Ottawa Sov-Cit Covidiot Crew are no longer happy campers

[MRN]

Ok, I guess I do have to delurk again.

The ever-shrinking, endlessly-squabbling, tried-to-citizens-arrest-Trudeau-and-then-Jagmeet-Singh
(https://www.vice.com/en/article/dyzwpy/ ... in-trudeau)
encampment that rocked up to the Ottawa War Memorial on July 1 was finally broken up today:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/e ... -1.5766646

They've distinguished themselves in their time here by harassing and trying to "arrest" politicians, Hill staff, and the odd journalist, and by going into local stores maskless and then trying to pick fights. In both cases they invariably filmed themselves. The only reason things didn't get more out of hand was, as far as I can tell, that they couldn't collectively run a piss-up in a brewery.

(They had terrible OpSec. Probably don't realize to this day how many of the Respectable Middle-Aged Ladies hanging out on the benches by the Memorial were there to eavesdrop.)

They had quite a nice line in getting up in the faces of ordinary pedestrians downtown to yell about masks, too, with, of course, a side of anti-Asian racism.

Their room, in short, will be greatly preferred to their company by everyone whose lives they coughed on repeatedly.

But, you say, though doubtless reprehensible, what has this to do with sovereign citizens? Not everyone who attempts a citizen's arrest as a protest method is a sovcit.

Well. This. (I am not on Facebook, hence the resort to a screencap from Twitter):



Given how fast this coalition of various deeply unsavoury groups is growing, I think we might be back in business here.

From a Quatloos popcorn perspective this is of course splendid news, and I can almost see the next Donald Neolitzky paper now.

As a citizen, I have to say it was a lot more fun and less worrying when they were mostly just refusing to pay their taxes and mortgages.

[Burnaby49]

We have our own merry band of idiots here in Vancouver who dealt a blow for freedom on the ferry from Vancouver Island today.

https://vancouversun.com/news/anti-mask ... isturbance

[wserra]

Donald Neolitzky

The One, indeed.

[Foggy]

But, you say, though doubtless reprehensible, what has this to do with sovereign citizens? Not everyone who attempts a citizen's arrest as a protest method is a sovcit.

Ah yes, there do seem to be little hints of sovcittery hereabouts. I think it's fascinating that the Ottawa police first offered to contract with the CR. I'm sure they would have brought an attorney with expertise in drawing up such contracts. Funny that wasn't mentioned. Too bad the CR refused to enter a contract, would have saved some trouble.

And shocking, I say, shocking that the police were unable to produce an allodial title. You gotta carry those around with you everywhere you go, these days.

[wserra]

And shocking, I say, shocking that the police were unable to produce an allodial title. You gotta carry those around with you everywhere you go, these days.

And at that for all . . . tracts of land in your jurisdiction. The huge ones, at least.

[DNetolitzky]

Yes, I'm monitoring the increasingly broad penetration of pseudolaw motifs into the counter-pandemic response population. This is an awfully good illustration of Stephen Kent's thesis that pseudolaw expands during periods of elevated social stress.

But I have to say the question that really intrigues me is whether the "The Myth is Canada" New Constitutionalists bunch are going to be an ongoing phenomenon, like the Republic of Texas, or instead their activity will fade away post-pandemic. And with either alternative, why?

[wserra]

an ongoing phenomenon, like the Republic of Texas

The Bubba Republic of Texas is only "ongoing" by a very broad definition of "ongoing". Very little has changed since the NY Times article of five years ago. It is impossible to take anything seriously that has Glenn Winningham Fearn as a "Senator".

[Burnaby49]

an ongoing phenomenon, like the Republic of Texas

The Bubba Republic of Texas is only "ongoing" by a very broad definition of "ongoing". Very little has changed since the NY Times article of five years ago. It is impossible to take anything seriously that has Glenn Winningham Fearn as a "Senator".

You question the legitimacy of a political organization that has Glenn 'Hang 'Em High' Fearn as an elder statesman?

