Scientists Warn: Nutritious Fish Stocks Are Being Squandered by Salmon Farming

By UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE MARCH 17, 2022

Eating wild-caught fish instead of using it as feed in salmon farming would allow nearly four million tonnes of fish to be left in the sea, while providing an extra six million tonnes of seafood for human consumption, a study finds.

Scientists studying the Scottish salmon farming industry say that using only fish by-products — such as trimmings — for salmon feed, rather than whole wild-caught fish, would deliver significant nutritional and sustainability gains.

This would allow 3.7 million tonnes of fish to be left in the sea, and enable global annual seafood production to increase by 6.1 million tonnes.

“If we want to feed the growing global population well and sustainably, we must stop catching wild fish to feed farmed fish.” — David Willer

The study, led by a team of scientists from the Universities of Cambridge, Lancaster and Liverpool and environmental NGO Feedback Global was published on March 1, 2022, in the journal PLOS Sustainability and Transformation.

As the world’s fastest growing food sector, aquaculture is often presented as a way to relieve pressure on wild fish stocks. But many aquaculture fish — such as Atlantic salmon — are farmed using fish oil and meal made from millions of tonnes of wild-caught fish, most of which is food-grade and could be eaten directly to provide vital nutrition.

The team collected data on fish nutrient content, fishmeal, and fish oil composition, and salmon production, and examined the transfer of micronutrients from feed to fish in Scotland’s farmed salmon industry. They found that over half of the essential dietary minerals and fatty acids available in wild fish are lost when these fish are fed to farmed salmon.

Dr. David Willer, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology and first author of the paper, said: “Fish and seafood provide a vital and valuable micronutrient-rich food source to people worldwide, and we must make sure we are using this resource efficiently. Eating more wild fish and using alternative feeds in salmon farms can achieve this.”

The team developed various alternative production scenarios where salmon were only produced using fish by-products, and then added more wild-caught fish, mussels or carp for human consumption. All scenarios produced more seafood that was more nutritious than salmon, and left 66-82% of feed fish in the sea.

Feedback’s Dr Karen Luyckx said: “If we want to feed a growing global population well and sustainably, we must stop catching wild fish to feed farmed fish. Until the salmon industry kicks its wild-caught fish oil and fishmeal habit, chefs and retailers should help citizens switch away from unsustainable salmon by offering ultra-nutritious mussels and small oily fish instead.”

Based on their findings on the Scottish salmon industry, the researchers collected global salmon, fishmeal, and oil production data to apply their alternative scenarios at a global scale. One scenario shows that farming more carp and less salmon, using only feed from fish by-products, could leave 3.7 million tonnes of wild fish in the sea while producing 39% more seafood overall.

The authors caution that not enough is known about the source and species composition of fishmeal, but there are positive signs that the use of plant-based feeds is growing.

Dr. James Robinson of Lancaster University said: “Aquaculture, including salmon farming, has an important role in meeting global food demand, but nutritious wild fish should be prioritized for local consumption rather than salmon feed, particularly if it is caught in food-insecure places.

“Support for alternative feeds can help this transition, but we still need more data on the volumes and species used for fishmeal and fish oil, as this can show where salmon farming places additional pressure on fish stocks.”

Ultimately, the authors call for a reduction in marine aquaculture feeds, as this will offer opportunities to produce more nutritious seafood while reducing pressure on marine ecosystems.

Willer added: “If we want to feed the growing global population well and sustainably, we must stop catching wild fish to feed farmed fish. There is an urgent need for the food industry to promote the consumption of more sustainable seafood species — like mussels or carp — that don’t require other fish as feed.”

Reference: “Maximising sustainable nutrient production from coupled fisheries-aquaculture systems” by David F. Willer, James P. W. Robinson, Grace T. Patterson and Karen Luyckx, 1 March 2022, PLOS Sustainability and Transformation.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pstr.0000005

This research was funded by the Cambridge Philosophical Society, via a Henslow Fellowship to David Willer.

How Grains of Dust Can Grow Into the Seeds of New Planets

By RIKEN MARCH 19, 2022

Computer artwork depicting two protoplanetary disks. These disks of gas and dust host planetesimals, the seeds of new planets. RIKEN astrophysicists have developed a model that explains how dust avoids falling toward the star long enough to coalesce to form kilometer-sized planetesimals. Credit: © Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library

By amassing in high-density regions, dust grains avoid drifting toward the star they are orbiting.

A key step in the formation of new planets may have been uncovered by a new theoretical model of a protoplanetary disk developed by a RIKEN astrophysicist and two collaborators that explains how dust in the disk overcomes a tendency to drift toward the star.

Planets are birthed from a swirling disk of dust and gas that surrounds a young star, but it is unclear how dust grains can grow into larger objects before they spiral inward toward the star.

In the classical theory of planet formation, minuscule dust particles collide and stick together to form centimeter-sized grains. These grains gradually build up to form kilometer-sized planetesimals, the first major step in producing a new planet.

But the dust grains feel a drag from the gas in the protoplanetary disk. This slows the dust grains down, so that they fall toward the star. The speed at which they fall increases as the dust grains grow larger.

Previous studies have suggested that this effect should prevent the grains from forming objects larger than a meter, which poses a major conundrum for astronomers. “Various mechanisms have been proposed to explain the formation of planetesimals, but they are still under debate,” notes Ryosuke Tominaga of the RIKEN Star and Planet Formation Laboratory.

Tominaga and two colleagues have now proposed a model that suggests a possible solution to this problem—small variations in the distribution of dust in the protoplanetary disk are quickly amplified into regions of high and low dust density.

In areas having slightly higher densities, dust coagulates more efficiently, and it forms larger clumps that drift toward the star more quickly. When these clumps meet smaller dust particles, they form regions of even higher dust density, accelerating grain growth. Meanwhile, the regions vacated by the large clumps end up with relatively low densities.

The team found that this positive feedback creates multiple bands of high and low dust density in the protoplanetary disk. These bands can arise in a matter of 10,000 years or so, a remarkably short time for such astronomical processes. These high-density areas are ideal sites for further aggregation, allowing planetesimals to form before the dust grains are pulled into the star.

“Unlike previous theories, this coagulation mechanism works even when there is far more gas than dust in the protoplanetary disk,” says Tominaga.

The team is now working on more-detailed models that include the formation and evolution of the disk itself, along with the eventual formation of planetesimals.

