Originally posted by Jiggaboo_Johnson
Who cares about Ottawa…some bumfucked 3rd world city in a 3rd world country. Fucking lol
The people that live there I guess:
First of all: Ottawa is not just a short-hand for Parliament. It is not just a collection of old buildings filled with boring stuffy MPs. It is not just empty space where people come to get drunk on Canada Day. Downtown Ottawa is a vibrant and densely populated area with huge residential buildings (homes and apartments) baked inside.
The people making the decisions donât live there. I repeat, none of the MPs, MPPs, diplomats, Official Opposition, experts, the individuals speaking on TV live in the so-called Red Zone. Many live in wealthy suburbs like Rockcliffe and/or are away from the noise.
Unless youâve been kept up by the non-stop train horns, itâs abstract to you. Unless youâre breathing in the toxic fumes of the exhaust from the hundreds of vehicles, itâs abstract to you.
Unless youâve stepped on the crap, the human excrement, in the streets or dodged a yellow snowbank filled with urine, itâs abstract to you.
Unless youâve been harassed, assaulted, intimidated for wearing a mask or for the colour of your skin, itâs abstract to you.
Unless youâre disabled in a wheelchair; or blind with no way to walk around/navigate in the noise; or a senior living alone unable to get groceries because no transportationâs able to come to you, itâs abstract to you.
Unless you have a child or a spouse who is unable to receive chemo because of booked bridges or because the company canât deliver it to your house, itâs abstract to you.
Unless youâve been told by the media itâs a âprotestâ by âprotestorsâ and itâs âpeaceful and non-violentâ, categorically refusing to call it an occupation because that implies the âprotestors are in controlâ while sleep-deprived and hurting people are at their wits end and old ladies are taking to the streets or young men are confronting them, itâs abstract.
Unless you have a newborn who is kept awake or are a BIPOC who has to watch confederate flags and swastikas paraded around with impunity reinforcing the knowledge there is one rule for you and no laws for white people.
Unless you are Indigenous who has been brutalized for less.
Unless youâre a first-time activist, furious at the sheer inaction and ready to step up for your fellow residents, taking it upon yourself to organize a protest at City Hall but are met with rampant/excessive fear-mongering, active sabotage and subversion of your nascent protest.
Unless youâre been told by the NCC that the explosives in your park are gone when they have only been covered by a tarp.
Unless youâve witnessed MTO funnel more terrorists downtown to torture you more with their own exclusive exits.
Unless youâve seen the city do the same, actively directing them to cause more mayhem
Unless youâve witnessed the city and the police give your torturers an entire baseball stadium right beside RCMP and DND (National Defence) Headquarters where they refuel and reload and decompress with saunas to torture you more.
Unless youâve watched, horrified, as the leadership of the police and the civil arm meant to hold them accountable, flounder and say they canât uphold the law and they canât do anything, that the legal counsel that the police relies upon has no answers and kills solutions before they are even attempted.
Unless youâve watched the hapless police chief makes excuse after excuse for the inaction saying there is no policing solution and itâs more of a societal problem, insisting no officers are assisting them where there is clear video of them giving directions, hauling fuel or watching idly by as itâs carried in jerrycans.
Unless youâve seen police come in to shut down the same supply line they facilitated.
Unless youâre following this like weâre living it.
Itâs all abstract.
You can log off. You can walk away. You can take your mind off things by watching a show or taking selfies in the snow or walking down to your favourite restaurant to grab a bite to eat.
But the citizens in Centretown? The residents in the Red Zone? They canât. Itâs reality for them.
They trusted the leadership to speak for them. They trusted the media to amplify them. They trusted the police to protect them.
And they were let down.
They were betrayed, gaslit, and abandoned by gutless inaction, criminal negligence and severe apathy in a pandemic where so many suffered, gritted their teeth and persevered.
Iâm not going to lieâIâm livid. Iâm fired up.
I spent all night creating a timeline of events, documenting everything I could find so none of this is lost to history or in the noise. Taking screenshots so I can remind myself of the depth of what I witnessed. The trench warfare against human reason.
The constant buck passing. The ineptitude. The criminal lack of leadership. How the residents were left to fend for themselves, how they were laughed at and mocked and went viral for amusement when they reached the end of their tether.
Ottawa has a Potemkin police force. They have a farcical council. People living in Kanata or Orleans, even South Keys donât understand what their fellow residents are going through unless they go downtown and many can work from home.
Weâve heard of the hourly wage workers struggling to make ends meet, the downtown business bullied and harassed into closing, the homeless shelters stolen from, the war memorial being used as a toilet and the desecration of monuments, etc.
But the residents have been totally abandoned with no way out and no way through except some paltry âstay safeâ âtake careâ âhave a bit more patience, we can outlast themâ. Canât get bylaw to enforce 11pm noise, canât get an interim injunction and gets a apathetic feckless âsort it out between yourselvesâ from a Superior Court judge like an abuser and the abused can simply negotiate the beating periods (maybe only on the weekends at noon, eh?). (NOTE: injunction has since been grantedâby only for 10 days.)
Itâs easy to talk big behind a Zoom screen. Itâs easy to have high-minded discussions about the semantic differences between a siege, occupation and terrorism when itâs not happening in your backyard. When the so-called freedom isnât terrorizing your life.
Of note is something that I've been thinking about:
Unless youâve been told by the media itâs a âprotestâ by âprotestorsâ and itâs âpeaceful and non-violentâ, categorically refusing to call it an occupation because that implies the âprotestors are in controlâ
I believe this observation is correct, and that the media have struggled to describe the circumstances in Ottawa right now. I know there are differing views on the protest and its legitimacy, but I want to set aside that question to say this: it seems very clear that, for whatever reason, the City of Ottawa is unable to expel a group of protestors that residents claim are tormenting them. The police seem to be indifferent to the orders they've received (e.g. non-enforcement on fuel embargo), and this follows extreme inaction by political leaders. Simply put, Ottawa has been successfully occupied by an external force who were permitted to use heavy machinery as a means of blockade, and now they seem entrenched. Meanwhile, two border crossings are now fully blockaded elsewhere in Canada, just outside of the jurisdiction of border services. It's unclear how any of this will be put to bed; the protestors are indeed in control. People like this commentor above feel unable to secure political representation, police protection, or accurate portrayal in the media. Sounds like collapse to me.