[eric]

But I have to say the question that really intrigues me is whether the "The Myth is Canada" New Constitutionalists bunch are going to be an ongoing phenomenon, like the Republic of Texas, or instead their activity will fade away post-pandemic. And with either alternative, why?

Personally my opinion is that unless and until they make major changes in their strategy the unifythepeople group ran by Dallas Hills will fade back to a small group of cranks. To get their message out they have allied themselves with a wide group of aggrieved people - native sovereignists, yellow vesters, etc. However this has resulted in dilution of their core message. In Southern and Central Alberta the Calgary chapter made the mistake of having the fractured (and fractious) extreme right wing as their friends with disastrous consequences. After the Red Deer debacle they have been openly mocked on social media, assorted assault charges and restraining orders all around, being banned from businesses, etc. As an example, the day of rage and mega rallies in Canada yesterday could only muster this in Calgary:
https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/calgary-poli ... -1.5149505

CALGARY -- Police and mall security staff were prepared for a possible anti-mask protest at Calgary's largest shopping centre Saturday but, approximately two hours after it started, officials said it was a non-event.

edit to add: In this neck of the woods weather could have played a factor as well. It's hard to hold a good riot when the streets are icey and it's minus 12 with a nasty north wind. Once a demonstration is forced to move indoors it can easily be controlled by conventional mall security or crazed bargain hunting shoppers who don't wish to be distracted.

[MRN]

Quoth Foggy:

I think it's fascinating that the Ottawa police first offered to contract with the CR. I'm sure they would have brought an attorney with expertise in drawing up such contracts.

(this is a ... deeply interesting interface. And for some reason the formatting buttons mostly show as blank rectangles for me. Apologies for the inevitable weird)

I THINK they mean this:

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-ne ... -16th-week

As far as the sov-cit influence...I don't know. Could go either way. As a philosophy it does slot in neatly to the general alt-right conviction that they are the people "the law protects but does not bind."

The anti-maskers have already taken to producing their own paperwork and inventing their own laws.

I can see some of them latching onto this whole handy pre-created cosmology with both hands.

OTOH it may be wishful thinking on my part. Given how many of them seem to be Albertan, they might be going into court with lofty expectations, partly fuelled by the kid gloves the cops have been using thus far, but Rooke et al are going to come down on them like a tonne of heavily-referenced bricks.

[DNetolitzky]

I should have been more explicit. My observation on the Republic of Texas' continuity is not intended to mean I think that organization has any more substance than other self-declared governments such as Canada's New Constitutionalists, or Germany's Reichsburgers. The chance any of these groups could organize a meaningful "revolution from below" is about the same as me being hit by a meteorite.

What I do find interesting about the Republic of Texas is the duration of the phenomenon. It's been around for over 20 years. Here in Canada our pseudolaw groups historically have neither had that kind of endurance, nor demonstrated the capacity to organize in any tangible way. I wonder why that is. Is it something about the host communities? The ideologies? Will the New Constitutionalists prove different? I fully agree with Eric that the New Constitutionalist have only had the success they have to date because: 1) it was summer, and 2) there is a weird amalgam of resistor populations co-existing in Canada at the moment. Could that evolve into a persistent fringe of people drafting and re-drafting pretend constitutional documents, holding parody elections, and so on? Maybe.

That's the parallel I'm particularly interested in. An ongoing inward looking anti-state community could have significant social and security implications.

To be fair I should also acknowledge the Church of the Ecumenical Redemption International has been around for a couple decades, but that's really me saying that "minister" Belanger has been around for a couple of decades. Similarly, Russ Porisky and the Paradigmers were organized enough to operate a kind of pyramid scheme, until that stopped.

But generally Canada just does not seem to have developed lasting pseudolaw groups or personalities. One of the funny things about these people is that the history tracked and recorded in places like Quatloos, or some of the papers I've written, are now pretty much the only resources that still exist to document what are essentially lost cultures and communities. Practically nothing remains of Freeman-on-the-Land online resources and websites. Same with the Detaxers. To me it's weird to see people so affected and focussed on beliefs and objectives that proved to be so ephemeral. These ideas cost many of their adherents dearly, not to mention other associate waste.

