Police are undertaking one of the largest law enforcement operations in Canadian history to seal off and clear downtown Ottawa of demonstrators and large trucks that have been clogging up the streets for three weeks.
The multi-day operation started on Friday and involves hundreds of riot police, mounted officers and special obstacle-removal teams to deal with truckers who refuse to leave their rigs, according to a senior source with direct knowledge of the cordon-off-and-clear plan.
On Friday, House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota cancelled the House of Commons sitting, where MPs were to debate the federal emergency declaration, citing the expected police operation. The Senate has also cancelled sittings and told Senators not to come downtown. The Commons will resume sitting Saturday to debate the emergency measures, according to Government House Leader Mark Holland.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
PROTEST ORGANIZERS ARRESTED – Police have arrested two organizers of a three-week protest against pandemic restrictions and set up a perimeter around downtown Ottawa with almost 100 checkpoints to try to bring an end to the blockade, warning demonstrators who remained that “action is imminent.” Story here.
ONTARIO JUDGE FREEZES MILLIONS OF DOLLARS RAISED FOR OTTAWA PROTEST – An Ontario Superior Court judge in Ottawa has frozen millions of dollars, including funds held in cryptocurrency, that have been raised for the ongoing convoy protests in the nation’s capital. Story here.
GOVERNMENT URGED TO GRANT VISA-FREE UKRANIAN ACCESS TO CANADA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is facing calls to grant Ukrainians visa-free access to Canada so they can more easily flee a war with Russia. The Official Opposition on Thursday called on the government to allow visa-free travel from Ukraine, at least on a temporary basis. Story here.
EXEMPTION FOR UNVACCINATED TRUCKERS HANDLING COVID-19 VACCINES AND MEDICAL DEVICES – Unvaccinated truckers bringing COVID-19 vaccines and medical devices into Canada to combat the pandemic are exempt from testing and quarantine requirements at the border, a government order says. Story here.
POLICE INVESTIGATE ATTACK ON PIPELINE WORKERS – RCMP are investigating allegations that a group of about 20 people, some of them armed with axes, attacked security guards and smashed vehicle windows at a Coastal GasLink work site. The incident took place near Houston, B.C., where workers are building the Coastal GasLink pipeline, a key part of the LNG Canada project now under construction in Kitimat, B.C. Story here.
SASKATCHEWAN NDP LEADER QUITS – Saskatchewan NDP Leader Ryan Meili is stepping down as the embattled party begins searching for a new leader. Mr. Meli, the party leader since 2018, announced his resignation at his constituency office in Saskatoon on Friday morning. He will be staying on as leader until then, at his decision. Story here from the Saskatoon StarPheonix.
CANADA PAST OMICRON PEAK – The country’s top doctor says Canada is past the peak of the COVID-19 wave caused by the Omicron variant. Story here.
THIS AND THAT
TODAY IN THE COMMONS – The Commons is closed due to the police operation to clear protesters in Ottawa.
PARLIAMENT HILL CARILLONNEUR STEPS AWAY FROM THE HILL KEYBOARD – Q & A WITH DR. ANDREA MCCRADY – Friday’s police operation to clear protesters from downtown Ottawa forced the cancellation of one last performance by Dr. Andrea McCrady on the Peace Tower Carillon before the tower is off limits due to the renovation of Centre Block. The Carillon, opened in 1927, is a series of 53 bells – ranging in weight from 4.5 kilograms to 10,090 kilograms – played on a keyboard in the tower. They have been a Parliament Hill tradition since Canada Day, 1927. Dr. McCrady was born in America, but came to Canada in the 1970s to study medicine at McGill University. She began playing the carillon in 1971 as an undergraduate in the United States. She retired from medicine in 2006 to continue studying the carillon. Since 2008, Dr. McCrady has been Canada’s Dominion Carillonneur, with duties that include performing music in regular performances, promoting carillon studies and researching and adapting music for the carillon.
Dr. McCrady spoke to the Politics Briefing newsletter earlier this week, before Friday’s operation.
How would you describe your work?
Most Canadians have no clue what the carillon is all about. I am up in the tower performing live on a huge but very expressive instrument, like a weird mix between an organ or a piano or a threshing machine. It’s very unusual, but it is a concert instrument that can express a huge range of feelings and a big range of repertoire.
Your office is high up in the Peace Tower. How do you get there?
Well, I used to joke that I have the highest office on Parliament Hill. That is a small room that houses the playing keyboard, nestled inside the belfry and that is about two thirds of the way up the tower. My real office where I am speaking to you from is in East Block. I have a keyboard but it’s not attached to the bells.
How long will it be before you are back at your keyboard after this week?
That has yet to be determined. Work on the tower will begin as soon as next week. The carillon work will begin in late April, early May. The pandemic and these protests have certainly put wrinkles in the plan, but it is the house administration’s sincere wish that the work on the carillon will be complete well in advance of its 100th anniversary on July 1, 2027. We would love to be able to celebrate that by pealing off the bells in a big concert, but it’s yet to be determined.
