An officer with the Calgary Police Service (CPS) has said he is disgusted with the actions of the Ottawa Police against peaceful protesters at the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa.
“Watching members of the Ottawa Police Service seize fuel from peaceful protesters took away a long-held belief that I thought to be a lasting truth,” said Nick Motycka in a video posted to YouTube last week. “And that is the police are here when push really comes to shove and to protect and help people.”
Motycka said that he has worked as a police officer with the CPS for about 10 years and served with the RCMP for six years prior.
He said that he will never see policing in the same way again, claiming that what he saw in Ottawa was the police “doing the politicians’ dirty work like hired goons.”
What Ottawa Police were doing, he said, goes against “why I chose this mostly thankless, difficult, traumatizing career with terrible hours.” He added that he became a police officer to help people.
Motycka said that he strove to apply the “front page of the newspaper test” every day he was on duty, which involved asking himself if he would be OK if whatever he was about to do was put on the cover of a newspaper. He said that doing what was right – even when it was tough – was always the right decision.
Motycka said the political influence on Ottawa Police is “so very wrong on so many levels.”
“‘I was just following orders’ is no longer an excuse,” he said. “It is time to stand up and speak out by refusing to breach your fellow citizens’ fundamental Charter rights.”
CPS confirmed to True North that Motycka is an officer with the service.
“We are aware of the matter and are investigating,” said CPS in an email. “The officer is currently on an unrelated leave from the service.”
The Freedom Convoy in Ottawa entered its 24th day on Tuesday.
On Day 24 of the Truckers for Freedom Convoy, the Ottawa police chief resigned, Quebec announced they were dropping their vaccine passports and RCMP hugged protesters at the Coutts border.
Just over two weeks into the protests, Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly announced that he would be resigning as criticism over his handling of the ongoing demonstrations made his position untenable.
“Since the onset of this demonstration, I have done everything possible to keep this city safe and to put an end to this unprecedented and unforeseeable crisis,” Sloly said in his statement posted to Twitter.
“It has been a difficult journey, but I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished.”
Ottawa mayor Jim Watson said on Power and Politics today that he believed Sloly “made the right decision.”
“The tipping point for me was that we were seeing no noticeable action in clearing out the baseball stadium, Wellington street and residential areas,” the mayor told CBC.
In response to the resignation, convoy organizer Benjamin Dichter posted to Twitter asking Sloly to “come down to the convoy and say hello to us.”
Haven't I been saying for almost a week that Chief Sloly will be taking early retirement. 🤔 We wish him all the best & thank him for his service. @OPSChiefSloly come down to the convoy & say hello to us. We know you were put in a difficult position. #TruckersForFreedom2022https://t.co/DByHJc1Cw1
“Haven’t I been saying for almost a week that Chief Sloly will be taking early retirement,” Dichter wrote. “We wish him all the best & thank him for his service…come down to the convoy and say hello to us. We know you were put in a difficult position.”
Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube announced that Quebec would be the latest province to be getting rid of their provincial vaccine passport regime.
“We’re doing it because it’s the right time to do it – because it’s safe for public health. And as I said, it’s there when we need it,” Minister Dube said.
As of Wednesday, unvaccinated Quebecers will no longer be banned from entering big-box stores, liquor stores or cannabis shops, and by Feb. 21, they will no longer need to show proof of vaccination to enter church or to attend weddings or funerals.
Quebec announced that all remaining mandates would be lifted on March 14.
The federal government also announced a slight easing of travel measures today.
As of Feb. 28, vaccinated Canadians will have the option of presenting a negative rapid antigen test or a molecular PCR test in order to meet pre-entry requirements.
Unvaccinated Canadians will still be required to be tested on arrival, and a mandatory 14-day quarantine is still in force, but unvaccinated children will no longer have to self-isolate for 14 days before returning to school or daycare.
Read more about the latest travel restrictions here.
In Ottawa, protesters were again seen dancing today, and the trucks along Wellington street have not been moved by law enforcement.
First day of emergency and no change is visible to the eye. Folks still coming in, some with their kids, see a few masked folks venturing into the protest, people dancing, cops pretty laid back, etc. A normal day under emergency in Ottawa. pic.twitter.com/uwLx8G47BP
A touching moment at the Coutts border was captured today and posted to social media as RCMP officers and demonstrators were seen hugging one another and shaking hands.
This was the first viral interaction between law enforcement and protesters since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the Emergencies Act.
The crowd sings O Canada and then proceeds to shake hands with the officers and yell “freedom.”
