Economic disruption of the blockades was similar to the Mohawk blockade of railways about 2 years ago:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ottawa-rejects-police-intervention-to-put-an-end-to-blockades/

Similarly, mass lay offs and multi-billions of dollars of goods stuck sitting around waiting to get to the industries needing them.

Since at least 2012 the attempted expansion of an existing pipeline(Trans Mountain) was targeted continuously by blockades. Opposition and resulting delays leading to cost overruns so large that company ultimately halted the multi-billion dollar project.

In terms of dollars being lost, the convoy protest wasn't special. More over, the blockade of the border in Ontario that was causing the real economic damage was dismantled and removed before the 'emergency measures' were enacted. Which is to state, the emergency measures were primarily intended to clear out downtown Ottawa. In downtown Ottawa though, the damages were at minimum as localized as any of the lumber or pipeline blockades mentioned.


Prime Minister Trudeau couldn't be more unequivocal when he was expressing his support for the farmer protests in India and the Floyd protests in the US. Clip if you'd like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9EaSF6Y0eE

The protests in India absolutely did immensely more harm to India's economy than the convoy here did in Canada. The protests in support of Floyd were again unequivocally more violent than the convoy in Canada.

There really is no basis by which to point to the convoy's actions and find them in any way unique or distinct from multiple other protests within Canada, or ones abroad that have been either given more latitude, or outright embraced and supported.

The distinction as even you can't resist going after, is that their beliefs they are protesting for are stupid and wrong, so no right to protest for them. That isn't how the right to protest within a democracy should be allowed to work.

I also have to point out the 'ethical' argument isn't as cut and dry as you want to make it out either.
-Pipelines bad so blockading is good ignores the fact the same oil gets pumped regardless, it just gets loaded into trucks that burn even more oil to haul it and have a fair greater risk of accidents and spills.
-Defending the rights and lands of Aboriginal peoples(like at Coastal Gas Link site violently attacked with millions in damages while the convoy was being vilified for 'incitement') is anything but obvious. The Wet'suwet'en hereditary leaders made claim to parts of the pipeline route and demanded it be shut down. However, the same Wet'suwet'en people's multiple elected Band Councils signed on with their wishes to proceed with the project. In fact, ALL elected representatives of ALL the Bands with land along the route had ALL signed onto the project and wanting it to proceed. It is in no way obvious that ignoring the will of those other bands to favour the conflicting claims of the hereditary leaders is clearly the most respectful of the people's wishes.

Maybe he'll claim Biden's his secret puppet President-o-bot and therefore he can run 2024 as his 3rd term. Just like his master Putin rotating between Russia's President & Prime Minister-ship. That's his MAGA way of achieving his Third Reich.

Congratulations! Your video, New Zealand deputy prime minister to COVID denier, has reached the #1 spot in the current Top 15 New Videos listing. This is a very difficult thing to accomplish but you managed to pull it off. For your contribution you have been awarded 2 Power Points.

This achievement has earned you your "Golden One" Level 84 Badge!

Your video, New Zealand deputy prime minister to COVID denier, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Y'know, I saw that picture taken in New South Wales (Aussieland) of the gigantic goddamn spider that'd caught, and was in the process of eating, a sparrow. So I thought, "Huh -- that's some fucked-up shit right there, y'all..."

In your life, you will come to certain milestones, one of which is "accepting shit you ain't gonna be able to do nothin' about..." Y'know, stuff like Japanese people clubbing dolphins, the GOP and Furries. I mean, you're totally appalled, but there ain't shit you can do about it. You either accept it and move on, or head up to the roof of the apartment complex across the street from Anthrocon and see if you can get your name on the board.

That brings us back to the Dante-esque horror that was the gigantic goddamn spider from Boganland. What're you gonna do, right? You know that spider's paid off the Prime Minister and is on a Qantas flight to parts unknown (probably in whatever that class is that's above Business Class that the airlines keep totally fuckin' secret because of fears that if you found out they were serving dolphin steak and cocaine up near the pointy end of the aircraft, you might just decided to jump out of your seat, charge the hidden door to the Coked-Up Cetacean Lounge, and proceed to hoover every last flake of that fine, fine Peruvian blow -- or get shot seven times in the back if you're black) and will soon be consume children, the elderly, or blasted passengers stumbling off a Qantas A-380 with a wild look in their eyes and a coke-stache that would embarrass Chuck Barris.

