Tag: protests

Capitol fence to be reinstalled ahead of Biden’s State of the Union address

Security officials will reinstall fencing around the Capitol next week ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address, Fox News can confirm.

U.S. Capitol Police are bracing for a potential “Freedom Convoy” truck protest to Washington D.C. for the March 1 speech. “Freedom Convoy” truckers have been protesting in Canada for weeks against coronavirus restrictions and vaccine mandates and caused a temporary blockade of the busy Ambassador Bridge border crossing between Windsor and Detroit. 

Capitol Police say they are “aware” of similar protests coming to Washington D.C. and are making plans to both “facilitate” First Amendment protest activity while working with law enforcement agencies and the D.C. National Guard to prepare for Biden’s address. 

“The United States Capitol Police and the United States Secret Service have been closely working together to plan for the upcoming State of the Union,” the U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement Friday. 

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Ottawa Mayor Announces Cars Seized During Freedom Protests Should be Sold to Cover Costs Incurred by City

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson told the CBC that the regime has the power to do this now that the Emergency Act was invoked by Prime Minister Trudeau.

The state-controlled CBC reported:

Ottawa’s mayor says any vehicles seized during the police crackdown on the occupation of the downtown should be sold to cover costs incurred by the city.

“We actually have the ability to confiscate those vehicles and sell them,” Mayor Jim Watson said Saturday.

“And I want to see them sold. I don’t want the return to these people who’ve been causing such frustration and angst in our community.”

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Australian Police Confirm Use of LRAD Sonic Weapon at Protest Against COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates

Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Policing have confirmed the use of a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD)—often regarded as a sonic weapon—at the massive protest against vaccine mandates in Canberra on Feb. 12, despite the Australian Federal Police (AFP) commissioner describing the crowd as “well behaved.”

“ACT Policing has deployed several types of loudspeakers and amplification devices to quickly and effectively convey voice messages to large, and often loud, crowds of people during the recent protest activity in Canberra,” an ACT Policing spokesperson said in a statement to The Epoch Times on Feb. 16.

“The [LRADs] were only used to convey spoken-word messages. The ‘alert’ function was not used.”

LRADs, also known as acoustic weapons or sound cannons, are used to project very loud sounds over long distances. While the voice function can be helpful to communicate in loud settings, the device’s most dangerous setting, the alert function, can cause brain damage, permanent hearing loss, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), dizziness, and disorientation.

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Canada wants to make financial aspects of Emergencies Act permanent

Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland wants to make permanent the invasive financial surveillance system introduced as part of the “Emergencies Act” to crush the civil liberties protests.

Freeland had announced the initial powers earlier this week to freeze the bank accounts of those who support the protests.

“As of today, all crowdfunding platforms, and the payment service providers they use, must register with FINTRAC and must report large and suspicious transactions to FINTRAC (Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada),” Freeland said at the time. “This will help mitigate the risk that these platforms receive illicit funds; increase the quality and quantity of intelligence received by FINTRAC; and make more information available to support investigations by law enforcement into these illegal blockades.

“This is about following the money. This is about stopping the financing of these illegal blockades. We are today serving notice, if your truck is being used in these illegal blockades your corporate accounts will be frozen.”

Under the Emergencies Act, banks are required to freeze accounts without the need for a court order.

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Canada Protesters Trampled By Police Horses, 100 Arrested

Canadian police have taken a hardline approach in an effort to break up the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa, with at least 100 arrested and mounted police trampling protesters on Friday.

Mounted police and officers clad in riot gear, some carrying rifles, moved in on the Freedom Convoy on Friday, pushing into crowds of people including children as protesters linked arms and sang the national anthem in an effort to block their advances.

Scuffles between police and protesters were reported, with Freedom Convoy members creating makeshift snow barriers to help them defend against the police.

Four senior protest leaders are among roughly 100 people who have been arrested — largely on ‘mischief’ charges — and two dozen vehicles blocking key roads having been towed out of the estimated 350 vehicles belonging to the protesters.

Police have refused to release numbers of remaining protesters or vehicles, AP reports.

Interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell claimed that no protesters were injured, despite footage circulating on social media of police horses trampling protesters at the convoy.

Ottawa Police attempted to justify this extreme behaviour by suggesting “a bicycle was thrown at the feet of one of the horses in an attempt to injure it”, but their account of events has been disputed.

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Militarized Police Abuse Peaceful Protesters in Ottawa After Trudeau Invokes War Powers Act

Militarized police launched a vicious assault on peaceful Freedom Convoy protesters on Friday after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked a War Powers act to suspend Canadians’ rights.

Videos shared on social media show police snipers on rooftops looking down as peaceful protesters are being abused, beaten, peppersprayed and arrested en masse.

A parliament session where Trudeau’s emergency order could have been challenged was conveniently canceled this morning “on the advice of security officials,” WSJ reported.

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Trudeau’s Prohibition on Protests Exempts Refugees, Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities

Justin Trudeau’s crackdown on protests under an Emergencies Act order specifically exempts refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants and other ethnic minorities.

Yes, really.

The Canadian government’s Emergency Measures Regulations: SOR/2022-21 order bans people from taking part “in a public assembly that may reasonably be expected to lead to a breach of the peace.”

However, the law does not apply to “any person in a class of persons whose presence in Canada, as determined by the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration or the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, is in the national interest.”

This includes Indians, refugees, immigrants, asylum seekers and ‘protected temporary residents’.

The exemptions have left some people asking if the prohibition order only applies to white people.

“Why are members of First Nations, refugees and temporary residents exempted from the prohibition to ‘participate in a public assembly that may reasonably be expected to lead to a breach of the peace’ as part of the Emergencies Act regulations?” People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier tweeted.

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Salt Lake Tribune uses hacked Freedom Convoy fundraising list to contact donors, asking why they donated

On Thursday, the Salt Lake Tribune joined other media outlets in using the hacked donor list of the Freedom Convoy fundraiser to contact donors and ask them why they donated.

This was not the first case of a journalist contacting the donors for a story – Canada’s state-funded CBC was also found to be doing the same.

On Sunday, crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo was hacked and the data of over 92,000 donors was stolen.

Since then, members of the media have been contacting people on the list.

A screenshot of an email sent by a journalist was shared by Libs of TikTok. The screenshot reveals that the journalist contacted the recipient asking to confirm whether they indeed made a donation and why they decided to donate to the campaign.

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