Right-Wing Kooks Destroyed Convoy To Ottawa
Thanos @ Fri Feb 22, 2019 3:46 pm
It was supposed to be about putting pressure on the government to knock it off with the deliberate Liberal sabotaging of Canada's resource economy. Instead it got sabotaged from within by a bunch of Infowars-grade of cranks who gave the shit media all the excuse they needed to ignore the resource issue and concentrate entirely on the alt-right nutcases in the crowd. What a waste of time and energy. 
https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/colum ... ershadowed
$1:
The United We Roll convoy to Parliament Hill this week was a success on so many levels.
It highlighted some important issues. The problem is they may have been the wrong ones.
This convoy was meant to deliver a large, loud and clear wake-up call for Ottawa to get its act together on resource legislation. No issue in Canada is more important today. The convoy’s goal was to build on the success of massive resource convoys in the West and take this same message and momentum to Ottawa.
But that didn’t happen. I could clearly see that from my seat in a truck parked on the Hill on Tuesday morning with a Suits and Boots supporter who had driven 3,400 kilometres from southern Alberta to Ottawa to join the convoy.
Crowds were thin. On Wednesday, the second day of the event, more than half the convoy had left and only a few dozen people showed up to hear the speeches on the Parliament grounds. The noise and distraction over immigration and other non-resource issues lingering with the convoy clearly took its toll.
“I didn’t come here for this,” my friend said, looking out the window of his Kenworth. “I’m not here to protest immigration. I want to get a goddam pipeline built, and that’s it!”
Red Deer’s Glen Carritt is to be congratulated for getting this convoy safely to Ottawa. Let’s hope the journey home goes as well. Everyone involved has invested huge amounts of time, energy and money into an ambitious grassroots project.
But it came up short. There’s a reason for that.
Almost all of the organizers and many of the truckers and supporters of the convoy wore yellow safety vests. In France, those vests have been worn by masses of protesters fighting against government fuel tax hikes.
Here in Canada, the yellow vest has been adopted by a smaller circle of populist protesters, a subset of which is more often than not portrayed as being racist and anti-immigrant. Most of the general public and a large part of the media have zero interest in making the distinction between the two yellow vest groups.
This Ottawa convoy’s birth was a difficult one. The yellow vest participation in it resulted in several changes in leadership of the event, as mainstream people who didn’t want to be associated with that movement dropped out.
So, the remaining convoy organizers adopted the United We Roll name to clear away the yellow vest stigma. They said that while people on the convoy to Ottawa may wear a yellow vest, it wouldn’t be a “Yellow Vest” event.
But it was.
Support for pipelines was indeed there, but immigration and other concerns clearly were top of mind for many of those clad in yellow vests, and they were happy to speak about that in the news media.
They demanded an end to a non-binding United Nations declaration on global migration. They railed against “global governance.” They were calling for the prime minister to be tried for treason.
All of this was catnip for the media. The focus of media coverage inevitably became immigration issues, with only passing mention of resource support. Phone calls and emails from friends at home watching media reports from the Hill confirmed that for us.
What does a UN global migration accord have to do with Bill C-69? How is calling for the prime minister to be put on trial for treason going to encourage the Senate to rethink or re-write its impact assessment legislation? What does this all have to do with logging, mining, railroads, oil and gas?
Nothing.
What’s the answer?
Maybe the key is this: let’s make sure future resource sector rallies or convoys stay in one single lane.
The national conversation about resource issues is too important to be muted by other matters, so they need to stay on the side of the road.
The result would likely a bigger show of force and wider, deeper support.
If yellow vest supporters want to join the fight for more responsible resource sector policy, they are more than welcome to do so.
But next time, let’s pick a lane. One lane only — the responsible resource sector support lane. And stay there.
Rick Peterson is the founder of Suits and Boots, a not-for-profit group of investment industry professionals who support Canada’s resource sector workers and their families.
It highlighted some important issues. The problem is they may have been the wrong ones.
This convoy was meant to deliver a large, loud and clear wake-up call for Ottawa to get its act together on resource legislation. No issue in Canada is more important today. The convoy’s goal was to build on the success of massive resource convoys in the West and take this same message and momentum to Ottawa.
But that didn’t happen. I could clearly see that from my seat in a truck parked on the Hill on Tuesday morning with a Suits and Boots supporter who had driven 3,400 kilometres from southern Alberta to Ottawa to join the convoy.
Crowds were thin. On Wednesday, the second day of the event, more than half the convoy had left and only a few dozen people showed up to hear the speeches on the Parliament grounds. The noise and distraction over immigration and other non-resource issues lingering with the convoy clearly took its toll.