Reference: “Coagulation Instability in Protoplanetary Disks: A Novel Mechanism Connecting Collisional Growth and Hydrodynamical Clumping of Dust Particles” by Ryosuke T. Tominaga, Shu-ichiro Inutsuka and Hiroshi Kobayashi, 8 December 2021, The Astrophysical Journal.
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac173a

Happy March Equinox, Earthlings!

By LANCE D. DAVIS, NASA MARCH 19, 2022

An illustration of the March (spring) and September (fall or autumn) equinoxes. During the equinoxes, both hemispheres receive nearly equal amounts of daylight. (Image not to scale.) Credit: NASA/GSFC/Genna Duberstein

March Equinox Welcomes ‘Astronomical’ Spring

Did you know our planet has two types of seasons? They are meteorological and astronomical. What’s the difference?

“Meteorological seasons” follow the changing of the calendar, month to month, and are based on the annual temperature cycle – seasonal temperature variations modified by fluctuations in the amount of solar radiation received by Earth’s surface over the course of a year. For instance, the meteorological season of spring begins each year on March 1 and will end on May 31.

However, “astronomical” seasons happen because of the tilt of Earth’s axis (with respect to the Sun-Earth plane), and our planet’s position during its orbit around the Sun.

The March equinox – also called the vernal equinox – is the astronomical beginning of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere. Seasons are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere where it will be autumn, also known as fall. These simultaneous seasons will occur March 20, 2022, at 15:33 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) or 10:33 a.m. CDT (Central Daylight Time).

Credit: NASA/Space Place

The Sun will pass directly above the equator, bringing nearly equal amounts of day and night on all parts of Earth. At the equator, an equinox results in about 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night.

Equinoxes and solstices are caused by Earth’s tilt on its axis and the ceaseless motion it has while orbiting the Sun. Think of them like events happening as our planet make its journey around the Sun.

North of the equator, the March equinox will also bring us earlier sunrises, later sunsets, softer winds, and budding plants. With the reversed season, those south of the equator will experience later sunrises, earlier sunsets, chillier winds, and dry, falling leaves.

If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, watch the Sun as it sets just a bit farther north on the horizon each evening until the June solstice – when the Sun reverses directions, moving back to the south. Also, get outside to enjoy the warmer weather and extended daylight!

Happy March equinox, Earthlings!

Avengers star Mark Ruffalo joins campaign against B.C. pipeline with call for RBC to end funding

S

• 

Numerous Hollywood A-listers have signed petition against

Coastal GasLink financing

CBC News · Posted: Mar 18, 2022 

Actor and activist Mark Ruffalo said he doesn't want his money funding the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern B.C. (Craig Ruttle/Associated Press)

Avengers star Mark Ruffalo says concerns about how his money is used are driving his public campaign calling on the Royal Bank of Canada to stop funding the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern B.C.

The American actor is one of more than 65 Hollywood celebrities and Indigenous climate activists who've signed a petition demanding that RBC and its subsidiary City National Bank (CNB) defund the natural gas pipeline.

In an interview with Gloria Macarenko, host of CBC's On The Coast, Ruffalo said he banks with CNB, and tried to take action shortly after learning about the financial connection a few months ago.

"I said, hey guys, I don't know if you know this, but most of your clients are fighting for climate change action and Indigenous rights, and you have our money funding the tar sands and the Coastal GasLink pipeline," he said.

"I don't want my money funding this, I know that people in Hollywood who've signed on to this letter don't want their money funding this."

• Pipeline work resumes after blockades in northern B.C., Coastal GasLink says

The petition, titled "No More Dirty Banks," describes CNB as the "bank to the stars," and has been signed by A-listers including Robert Downey, Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Jane Fonda, Leonardo DiCaprio and Marisa Tomei.

It says RBC and CNB are supporting "violating Indigenous rights and fuelling climate chaos" by financing the project.

"As much as they speak about being champions for climate change and being champions of Indigenous rights and Indigenous people, everything that I've seen is absolutely contrary to those two claims," Ruffalo said.

RBC spokesperson Rafael Ruffolo wrote in an email that the bank had no comment on the campaign.

Celebrity support 'means the world to us'

Ruffalo was interviewed alongside two key Wet'suwet'en Nation leaders fighting against the pipeline through their traditional territory — Sleydo' (Molly Wickham) and Hereditary Wet'suwet'en Chief Na'Moks.

Both said they were grateful that so many people with big names and influence were lining up to support their protest against the pipeline.

"It absolutely means the world to us," Na'Moks said.

• Coastal GasLink failed to fix nearly 2 dozen environmental violations along pipeline route, B.C. officials say

The hotly contested pipeline, which is planned to extend from northeast B.C. to Kitimat on the province's North Coast, is being built through the territory of the Wet'suwet'en Nation.

Coastal GasLink has said the project is fully authorized and permitted by government, and has the support of all 20 First Nation band councils, including five of the six band councils in the Wet'suwet'en Nation.

However, Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs have opposed the project, saying band councils do not have authority over land beyond reserve boundaries.

On Friday night, Coastal GasLink sent CBC an unsolicited statement outlining the support the project has had from Indigenous groups including recent news that 16 First Nations intend to purchase equity in the pipeline. 

"Coastal GasLink recognizes that Indigenous reconciliation and addressing climate change are essential to creating a better, more sustainable world," the company said.

"We would encourage everyone interested to take the time to understand all the facts and the important role Indigenous communities have in developing and building the project."

With files from On the Coast

Mark Ruffalo, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Stiller and more stars sign letter protesting Canada Gas Pipeline

Janelle Ash
Thu, March 17, 2022

Hollywood stars have joined together to write a letter to City National’s parent company, the Royal Bank of Canada, to defund the Canada Gas pipeline.

The letter, signed in solidarity, urges the Royal Bank of Canada to "withdraw support from the Coastal GasLink pipeline, effective immediately."

The letter goes on to say, "City National Bank's parent company Royal Bank of Canada is bankrolling the climate crisis and violating the rights of Indigenous Peoples."

Mark Ruffalo narrates a two-minute video explaining what the Coastal GasLink pipeline is doing to the land of the Wet’suwet’en nation. Getty Images

More than 65 celebrities, including Mark Ruffalo, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Stiller, Scarlett Johansson, Taika Waititi, Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon and Robert Downey Jr., banded together to send the letter to City National Bank’s parent company.

City National Bank has been dubbed as the "Bank of the Stars" and acquired the Royal Bank of Canada in 2015.

Some of the celebrities mentioned filmed a video together to raise awareness, using the hashtag #NoMoreDirtyBanks.

