The Omicron wave had forced them out of business for weeks. On Monday, businesses were finally able to reopen across Ontario.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
Everywhere except downtown Ottawa.
Since Friday evening, the heart of the capital has been paralyzed by demonstrators. They are now less numerous, but still there, near the parliament, roaring their engines and ringing their horns.
Daycare centres, libraries, restaurants and shops in the area do not dare to reopen their doors. The police are asking residents to lock themselves up in their homes and wait for it to pass.
By force of circumstance, the demonstrators are thus imposing extreme confinement in downtown Ottawa. The irreducible swear that they will stay put until the government puts an end to… the confinement.
It’s silly, when you think about it. But that’s the kind of inconsistency to be expected from protesters willing to hold a city hostage in the name of freedom.
In Quebec, we will be treated to the same circus.
As the province gradually unravels, a “convoy for freedom”, Quebec sauce, promises to ” jamming the heart of the capital in the coming days.
They will converge from the North Shore, Beauce, Saguenay and elsewhere. Like the Ottawa protesters, they plan to make their hustle and bustle on Parliament Hill.
They will arrive just before the start of the Quebec Winter Carnival. This winter, the king of the party will not be the Bonhomme, but Bernard Rambo Gauthier.
PHOTO FROM A VIDEO ON FACEBOOK
Bernard Gauthier
The terror of the construction sites of Sept-Îles, tough-as-nails and loud-mouthed, a former member of the far-right group La Meute, has become a professional agitator, sorry, a defender of freedom.
I point that out, in case you’re still wondering if this movement has anything to do with truckers.
François Legault adopted a conciliatory tone on Tuesday to which he had not accustomed us.
Feeling the discontent rising, the Prime Minister offers a truce to the non-vaccinated. He is worried to see the Quebec people, however tightly woven, unraveling over the months of the pandemic.
The government therefore cancels its ill-advised plan to tax antivax. “It’s time to rebuild the bridges between Quebecers. It’s time to reach out. “About the demonstration that is preparing in Quebec, François Legault hopes that “it will be done with respect”.
It’s funny, but I wouldn’t bet my shirt on it. A presentiment, no doubt. Or is it this Facebook video, in which Bernard Gauthier tells the Prime Minister to “fuck it, fuck it, are you clear? »
Yes, yes, Rambo. It’s crystal clear.
François Legault is undoubtedly right to want to heal the increasingly apparent wounds of the health crisis. We still have to accept his outstretched hand.
Mr. Legault’s speech of appeasement contrasts with that of Justin Trudeau, visibly exasperated by the demonstrators in Ottawa. I would even dare to say that he is full of it truck.
“It is not by grumbling that we will end this pandemic. It is by getting vaccinated and listening to public health, ”he scolded on Monday. The tone was not unifying.
We can understand it. How to show indulgence to demonstrators who protest against the “dictatorship” by brandishing Nazi flags?
People who demand respect but piss on monuments to war heroes?
People crying out for compassion but stealing meals for the homeless?
There are limits to what you can tolerate.
Yes, we must reach out to the unvaccinated. Alright, we have to empathize with those who are weary of sanitary measures (who isn’t?). But there is a red line that should not be crossed.
This applies to politicians as well as to the media. This goes for those who participated in the Ottawa convoy in good faith. I mean: those who demonstrated to shout their fed up, nothing more.
These people have every right to express themselves. But they can’t close their eyes to what they saw on the streets of the capital – to what everyone else saw on the news.
Neither they, nor the media, nor the politicians can pretend it’s a handful of hotheads. As if it didn’t matter.
From the start, this convoy has been foul – and I’m not talking about the diesel fumes that reek of downtown Ottawa. I’m talking about the anti-Semitism, intolerance and racism that infect him to the core.
This pure, uninhibited hatred, nothing can ever excuse it.