“I didn’t come here for this,” my friend said, looking out the window of his Kenworth. “I’m not here to protest immigration. I want to get a goddam pipeline built, and that’s it!”
Red Deer’s Glen Carritt is to be congratulated for getting this convoy safely to Ottawa. Let’s hope the journey home goes as well. Everyone involved has invested huge amounts of time, energy and money into an ambitious grassroots project.
But it came up short. There’s a reason for that.
Almost all of the organizers and many of the truckers and supporters of the convoy wore yellow safety vests. In France, those vests have been worn by masses of protesters fighting against government fuel tax hikes.
Here in Canada, the yellow vest has been adopted by a smaller circle of populist protesters, a subset of which is more often than not portrayed as being racist and anti-immigrant. Most of the general public and a large part of the media have zero interest in making the distinction between the two yellow vest groups.
This Ottawa convoy’s birth was a difficult one. The yellow vest participation in it resulted in several changes in leadership of the event, as mainstream people who didn’t want to be associated with that movement dropped out.
So, the remaining convoy organizers adopted the United We Roll name to clear away the yellow vest stigma. They said that while people on the convoy to Ottawa may wear a yellow vest, it wouldn’t be a “Yellow Vest” event.
But it was.
Support for pipelines was indeed there, but immigration and other concerns clearly were top of mind for many of those clad in yellow vests, and they were happy to speak about that in the news media.
They demanded an end to a non-binding United Nations declaration on global migration. They railed against “global governance.” They were calling for the prime minister to be tried for treason.
All of this was catnip for the media. The focus of media coverage inevitably became immigration issues, with only passing mention of resource support. Phone calls and emails from friends at home watching media reports from the Hill confirmed that for us.
What does a UN global migration accord have to do with Bill C-69? How is calling for the prime minister to be put on trial for treason going to encourage the Senate to rethink or re-write its impact assessment legislation? What does this all have to do with logging, mining, railroads, oil and gas?
Nothing.
What’s the answer?
Maybe the key is this: let’s make sure future resource sector rallies or convoys stay in one single lane.
The national conversation about resource issues is too important to be muted by other matters, so they need to stay on the side of the road.
The result would likely a bigger show of force and wider, deeper support.
If yellow vest supporters want to join the fight for more responsible resource sector policy, they are more than welcome to do so.
But next time, let’s pick a lane. One lane only — the responsible resource sector support lane. And stay there.
Rick Peterson is the founder of Suits and Boots, a not-for-profit group of investment industry professionals who support Canada’s resource sector workers and their families.
All these idiots did was end up justifying the contemptable way that Central Canada and the national media already look at oil & gas, and Alberta in particular. Congratulations, Faith Goldy & pals, you finally had an impact on something. Too bad all you did was succeed in strengthening the opposition and badly harming those you were pretending to be in support of. Lousy RWNJ scum.
xerxes @ Fri Feb 22, 2019 4:55 pm
This happens to pretty much every protest movement. What starts with a single focus and good intentions get hijacked by the fringe interests and cranks who drive away the progenitors who don't anything to do with their BS and then the kooks become the face of the movement.
N_Fiddledog @ Fri Feb 22, 2019 5:28 pm
FieryVulpine @ Fri Feb 22, 2019 5:51 pm
Thanos Thanos:
It was supposed to be about putting pressure on the government to knock it off with the deliberate Liberal sabotaging of Canada's resource economy. Instead it got sabotaged from within by a bunch of Infowars-grade of cranks who gave the shit media all the excuse they needed to ignore the resource issue and concentrate entirely on the alt-right nutcases in the crowd. What a waste of time and energy.
Thanos Thanos:
All these idiots did was end up justifying the contemptable way that Central Canada and the national media already look at oil & gas, and Alberta in particular. Congratulations, Faith Goldy & pals, you finally had an impact on something. Too bad all you did was succeed in strengthening the opposition and badly harming those you were pretending to be in support of. Lousy RWNJ scum.
That assumes the Laurentian pinheads would have given them the light of day, which they would not have--yellow vests or sans yellow vests--since anyone that does not toe the (inner) party line is a racist, misogynistic, neo-Nazi in their myopic view. You keep saying if yourself, they look at anyone outside of their gilded urban enclaves with scorn and condescension. Nothing would have changed that.