So you’re going to be away for quite a substantial period of time.
I’m not playing in the tower, but I am not retiring. I am actively teaching the carillon through Carleton University and to a CEGEP student in Montreal. I have done a lot of arrangements I am going to digitize. I am going to catalogue the huge audio file. And I will continue to practice on my practice keyboard, and when travel restrictions lift, I will be playing music concerts in Canada, the United States, Europe.
How will it feel being away from the keyboard in the tower for a long period of time?
Other people ask me this question and it feels like a job interview. `What do you see yourself doing in five years?’ This instrument has been part of my life for the last 13-plus years. It is such a magnificent instrument. No two carillons are alike. They each have their own unique voice.
What impact have the protests had on your work?
It’s very discouraging. It’s disappointing. We had plans for this month of February, leading up to the tower closing, to just basically do the Peace Tower’s Carillon’s Greatest Hits. I have a whole slew of special recitals planned. And one by one, they got cancelled as the protest continued. Finally, it was decided that I could safely go up the tower. By the way, ever since Centre Block turned into a construction site, I have to have permission from the construction management at public works to play, and I wear a full construction PPE to enter the site – hard hat, goggles, reflective vest, steel-toed boots. I wasn’t prevented from playing due to the protests. I have played over and above many protests. It was the construction site that has to close for safety reasons so I couldn’t access the tower. This week, they decided, `Well, well. She better [perform].’ I have been glad that I could play any of these programs and I just keep worrying, `Uh oh. Is the police action going to happen. Will I even be able to play tomorrow.’ It’s one day at a time. There are no makeup dates. They do plan to start work inside the tower this spring so this is it.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
THE DECIBEL – British Columbia’s health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, is on Friday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast talking about some of her decisions in managing the pandemic in the province, where she sees the pandemic going in the near future and what it’s like being the face of public-health measures. The Decibel is here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Private meetings. The Prime Minister participates in a meeting to discuss Ukraine hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden with the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, the United Kingdom, the European Union and NATO. The Prime Minister also chairs the fifth meeting of the Incident Response Group on the illegal blockades.
LEADERS
No schedules released for party leaders.
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Boardon how, if COVID-19 doesn’t clear the bar for the Emergencies Act, does this: “The Conservatives and Bloc Québécois say they will vote against the motion. The New Democrats support it, and have the votes to give the Liberals a majority. However, on Thursday NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said in French that, ‘We are ready to pull our support if we no longer need to continue, if the measures are no longer necessary, or if the government adds powers.’ Good. Looking at the facts on the ground is the best way to consider which, if any, emergency powers are necessary, and how long to allow them to run for. Reasonable people can disagree as to whether activating the Emergencies Act, and the suite of legal tools the government crafted from it, made sense seven days ago. But whatever the strength of the arguments then, improved circumstances leave them considerably weaker today.”
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail)on a state of emergency that some truckers don’t believe is real:“Police were saying action is imminent, but many of the truckers didn’t believe it. The Emergencies Act, the written warnings from police to leave or face arrest, the government’s warning that bank accounts will be frozen – those are, to a number of the drivers parked on Ottawa streets, just blank threats. That’s one of the things that is most jarring about the standoff on Wellington St., even as the Emergencies Act was invoked. Many of the truckers didn’t believe it was true. And they didn’t entertain the notion that the protest could end badly.”
Rita Trichur (The Globe and Mail)on how the trucker blockades expose the weaknesses of Canada’s anti-money-laundering regime: “As it turns out, those horn-blaring, hockey-stick-wielding, flag-waving rabble-rousers have pulled off a feat that has long eluded even the most erudite financial-crime experts. Not only have they exposed shortcomings in Canada’s anti-money-laundering and anti-terrorist-financing regime, they’ve spurred the Trudeau government to fix them, at least temporarily. And in relatively short order, to boot.”
Robyn Urback (The Globe and Mail) on why Pierre Poilievre’s support for the convoy is not the fatal political decision it seems: “At first glance, Mr. Poilievre’s support of the convoy might seem to be a poor strategic decision. While it might not be a deal-breaker in Conservative circles, Mr. Poilievre will have to face the general electorate if he wins the CPC leadership, and that electorate overwhelmingly opposes the convoy, according to polling. But Mr. Poilievre’s eye, no doubt, is on the long game: An election is likely years out, and by that time most people’s memories of the protest will have faded (with the exception, perhaps, of those immediately affected in Ottawa’s downtown core).”
Kelly Egan (Ottawa Citizen) on Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson and the practice of politics most cruel: “I’ve always thought of Jim Watson as a cunning political operator. But not a cruel man — until that city council meeting on Wednesday. It was enough to make a grown man cry. In fact, it pretty much did. It was difficult, almost painful, to watch Coun. Mathieu Fleury deal with the resignation of his pal and ward neighbour, Rawlson King, from the police services board, as a matter of principle.”