Ruffalo kicked off the video explaining the bank’s involvement with the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

"Right now, major banks like the Royal Bank of Canada are financing a fracked gas pipeline bulldozing through the land of the Wet’suwet’en nation in Northern British Columbia, Canada."

He went on to say, "The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs never consented to this pipeline construction through their terrorities, which would risk the sacred headwaters of the Wedzin Kwa River, but here’s where it gets complicated."

Ben Stiller is joined by a long list of celebrities boycotting the Canada Gas pipeline. Getty Images

"The Supreme Court of Canada recognized Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs as rightful title holders of the land, but corporations still get away with consulting only ‘elected leadership’ put in place by the colonial government."

In a statement to Variety, which published the letter as an ad, Coastal GasLink stated: "Since the beginning of the Project, Coastal GasLink has sought to engage and consult with the Wet’suwet’en Houses through the Office of the Wet’suwet’en and the elected leadership. We want to listen and seek meaningful ways to address interests and concerns including ensuring the pipeline is built under the Morice River using the safest technology available."

"Coastal GasLink recognizes that Indigenous reconciliation and addressing climate change are essential to creating a better, more sustainable world," the statement added. We would encourage everyone interested to take the time to understand all the facts and the important role Indigenous communities have in developing and building the Project."

The Royal Bank of Canada hasn’t responded to the video or the letter.

A representative for the Royal Bank of Canada said it does not have a comment to share at this time. Reps for the City National Bank did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.

Mark Ruffalo ‘saddened’ by John Horgan’s response to anti-Coastal GasLink campaign

By Amy Judd Global News
Posted March 18, 2022 

Actor Mark Ruffalo is showing his support for Wets'uwet'en Hereditary Chiefs who oppose the Coastal GasLink Pipeline, and are calling for big banks to stop funding the project. As Ted Chernecki reports, the contentious project also has its supporters.

Hollywood actor and environmentalist, Mark Ruffalo, is firing back at B.C. Premier John Horgan after he commented on Ruffalo’s efforts to stop the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

He is one of several celebrities who have signed on to the No More Dirty Banks campaign calling on Royal Bank to pull its financial support for the pipeline.

Horgan said the campaign was disappointing and made a joke about Ruffalo’s latest project.

“I really liked The Adam Project. Mark Ruffalo was great in that. Ryan Reynolds was better,” Horgan joked.

“Look, I have a lot of respect for people who have opinions. If Mark Ruffalo had a full understanding on the intricacies of economic development in British Columbia then he has a role to play,” Horgan added. “Taking shots from the sidelines without understanding the impact on Indigenous peoples, the impact on our climate plan. If he read our climate plan I’d be excited to hear his thoughts.”

READ MORE: Hollywood celebrities call on RBC to stop financing B.C.’s Coastal GasLink project

2:08 First Nations communities agree to equity stake in controversial Coastal GasLink pipeline projectFirst Nations communities agree to equity stake in controversial Coastal GasLink pipeline project – Mar 9, 2022

Ruffalo responded on Twitter Thursday night saying “respectfully, I am saddened Horgan doesn’t like hearing from people, no matter what work they do, about things like climate change and First Nation’s rights and what our money is being used to fund. I thought that’s what he was in office to do.”



Ruffalo and other celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Jane Fonda are throwing their support behind Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and other leaders who are calling on the Royal Bank of Canada to withdraw its support from the northern B.C. pipeline.

According to the campaign, RBC has invested more than $160 billion since 2015 to finance tar sands, fossil fuel extraction and transport.

RBC is also the lead financier of Coastal GasLink, the campaign states.

The campaign is asking RBC to withdraw support for the Coastal GasLink project, particularly as its company, City National Bank has extensive relationships with numerous Hollywood celebrities and companies.

However, many groups are in support of the pipeline. The elected council of the Wet’suwet’en Nation and others nearby have agreed to the project.

The project is permitted under Canadian law, but does not have the blessing of Wetsuwet’en Nation’s hereditary chiefs. Concerned for the wellbeing of ecosystems and sovereignty over their land, the chiefs have said the pipeline is “illegal” under their laws — the only ones they recognize on their territory.

If built, the 670-kilometre pipeline would transport natural gas from northeastern B.C. to a liquefied natural gas facility in coastal Kitimat, where it would be exported to global markets.

4:21 Coastal gaslink indigenous communities agreement – Mar 9, 2022

READ MORE: Indigenous communities ink Coastal GasLink option deals with TC Energy

The project is being built by Calgary-based company, TC Energy Corporation.

In a statement to Global News, it said “Coastal GasLink is very concerned that important facts are not being shared with groups and individuals who are concerned about Indigenous rights and climate change issues. After years of thoughtful engagement and dialogue, the Coastal GasLink project received unprecedented support from all 20 elected Indigenous communities along our project corridor. Building on this support, last week, we were proud to announce that we have signed equity option agreements with two entities representing 16 Nations across the project corridor for a 10 per cent equity ownership interest in Coastal GasLink – a first for a project of this scale.”

The company added that since the beginning of the project, Coastal GasLink has sought to engage with the Wet’suwet’en Houses and they want to continue to engage with the Chiefs and open communication.

“Coastal GasLink recognizes that Indigenous reconciliation and addressing climate change are essential to creating a better, more sustainable world. We would encourage everyone interested to take the time to understand all the facts and the important role Indigenous communities have in developing and building the Project,” TC Energy said in the statement.

For the B.C. government, Horgan said he is “always disappointed when celebrities stop doing their trade and start giving out practical advice.

“They are completely entitled to do that,” he added “but I take it as someone who lives somewhere else having a comment about B.C.”
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

    

1995 THE YEAR THE ROCK PLAYED FOR THE CALGARY STAMPEDERS

Michigan wants 'to have its cake and eat it too' on Line 5: chambers of commerce

This photo taken in October 2016 shows an aboveground section of Enbridge's Line 5 at the Mackinaw City, Mich., pump station. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-John Flesher

James McCarten
The Canadian Press
Staff
Updated March 17, 2022 9:36 a.m. MDT

WASHINGTON -

Business leaders from the United States and Canada are again wading into the fray over Line 5, accusing the state of Michigan of dragging its heels to ensure the controversial cross-border pipeline remains in a state of legal limbo even as both countries contend with a looming energy crisis.

In a new joint amicus brief, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, its U.S. counterpart and chambers in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin reiterate their concern that shutting down the Enbridge Inc. pipeline would have "tremendous negative consequences" on both sides of the border.

"Such a shutdown would constrain an already disrupted energy supply, an especially problematic development given recent decisions related to importation of petroleum products from Russia," reads the brief, a copy of which was obtained by The Canadian Press.

