www.cbc.ca/news/politics/conservative-mps-poilievre-support-convoy-organizers-1.7590805
Pierre Poilievre, once again, has shown that he has learned absolutely nothing from his ill-fated support of the extreme right in Canada.
The two persons charged in the above CBC article were not simply making a political statement, they deliberately ignored the law by participating in public mischief. Those who took part were not simply protesting. They could have done that in a parking lot in rural Alberta. What they did was disrupt the lives of thousands of people in Ottawa for three weeks in 2022, damaging commerce and businesses by making people afraid to actually encounter those who held and hold radical and irrational views in this country.
Canadians writ-large support public health restrictions. There is a rational, reasonable and sound medical reason to do so. By Polievre supporting those who would endanger other Canadians who may well become infected with what could be a fatal disease he has shown his contempt for the care and welfare of Canadians, and has shown his inability to ‘think rationally’.
I can only imagine how abysmally Pierre would have handled Trump’s tariff debacle. He would have folded like a tent and grovelled on his knees, just to be included in the circus of stupidity.
And as someone who lost a friend to Covid and who contracted the illness twice, though retired and doing everything possible to minimize contact and receiving four sets of Covid vaccinations during that time, — (mostly due to those who refused to use reason and common sense), it was, and still is, more than aggravating. Canada doesn’t need or want radical and extremist views that are wholly unscientific and counter intuitive and irrational.
Let’s be patently clear. RFK and Trump’s Band of fools don’t represent Canada, and never will.
Invoking the Emergencies Act to bring an end to what was an unlawful and dangerous precedent in Canada was exactly the right thing to do, as the federal inquiry into the illegal actions by those involved stated in its justification for using the law.
Politicians should keep their personal ‘beliefs’ to themselves in relation to cases before the courts. This isn’t the United States of Truth Social stupidity, nor do the vast majority of Canadians support such action, as demonstrated by Mr. Poilievre losing his seat as a member of parliament.
The Conservative Party of Canada seems to be quite happy living in the political wilderness by constantly supporting extreme opinions of a minority of Canadians. Meanwhile Poilievre’s statements enforce that stupidity.
And while some Conservatives are truly rational and reasonable, they obviously had second thoughts about Mr. Poilievre as well.
Apparently, being shills for American right-wing religious and non-conformist minorities who irrationally oppose public health vaccinations and government policies that the vast majority of Canadians feel are scientifically valid, rational and reasonable, is still where the majority of Conservatives want to live.
When leaders legitimize public acts that are illegal, then they no longer deserve representation in government.
Meanwhile, once again, Canada is suffering the risk of experiencing serious infections that can and have killed children due to a small percentage of the population’s beliefs related to refusing vaccinations and immunizations.
This is unconscionable.
If people wish to eschew science and common sense, then stay away from hospitals or walk-in clinics and please, stop attending public venues during prime business hours where the rest of the population need to shop for groceries, merchandise, etc, etc. Those who have no ability to use scientific information, logic and reason, should then avoid those who do, as exposing others to what can be a dangerous pathogen is irresponsible and dangerous.
I have seen a whole group of people enter a restaurant, instead of going through the drive through, even though it was obvious that one person in the party was sick, coughing and sneezing.
Until Conservatives stop catering to the extreme right and realize that their minority agenda is working against them forming a government, I suppose the Conservatives will simply be a voice for the anti-scientific and for a fossil fuel industry that continues to ignore climate science and climate change that is having severe impacts for the remainder of the world’s population.
Heat waves, drought, insect infestations, CO2 levels that haven’t been seen in 60 million years, sea rise, ocean acidification, species depletion and a rapid increase in the severity and incidence of storms, flash floods, glacial melt, — as will as (in the not too distant future), the failure of the AMOC in the Atlantic Ocean, are just the beginning of the issues facing us because of uncontrolled burning of fossil fuels.
Millions of Canadians are suffering the health effects of wildfire on the landscape at the moment on large swaths of this planet every single day, yet those who are invested in polluting earth ignore the consequences and continue unabated. Ignorance, irrationality and intolerance, as was exhibited in Ottawa by the so-called Freedom Convoy, is a symptom of what is at the heart of these problems.
It is the myopic and unscientific, combined with the greed and arrogance of the 1% that feed the ignorance of the unscientific that cling to the use of fossil fuels and who disparage and ignore scientific data that has proven to be valid, accurate and reliable. And, not surprisingly, it is the Conservatives who support the 1% who are the ones beating the drum for its continued use.
Conservatives more often than not support big business to the detriment of the average citizen in this country, as income inequality clearly illustrates. The rich get infinitely richer and the rest suffer the effects of their investments in fossil fuels which they intend on milking the benefits of until the resource is exhausted and their bank accounts are full.
But enough is never enough. Billionaires now are focused on becoming trillionaires, meanwhile the world’s poor starve or suffer disease without access to medical care, housing or education.
And on the extreme right, including men like Trump and his acolytes that have their heads buried in the trough of gluttony, this will continue until either the resource is exhausted or the effects of climate change illicit a public response that deposes the oligarchs and their ilk.
Combined with those in the right-wing of the United States, –those with irrational ideas that actually constitute the government’s policies, including opposition to scientific inquiry and rational policies are chiefly responsible for the current measles outbreak. Republicans in Texas and ‘believers’ who refuse to use scientific facts to guide their actions, ignore medical findings and rational thought. It’s in those jurisdictions that people suffer disproportionately and spread disease to others.
Similarly, the measles outbreak, which began in Canada with those who refused to vaccinate their children, have exposed huge numbers of children across Canada to a virus once thought to be eradicated in this country.
Only when the reality confronts every Canadian that those who refuse to immunize their children should not see their children allowed into public schools anywhere in Canada, (purely on the basis of medical risk) in order to help prevent societal infections of communicable disease, — will the vast majority of Canadian children be safe.
Those who hold beliefs that are irrational and unscientific are no longer confined to one issue, one problem or one activity. They span social and policy issues that have import to the rest of the population, and by so doing, endanger the majority of Canadians.
We live in a secular society, not a religious one. It’s time to stop the idiocy of ignoring an issue that can leave babies deaf or fighting for their lives. They are the innocent, and it’s up to sound society-wide medical practices to keep them safe.
Similarly, it is equally obvious that Poilievre’s inflammatory and counter-productive comments surrounding those awaiting sentencing for their actions on behalf of the Freedom Convoy’s extended negative and illegal behaviour in 2022, is in no way representative of the mainstream voter in this country.
Unsurprisingly, Poilievre not being re-elected is testimony to that fact.
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