But now I'm just rambling.

[MRN]

FWIW and based purely on the aforementioned eavesdropping, I suspect that the encampment only lasted as long as it did because several of the remaining campers somehow all managed to pick a fight with their ride home, who left in August...

[DNetolitzky]

Thanks MRN. My sense of order in the universe is restored. That is precisely the kind of scenario that I would expect from my past experience with these folks.

[TBL]

Possibly many didn't have a home to return to?

[MRN]

TBL: They all came down from Red Deer together in June. Whether or not they've since been evicted or otherwise lost their homes, I don't know.

I haven't seen anything to say whether they're heading home or laying low locally.

I know that on Twitter some of them are presently trying to spin this as a crusade against the homeless.

We had a tent city in my neighborhood last year made up of people who for various reasons genuinely had nowhere else they could reasonably go, in the dead of winter. It was broken up within a month. In -25.

Donald Neolitzky:

That is precisely the kind of scenario that I would expect from my past experience with these folks.

Same. (If you're sticking with the Depeche Mode theme for your papers, might I suggest Where's The Revolution? for the next?)

OTOH Ottawa's now a Red Zone and I can't help but wonder how much they've contributed to that. They spent a LOT of time running around downtown going unmasked into stores and getting in people's faces on the street to harangue them, hoping for a "good" video clip.

[MRN]

Welp. One of them seems determined to get some serious jail time out of this ...

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/two-arrested- ... -1.5151040

[MRN]

So apparently the Premier of Ontario declined THEIR "offer to contract":

http://anti-racistcanada.blogspot.com/2 ... chris.html

Still a background motif of SovCit, and another round of infighting.

[eric]

Brian Kidder and Kevin Johnston are considered heroes out here in Alberta to their small group of supporters. In fact, Kevin is such a hero in his own mind he is quite sure he is going to be the next mayor of Calgary notwithstanding the fact that he has to come up with 2.5 M$ for a law suit that he lost in rather dramatic fashion. BTW, I will match the infighting here in Alberta against you Easterners and raise you. It's much more humorous, mainly because they are trolled constantly and the players keep shifting alliances constantly or splitting off to form their own biker vest/unfortunate choice in facial hair club.

[MRN]

TBH I'm not sure they're different groups. The local crew seem to have a fair number of Albertans determined to Bring Their Grievances To Ottawa (and now they've been more-or-less run out of town, Toronto) in them, tho' I don't know how far it goes the other way.

The current far-right/Q-Anon/anti-maskers nuclei seem to be Quebec and Alberta, with sort of tentacles spreading out and meeting up in Ontario a bit.

And, yeah. Turns out that people who believe and do deeply nasty things are frequently deeply nasty people, including to each other.

In one last bit of gossip from the Ottawa Encampment of unfond memory, turns out that what finally got them the boot was that the anniversary of Nathan Cirillo's murder was coming up and nobody was prepared to have them there for that.

Oh and somebody defaced the War Memorial with anti-Semitic graffiti this week, so there's that.

[MRN]

Oh, so, since I have well-and truly delurked, I feel like I should say that originally my interest in all this was caught because I was, for several years, an actual, successful, tax resister.

My methods, which I learned from the local Monthly Meeting, actually WERE completely legal, not very difficult, and entirely successful. And will never catch on amongst the "tax resisters" who end up here, despite the fact that if you genuinely believe that one or more things your government is doing are so immoral you cannot bring yourself to fund them, they are 100% effective in keeping your money out of their hands.

They are twofold: limit your income carefully, or give a shit-tonne of money away and get receipts for it. Or a combination.

And that is how I originally developed a burning hatred of the Porisky bunch, and is also related, though the details escape me, to how I found Quatloos.