Jonathan Turley is a lawyer and professor at George Washington University, and he brings shame to the profession.
Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley, on Canada PM Justin Trudeau invoking emergency powers to deal with the "Freedom Convoy" blockade:
"By this rationale, they could have cracked down on the Civil Rights movement. They could have arrested Martin Luther King." pic.twitter.com/s9dwkcvihQ
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) February 15, 2022
Oh my god yes. What if they had cracked down on the Civil Rights movement, or arrested Martin Luther King? What a horrible, unimaginable what-if to propose!
What’s that? They did? How odd that a goddamn professor would never have heard of Letters from a Birmingham Jail, never seen the photos of police dogs and fire hoses turned on black citizens. I guess that’s the state of conservative education nowadays.
He goes on to whine that the police are treating the anti-vaxx protesters like terrorists. There is no comparison between these bozos and the civil rights protesters. After the murder of George Floyd, freeways in Minneapolis were choked with people demanding their civil rights and freedom from oppressive policing. These truckers are ignorant yahoos demanding the right to be plague rats in society. They are terrorists. Easily triggered terrorists who will melt down if you whisper the words “ram ranch” to them.
It rather pisses me off about the degree of ignorance of the American media about Canada in general and the Emergencies Act in specific. By and large the US media gets almost everything wrong about the Act. The Emergencies Act is a law passed by the Parliament in 1988. It authorizes the federal government to take extraordinary temporary measures to respond to public welfare emergencies, public order emergencies, international emergencies and war emergencies. The law repeals the earlier War Measures Act. It asserts that any government action continues to be subject to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Bill of Rights.
In other words, Fox NYT WSJ and the Washington Post get it wrong. No rights enumerated in the Charter of Rights and Freedom are suspended. You can still appeal to the courts for remediation. Yet these fools keep getting it wrong,
@1: Whaddaya complaining about?! They get our Constitution and laws wrong too, as well as our history. What, you want special treatment for Canadians?
If he works for Murdoch, is it “ignorance” or willful misinformation and provocation to promote the oligarch’s agenda? I suspect the latter.
I think the implication this creep is making is If you think that MLK jr. and other civil rights protestors shouldn’t be arrested or beaten by cops then you should also oppose shutting down the fascists who closed up Ottawa.
The charge of hypocrisy is a powerful weapon in the Right’s arsenal.
As a person who is currently living downtown (and made the papers for being one of the people who physically served the truckers with the CAD$9.8M lawsuit) let me remind you all that these people have NOT been lawful. Two buildings have had grievous acts of arson – in one case, the protesters duct-taped the doors shut from the outside so that people would be unable to escape easily.
People have been attacked. Guns have been seized.
This is anything but peaceful, or fighting for freedom, or civil rights.
While it often seems that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, if you need to blatantly lie about history to make your “point”, I would say that your point is pretty dull.
Also, this convoy is not a grassroots rebellion against government overreach. It is a well funded Christian Nationalist movement surrounded by a buzzing cloud of useful Karens who think masks block oxygen and who are afraid to admit that they are afraid of needles. By the way, in Canada we would really appreciate it if the US would keep its extremists to itself; we have enough problems with our own.
I was wondering why they were doing all this now, when pandemic mandates are dying off naturally. They might say that they don’t believe the mandates will ever go away since they think that the government will never give up a power. They know that they would never. But I read an interesting article that said that they are so angry because they have lost. The vast majority of us are vaccinated and are just as free as they are, more free really since we are not crippled by fear and hatred. Most of us do not give a flying fuck about their stupid religious rules and white replacement theories and are embarrassed that idiots like them are the current face of Canada in the news.
#3, Robro
If Fox News were around during the time of MLK, they’d be pairing him up with the BLM protests, not with the anti-vax convoy. It proves their misstatements of history are deliberate deception, and not just outright ignorance and idiocy.
@5 good reminder, and good for you!
stay safe.
“fox news legal analyst” is a pretty good punch-line, but it’s a bad joke.
The Canadians should treat those batshitcrazy wackaloons like wot New Zealand is doing to their
batshitcrazy wackaloons,play the 70’s hits of Barry Manilow at them.