Gasoline prices have been spiking across the U.S. and Canada, a combination of production and supply-chain pressures created by the COVID-19 pandemic and exacerbated by bans on imports of Russian energy, part of the global effort to sanction Russia over its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The dispute over Line 5 has been raging since November 2020, when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer -- citing the risk of a spill in the ecologically sensitive Straits of Mackinac, where the line crosses the Great Lakes -- abruptly revoked the easement that had allowed it to operate since 1953.

Enbridge insists the pipeline is safe and has already received a level of state approval for a $500-million concrete tunnel beneath the straits that would house the line's twin pipes and protect them from anchor strikes. The company has repeatedly insisted it would not shut down the pipeline voluntarily.

The court dispute, however, has less to do with pipeline safety and environmental impact than it does with legal jurisdiction. Whitmer and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel have been trying to get the case heard in state court, while Calgary-based Enbridge has argued successfully that it belongs before a federal judge.

Enbridge won that argument last fall, prompting Michigan to abandon that challenge, instead taking up a separate case that was still at the county court level. That case is once again seized with the identical question of whether the dispute should be elevated to federal court.

Their tactics suggest "state officials are trying to have their cake and eat it too," the chambers argue in their latest filing.

"The governor abandoned efforts to enforce the shutdown order -- for the explicit reason of avoiding resolution of these arguments by the federal court."

The fact that shutdown order remains in place, albeit unenforced, "carries real harm to Enbridge and to businesses that depend on the interstate and international energy economy to function smoothly," they argue.

With the order still in place, Michigan regulators, as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, may be required to consider Enbridge's applications for the tunnel project as if the original pipeline didn't exist. Arguments to that effect have already been made before the Michigan Public Service Commission.

In other words, "whether the project is environmentally beneficial is a more complicated analysis if governmental agencies must analyze a fictional reality in which resources no longer flow through the pipelines."

The federal government in Ottawa has already submitted two amicus briefs of its own, the latest of which makes clear that Canada and the U.S. are engaged in talks to settle the dispute under the terms of a 1977 bilateral treaty designed to ensure the continued flow of energy between the two countries.

Advocates for the pipeline say Line 5 delivers more than half the propane and home heating oil consumed in Michigan, and is a vital source of energy for Ohio and Pennsylvania as well, to say nothing of Ontario and Quebec.

Shutting it down would be an environmental disaster in its own right, they argue, resulting in gasoline shortages, price spikes and some 800 additional oil-laden railcars and 2,000 tanker trucks per day on railways and highways throughout Central Canada and the U.S. Midwest.

"It is time for the federal court to resolve the question of the legality of the governor's shutdown order," said Mark Agnew, the Canadian chamber's senior vice-president of policy and government relations.

In a statement, Agnew described the case as a "litmus test" for North American energy security -- one that could have a major impact on consumers on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border amid the ongoing transition to more sustainable forms of energy.

"Reliable access to energy products (is) needed to create predictable market and political conditions that support our transition to net zero in the years to come, and that's why the Line 5 court case is so important."

Environmental groups, however, aren't giving up the fight.

A new brief filed this week by a non-profit known as For Love of Water argues that Michigan is obliged to shut down any "non-public trust use" that poses a threat to public trust uses such as navigation and fishing -- and also to revoke permission for that use in the event the public trust is violated.

The group argues that when another Enbridge pipeline in Michigan, Line 6B, ruptured and polluted the Kalamazoo River in 2010, state authorities were obliged to reconsider the company's easements.

The resulting inquiry found that Enbridge had "flouted" the terms and conditions of the easement "for decades" and had altered its pipeline operations without authorization from the state.

"Based on these collective findings, the state fulfilled its duty under the public trust doctrine to revoke and terminate the 1953 easement."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 17, 2022.

RELATED STORIES
Amid energy crisis, Ottawa urges Michigan to end crusade against Line 5 pipeline
Canada has existing options if Line 5 shuts down, environmental report argues
Ottawa files court brief supporting Enbridge Inc. in Line 5 dispute with Michigan

NDP Leader Rachel Notley ridicules accusations she’s colluding with new UCP MLA Brian Jean

By Staff The Canadian Press
Posted March 18, 2022 

The clock is ticking for supporters and opponents of Premier Jason Kenney to sign up members in time for the leadership review. They have until Saturday at midnight to purchase a UCP membership so they can vote on April 9 in Red Deer. As provincial affairs reporter Tom Vernon explains, campaigns on both sides are working hard to identify their support.

Alberta’s Opposition leader is ridiculing accusations from the governing United Conservatives that she and the UCP’s newest member of the legislature are in cahoots.

Rachel Notley calls it one of the “most tortured attack lines” she has ever heard and she suggests Premier Jason Kenney’s staff and supporters spreading the idea “really need to get a little bit more sleep.”

Former Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean won a byelection for the UCP this week on a platform to get Kenney ousted as party leader at a leadership vote on April 9.

Critics, including government house leader Jason Nixon, say Jean has struck an alliance with Notley.

They point to Jean saying he would have brought Notley into cabinet on a short-term basis to remove partisan bickering and improve the response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Notley says it can be helpful to bring all sides together to some degree when fighting a crisis.

READ MORE: Fort McMurray wildfire: A harsh homecoming for Brian Jean

She noted Jean was given full access to get information from her government when wildfires struck Jean’s hometown of Fort McMurray in 2016.

© 2022 The Canadian Press

 

 Brian Jean calls on UCP to bring in auditor and keep leadership review in Red Deer

Lisa Johnson 

EDMONTON JOURNAL

Newly-elected MLA Brian Jean is calling on the United Conservative Party to commit to keeping its leadership review meeting in Red Deer on April 9 and bring in an outside auditor amid a ballooning number of party registrants.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal The Alberta legislature on Nov. 5, 2020.

As of Thursday, party executives confirmed to Postmedia that there are at least 10,000 registrations to cast an in-person ballot in a leadership vote to decide party leader Premier Jason Kenney’s fate. More registrations are expected before the midnight Saturday deadline.

In a statement released Friday evening, Jean said members and potential members have “made choices” based on what they were told about the meeting.

“Making substantial changes now would be unacceptable,” said Jean.Party spokesman Dave Prisco said in an email later Friday the UCP will be retaining an auditing firm, a returning officer, and a group of party volunteers to count the ballots which will be overseen by constituency association presidents.

“We’re open to any suggestions to improve the process, but we’re confident in how things are shaping up because we’ve got the best people running things — our party members,” said Prisco. The party has not officially announced a change of venue or additional venues.