So the moral of this story is: Jesus FUCK I love cocaine!!

Oh Fuck @bobknight33....
Your guy here is attempting to talk shit about New Zealand because some people lost jobs, 229000, most of which are in tourism and will return, but America lost well over 40000000, a huge number of which are gone permanently.
New Zealand has had 22 deaths, America, which fudges the numbers worse than China, has a reported 170000 and screaming upwards, the true number is likely twice that.
As for civil rights, they're not the same as America, no one took their rights you morons.
And again, you incredible fuckwits, days after ENDING lockdown they were reinfected, the lockdown worked.
New Zealand has different laws, and while the prime minister can delay the election in New Zealand legally, Trump absolutely can not, no matter the circumstances. Also, it's abundantly clear New Zealand isn't postponing to benefit any one candidate , but Trump was.
It's also abundantly clear New Zealand will hold their election. If Trump had his way, most people agree 2018 would be the last presidential election of his lifetime, after which he would designate Jarred (because as a woman, Ivanka couldn't possibly do it) to inherit the throne.
Besides, Trump wants to postpone not due to Covid, which he says is already over, is safe, is just a cold, only infects Democrats, only kills people already on their death beds, and is a hoax scheduled to miraculously disappear November 4th, he wants to postpone due to polls....or can you admit all that bullshit about how safe it is to vote in person is just that, utter bullshit, and he should be trying to help make vote by mail work to ensure maximum possible numbers of safe votes are counted, but no, he's both trying to postpone and saying it's safe and doing everything possible to make vote by mail AND absentee voting (which are the same thing, exactly the same checks and regulations despite Trump's lies) unreliable if not impossible.
He seems to forget absentee ballots, the vote by mail he's trying to get Republicans to use, also use the USPS. You can't cast absentee ballots if you can't cast vote by mail ballots. The only difference between them is absentees must claim in person is a hardship, otherwise they're exactly the same with the same verification processes.

More *lies and bullshit propaganda. The desperation is growing. Just fucking ridiculously dumb.

Massage from the Swedish Prime Minister

Your video, A message to children from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Don't forget to sign the petition kids!

This guy needs to read Proteinaholic by Dr. Garth Davis instead of getting his science from the CSIRO which has lost most of it's government funding and is now industry funded and coincidentally publishing protein fears and promoting animal product consumption quite heavily.....

Who would have thought bad things would happen to science when the Prime Minister of Australia is a Hillsong Christian nutbag.

Really? WE sponsored a VIOLENT coup? So you take the purely Russian viewpoint.
Wiki-
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Ukraine endured years of corruption, mismanagement, lack of economic growth, currency devaluation, and problems in securing funding from public markets.[38][39] Successive Ukrainian governments in the 2000s sought a closer relationship with the European Union (EU).[40][41] One of the measures meant to achieve this was an association agreement with the European Union, which would have provided Ukraine with funds in return for liberalising reforms. President Yanukovych announced his intention to sign the agreement, but ultimately refused to do so at the last minute. This sparked a wave of protests called the "Euromaidan" movement. During these protests Yanukovych signed a treaty and multibillion-dollar loan with Russia. The Ukrainian security forces cracked down on the protesters, further inflaming the situation and resulting in a series of violent clashes in the streets of Kiev. As tensions rose, Yanukovych fled to Russia and did not return.[44]

Russia refused to recognize the new interim government, calling the overthrow of Yanukovych a coup d'état, and began a military intervention in Ukraine. The newly appointed interim government of Ukraine signed the EU association agreement and agreed to reform the country's judiciary and political systems, as well as its financial and economic policies. The International Monetary Fund pledged more than $18 billion in loans contingent on Ukraine's adopting those reforms. The revolution was followed by pro-Russian unrest in some south-eastern regions, a standoff with Russia regarding the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol, and a war between the Ukrainian government and Russia-backed separatists in the Donbass.