Now that’s what I call a cruel and unusual punishment.
The far right have adopted Lenin’s agitprop approach: “truth” is defined as whatever is advantageous to the Party.
They use Orwell’s 1984 book as an instruction manual.
“fox news legal analyst” is a pretty good punch-line,
Punch ’em HARD. They’ve earned it.
Turley was a regular guest commentator on MSNBC, but I guess he was lured to the dark side with better pay. Meanwhile, Fox News’ Chris Wallace has moved to CNN, as I guess the craziness of Fox finally got to him. But I’m not fooled — it’s probably all about money after all, not truth.
On a related note Florida Governor Ron Desantis’s racism has become more overt lately:
https://news.yahoo.com/cracking-down-racial-justice-protests-200719411.html
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis embraced the Canadian truckers on Twitter, posting a “TRUCK YEAH” image and vowing to launch a state investigation of the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe for saying it would redirect trucker donations to charity… Just last year, DeSantis signed an anti-riot bill that, among its various provisions, specifically outlawed blocking roadways, updating the state’s prior prohibitions on panhandling in traffic. The new law, inspired in part by a tiny July 2020 protest in St. Petersburg, says a person may not “willfully obstruct the free, convenient, and normal use of a public street, highway, or road.””
And:
https://amp.tallahassee.com/amp/6754218001
“Gov. Ron DeSantis is heightening tension over Florida’s congressional redistricting, indicating he still wants fellow Republican leaders in the Legislature to craft new boundaries that would eliminate half of the state’s districts now held by Black members of Congress.”
I remember when Jonathan Turley used to appear regularly on MSNBC and talk about legal things that were generally rational. I’m not sure when he became a turncoat/drank the Koll-Aid/jumped the shark, but his notions have grown increasingly bizarre since he made the move to Fox (which presumably pays better).
But one of the primary duties of the Fox commentator is to feed the crazy. And I guess, eventually the crazy feeds you back.
I confess that I would have loved to see the Canadian police turn fire hoses and dogs on them, then move in with clubs. He further insulted us by saying they were in “good trouble”.
weylguy @13
I remember him being a frequent guest of Keith Olbermann in particular. He seemed sane and reasonable back then but, then again, so did Jeffrey Toobin and we know how that turned out.
What I still haven’t understood is why an emergency powers act of any sort was needed to deal with these yahoos. I would have thought that, somewhere in all the local, provincial, and national laws, there would have been something to the effect of “if you persistently drive your vehicle so as to obstruct traffic, you will have your driver’s license and/or vehicle taken away”.
#16: I’m Canadian, and I can tell you why we didn’t let loose on these yahoos even though they totally deserved it:
We didn’t want to be like America .
Really, it’s that simple. The americans were sending funding to the blockades, some were recently arrested for trying to bring guns to it (though to be fair, could have been a plant). Trudeau (our PM) has been clear that he did not want to turn the streets into a bloodbath over this foolishness, having watched it happen time and time again in the states with your protests. The cops might have given them too much leeway in my opinion, but I can see why they waited until things got out of hand…if you add fuel to a volatile situation it gets worse in the end.
Thinks from the cop’s POV (and this is coming from me, an open cop hater usually) They had 2 choices:
1) Jump in and start cracking heads…and have the population demonize you for being power-tripping assholes.
2) Allow it to occur seeing that no active destruction was occurring…and have the population accuse you of coddling them or showing bias becasue the LAST time when a native protest occurred you did option 1 (and got reamed for it)
There was no scenario they were going to look good in, but at least this way they separated themselves from the bullies and at least TRIED to look professional while respecting the protestor’s right to protest.
FOR A FEW DAYS AND WITHOUT INCIDENTS. Then when they started blocking international borders, showing up with weapons, and spewing nazi shit, THAT’S when they started breaking it up, and so far not a single tear gas canister lobbed into a crowd. No deaths. Pretty sure no shots or injuries to anyone.
it’s hard to say they made the wrong decision here, and I hate the idea that these yahoos are still protesting!