Jean also raised concerns about the UCP member list, potential back door registrations done without the knowledge of members, the facilitation of paper payment and registration forms, and staffing.

His appeal comes as the RCMP have yet to release the results of an investigation into the 2017 UCP leadership race.

© VINCENT MCDERMOTT Newly elected UCP MLA Brian Jean speaks to supporters at his campaign office in Fort McMurray as early unofficial results roll in from the Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche byelection on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.

Meanwhile, dozens of UCP government staffers were signed up to campaign Friday in the final push ahead of the deadline for party registrations.

In emails obtained by Postmedia, a chief of staff to a government cabinet minister appealed to political staff to make phone calls drumming up support for Kenney, including signing off work at 4 p.m. this week and taking Friday off work to do so.

The emails include a link to a public online document, which had more than 75 political staffers including senior political staff signed up to make calls on Friday at the end of the work day.

In budget estimates Wednesday, Kenney said it’s routine for party leaders and party members to deal with internal political party responsibilities outside of their elected responsibilities.

“That is standard operating procedure,” he said.

Lori Williams, a political scientist at Mount Royal University, said Friday the emails show a significant amount of pressure on people whose jobs potentially depend on their response.

“It speaks to the panic and desperation in the premier’s office,” said Williams.
Related

Senior staffers have already been pulled from their regular work to help staff the leadership drive. Last month it became public the premier’s chief of staff, Pam Livingston, was taking an unpaid leave of absence to campaign.

When asked if Livingston was the only one at the Wednesday committee, Kenney said he was only aware of one other staffer from his office, Chad Hallman, who works in issues management, who had taken a leave.

“I don’t think it’s at all extraordinary that political staff periodically work on political campaigns. It’s important when they do so that they take an unpaid leave,” said Kenney.

On Friday, the premier’s office confirmed that Brock Harrison, executive director of communications, will go on leave to work on Kenney’s leadership review campaign effective Saturday.

NDL Leader Rachel Notley told reporters at the legislature Thursday staff being asked to clock out is not a sign of a government “firing on all cylinders” to address the challenges confronting Albertans.

“The staff who have been hired to do the work of the people should be focused on doing that, they should not be focused on leaving early to make phone calls for their boss,” said Notley.

On Thursday, Jean was asked by a reporter whether he thought it was appropriate for government staffers to be told to volunteer for Kenney’s campaign.

“I do not,” he said.

Premier Jason Kenney debuts on Corus radio call-in show

Brian Jean back in the Alberta legislature Thursday, won't be officially sworn in until next month

 Was it really about vaccine mandates — or something darker? The inside story of the convoy protests

LONG READ

For three weeks this winter, a so-called “Freedom Convoy” delivered thousands of demonstrators into downtown Ottawa, turning them into an occupying force that snarled daily life in the nation’s capital and dominated the national conversation.

But who were the demonstrators, really — and what were they after?

Many of them positioned the protest as a fight against vaccination mandates for cross-border truckers. Others saw it as a campaign against pandemic restrictions more broadly. No doubt the occupation was many things to many people. But for several of its organizers, the protest was the culmination of years of work, their best chance yet to coalesce a movement around their preferred conspiracy theories and a violent anti-government ideology.

The convoy protest was not about just the pandemic. But nor could it have happened without the pandemic. Organizers were able to leverage fatigue and frustration with government restrictions and social isolation to grow their movement, drawing on one particularly potent conspiracy theory in the process: the idea that an international cabal has taken control of Canada, and is weaponizing the pandemic to consolidate its dominance. This occupation was marketed as the last stand to stop tyranny — and has become a global rallying cry for a burgeoning anti-media, anti-science, anti-government political force.

Remarkably, the occupation was ended without major incident. Normalcy has returned to downtown Ottawa: Commuters sit in slow, but not frozen, traffic. Politicians bustle through Centretown on their way to the House of Commons. Journalists roam freely, without hired security in tow.

The nation’s capital is back to its famously boring self.

But it’s an unsettled peace. Where has the movement — and its anger — gone? And what comes next in its plan to stop the globalist takeover of Canada?

In a sense, the story begins more than a year before the pandemic.

In a video posted to his Facebook page, James Bauder is standing in a snow-covered parking lot in Thunder Bay, pointing his phone camera at the assembled convoy. There is a pickup truck with its bed full of red jerry cans. A small group of people mills about in reflective yellow vests, brandishing a Canadian flag. Cars and semi trucks are covered in homemade signs.

“Everybody in Canada is involved in this,” Bauder told his Facebook friends. “We got people across our great nation travelling to go to Ottawa to stand up for Canada unity.”

When it arrived in Ottawa, their convoy gathered at Parliament Hill, where the protesters demanded a say in how the country was governed. “I brought myself a pink slip,” organizer Pat King said in an interview, “and I would like to hand it to Mr. Trudeau.”

The convergence on Ottawa for two days in January 2019, dubbed “United We Roll,” was moderately successful, attracting the support of Conservative party leader Andrew Scheer and collecting more than $140,000 through an online fundraising campaign.

A few months later in Medicine Hat, Alta., Benjamin Dichter stood at an event to introduce a man who bills himself as a top intelligence analyst and whom Dichter, in a comparison to novelist Tom Clancy’s fictional CIA agent, called “Canada’s Jack Ryan.”

When he took the stage, Tom Quiggin described a plot between Islamists and socialists to control Western governments. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he warned, was the apex of that “entryism.”

“If he is re-elected this fall, and he does not immediately disavow his previous commitments to globalism and Islamism, he will then be pouring gasoline on the already burning embers of discontent,” Quiggin warned audience members including Tamara Lich, who had helped organize the event.

Quiggin touted his speaking tour as an urgent call to resist this encroaching new world order. (In a 2019 podcast, he would warn that Trudeau could usher in an era in which “widespread civic violence occurs or, in the worst-case scenario, a sort of civil war.”)

But there was another pressing reason for it: money. Quiggin was raising funds to fight a defamation lawsuit launched after he accused prominent Canadian Muslims of being the clandestine leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood, which Quiggin alleges is a terror organization. The lawsuit is ongoing; a GoFundMe campaign set up by Dichter has so far raised more than $42,000 to fund his defence.

As a conspiracy theorist, Quiggin was convinced that something was rotten in Ottawa. He wasn’t the only one.

Norman Traversy then invoked the rallying cry of QAnon, the American conspiracy theory movement that claims Satanic pedophiles have infiltrated the U.S. government. “Where we go one …” he shouted to those assembled. “We go all!” the crowd shouted back.

