MPs Told to Hide From Anti-Vaxxer Convoy by Parliament Security Chief

URL	https://Persagen.com/docs/freedom_convoy_2022-anti-vax-far-right-conservatives.html	Protesters gather at Queens Park during a demonstration in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Tensions boiled over at protests against vaccine mandates in two Canadian cities as demonstrations that began with frustrated truckers spread across the nation and are threatening to spill into the United States. [source]
Sources	Persagen.com \| other sources (cited in situ)
Source URL	https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvnd34/mps-told-to-hide-from-anti-vaxxer-trucker-convoy-by-parliament-security-chief
Title	MPs Told to Hide From Anti-Vaxxer Convoy by Parliament Security Chief
Subtitle	The convoy, organized by some people with connections to extreme-right or anti-vax movements, has garnered support from some mainstream Conservatives
Author	Justin Ling \| Twitter
Date published	2022-01-28
Curation date	2022-02-11
Curator	Dr. Victoria A. Stuart, Ph.D.
Modified
Editorial practice	Refer here \| Date format: yyyy-mm-dd
Summary	[2021-01-28] Hundreds of vehicles are barrelling towards Ottawa, with a plan to blockade Canada's capital to protest, among other things, vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers. The convoy has been enthusiastically endorsed by some Conservative Members of Parliament. It has been lauded in the pages of the Toronto SunFox News, and by Twitter philosophers like Jordan B. Peterson and Elon Musk. [Then: 2022-01] Conservative Party of Canada leader Erin O'Toole, leader of the opposition, has promised to meet with the convoy when it arrives on Saturday [2022-01-29], insisting the convoy represents the frustration of working people. But there are mounting concerns the convoy could turn ugly. The stated objectives of the founders and organizers of the movement go well beyond vaccine mandates for truckers: the convoy, dubbed "Operation BearHug," is seeking to abolish all measures in place to fight COVID-19 and removing Justin Trudeau's government from power. If they don't get their way, they intend to blockade Ottawa until their demands are met. This has been the plan from the very beginning.
Main article	Freedom Convoy 2022
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Ontologies	Show

Background

But there are mounting concerns the Freedom Convoy could turn ugly. The stated objectives of the founders and organizers of the movement go well beyond vaccine mandates for truckers: The convoy, dubbed "Operation BearHug," is seeking to abolish all measures in place to fight COVID-19 and removing Justin Trudeau's government from power. If they don't get their way, they intend to blockade Ottawa until their demands are met. This has been the plan from the very beginning. On Thursday evening [2022-01-27], Sergeant-at-Arms Pat McDonell, who is responsible for security on Parliament Hill, sent an email to MPs about Saturday [2022-01-29]'s demonstration. "Solicitations were issued to the online community for Members' residential addresses in the Ottawa-Gatineau area [National Capital Region]" McDonell wrote. "This is known as doxing - a process of finding and publishing personal information about a particular individual on the internet, usually with malicious intent." Pat McDonell offered extraordinary advice to MPs: "Do not get involved and go somewhere safe," and "close and lock all exterior doors."

James Bauder: One man and his Winnebago

The protest, originally, had nothing to do with truckers: The freedom convoy began as one man in his Winnebago. James Bauder registered the Canada Unity Facebook page in late 2019, when he was a fervent supporter of the United We Roll anti-carbon tax convoy. Things didn't exactly take off: In 2021-03, Bauder's recently-registered website Canada Unity boasted a membership count of 30.

James Bauder's "Memorandum of Understanding"

James Bauder has repeatedly written that Justin Trudeau "needs too be arrested and charged for treason, and for participating in committing crimes against humanity. In 2021, Bauder started using his Canada Unity group as a front against COVID-19 measures. Bauder organized his first convoy, headed to Ottawa, in 2021-10 - long before any vaccine mandates for truckers were put in place. Bauder and his group were explicit that they wanted all vaccine mandates and requirements gone. Bauder himself headed to Ottawa in an recreational vehicle, covered in writing from well-wishers and fellow travellers. Bauder and his small group began promoting their "kw>memorandum of understanding<." The plan was to attract as many signatures as possible and deliver the document to Ottawa. The document itself is complete legal nonsense and betrays a breathtaking misunderstanding of Canada's system of government. The document asks the Senate of Canada and the Governor General of Canada - supposedly "the highest authorities representing the Federal Government" - to sign the memorandum and agree to all the clauses therein or "RESIGN their lawful positions of authority Immediately."