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PHOENIX (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent proponent of debunked public health claims whom Donald Trump has promised to put in charge of health initiatives, said Saturday that Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water on his first day in office if elected president.
Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.
Kennedy made the declaration Saturday on the social media platform X alongside a variety of claims about the heath effects of fluoride.
“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” Kennedy wrote. Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, “want to Make America Healthy Again,” he added, repeating a phrase Trump often uses and links to Kennedy.
Trump told NBC News on Sunday that he had not spoken to Kennedy about fluoride yet, “but it sounds OK to me. You know it’s possible.”
The former president declined to say whether he would seek a Cabinet role for Kennedy, a job that would require Senate confirmation, but added, “He’s going to have a big role in the administration.”
Asked whether banning certain vaccines would be on the table, Trump said he would talk to Kennedy and others about that. Trump described Kennedy as “a very talented guy and has strong views.”
The sudden and unexpected weekend social media post evoked the chaotic policymaking that defined Trump’s White House tenure, when he would issue policy declarations on Twitter at virtually all hours. It also underscored the concerns many experts have about Kennedy, who has long promoted debunked theories about vaccine safety, having influence over U.S. public health.
In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later. Though fluoride can come from a number of sources, drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say.
Officials lowered their recommendation for drinking water fluoride levels in 2015 to address a tooth condition called fluorosis, that can cause splotches on teeth and was becoming more common in U.S. kids.
In August, a federal agency determined “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.
A federal judge later cited that study in ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that it’s not certain that the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower IQ in kids, but he concluded that mounting research points to an unreasonable risk that it could be. He ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but didn’t say what those measures should be.
In his X post Saturday, Kennedy tagged Michael Connett, the lead attorney representing the plaintiff in that lawsuit, the environmental advocacy group Food & Water Watch.
Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization has a lawsuit pending against news organizations including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy is on leave from the group but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.
What role Kennedy might hold if Trump wins on Tuesday remains unclear. Kennedy recently told NewsNation that Trump asked him to “reorganize” agencies including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and some agencies under the Department of Agriculture.
But for now, the former independent presidential candidate has become one of Trump’s top surrogates. Trump frequently mentions having the support of Kennedy, a scion of a Democratic dynasty and the son of former Attorney General Robert Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy traveled with Trump Friday and spoke at his rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Trump said Saturday that he told Kennedy: “You can work on food, you can work on anything you want” except oil policy.
“He wants health, he wants women’s health, he wants men’s health, he wants kids, he wants everything,” Trump added.
Americans and Canadians are cousins that is true. Allies today but long ago people were at loggerheads mostly because of the British Empire and American ambitions.
Canadians appreciate our cousins down south enough to visit them many millions of times over the year. America is Canada’s largest and most important trading partner. As a manufacturer, I can attest to this personally. My American clients have allowed our firm to grow and prosper over the past few decades. There is a problem we have been seeing, a problem where nationalism, both political and economic has been creating a roadblock to our trade relationship.
Both Democrats and Republicans have shown a willingness to play the “buy only American Made product” card, a sounding board for all things isolationist, nationalistic and small-mindedness. We all live on this small planet, and purchase items made from all over the world. Preferences as to what to buy and where it is made are personal choices, never should they become a platform of national pride and thuggery. This has brought fear into the hearts of many Canadians who manufacture for and service the American Economy in some way. This fear will be apparent when the election is over next week.
Canadians are not enemies of America, but allies and friends with a long tradition of supporting our cousins back when bad sh*t happens. We have had enough of the American claim that they want free trade, only to realize that they do so long as it is to their benefit. Tariffs, and undue regulations applied to exporters into America are applied, yet American industry complains when other nations do the very same to them. Seriously! Democrats have said they would place a preference upon doing business with American firms before foreign ones, and Republicans wish to tariff many foreign nations into oblivion. Rhetoric perhaps, but we need to take these threats seriously. As to you the repercussions that will come should America close its doors to us.
Tit for tat neighbors. Tariff for tariff, true selfish competition with no fear of the American Giant. Do you want to build homes in America? Over 33% of all wood comes from Canada. Tit for tat. Canada’s mineral wealth can be sold to others and place preference upon the highest bidder always. You know who will win there don’t you America, the deep-pocketed Chinese.
Reshaping our alliances with others. If America responds as has been threatened, Canadians will find ways to entertain themselves elsewhere. Imagine no Canadian dollars flowing into the Northern States, Florida or California? The Big Apple without its friendly Maple Syrup dip. Canadians will realize just how significant their spending is to America and use it to our benefit, not theirs.
Clearly we will know if you prefer Canadian friendship to Donald Trumps Bravado.
China, Saudi Arabia & Russia are not your friends in America. Canada, Japan, Taiwan the EU and many other nations most definitely are. Stop playing politics, and carry out business in an unethical fashion. Treat allies as they should be treated.