The thing to remember about Crimea is it WASN'T PART OF RUSSIA, so no it didn't hold Russia's only black sea port not ice blocked in winter, it held a Ukrainian port Russia LEASED for use by it's black sea fleet from the Ukraine.
It's utter bullshit that Russia found a democratic way to invade and annex Crimea, they militarily invaded, seized and dissolved the democratically elected government by force, created and installed a new pro Russian sham government, then IT signed fake illegal treaties with Russia in violation of international laws and multiple binding treaties.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation_of_Crimea_by_the_Russian_Federation

Russian masked troops invade and occupy key Crimean locations, including airports and military bases, following Putin's orders.[2][3]
The head of Ukrainian Navy, Admiral Berezovsky, defects, followed later by half of the Ukrainian military stationed in the region.[4][5][6]
Russian forces seize the Supreme Council (Crimean parliament). The Council of Ministers of Crimea is dissolved and a new pro-Russian Prime Minister installed.[7][8]
The new Supreme Council declares the Republic of Crimea to be an independent, self-governing entity, then holds a referendum on the status of Crimea on 16 March, which results in a majority vote to join the Russian Federation.[9]
Treaty signed between the Republic of Crimea and the Russian Federation at the Kremlin on 18 March to formally initiate Crimea's accession to the Russian Federation.[10]
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are evicted from their bases on 19 March by Crimean protesters and Russian troops. Ukraine subsequently announces the withdrawal of its forces from Crimea.[11]
Russia suspended from G8.[12]
International sanctions introduced on Russia.

You sound distinctly Soviet or ridiculously ignorant in your misrepresentation of the situation. They militarily attacked, invaded, and seized their neighbor, so not a bit restrained, they were not invited in by the government and welcomed....or would you insist they are also exceptionally restrained for not attacking and retaking Anchorage Alaska, their only non winter ice bound port in North America, a port clearly more strategically important than Sebastopol and just as Russian?

It's not even as much that BLM disrupted the Pride parade, but that one of their demands was to ban the police from participating in the parade in the future. That's actively destroying years and years of hard fought progress to bring people together, and I can't fail to call that a bad thing. Again, I hope the US chapters are different in that much, and in many states there is also much more justified outrage against the police, which is very much unlike up here in Canada.

Canada's BLM held sit in protests demanding to meet with the chief of police and then repeatedly abandoned the meetings before they were supposed to happen. They then went on to condemn the police chief for having zero interest in protecting black civilians in Toronto. FYI, the chief of police of Toronto at the time was a black man.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/mark-saunders-police-black-lives-matter-1.3587533

A BLM toronto co-founder railed at how our Prime Minister, who makes Barack Obama look like very right -leaning, is a white supremacist terrorist. Rhetoric that just means absolutely nothing and looks like little more than gross false victimhood.

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/nzd4px/black-lives-matter-toronto-called-justin-trudeau-a-white-supremacist-terrorist

And then for good measure another co-founder squeezed in a quarter million dollar 'overtime' payment on their last week with the University of Toronto's Student Union. When the Student Union sued to get that money back as their was no documentation justifying paying out that kind of money all of a sudden the Student Union were racists. Eventually the case was settled with an undiclosed amount returned.

https://thevarsity.ca/2017/07/31/the-breakdown-the-utsus-lawsuit-against-former-executive-director-sandy-hudson/


BLM Toronto has done enough harm I am pretty comfortable saying I oppose them. The goal of making race relations better is of course good. Correcting injustices is of course good. I just don't see that coming from a group taking the actions I've seen, IMO they are actively making things worse, not better.

Again, that is specific to up here in Canada, I can't imagine that the US chapters can be as bad without it having been all over the media where I couldn't miss it. That said, up here I would likely have altogether missed everything but the parade as well save for having personally witnessed a just disgusting racist attack on someone at a an event. That led me to discover the attacker was tied in with BLM Toronto and suddenly seeing that as perhaps not an entirely isolated event .

Saudi Arabia apparently holds the Prime Minister of a sovereign nation hostage: link

Quick, let's sell them more weapons for their upcoming war against Lebanon. Maybe we'll even get the hot war against Iran we've been craving for more than a decade.

Pfsh, Asian names are easy... you want hard to pronounce? Go meet some Tongans or Samoans. The current Prime Minister of Samoa is Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi.

Hell, closer to America even... Irish:
Caoimhe, Siobhan. And the evil general in the new Star Wars movies isn’t “Dom Hall”... it’s pronounced “Donal”

Do please explain. I'm not sure how asking whether the new prime minister is responsible for a death warrants this kind of reaction.