justin Ling, writing in the Guardian newspaper, reported that internal government documents suggested it was “likely” the convoy protests had been infiltrated by far-right extremist groups.It was the first firm indication that Canadian intelligence agencies had been aware of extremist elements co-opting legitimate protests.
A Feb. 8 assessment by the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre — which includes the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) — reviewed by Global News states
“the convergence of legitimate protest with ideological extremism both online and in cities across the country presents a possible trigger point and opportunity for potential lone actor attackers to conduct a terrorism attack.”The integrated terrorism unit assessed that the likelihood of a coordinated attack against Parliament, legislatures and government buildings remained small, but that “ideological-motivated violent extremism” actors could use “readily-available” weapons like knives, firearms, or vehicles against “soft” targets like counter-protesters.
Asked if he believes the allegedly coordinated behaviour from extremist groups at blockades across the country rises to the level of domestic terrorism, Mendicino said the government is concerned about the “tactics, the timing and the targets” of the protests
.“If you take a look at where the illegal blockades are interrupting trade and travel, they’re all at major ports of entry, so that’s concerning,” Mendicino said.
“When you overlay the rhetoric that is now rampant and being attributed to some of the organizers of the illegal blockades … it certainly seems very ideologically-motivated and extreme.”
It’s important to note that the alleged extremists who have latched onto the convoy protests have not been subtle or secretive when it comes to their beliefs and objectives.
Stephanie Carvin, a former CSIS analyst who now teaches at Carleton University, said that while law enforcement has been successful in clearing out blockades at international borders, their language suggests the threat is increasing rather than abating.
“Everything in this (government) document is pointing to an increasing threat,” Carvin said in an interview.
“I think what they’re saying is that … this is not a movement that is slowing down, this is a movement that is in some ways gaining speed.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/8628623/canadas-public-safety-minister-coutts-ottawa-protests/