Signing the memorandum, according to its drafters, requires the federal government to repeal all federal, provincial, and municipal vaccine mandates, vaccine passport requirements, and COVID-19-related fines. The memorandum further requires the Governor General and the Senate to strike a committee, with Canada Unity - ostensibly, to govern the country. Only when its demands are met will the Canada Unity leave Ottawa, the memorandum promises. At the bottom there is room for five signatures: James Bauder, his wife, co-organizer Martin Brodmann, Senate Speaker George Furey, and Governor General Mary Simon.

The memorandum was a relatively arcane and bizarre stunt, until recently. In 2021-11, James Bauder delivered some of the signed copies to the Senate, to no effect. Undeterred, Bauder kept criss-crossing the country in his recreational vehicle, extolling the virtues of his campaign and imploring Members of Parliament to endorse the memorandum: "#SignOrResign," he posted on Facebook. On several occasions, Bauder and his crew parked outside Rideau Cottage, where Prime Minister Trudeau resides, and protested.

Operation BearHug

In early 2021-12, James Bauder announced the next phase of Operation BearHug: A new convoy to Ottawa. Bauder's campaign didn't garner much buzz until this month [2022-01], when an array of other characters joined the Canada Unity mission. One of those organizers was Pat King, a former organizer with the Western Canada separatist party Wexit. King gained notoriety after he helped organize a rally in Red Deer, Alberta, that turned violent, and thanks to King's repeated attempts to weaponize his misunderstanding of the law to repeal Alberta's COVID-19 measures. Pat King is a prolific livestreamer, using his social media pages to warn of "Anglo-Saxon replacement" and to make disparaging remarks about immigrants and the LGBTQ community, per videos cataloged by Anti-Hate Canada.

On 2022-01-18, James Bauder and Pat King appeared on a livestream together to promote the Canada Unity website as "our official convoy page." Bauder made it clear this was not a leaderless movement: He said there were five organizers across the country, including himself and King, who were behind the Freedom Convoy. Bauder insisted they already had "tens of thousands" of participants signed up. At the same time, King - who just a month before warned that "the only way that this is going to be solved is with bullets" - began pressing the idea that the movement had to be squeaky clean. It had to "make sure that we come off on this as professional as can be," he said on one livestream, "because the whole world's eyes are gonna be on us." (Other organizers have tried to distance themselves from Pat King, but he continues to lead a segment of the Freedom Convoy coming from the West.)

Jason LaFace is an Ontario organizer for the Freedom Convoy. Speaking to a Kitchener, Ontario talk radio station, he admitted, "This is no longer about the (trucker) mandate anymore," according to a City News report. "This is about Canada; this is about our rights and how the government's been manipulating the population and oppressing us all the time." Jason LaFace is no trucker, just "a regular Canadian with some very exceptional organizational skills," he said. Jason LaFace was previously linked to Soldiers of Odin, an anti-immigrant group, by anti-racism researchers. (Those researchers obtained an apology letter from Jason LaFace, saying he dismantled the local chapter.) LaFace did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Another of Operation BearHug's regional organizers is a former candidate for the arch-social conservative Christian Heritage Party of Canada. Several of the regional organizers have promoted false information about COVID-19 vaccines.

Other groups have become silent partners in the Canada Unity effort, like Taking Back Our Freedoms, a vocally anti-vaccine group. The organization, which boasts People's Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier as a board member, falsely claims that "the C-19 Vaccines Are NOT Safe." (The COVID-19 vaccines are exceedingly safe.) The Canadian Anti-Hate Network also has an exhaustive rundown of the major players in the Freedom Convoy.

