Ottawa city councillor and chair of the police services board Diane Deans told CBC’s Power and Politics on Tuesday that the trucker convoy was “treason” and “an insurrection.”
Deans’s comments come one day after Ottawa mayor Jim Watson put through a request by the city’s police chief for nearly 2,000 additional law enforcement personnel to crack down on the peaceful protestors in the capital.
“We all need to work together. This is not something this country has ever seen before,” said Deans. “I understand Mark Carney referred to it as sedition today. I think that’s exactly what it is. This is treason. This is way bigger. This is a group of well-polished professional people that are trying to overthrow the government.”
“It’s not a target on the City of Ottawa, it’s much bigger than that. It’s really an insurrection. It’s an attack on our democracy. It’s an attack on our federal government. It has a lot of international elements to it. The money is flowing from the US. This is right out of the Trump playbook.”
Politicians of all levels and the legacy media have increasingly cranked up their efforts to demonize the Freedom Convoy and its supporters. From before the truckers even arrived in Ottawa on Jan. 29, they have cycled through a series of nasty labels, including branding the convoy as domestic terrorists, white nationalists, fascists and criminals.
The idea that US funds were funnelled into the convoy can be traced back to statements made by Ottawa Police Service chief Peter Sloly before he helped to deplatform the convoy’s GoFundMe fundraiser.
“We are now aware of a significant element from the US that have been involved in the funding, the organizing, and the demonstrating,” Sloly claimed.
Despite repeated allegations that the convoy is backed by US money, Sloly has not provided any evidence to indicate that the protest received foreign funding.
After an emergency meeting of the police services board on Monday, Watson called for the federal government to provide an additional 1,800 law enforcement personnel to aid in quashing the protest, including 1,000 regular officers, 600 public order officers, 100 investigative officers, 100 civilian staff and supporting resources.
The Truckers for Freedom convoy entered its 17th day on Tuesday and had raised over $6.5 million USD on GiveSendGo.