No, no. Not “Ram Ranch”. 🤣🤣🤣
So now we get “History So Bad It Offends a Biologist”.
Next – “Archaeology SBIOaB”? “Engineering SBIOaB”? “Philately SBIOaB”?
yes when it became clear to everyone who looked even causally that roots of the demonstrators was hard right wing fanaticism and not at all the rule of law and rights and freedoms but license without duties or obligations
Look, Truck drivers already give up multiple civil rights to drive truck. They are subject to annual physicals, mandatory drug testing, and, here at least, they are only allowed to blow HALF the legal limit whether driving a truck or a personal vehicle. What’s one little jab? The last thing you want is a guy driving an 18 wheeler running a fever.
Besides, from what I understand, most of the actual truck drivers went home last week and the only people keeping this going are your usual Yall Queda types. Just yesterday there were only half a dozen actual trucks there and the rest were personal vehicles. “HELP HELP, I’M BEING OPPRESSED” No you’re being an idiot.
@19 if I could respectfully disagree:
1. The police could have acted pre-emptively. They had two weeks public notice this was happening.
2. The moment these clowns showed up in town, the racism was evident. From Trump abs confederate flags through the blue-line flags, they were immediately here.
3. The violence was instant. Day 1, there were physical attacks on people in downtown Ottawa.
Police did nothing. I did watch bylaw ticket a man for idling not 15m from a truck which was happily blowing smoke into the sky.
Make no mistake, from someone who lives here: the Capitol of Canada has fallen to a band of assholes in trucks.
Florida Police Handed Out A Traffic Fine Link That Was Actually A MAGA Merch Store
The point however is “How should the law react to non violent protests?” . You seem to be arguing that the actual cause makes a difference – whereas the law really cant make a distinction between causes that are “right” v/s those that are not – given that almost all protests are protesting against the laws themselves!.
I have seen contradictory reports on whether there was violence or not or whether there were some rare acts which would have different consequences but for the point that Turdleys is making , lets assume that these are non violent blockades.
The point however is “How should the law react to non violent protests?” . You seem to be arguing that the actual cause makes a difference – whereas the law really cant make a distinction between causes that are “right” v/s those that are not – given that almost all protests are protesting against the laws themselves!.
I have seen contradictory reports on whether there was violence or not or whether there were some rare acts which would have different consequences but for the point that Turdleys is making , lets assume that these are non violent blockades.
A lot of Canadians have expressed sympathy for the protesters, if not their methods. If the CBC did their job, that sympathy might be drastically diminished. One of their journalists (David Cochrane) said, a couple days ago, that the CBC had chosen not to air some of the interviews they did with Ottawa protesters, because they were so hostile, expressing extremist views, and being abusive to reporters. WTF? Epic journalism fail.
CBC; aspiring to be the CNN of the North.
Deepak Shetty @28: Does making life unbearable for residents count as “violent”. I would argue yes.
The people arrested by the RCMP at the Coutts weapons cache are all residents of Alberta.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/coutts-protest-charges-laid-court-appearance-bail-1.6352482
I have yet to see any evidence that a significant number of Americans are physically involved in the various blockades. A few are up here, and some have apparently been prevented from entering Canada to join the protests.
Among those blocked was MyPillow kook Mike Lindell, who tried to enter Canada with a truckload of his pillows last night. A previous attempt to bring the pillows in, without Lindell present was also blocked, because the truckers were unvaccinated. Oops.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/my-pillows-mike-lindell-barred-from-entering-canada-to-support-convoy-protestors/ar-AATX5VN?ocid=uxbndlbing
They are terrorists. If only Canada had a Guantanamo.
@29, Rob Grigjanis.
Wrong, wrong and wrong. The vast majority of both Canadians and Canadian truckers oppose these far right wing fascistic loons.
In every way possible.
@Rob Grigjanis
Most acts of civil disobedience do mean that life is harder for some people who may or may not agree with your cause (Think BLM and the Occupy movements) – You cant make the word “violent” mean whatever you want.
If there’s ever a zombie outbreak then the zombies will be the ones with all the guns.
