14 votes

Dispatch from the Ottawa Front: Sloly is telling you all he's in trouble. Who's listening?

3 comments

  1. balooga
    Link
    This is eerily reminiscent of the organized, hand-signaling, zip-cuff-carrying, gallows-erecting faction at the U.S. Capitol last January. It seemed like most of the "insurrectionists" that day...

    This is eerily reminiscent of the organized, hand-signaling, zip-cuff-carrying, gallows-erecting faction at the U.S. Capitol last January. It seemed like most of the "insurrectionists" that day were bewildered QAnon moms taking selfies and waving signs. But embedded within them was a pretty alarming cadre of actual militants looking to stir up some shit. We got lucky last year, they didn't accomplish much— but I wouldn't count on that being the outcome every time.

    10 votes
  2. streblo
    Link
    Interesting and alarming article about the "secondary encampment" in Ottawa.

    Interesting and alarming article about the "secondary encampment" in Ottawa.

    My government and security sources do not agree. What’s happening in Ottawa, they were clear, is two separate events happening in tandem: there is a broadly non-violent (to date) group of Canadians with assorted COVID-related gripes, ranging from the somewhat justified to totally frickin’ insane. But that larger group, which has knocked Ottawa and too many of our leaders into what my colleague Jen Gerson so perfectly described as “stun-fucked stasis,” is now providing a kind of (mostly) unwitting cover to a cadre of seasoned street brawlers whose primary goal is to further erode the legitimacy of the state — not just the city of Ottawa, or Ontario or Canada, but of democracies generally.

    And that’s what has Sloly worried, my sources tell me. Angry, disillusioned truckers can be talked down eventually, even if it takes a long time. The police know how to handle that. But there is another element here — smaller, hard to find, but real, which is why Sloly has been referring to the intelligence he’s seen, and asking for help, and saying he wants the military. Yes, yes, some of that is undoubtedly him wanting someone else to step up and take some of the heat. Some of it is seems rooted in a very real concern that what’s unfolding in Ottawa is something our leaders haven’t considered before, and don’t know how to handle, even if they accept it’s real, which seems to be a work in progress.

    If that all sounds alarmist, I felt that way too. So I contacted three other sources, including one who’s superbly well placed, and ran this scenario by them. Two agreed. One suggested I’m actually being too optimistic.

    5 votes