Also note where the Parliament's attention was when convoy rolled into the capital: the SNC-Lavalin scandal. The PMO was solely focused trying to cover their asses after it came to light that they were running interference for their corporate buddies in Montreal. That really does show that no matter how many times they dress their platform up with progressive causes, the Laurentian "Consensus" (which is a hegemony in practice) and their bootlickers on the Lower Mainland are stuck in an early-20th century mindset and lack the ability to move past it.
EDIT: I happened to stumble across a demonstration in front of NEB headquarters in downtown Calgary on the way to an appointment. There were couple news vans so I checked it out and learned that they were demonstrating in favour of the TransMountain Pipeline ahead of the today's decision. I look on Twitter to see the usual anti-Western vitriol from the same divisive troglodytes.
herbie @ Fri Feb 22, 2019 6:46 pm
"unites grassroots patriots"
Haven't noticed anyone or anything that puts "patriot" forward is a right wing neo-nazi traitor yet? Sort of bullshit word like "Democratic Republic of".
PublicAnimalNo9 @ Sat Feb 23, 2019 11:39 am
xerxes xerxes:
This happens to pretty much every protest movement. What starts with a single focus and good intentions get hijacked by the fringe interests and cranks who drive away the progenitors who don't anything to do with their BS and then the kooks become the face of the movement.
And then idiots come along and blame the cranks instead of the media who shifts their focus because, well, that's what Groper is bailing them out for. Let's face it, the media knows fucking well how important the resource sector is to Canada. But when there's $600 million worth of freebies on the table, fuck what's important, let's help Groper deflect from it.
PublicAnimalNo9 @ Sat Feb 23, 2019 11:40 am
herbie herbie:
"unites grassroots patriots"
Haven't noticed anyone or anything that puts "patriot" forward is a right wing neo-nazi traitor yet? Sort of bullshit word like "Democratic Republic of".
Or Antifa.
Haven't noticed anyone or anything that puts "patriot" forward is a right wing neo-nazi traitor yet? Sort of bullshit word like "Democratic Republic of".
N_Fiddledog @ Sat Feb 23, 2019 12:30 pm
So here's how it was covered when it was covered:
$1:
Protesters took over Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill on Tuesday morning, rolling up in trucks with their horns blaring.
.@unitedconvoy we roll has arrived blaring their horns while driving down Wellington street #ottnews pic.twitter.com/Zq30UaBgTC
— Jeff Slack (@Jeffslack369) February 19, 2019
The United We Roll protest's main message is the ensure that Canada's agricultural and energy sectors are not forgotten by the federal government.
Many of those taking part, expressed the need for a pipeline to be built to provide more jobs in Alberta.
Emmanuel L'Ecuyer from Edmonton, Alberta explained to 1310 NEWS that Canada needs to come together when it comes to natural resources.
"I think every province [should] participate in the construction of Canada. It's really important from Alberta cause that's where I'm from, I'm also from Quebec, so I see both sides," said L'Ecuyer. "But right now Alberta needs a hand to get back on track and get back business going."
Those taking part in the convoy say it is part of a grassroots movement that gained support as they made their way across the country, but it's a movement that has garnered some criticism.
The convoy includes members of the Yellow Vest Movement, whose demonstrations across the country have had widely varying agendas, from supporting pipelines to denouncing a United Nations compact on global migration.
This has prompted some anti-hate groups to plan counter protests...
.@unitedconvoy we roll has arrived blaring their horns while driving down Wellington street #ottnews pic.twitter.com/Zq30UaBgTC
— Jeff Slack (@Jeffslack369) February 19, 2019
The United We Roll protest's main message is the ensure that Canada's agricultural and energy sectors are not forgotten by the federal government.
Many of those taking part, expressed the need for a pipeline to be built to provide more jobs in Alberta.
Emmanuel L'Ecuyer from Edmonton, Alberta explained to 1310 NEWS that Canada needs to come together when it comes to natural resources.
"I think every province [should] participate in the construction of Canada. It's really important from Alberta cause that's where I'm from, I'm also from Quebec, so I see both sides," said L'Ecuyer. "But right now Alberta needs a hand to get back on track and get back business going."
Those taking part in the convoy say it is part of a grassroots movement that gained support as they made their way across the country, but it's a movement that has garnered some criticism.
The convoy includes members of the Yellow Vest Movement, whose demonstrations across the country have had widely varying agendas, from supporting pipelines to denouncing a United Nations compact on global migration.
This has prompted some anti-hate groups to plan counter protests...
https://www.ottawamatters.com/local-new ... wa-1249821
The opinion writer at the Calgary Herald has a problem with that.
