Trudeau Announces Sanctions Against Russia “Takes a Stand Against Authoritarianism”

Canada's Prime Minister

Proverbs 25:19 “Trusting in a treacherous man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth or a foot that slips.”

Important Takeaways:

  • After Invoking Emergency Powers, Trudeau Announces Canada Will ‘Stand Against Authoritarianism,’ Announces Sanctions Against Russia
  • His comments come just days after Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act in Canada, used for a forceful crackdown on peaceful protesters engaged in a ‘Freedom Convoy’ against government mandates.
  • “Canada and our allies will defend democracy,” Trudeau declared. “We are taking these actions today, to stand against authoritarianism.”
  • “We will continue working with our international partners to safeguard Ukraine’s territorial integrity and prevent further Russian aggression,” he added.

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Trudeau Deploying Anti-Terrorist measures against peaceful protestors “When you can’t peacefully protest that’s a threat to democracy”

Important Takeaways:

  • Decorated Canadian Veteran And Pastor: Trudeau Has Declared War On His Own People
  • ‘My parents escaped from Germany under the Nazis and Communists. I’ve seen real terrorism. Our freedoms are at stake here,’ military chaplain and decorated veteran Harold Ristau told The Federalist.
  • On Feb. 14, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act
  • The Canadian government has also deployed anti-terrorist banking measures to shut down the personal and crowdfunding accounts of those involved in the protests.
  • Canadian police arrested nearly 200 protesters Sunday and threatened those who brought their children to the Ottawa protest with up to five years in prison.
  • In response, convoy organizers announced an orderly departure from the nation’s capital
  • As a Canadian veteran — he is now a civilian chaplain supervising Canadian military chaplains — threatening to use war powers against one’s own citizens is a clear breach of law and public trust, he said.
  • It’s also dangerous to a democracy, in which governments are supposed to wield their powers under the rule of law and with the consent of the governed. Yet “from the get-go Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has treated [the Canadian truckers] like terrorists,” Ristau said on the program. “You don’t negotiate with terrorists.”
  • Violence related to the protest has been largely used by those opposed to the convoy and its counterparts in other parts of Canada. Perhaps the most significant act of violence was when a man allegedly drove an SUV headlong into convoy supporters, injuring four.
  • While the Royal Mounted Canadian Police cleared Ottawa streets over the weekend, they trampled several protesters with their horses, including an elderly woman with a walker, according to the Toronto Sun. Police also beat journalists while clearing the streets over the weekend, according to videos.
  • “Over in Ottawa on Friday they were singing ‘A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” Ristau told The Federalist. “We have masses of people praying in front of the police as they come in and use pepper spray and rubber bullets on them.”
  • “Once you’ve named someone a terrorist, I guess you can just do what you want,” Ristau said.

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In heated debate Trudeau accused Conservatives of standing with Nazis

Proverbs 22:8 “Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Trudeau accuses Conservatives of standing with ‘people who wave swastikas’ during heated debate in House
  • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was cautioned against using “inflammatory” language by the Speaker of the House of Commons on Wednesday after he told Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman, who is Jewish, that her party stands with “people who wave swastikas.”
  • Trudeau made the comment during Question Period on Wednesday amid a heated debate over the country’s single remaining blockade in Ottawa and the government’s imposition of the never-before-used Emergencies Act.
  • The comments prompted an uproar in the House of Commons, with some MPs calling for Mr. Trudeau to apologize. The Prime Minister’s statement earned him a direct rebuke from Speaker Anthony Rota.
  • “I just want to remind the honorable members, including the Right Honorable Prime Minister, to use words that are not inflammatory in the House,” he said.
  • Trudeau did not withdraw the comment

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As Freedom convoy spreads to other nations and cities Biden urges Trudeau to get tougher