Interactions between law enforcement and demonstrators in British Columbia were not as friendly as in Alberta, however.
Rebel News reported that protesters were being arrested at the Pacific Highway border blockade.
BREAKING: Several arrests occurred Monday night at the Pacific Highway Border Crossing in Surrey B.C. where freedom protesters have been protesting at for over a week.
The head of Foreign Affairs for the Bharatiya Janata Party – one of India’s two largest political bodies – has called out Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for invoking the Emergencies Actto quash ongoing trucker convoy protests.
Dr. Vijay Chauthaiwale, who is a molecular biologist, blasted Trudeau’s hypocrisy on Tuesday, pointing to the fact that the prime minister supported ongoing protests in India in 2020.
“And this was (Justin Trudeau) when there were street protests in India ‘Canada will always be there to defend the rights of peaceful protesters,’ Chatuhaiwale tweeted in response to an article about the Liberals pledging to freeze the bank accounts of protestors.
And this was @JustinTrudeau when there were street protests in India "Canada will always be there to defend the rights of peaceful protesters" @CanadainIndia
When farmer protests rolled through India that year, Trudeau was criticized by the Indian government for his stance.
“Canada will always stand for the rights of peaceful protests anywhere in the world and we are pleased to see moves towards de-escalation and dialogue,” Trudeau had said of the India protests.
“Such actions, if continued, would have a seriously damaging impact on ties between India and Canada,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs wrote at the time of Trudeau’s stance.
Trudeau also negotiated with anti-pipeline protesters that same year who blockaded critical infrastructure and set train tracks on fire. He also appeared in solidarity with a Black Lives Matter protest in 2021 as riots and violence erupted throughout the United States.
Trudeau has been facing flack from the opposition in the House of Commons after invoking the Act on Monday and pledging to crack down on the peaceful protests seeking to end COVID-19 mandates across Canada.
“He name-calls people that he disagrees with, he wedges, he divides, he stigmatizes, yet in spite of all of his failure, the Coutts border has cleared, Windsor has opened up,” said interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen. “Provinces and police are doing their jobs, and blockades are starting to come down, but the prime minister thinks that now is the time to use this extreme measure and invoke the Emergencies Act. Isn’t it true that the prime minister’s actions can serve to actually make things worse and not make things better?.”
“This is about keeping Canadians safe, protecting their communities and neighbourhoods and ensuring jobs in our economy,” said Trudeau.
Despite Trueau’s move to suspend civil liberties and grant law enforcement additional powers, police have already managed to disperse truckers in Coutts, Alberta.
Not long before, the Ambassador Bridge standstill was also cleared.
Several civil and legal rights organizations have come out against Trudeau’s invocation of the act, saying it is unnecessary in the face of existing powers and that the current situation in Canada does not meet the high threshold necessary for its enactment.
Why did Justin Trudeau invoke the Emergencies Act? Did the Trucker Convoy movement really warrant drastic and sweeping new federal powers?
Using existing powers, courts and judges already stopped the truckers from honking, broke up the blockade on the Ambassador bridge connecting Windsor and Detroit, and seized millions of dollars that had been donated to the truckers.
What more does Trudeau want?
On today’s episode of the Candice Malcolm Show, Candice breaks down the facts leading up to this shocking announcement and outlines the three reasons she thinks are really behind this unprecedented power grab.
Prominent American political commentator Ben Shapiro has skewered Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for invoking the Emergencies Act to deal with peaceful protests across Canada.
“Justin Trudeau (who is definitely not Fidel Castro’s son!) cannot explain the legal basis for invoking the Emergencies Act, but he’s got his finance minister out there announcing that banks can freeze your account without a court order anyway if you donate to the truckers,” said Shapiro in a tweet on Tuesday.
Shapiro declared that Trudeau’s implementation of the Emergencies Act was “tyranny” and “a clarifying moment,” saying that for generations, the left has “promised that if they are handed emergency powers, they will protect citizens.”
Justin Trudeau (who is definitely not Fidel Castro's son!) cannot explain the legal basis for invoking the Emergencies Act, but he's got his finance minister out there announcing that banks can freeze your account without a court order anyway if you donate to the truckers.
The COVID-19 pandemic, Shapiro added, has proven that this promise is a lie because “centralized power often achieves precisely the opposite of its intended purpose.”
“Faced with the debunking of their generations-long promise, the left has two choices: (1) Abandon the faith or (2) burn the heretics,” he said. “Guess which one they’re choosing.”