Standing directly behind him was King, who would go on to become a public face of the protesters.

The next day, Corey Hurren posted a meme to his Instagram account falsely alleging that Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the Switzerland-based World Economic Forum were complicit in creating COVID-19. Half an hour later, Hurren drove a truck loaded with guns through the front gates of Rideau Hall, an apparent attempt of removing the prime minister from power. Hurren would later plead guilty to eight charges.

In 2021, James Bauder would find a way to pull these strands together.

The World Economic Forum provided a perfect target.

The organization hosts an annual retreat in Davos, Switzerland where members of the political, business and cultural elite gather to promote liberal economic policies and recognize the leaders who champion their progressive capitalist values. The Forum has been led by its founder, Klaus Schwab, for a half century.

But in an information universe where institutions are presented as corrupt and malign, critics have coloured its mission with an ominous hue. Along with the United Nations and the World Health Organization, conspiracy theorists have baselessly alleged the WEF is complicit in releasing COVID-19 into the world to enact mass control, open borders, and the imposition of a Chinese-style digital surveillance establishment. In essence: Totalitarianism.

Bauder wrote on Facebook that Trudeau “needs too (sic) be arrested and charged for treason, and for participating in committing crimes against humanity” and warned that it was nearly too late to stop the World Economic Forum’s devious plan: “WE HAVE BEEN LEAD (sic) RIGHT INTO A TRAP. A few more moves and it’s checkmate, Game Over.”

Pat King’s presence was also increasing on social media, where he warned his followers, “There’s an endgame: It’s called depopulation of the Caucasian race.” Dichter had become increasingly involved in the People’s Party of Canada, the right-leaning political party founded by former Conservative MP Maxime Bernier, and warned the Ontario Legislature of a “gradual Islamization of Canada by erasing its national identity.”

They’d had enough.

“Truckers,” Bauder wrote on Facebook in August 2021, “wanna make some noise?”

In the months that followed, Bauder came up with the idea for Operation Bear Hug, a plan modelled after the United We Roll convoy. He would recruit a veritable army of patriots to head to the capital and surround it — in protest of COVID-19 vaccination mandates, masks, vaccines and the violations of personal freedoms he claimed they represented. He started an organization to advance the plan: Canada Unity.

If the problem was a global conspiracy, then the solution had to be more than just talk. Bauder was seeking real change. He began touting a so-called “memorandum of understanding” that detailed the protest’s objectives. “By having the Senate of Canada and the Governor General of Canada sign this MOU into action, they agree to immediately cease and desist all unconstitutional, discriminatory and segregating actions and human rights violations,” it read. Failing action from the Governor General and the Senate, Bauder said, signatures would be collected to trigger a national vote to remove the government. “So this is just step one of calling for a referendum through Elections Canada,” he said in a livestream.

The document also proposes a citizen’s committee, spearheaded by Canada Unity, that would set policy alongside the Governor General and Senate. He expected to see their signatures on the document. “If they don’t, they’re incriminating themselves,” Bauder said in an interview. He began using the hashtag #SignOrResign

“On Dec. 6, we put the Senate on notice. We are having tens of thousands of people come to Ottawa, in unity, to bear hug this city until the law is restored in our country,” he told followers of Canada Unity.

When Bauder arrived in Ottawa last December, it didn’t go terribly well. “Failure is not an option,” he told his Facebook friends from outside the Rideau Hall grounds one evening. “Standing down is not an option.”

But Bauder was turned away when he and his supporters marched to the Senate building to deliver their memorandum of understanding. He led the crowd instead to a nearby Canada Post office, to drop the document in the mail.

He wouldn’t hear back.

But then the world changed. COVID-19 and growing concern about governments’ response created an opportunity to broaden the movement. Bauder started plotting Operation Bear Hug 2.0, which would become the convoy. The timing was perfect. A political knife fight was brewing over the decision to require truckers to show proof of their COVID-19 vaccination status when crossing the U.S-Canada border.

The organizers started to assemble: King signed on as a road captain for Alberta. In the months prior, he had accused Trudeau of stealing an election and warned his followers to stock up on meat and supplies to prepare for “what’s coming.” Tamara Lich, who had taken on a position with the Western separatist Maverick Party, started an online fundraising campaign to finance the convoy. Benjamin Dichter later joined as a spokesperson, and brought Tom Quiggin along as an unofficial intelligence adviser for the occupation. (Quiggin had recently turned his professional attention to Trudeau’s push for what he baselessly described as a “social credit scoring system, much like Communist China has now.”) In Ottawa, Norman Traversy was part of a “reception committee” for the truck convoy’s arrival.

As plans for the so-called “Freedom Convoy” gained momentum, its leaders made clear that they were in it for the long haul. On a livestream with Bauder, King promised, “We are going to fix our broken country, and I’m not leaving Ottawa until it’s done.” Bauder chimed in: “Neither of us are.” King vowed that “everybody” involved was committed to occupying the capital. “I’m going to live on Wellington Street, right in front of Parliament.”

Jason LaFace, who signed up as a road captain and hosted Canada Unity’s official podcast, promised “when we get to Ottawa, we’re not leaving until Justin Trudeau leaves government and the Liberal government is dissolved.”

Bauder tapped into a well of like-minded support. That included Action4Canada, which had unsuccessfully sued the Canadian government, alleging “a massive and concentrated push for mandatory vaccines of every human on the planet earth with concurrent electronic surveillance” and accused Trudeau of taking part in the plot at the behest of “international Billionaire Oligarchs, and oligarch organizations such as Bill Gates … (and) the World Economic Forum.”

As the days passed, support grew: Donations poured in, from within Canada and beyond, and a network of Facebook pages racked up tens of thousands of new followers.

And unlike Bauder’s previous efforts, dozens of trucks actually set out for Ottawa — from Prince Rupert to St John’s — when the planned departure day, Jan. 22, came around. The online fundraising campaign smashed past $1 million.

The convoy was actually happening.

For some, the convoy’s destination in downtown Ottawa would be a place to commune with like-minded citizens, to make a point but also to lounge in a hot tub, listen to a DJ and play street hockey.

But to Canada’s security establishment, the occupation was anything but fun and games.

On Jan. 27, a bulletin went out from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre with an alarming headline.

“Extremists may attempt to seize the opportunity of public protest,” said the bulletin, which was sent to intelligence, police and first-responder agencies. It warned that several elements had joined the convoy promising civil war, attacks on politicians, and a Canadian version of the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington.