All of this is just the organizers. Those actually in the Freedom Convoy, and cheering on from home, have trumpeted their intent to remove Justin Trudeau from power. On Facebook and the secure messaging platform Telegram, supporters of the Freedom Convoy have generally been careful to avoid espousing anything controversial - but things have slipped through. The call-signs of QAnon have popped up occasionally [QAnon], and others have talked openly about their expectation that the government be toppled when they arrive. One meme, which has been shared widely, shows a truck gaining ground on the prime minister, calling their operation a "roadkill rally." The three hosts of a far-right vlog (video blog) have vowed to be at the Ottawa rally, with one remarking, "I would like to see our own Jan. 6 event see some of those truckers plow right through that 16-foot wall."

Some of the others on the Freedom Convoy include followers of Norman Traversy, who started his own GoFundMe to finance his trip to Ottawa. Norman Traversy is the QAnon-linked conspiracy theorist who tried to launch a private prosecution of Trudeau in 2020-07, assembling a motley crew of protesters in downtown Ottawa who waved signs calling for Trudeau's hanging. In the weeks that followed, Traversy's supporters camped in downtown Ottawa, launching a series of attempted "citizens arrests" of politicians and journalists.

As Global News has reported, there is an array of far-right groups looking to latch on to the Freedom Convoy protest as well. Even as the movement has grown, James Bauder's memorandum of understanding has been its guiding light. The Canada Unity website boasts it has over 210,000 signatures. (It's worth noting it's very easy to input a fake name and address and sign the document.)

So why endorse this? On Thursday evening [2022-01-27], Erin O'Toole held a press conference, announcing he would be meeting with members of the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa Saturday [2022-01-29]. Three Conservative Party of Canada sources who spoke to Vice News said there is a division in Erin O'Toole's party: some MPs see the Freedom Convoy as a new metastization of an ugly, paranoid fringe that has been gaining momentum in Canada - a movement hostile not only to Trudeau but towards every Conservative politician who won't endorse its deranged fantasies.

Other MPs in Erin O'Toole's Conservative Party of Canada see the Freedom Convoy as their base of supporters - particularly after Maxime Bernier's extreme-right People's Party of Canada picked up significant momentum in the 2021 Canadian federal election. Former Conservative Party of Canada leader Andrew Scheer came out to wave the convoy on Pierre Poilievre, increasingly supplanting Erin O'Toole for the real leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, swatted away any criticism of the truckers: "Whenever you have five or 10,000 people who are part of any group, you're bound to have a number who have or say unacceptable things," Poilievre told reporters. Pierre Poilievre was quickly endorsed by deputy leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Candice Bergen [Wikipedia: Candice Bergen]. One Conservative Party politician told VICE World News the Conservative Party leadership knows they're playing with fire. Erin O'Toole's office will just "pray and hope that they don't storm the Hill [Parliament Hill]," they said. Another Tory [Conservative Party of Canada] said they fully expect members of the caucus to show up to the rally Saturday [2022-01-29].

There is no indication, thus far, that the Freedom Convoy protesters intend on being violent when they arrive in Ottawa. But, at a minimum, they are promising a blockade of the nation's capital (something the Conservatives vowed to criminalize in 2020 when it was Indigenous people doing it). Saturday [2022-01-29]'s rally, which could stretch into the days and weeks to come, has gone well beyond the plight of truckers. The Canadian Trucking Alliance has condemned the Freedom Convoy. The vast majority of truckers are vaccinated against COVID-19. How many will show up remains unclear. Estimates of the number of trucking rigs in the Freedom Convoy are somewhere in the low hundreds, and it's unclear how many actually do cross-border routes. The total number of vehicles coming to the capital could be as high as 1,500.

MPs Told to Hide From Anti-Vaxxer Convoy by Parliament Security Chief

Background

James Bauder: One man and his Winnebago

James Bauder's "Memorandum of Understanding"

Operation BearHug

Additional Reading