Shapiro also chastized Trudeau for characterizing the protestors in the Freedom Convoy as a fringe minority.
“This sort of tactic, which Trudeau is picking up from the American left, is likely to be wildly unsuccessful,” he said in an interview on America’s Newsroom on Fox News last week. “Everybody can look at this convoy and see that they are not flying Nazi flags en masse, that these are not radical right-wingers.”
Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canadian history on Monday to give the federal government extra powers to manage the trucker protests.
“It is now clear that there are serious challenges to law enforcement’s ability to effectively enforce the law,” he said.
Trudeau said the Emergencies Act would give police more power to break up public gatherings deemed illegal and dangerous, including blockades and occupations.
The RCMP, he said, could enforce municipal bylaws and provincial offences where needed.
The Liberals also announced they were giving themselves sweeping financial powers on Monday.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said that crowdfunding platforms would have to register with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) under the Emergencies Act. She added that crowdfunding platforms would also have to report large and suspicious transactions to FINTRAC.
“We are making these changes because we know these platforms are being used to support illegal blockades and illegal activity, which is damaging the Canadian economy,” said Freeland.
The Freedom Convoy entered its 24th day on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is seeking to invoke the Emergencies Act because of the trucker convoy, which has been situated in Ottawa for coming up on three weeks. The government is not only trying to give more power to police, but also to banks, which will be expected to snitch on anyone they suspect of being involved in the convoy and even freeze their bank accounts.
True North’s Andrew Lawton talks about all this and takes your questions in this live edition of the show
Also, he is joined by Canadian Constitution Foundation litigation director Christine Van Geyn to discuss the constitutionality of the Emergencies Act.
Canadian civil rights and legal organizations across the political spectrum have come out squarely against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to implement the Emergencies Act to deal with trucker protests.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), the Canadian Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (CCCF) and the Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) have all released statements opposing Trudeau’s announcement on Monday, saying the current situation does not meet the high threshold required for the extraordinary legislation to be enacted.
“Governments regularly deal with difficult situations, and do so using powers granted to them by democratically elected representatives,” said the CCLA in a press release Tuesday. “Emergency legislation should not be normalized. It threatens our democracy and our civil liberties.”
The federal government has not met the threshold necessary to invoke the Emergencies Act. This law creates a high and clear standard for good reason: the Act allows government to bypass ordinary democratic processes. This standard has not been met. 1/3
— Canadian Civil Liberties Association (@cancivlib) February 15, 2022
Alongside grassroots protests calling for an end to ongoing COVID restrictions and mandates, blockades at border-crossings have sprung up in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario.
Despite all but the Manitoba blockade being reopened by Tuesday and the premier of Manitoba saying the Emergencies Act was unnecessary to address it, the Trudeau government announced that it was invoking the Emergencies Act – including adding sweeping financial powers – to protect the country’s economy.
“We are making these changes because we know that these platforms are being used to support illegal blockades and illegal activity which is damaging the Canadian economy,” Liberal finance minister Chrystia Freeland said on Monday.
BREAKING: Canada is now regulating crowdfunding platforms and crypto currency under the Terrorist Financing Act. pic.twitter.com/SMzVqonD8v
The CCLA pointed out that that the Emergencies Act “can only be invoked, according to its own terms, when a situation “seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians and is of such proportions or nature as to exceed the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it” or “seriously threatens the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada” and when the situation “cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada.”
“The Emergencies Act is there to address these kinds of extreme threats to Canada, not to protect the economy.”
The JCCF, which has been on the ground in Ottawa working with Freedom Convoy organizers from the beginning, characterized Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act as a farcical overreach of federal powers.
“Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau used the War Measures Act in 1970 to deal with violence, kidnapping and murder committed by terrorists in Quebec,” said JCCF lawyer Jay Cameron on Monday. “Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is considering using the Emergencies Act to deal with bouncy castles and ball hockey.”
“Peaceful protesters who feed the homeless, shovel snow, pick up garbage, dance in the streets, play street hockey, wave Canadian flags, sing the national anthem and set up bouncy castles for children do not ‘seriously endanger the lives, health or safety of Canadians,’ nor are these peaceful activities ‘of such proportions or nature as to exceed the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it.’”
Among the premiers – whose support Trudeau does not need – only Ontario’s Doug Ford has publicly endorsed the prime minister’s adoption of the measure, but did so after the Ambassador Bridge blockade had already been cleared.
“Provincial police forces already possess all of the powers necessary to enforce the law and keep the peace, as demonstrated in the Ontario Provincial Police’s successful clearing of the Ambassador Bridge,” said the CCF on Monday.