The centre judged that the protest was likely to be peaceful, but flagged groups and individuals in the growing convoy that espoused “violent anti-authority/anti-government views.”

Indeed, King had once predicted in a video that “Trudeau, someone’s gonna make you catch a bullet someday,” and warned the rest of the House of Commons that somebody would “do ya’s in.” Even before the convoy arrived in Ottawa, King said the point of occupying Ottawa was to terrorize politicians. “What we want to focus on is our politicians — their houses, their locations,” he said.

The leader of a convoy leaving from Quebec was Steeve “L’Artiss” Charland, a former core organizer of far-right militant group La Meute. He announced that his new group, Les Farfadaas, would be heading to Ottawa as well: It would end up occupying a stretch of downtown Gatineau. “We stay here. We’re not going anywhere. We have a free country or we are dead,” he said in an interview.

Tyler Russell, head of the far-right Canada First organization said on a livestream, “When you go in and you see these counterprotesters, you understand who our enemies are, right? … They are complicit in this globalist plan.”

One group that caught the attention of CSIS in particular was Diagolon. Started as a running joke by far-right internet trolls known as the Plaid Army, its founder, Jeremy MacKenzie, insists it is not a militant or extremist group but a “social club.”

But Diagolon members have shared images of Trudeau’s head on a spike. Its members have met in real life, posing with assault-style rifles and shotguns. Its followers have fantasized online about installing themselves in heavily fortified compounds, out of reach of the state. MacKenzie has frequently alluded to a coming race war, and has adopted the catchphrase “gun or rope,” referring to methods of executing the ideological opponents of their aspirational state.

Before the trucks set out for Ottawa, MacKenzie promised in a video that they would “block up the city, and not leave until either the mandates are lifted, and/or the entire government resigns. It’s going to cause food shortages, parts shortages, industrial shortages.

“I only got one thing to say to those guys,” he added with a laugh. “Let’s go, Justin. What are you gonna do?”

On a podcast, another Plaid Army member promised “this is gonna be bigger than Oka. This is gonna be bigger than the FLQ and the October Crisis.”

And despite their more radical tone, they were motivated by the same conspiracy theories as the convoy’s organizers. In a mid-February livestream, MacKenzie warned his listeners not to trust promises from the Conservative party to repeal vaccination mandates. “Are they? Or are they gonna just replace them with a digital ID they’re gonna roll out here for the UN and Klaus Schwab?” he asked. MacKenzie would be regularly spotted on the streets of Ottawa during the occupation.

The government intelligence assessment rated a co-ordinated terror attack or storming of Parliament as unlikely, but warned that “a dedicated group of protesters” could “prolong their protest in Ottawa and/or seek interaction with Canadian politicians” — a warning that many critics say Ottawa Police failed to take seriously.

Organizers framed the demonstration as a protest against COVID-19 vaccination mandates and lockdowns, a cause within the mainstream of Canadian opinion. Support from some leading Conservative politicians seemed to lend credibility to that idea. But even during the occupation, darker motivating beliefs were apparent.

The protest teemed with outstretched arms wielding cellphones, broadcasting live — to Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, but also to alternative social media sites Bitchute and Rumble. Occupiers, and their supporters back home, essentially had a 24-hour news network — by occupiers, for occupiers. One of the most omnipresent of those streamers was former People’s Party candidate Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson. She had amassed a considerable social media following by promoting, among others, Norman Traversy and firebrand pastor Henry Hildebrandt, an ardent opponent of mask and physical distancing requirements.

“Have you seen the video where Klaus Schwab is admitting that they hand-picked Trudeau, and they have used him to destroy our nation?” Thompson said. Hildebrandt nodded, emphatically interjecting with “Yes! Yes!” Hildebrandt regularly led prayer sessions in front of Parliament, vowing to return God to the House of Commons.

Intense interest from abroad made minor celebrities of the convoy leaders. Dichter, who became a regular face on Fox News, offered his thoughts on the World Economic Forum in a YouTube interview. “Klaus Schwab — I jokingly say, well, for the third time we have a left-wing German who’s going to save the world. What could go wrong?” he said, adding that “we live in a society where these people, globally, are trying to institute policy, so it seems, to prop up the degenerates and cause conflict.”

Quiggin began producing daily “intelligence reports” that warned that the federal government was launching an “‘information operation’ in order to provoke civil disobedience and violence.” He included a list of prominent Canadians who “are members of the World Economic Forum.”

As the scrutiny ramped up, some of the organizers tried to distance themselves from controversial statements that were jeopardizing their fundraising efforts. That proved difficult in the case of someone like Pat King, who was mobbed by supporters wherever he went. When King put out a call for trucks to join him in a slow roll to the airport, which also happened to be a police staging area, dozens of trucks signed up. “When Trudeau goes to jail, he can have all the mandates he wants,” he told a livestream.

Norman Traversy said he would be restarting his plan to have Trudeau arrested and prosecuted. But for the time being, he was delegating responsibilities from inside one of the occupation’s “command centres” in a downtown hotel. “There’s no boss of this group,” he said.

Dichter told a news conference much the same. “Because this is so organic, there are many people in different groups that have latched on to the movement,” he said.

It was becoming apparent that this wasn’t going to end well.

In Ottawa, police were confronted with a situation far removed from the peaceful, fun-loving party the occupiers described.

“Members of racialized, faith-based, LGBTQ communities were threatened and verbally harassed on a regular basis,” said Ottawa Police Interim Chief Bell. When officers tried to stop the flow of fuel canisters into the downtown core, the occupiers would “swarm our officers, threaten them, to the point that they couldn’t do their job.”

Policing sources say a significant factor in the city’s unwillingness to clear the occupation sooner turned on what was present in the trucks, and what the occupiers’ true intentions were.

Those fears proved prescient in other parts of the country. On Feb. 14, four men were arrested in Coutts, Alta., the scene of a border protest, and charged with conspiracy to commit murder; a significant weapons cache was seized. The RCMP alleged that the four men had plans to kill Mounties and members of the public. The Diagolon patch was sewn into some of the seized body armour and one of the men arrested was reported by Anti-Hate Canada to be “head of security” for MacKenzie’s so-called “social club.” MacKenzie would ask his followers to pray for the men arrested, saying, “we haven’t heard from them.” He would later deny knowing any of the men accused.

A source with knowledge of the emergency response said there were serious fears within the Ottawa Police Service that someone was leaking operational information to the occupiers — perhaps even giving them access to encrypted radio channels. Bell would only say there are “very serious allegations” against a “very small group” of officers who were affiliated with the occupation.