The yellow vest movement was part of the "United" We Roll rally. This broadened the scope of the protest.
Calgary opinionator doesn't like that. He thinks "United" We Roll should have been more exclusive. Why?
Conservative leaders Andrew Scheer and Maxime Bernier spoke at the rally. Does he think they could have attracted more or better speakers if the scope had remained centered only on pipelines. Does he think the rally in Ottawa would have been larger. Does he think that by being exclusive the media would have given it more attention?
None of that is true.
I imagine his point is that by watering down the focus of the protest it distracts from the what he sees as its only real point. So let's imagine that then. Let's imagine it was not called "United" we roll. Let's say it was called something like "More Pipelines."
Would the rally in Ottawa have been bigger. Would more and better speakers than Scheer and Bernier have turned up? In fact, would they have been there? Would the truckers have met more sympathy along the way than the small crowds of conservatives waiting with coffee in towns along the way. Would they have received more attention than they did receive for the pipeline issue.
The answer to all of those is no.
(See image below clearer here:
https://villagemedia.blob.core.windows. ... nvoy4.jpeg
Thanos @ Sat Feb 23, 2019 12:42 pm
Nothing says "I support pipelines" and building support among other Canadians by ranting at a Central Canadian media camera about Agenda 21 or scanning the sky for the black helicopters from the UN ZOG. Maybe QAnon himself, or even Laura Loomer, can make an appearance next time to add some real gravitas to the event.
N_Fiddledog @ Sat Feb 23, 2019 12:51 pm
That's the first I've heard of anything like that T. I don't think I believe you but earlier you appeared hyper-peeved because you'd heard the arch-enemy to followers of the Progressive Socialist media, Faith Goldy, was at the Ottawa rally.
There's a story to that. I listened to her podcast so I heard it.
She did not attend the rally in any kind of official capacity. She turned up. The organizers recognized her and asked her to speak. She didn't think that was a good idea. She felt she would intrude on the official speakers like Bernier and Scheer.
So the organizers said "Look over there, a couple football fields away, Faith. That's where antifa and the professional protesters of the left are gathering. Why don't you go over there and do what you do to distract them. That way we can have some quiet speeches over here. So she said she would and they drove her over with one those elevating crow's nest things the telephone companies use on the back of a flat-bed.
This is what happened:
Thanos @ Sat Feb 23, 2019 1:03 pm
I'm always peeved when something important gets wrecked by idiots. And the main criticism of the dick-brigade that I posted came from the organizers of the event, not the Canadian media that are always lying in wait to nail Alberta any way they can. That's why both Manning & Harper were always eternally vigilant against these destructive pests. They knew how easy to was for a lot of hard work and effort to get completely ruined by the bozo eruptions that accompany the cranks. This was supposed to be about our disinterested government Ottawa getting off their asses and doing something to get O&G activity going again and to get people back to work. Instead it got turned into the usual clown-act laughing stock thanks to some internet dungeon-dwellers.
N_Fiddledog @ Sat Feb 23, 2019 1:18 pm
Thanos Thanos:
I'm always peeved when something important gets wrecked by idiots.
Yeah me too. That's why I'm glad Faith decided to turn up to deal with those Antifa and professional protester "idiots" of the left. Don't you wish you had balls like that?
As to the rest - it was called "United" we roll. The Yellow vesters were always allied to it. It was conservatives offering cooperation on general Conservative principles along the way.
Don't believe me. Here listen to them as they tell you about it:
N_Fiddledog @ Sat Feb 23, 2019 1:26 pm
The blockading of pipelines is not an isolated issue. You can't expect any success dealing with it unless you deal with the larger intersectional issues all culminating at Progressive Socialist Globalism.
As to the specific issue of the Prog->comms holding back pipeline development in Canada it received more attention than it ever would have by "uniting" under the "united" we roll banner.
You want pipelines? Vote Max.
BeaverFever @ Sat Feb 23, 2019 1:29 pm
Desperate publicity- chasing Goldy at ut again. And again ot seems she’s largely ignored.
The United We Roll campaign was a 1-day blip in the news that barely captured the interests of Canadians and a total bust, thanks to the appearance of failed crazies like Goldy who turn everything they touch into absolute shit.
N_Fiddledog @ Sat Feb 23, 2019 1:32 pm
BeaverFever BeaverFever:
Desperate publicity- chasing Goldy at ut again. And again ot seems she’s largely ignored.
Really? Then why is it you Prog->Comms can't shut up about her?
She made your guys look ridiculous by distracting them at the Ottawa rally. Get used to being laughed at.