Proverbs 22:8 “Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Biden urges Trudeau get even TOUGHER with Freedom Convoy: Ontario authorizes cops to seize vehicles, fine drivers and asks court to freeze $8.6M donated on GiveSendGo as mayor warns truckers will be ‘physically removed’
  • White House is urging Justin Trudeau’s government to use its ‘federal powers’ to end the Freedom Convoy
  • Since Monday at least three US-Canadian border bridges have been blocked in Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba
  • Ontario premier Doug Ford asked courts to freeze donations to truckers on a crowdfunding site GiveSendGo
  • The Christian fundraising site, based in the US, said in a statement that the Canadian court had no jurisdiction in the matter.
  • Canadian officials previously got GoFundMe to cut off funding after protest organizers used the site to raise about 10 million Canadian dollars ($7.8 million)
  • Trudeau said he spoke to officials, accused drivers of ‘hurting jobs, businesses, and our country’s economy’

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‘Nasty’, ‘two-faced’, ‘brain dead’: NATO pulls off summit despite insults

By Robin Emmott and Andreas Rinke

WATFORD, England (Reuters) – NATO leaders set aside public insults ranging from “delinquent” to “brain dead” on Wednesday, declaring at a 70th anniversary summit they would stand together against a common threat from Russia and prepare for China’s rise.

Officials insisted the summit was a success: notably, Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan backed off from an apparent threat to block plans to defend northern and eastern Europe unless allies declared Kurdish fighters in Syria terrorists.

But the meeting began and ended in acrimony startling even for the era of U.S. President Donald Trump, who arrived declaring the French president “nasty” and left calling Canada’s prime minister “two-faced” for mocking him on a hot mic.

“We have been able to overcome our disagreements and continue to deliver on our core tasks to protect and defend each other,” NATO’s ever-optimistic Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference.

In a joint declaration, the leaders said: “Russia’s aggressive actions constitute a threat to Euro-Atlantic security; terrorism in all its forms and manifestations remains a persistent threat to us all.”

The half-day summit at a golf resort on the outskirts of London was always going to be tricky, with officials hoping to avoid acrimony that burst forth at their meeting last year when Trump complained about allies failing to bear the burden of collective security.

But this year’s meeting was made even more difficult by Erdogan, who launched an incursion into Syria and bought Russian missiles against the objections of his allies, and by French President Emmanuel Macron, who had described the alliance’s strategy as brain dead in an interview last month.

In public it seemed to go worse than expected, beginning on Tuesday when Trump called Macron’s remarks “very, very nasty” and described allies who spend too little on defense as “delinquents” — a term officials said Trump used again on Wednesday behind closed doors during the summit itself.

At a Buckingham Palace reception on Tuesday evening, Canada’s Justin Trudeau was caught on camera with Macron, Britain’s Boris Johnson and Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, laughing at Trump’s long press appearances. “You just watched his team’s jaws drop to the floor,” said Trudeau.

By the time the summit wound up on Wednesday, Trump had decided not to hold a final press conference, saying he had already said enough. “He’s two-faced,” Trump said of Trudeau.

HUAWEI SECURITY RISK

Nevertheless, officials said important decisions were reached, including an agreement to ensure the security of communications, including new 5G mobile phone networks. The United States wants allies to ban equipment from the world’s biggest telecoms gear maker, Chinese firm Huawei.

“I do think it’s a security risk, it’s a security danger,” Trump said in response to a question on Huawei, although the leaders’ declaration did not refer to the company by name.

“I spoke to Italy and they look like they are not going to go forward with that. I spoke to other countries, they are not going to go forward,” he said of contracts with Huawei.

Ahead of the summit, Johnson — the British host who faces an election next week and chose to avoid making any public appearances with Trump — appealed for unity.

“Clearly it is very important that the alliance stays together,” he said. “But there is far, far more that unites us than divides us.”

Macron held his ground over his earlier criticism of NATO’s strategy, saying as he arrived that it was important for leaders to discuss issues in an open and forthright manner if they were to find solutions.

“I think it’s our responsibility to raise differences that could be damaging and have a real strategic debate,” he said. “It has started, so I am satisfied.”