The Star spoke to one officer, on leave without pay for refusing to get vaccinated, who visited the occupation but vehemently denied leaking information to the occupiers. “I have never seen Canada more unified,” he said.

Concerns of a mole were raised again when, after police moved in to clear the encampments, the logs of an RCMP group chat were posted to Telegram by Jeremy MacKenzie.

On Valentine’s Day, Trudeau announced that he had decided to invoke the Emergencies Act.

The announcement sent shock waves across the country, reviving memories of his father’s use of the War Measures Act during the FLQ Crisis. The updated law’s powers, however, were far less expansive. They enabled Ottawa to freeze bank accounts, forbid entry to certain areas, and press tow trucks into service.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told the Star there was a series of “inflection points” before that decision was made, but said the foiling of the alleged plot to kill RCMP officers “revealed the extent to which some of these individuals were, potentially, willing to go.”

Even if they were convinced that using emergency powers was necessary, the politicians remained nervous, Mendicino says. “We almost collectively held our breath when we invoked the Emergencies Act, because we know it could only take one person to set off a series of events that could result in mass casualties and damage.”

On the morning of Friday, Feb. 18, the occupiers emerged on the streets expecting a police operation. As Ottawa police and their reinforcements got into place — armoured assault vehicles moved into position, tactical units readied for the operation, tow trucks pouring into the city, ambulances idling nearby — the occupiers steeled themselves with a mix of preparation and delusion. They wielded shovels and got to work on some freshly fallen snow, building makeshift barricades in front of their lines.

Before the operation began downtown, police picked up the organizers, one by one. Pat King’s Facebook livestream was interrupted by police pulling over his vehicle.

Rather than use the more aggressive crowd control methods seen in recent years at protests in Toronto and Montreal, Ottawa police opted for a measured approach. Every 15 minutes, give or take, the line of officers would announce their intent to step forward — and they would. Most occupiers dutifully stepped back. A smaller contingent of occupiers tried to resist, with some trying to wrestle officers to the ground. Police would grab those people, pull them behind the line, and handcuff them.

Of the thousands of occupiers who remained in the city’s core when police moved in, just 230 were arrested. Of those, only 118 people were charged criminally.

It would take more than 24 hours before the entire downtown core was retaken. Over the course of the operation, police employed pepper spray and non-lethal projectiles — which can include beanbag rounds — but did not fire tear gas or more dangerous projectiles.

Fears that there weapons inside some of the trucks proved prescient: A police source said loaded shotguns were found. (While truckers can legally transport registered firearms in their vehicles, guns must be securely stowed and are not permitted to be loaded.)

Mendicino says it was “nothing short of miraculous” that nobody was seriously injured.

The occupation of Ottawa was a “wake-up call,” Mendicino says. The city’s police force deals with an enormous number of protests every year, Bell said, but “this one was different.”

And the attempt to link debate over legitimate public health measures with conspiracy theories — about vaccines, about the World Economic Forum, about a dire threat to Canadian sovereignty — have sparked concern about what could come next.

“The people who organized that protest, and there were several factions there, there’s no doubt [they] came to overthrow the government,” Jody Thomas, national security adviser to the prime minister, said earlier in March.

“This is a problem that is not going away.”

Mendicino says the chaotic month proved that “the tools and laws we have on our books aren’t effective enough” at dealing with this type of movement. He hinted that his government was considering making some permanent legal changes to supply police with some of these powers, although he didn’t specify what that would look like.

Some of those who enabled this occupation won’t be part of whatever that new movement looks like. King and Lich were both arrested and charged with criminal offences; King’s attempts to be released on bail are ongoing, while Lich’s bail terms prohibit her from participating in demonstrations. Dichter has re-emerged in the world of bitcoin, leveraging his experience sourcing donations that are beyond government’s grasp. Quiggin continues his podcast, turning his attention in recent weeks to the conflict in Ukraine. Once he recovered his RV from a city impound lot, Bauder headed west; by early March, he had reached Victoria, where a rump of the Ottawa occupiers set their sights on the B.C. government, occupying the legislature grounds in the provincial capital.

The movement has now outgrown the former organizers. Sympathetic social media channels continue to expand. Groups like Diagolon are recruiting new members. The conspiracy theorists that propelled this movement proliferate online. Some demonstrators no doubt returned from Ottawa satisfied, believing that they had made their point. But others came back armed with dangerous lessons. As one put it on a recent livestream: “Violence in some way, shape, or form is the only way these people are going to respond.”

TORONTO STAR
Justin Ling is a freelance reporter

Freedom Convoy protest cost city of Ottawa $36.6 million

Hundreds of trucks remain parked on Wellington Street and surrounding streets in downtown Ottawa on day 10 of the "Freedom Convoy" demonstration in downtown Ottawa. (Josh Pringle/CTV News Ottawa)

Josh Pringle
CTV News Ottawa Digital Multi-Skilled Journalist
Updated March 18, 2022 

The 'Freedom Convoy' protest that occupied downtown Ottawa streets for more than three weeks this winter cost the city of Ottawa and Ottawa police more than $36 million.

City Manager Steve Kanellakos provided an update to council on the costs associated with the "illegal convoy occupation" as of Feb. 28.

Kanellakos says the Ottawa police response cost $35 million, including money for the RCMP deployment in the capital.

"Costs include compensation, vehicle expenses, food, accommodations, and operation supplies," Kanellakos said.

The city of Ottawa's response, including Bylaw Services and public works, is $1.3 million. Kanellakos says the costs do not include any damage/repair estimates for infrastructure.

"City staff and OPS staff are communicating with senior officials at the federal and provincial governments to recover these costs and will make a formal submission for reimbursement of all costs associated with the response," Kanellakos said in a memo to council.

Kanellakos told council last month that he had been speaking with deputy ministers within the federal government on possible funding to cover the costs of the protests.

"They certainly are expecting that we would be submitting the cost of both the federal and provincial, and what I was told is they would work out what an appropriate cost-sharing agreement is to fund us," Kanellakos said, adding Mayor Jim Watson has been speaking with Ontario cabinet ministers.

The 'Freedom Convoy' rolled into Ottawa the weekend of Jan. 28 to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other public health measures. The demonstration blocked Wellington Street and several roads around Parliament Hill for more than three weeks, forcing several businesses to close.

Ottawa police, with assistance from the RCMP, OPP and municipal police forces across the country, moved in the weekend of February 18, 19 and 20 to remove demonstrators from streets and reopen roads.