(Continued from 33, as I had a keyboard glitch)
Mr. Grigjanis also seems to not grasp hate crimes laws, which among other things, suggest that a public broadcaster has a duty to not air hate speech including in ‘interview’ form.
The deplorable toads holding Ottawa hostage can go frak themselves. Preferably with a loaded XMas tree.
And, CNN does good work, though CBC News is the Gold standard for actual newscasting.
andrei613 @33: Poll
@36:
They could bleep out offensive words, or they could simply report the gist of the interview. You seem to be suggesting that if people express hate, they should be ignored.
A few years ago, they were about to air a report on a devastating new study on the state of the oceans, but (“breaking news!”) they cut to an announcement on the itinerary for the upcoming visit to Canada of Will and Kate. I didn’t hear anything more about the ocean study.
How dare you! Mary Mallen had an inalienable right to give typhoid to everyone that she could! And people have the inalienable right to buy machine guns and use a local NICU for the target backstop.
And the parents of children in that NICU have the inalienable right to use flamethrowers on the machine gunners shooting that NICU.
Sounds like anarchy to me.
As a child, I remember seeing a civil rights protest march go past the end of my street. They got two blocks down Springfield and were met by a heavily armed police line. Frank Rizzo ensured a fair number ended up hospitalized, justifying it with “the other cities burned, Philly will not”. Cousin or not, fuck Rizzo, his memory and next time I’m near his grave, what’ll be left there will never be mistaken for flowers.
Yeah, he was a sixth cousin. He used to chase Dad, Dad grabbing the dice and running… Couldn’t run, wasn’t allowed to use both six guns he lugged around, basically useless as a cop.
@gigoel, that’s fine. The US never did prohibit flamethrowers. Wanna share some of my bean soup? The flame front is hellish, but the soup is tasty!
@andrei613, CBC, BBC and Al Jazeera are all excellent news sources. I still know some BBC and Al Jazeera reporters and shared a villa compound with the Al Jazeera folks. It was unique, watching someone reporting from Pakistan, then greeting them that evening when they got home from their flight.
Re #37: I might have missed it, but I haven’t heard the CBC mention the established links between some of the protest organizers and groups like QAnon, or sites like InfoWars. I do watch the CBC News Network, because it’s one of the best mainstream sources, but ‘one of the best’ is a low bar these days.
@37: This is incorrectly assuming a view of “hate speech” and “broadcaster responsibility” (and even “journalistic ethics”) that is not entirely compatible with Canadian law. Or, at least, Canadian law as I understand it. In many countries not the US, even the gathering of hate speech can violate either law or more-enforceable-than-in-the-US ethical standards. Every nation has its particular blind spots, and it’s all too easy to throw around labels and presumptions from Nation A as criticism of Nation B. This is particularly dangerous when criticizing the CBC… a Crown corporation with substantial freedom but more restrictions on it than, say, CNN.
@17 I thought Canadians were not allowed to be naughty,as it would upset the dear old Queen.
Rob G, @34.
‘Sympathetic’ is not the same as ‘I agree with their views’.
We are ALL tired of the pandemic. In my case, the border closure kept my lovely wife and I physically apart for 21 months.
BUT, the way to get us all past the pandemic is for ALL of us to do all the things that we each have to do. And, anyone who is so juvenile and selfish that their ‘comfort’ regarding mask wearing is more important to them that doing all that we ALL have to do, well frak them and the horse they rid on.
We are all out of fucks for the willfully ignorant Typhoid Karens of the world.
And, your widdle anecdote about CBC News only points to this old saying:
‘The singular of -anecdote- is NOT a synonym for -citation-.
And, then there’s this far better written, and sourced conclusion:
https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2014/10/cbc-ottawa-shootings-cable-news/
andrei @42:
Yes, I know. I said a lot of Canadians were sympathetic, you said I was wrong. You were wrong.
‘widdle anecdote’? Do fuck off.
I’m guessing that the saying you’re aiming for, but getting horribly wrong, is “the plural of anecdote is not data”. Funny story about that saying; it’s not just a misquote, it’s the opposite of the original;
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-the-fox-knows/