“It’s more a logistical challenge than a threat to the integrity of the country,” the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s Aaron Wudrick told the Wall Street Journal. Wudrick added, however, that several powers in the Emergencies Act – including compelling tow-truck drivers to help police move trucks – are a problem.
“It seems to me that compelling individuals against their will to help the government seems like a suspension of civil liberties.”
Justin Trudeau says the freedom convoy protesters are “limiting the freedoms of their fellow citizens.” He just invoked the Emergencies Act. pic.twitter.com/UNmXsoB43k
The Emergencies Act has never before been used in Canada, not even during the 1990 Oka Crisis that saw nearly 5000 soldiers deployed, 2 deaths and more than 100 injuries. The Act was not used on 9/11 nor during the 2014 Parliament Hill terror attack.
Trudeau had originally floated using the Emergencies Act in April 2020 at the start of the pandemic but was resoundingly opposed by the premiers. B.C. premier John Horgan is reported to have become so angry over the idea that he swore out loud.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Trudeau had yet to present to Parliament the required plan and justification for invoking the Act.
Quebecers will soon no longer have to show vaccine passports to access basic services and goods.
On Tuesday afternoon, Quebec premier Francois Legault announced that the province would completely phase out its vaccine passport system by March 14.
“We’re doing it because it’s the right time to do it – because it’s safe for public health. And as I said, it’s there when we need it,” said Quebec health minister Christian Dubé.
As of Feb. 16, Quebecers will no longer need to present proof of vaccination to enter big-box stores, liquor or cannabis stories.
By Feb. 21, Quebecers will not need to show their vaccine passports to enter places of worship or funerals.
Quebec will gradually lift its harsh vaccine mandates that limit access to groceries. Unvaccinated Quebecers will be able to go shopping at Walmart/Costco & for booze/pot starting tomorrow. They'll be allowed back into churches on Feb 21. Remaining mandates will lift on Mar 14. pic.twitter.com/F61LAchqxo
Since the freedom convoy began, multiple provinces have dropped their public health restrictions.
Quebec now joins Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, PEI and Ontario in phasing out its vaccine passport system.
As for Quebec’s announcement last month that its vaccine passports would soon require booster shots to remain valid, interim director of public health Dr. Luc Boileau said that it was unfeasible.
“We cannot move forward with a standardized vaccine passport with three doses because a lot of Quebecers, at least two million, maybe 2.5 or three million, have been infected recently, and we suggest they wait until eight to 12 weeks before receiving the third doses,” he said.
The latest decision to abandon the vaccine passport system is a total reversal to Quebec’s prior approach to the pandemic, which saw the province impose some of the harshest measures in the Western world.
In January, Legault was entertaining the idea of instituting a health tax for unvaccinated residents in the province. Additionally, the Quebec government moved to ban unvaccinated Canadians from big box stores, requiring them to have store escorts to enter pharmacy sections.
Masks will continue to be required for Quebec schools, however, and domestic travel by air or rail for unvaccinated Canadians remains prohibited.
Federal health minister Jean-Yves Dulos announced on Monday that the federal government would be easing multiple travel restrictions for vaccinated Canadians.
As of Feb. 28, Canadians will have the option of presenting a negative rapid antigen test or a molecular PCR test in order to meet pre-entry requirements.
Unvaccinated Canadians will still be required to be tested on arrival, and a mandatory 14-day quarantine is still in force, but unvaccinated children will no longer have to self-isolate for 14 days before returning to school or daycare.
Travelers can still be subject to random molecular tests at the airport but will not be required to enter quarantine while they wait for their results.
The federal government is also adjusting its travel health notice and will no longer advise Canadians to travel for essential purposes only.
Despite the changes, unvaccinated Canadians are still barred from boarding domestic and international flights or rail.
The decision to alter travel requirements comes one day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act to quash protests demanding the end of COVID-19 restrictions across Canada.
On Tuesday, the Quebec government also announced that it would be phasing out its vaccine passport system beginning on March 14.
The travel industry has been hard hit by federal and provincial COVID-19 public health orders.
Estimates claim that tourism in Canada collapsed by over 50% during the pandemic. Before the outbreak of COVID-19 in Canada, the industry was producing $105 billion in revenue a year but after lockdowns that fell to $53 billion.
Recently, the Crown corporation VIA Rail asked the federal government for a taxpayer bailout after it faced a 98% decline in revenues due to federal vaccine mandates and restrictions.