One of Macron’s chief complaints is that Turkey, a NATO member since 1952 and a critical ally in the Middle East, has increasingly acted unilaterally, launching its incursion in Syria and buying Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missiles.

In his comments to the press, Stoltenberg said that while Russia was a threat, NATO also wanted to ensure a constructive dialogue with it. He added, in a reference to Turkey, that the S-400 system was in no way compatible with NATO’s defense.

At the summit, Europe, Turkey and Canada pledged to spend an extra $400 billion on defense by 2024, responding to Trump’s accusations that they spend too little. Germany, a frequent target of Trump’s blandishments, has promised to spend 2% of national output by 2031.

France and Germany also won backing for a strategic review of NATO’s mission, with the alliance set to establish a “wise persons” group to study how the organization needs to reposition for the future. That could involve shifting its posture away from the East and toward threats in the Middle East and Africa.

(Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke, John Chalmers and Johnny Cotton in Watford, and Estelle Shirbon in London; Writing by Luke Baker; Editing by John Chalmers and Peter Graff)

Canada’s Trudeau hangs onto power in election; aides see two-year respite

Canada’s Trudeau hangs onto power in election; aides see two-year respite
By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hung onto power after a tight election on Monday that saw his government reduced to a minority, but aides predicted he would be able to govern for two years without many problems.

Trudeau, one of the world’s most prominent progressive politicians, struggled to overcome the effects of two domestic scandals. His Liberals were leading or elected in 157 seats, a decrease of 20, preliminary results showed.

He now looks set to govern with the left-leaning New Democrats, who have 24 seats. Together the two parties can muster a majority 180 seats in the 338-seat House of Commons.

Minority governments in Canada rarely last more than 2-1/2 years. Although the New Democrats lost 16 seats, leader Jagmeet Singh is now in a good position to press for action on priorities such as more social spending and increased action on climate change.

One senior Liberal also noted that many legislators needed to serve for another two years to meet the six-year requirement for a Parliamentary pension.

“That gives us a pretty free hand for that period,” said the Liberal, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter.

The New Democrats struck deals to help keep Liberal minority governments in power from 1972-1974 and in 2005.[L2N277069]

The Canadian dollar weakened 0.2% to 1.3120 per U.S. dollar, or 76.22 U.S. cents, as investors worried about how the minority government would manage the resource sector. Futures on the Toronto stock market <SXFc1> were up about 0.4%.

Trudeau visited Montreal’s subway, posing for selfies with commuters early on Tuesday, an echo of 2015 when he did the same thing.

This win was different. But Trudeau barely mentioned the loss of his majority when he spoke to supporters early on Tuesday, saying he had “a clear mandate” for a progressive agenda and more action to combat global warming.

This is unlikely to please the western provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, which cast out every Liberal legislator amid anger over what the energy industry sees as overly stringent environmental rules.

The most prominent victim was Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, one of Trudeau’s top cabinet members.

Trudeau’s liberal image took a blow early in the campaign when photos emerged of him wearing blackface in the early 1990s and in 2001.

He had already been wrestling with the fallout from accusations he pressured former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to help shield engineering firm SNC-Lavalin Group Inc <SNC.TO> from corruption charges. In August, a top watchdog said he had breached ethics rules.

Wilson-Raybould, now an independent member of parliament, retained her seat on Monday, a feat in a country where nearly all legislators are backed by major parties. Former minister Jane Philpott, who also quit cabinet over the affair and ran as an independent, lost her Ontario riding.

The election was also a disappointment for Andrew Scheer, leader of the opposition Conservatives, who had sought a majority. Although the Conservatives won the popular vote, with nearly all votes counted on Tuesday morning they were leading or elected in 121 ridings, up only 24 seats.

Scheer said he would continue to lead the party, but the result looks set to reopen questions about his future. Even before the election, some in the party were speculating about a leadership challenge if he lost.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Gerry Doyle and David Gregorio)