CNN commentator: Freedom Convoy responsible for Trudeau’s resignation
CNN commentator Scott Jennings on Monday said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent resignation could be credited to the Freedom Convoy, a group of truckers who protested Trudeau’s draconian COVID-19 mandates in early 2022.
Trudeau, who has become deeply unpopular among Canadians and even within his own party, announced his resignation Monday to “decrease the polarization” and “bring the temperature down.” The decision came amid threats of tariffs from US President-elect Donald Trump, which have caused division within Liberal Party ranks.
“God bless the truckers, that's what I'm saying,” Jennings told fellow CNN panelist Bakari Sellers and host Kate Bolduan. “There's a direct line between those truckers and what's happening today. Good riddance.”
The Freedom Convoy
Trudeau’s forced vaccination policies during the pandemic banned any unvaccinated persons over 12 from entering public spaces, including public transportation. He also barred them from entering the country, which meant that unvaccinated Canadian truckers who delivered loads to the United States would be unable to reenter.
In protest, thousands of truckers peacefully descended on Ottowa and blockaded key spots along the US-Canadian trade routes. Joined by tens of thousands more Canadians, they were cheered by citizens around the world suffering from similar oppression by their own governments. The Freedom Convoy raised $10 million on GoFundMe — which was later confiscated by the Trudeau administration — and raised $8 million more on GiveSendGo.
Trudeau reacted by demonizing the truckers for using "Nazi symbolism" after some protestors carried signs accusing his administration of fascist policies. Trudeau again attempted to turn the tables by accusing the protestors of “making us all poor.”
In an unprecedented power grab, he invoked the Emergencies Act on February 14, 2022. The act allowed him to ban gatherings and protests, wield law enforcement at will, prohibit or regulate travel, and requisition personal property, including the seizure of private funds and bank accounts. The Trudeau administration falsely accused convoy supporters of being foreign agents and seized their funds, including their cryptocurrency accounts. Canadian Justice Minister David Lametti said he would specifically target Trump supporters.
About $7.8 million belonging to Freedom Convoy supporters were frozen across 267 bank and credit union accounts, as well as 170 Bitcoin wallets. This was aside from the GoFundMe donations which the crowdfunding giant froze under pressure from Trudeau officials, who falsely claimed the protesters were committing violence.
The Royal Canadian Mounties Police (RCMP) violently broke up the demonstrations, with some protesters beaten and trampled by police horses. State-funded media began harassing Freedom Convoy supporters. Police arrested nearly 200 people and impounded over 75 vehicles.
A legacy of tyranny
Trudeau’s response to the Freedom Convoy cemented his legacy as a totalitarian leader. Podcaster Joe Rogan told his 11 million listeners that until then he had thought of Trudeau as “a kind, sensitive guy.”
"But then, when you have a creepy f**king dictator for a prime minister, that's what [Trudeau] is," Rogan said. "The way he behaves, the way he behaved during this thing, the disingenuous way that he communicated, it freaked me out, because I never thought that guy was like that."
"I thought he was a handsome fella with a good vocabulary and seems like a nice guy," he went on. "Before he really leaned into the woke stuff, I thought he was a kind, sensitive guy, and I thought that's probably a good disposition to be a leader. But just the way he labeled those truckers as racist for no reason, the people that were protesting against mandates, he decided that they were misogynists and racists.”
"The way he did it. He just cast a pejorative label on them with no evidence, with no provocation, it was just like 'I'm going to label them this so that I can impose laws to stop them from doing what is essentially a peaceful protest,'" Rogan said.
