Calgary freedom protesters gather despite ongoing injunction

• By Ezra Levant

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For those who have not been following the story, Calgary’s progressive-activist Mayor Jyoti Gondek had a twitter temper tantrum a few weeks back and suggested that counter-protesters who were disobeying police and blocking a designated march route were justified in their disobedience, and that the peaceful pro freedom marches which have been carrying on without incident for two-years had no right to proceed.

1/4 I spoke with Beltline residents & businesses this morning. I was in the Beltline this afternoon. The weekly disruption this community faces is not a “protest”. It’s a parade. At Central Memorial Park, it’s a festival with merch & food vendors. Yet no permits or licenses.

— Jyoti Gondek (@JyotiGondek) March 13, 2022

Sadly, the City of Calgary sided with the biased mayor and obtained a restrictive injunction banning marches, limiting access to public spaces and parks, banning honking, and prohibiting the use of amplification in many prior protest locations. Police enforced the Charter rights flouting injunction and we saw two years of peaceful protests marred by escalated enforcement, troubling arrests, and fights instigated largely by the counter-protesters emboldened by Jyoti’s rhetoric.

It is worth noting that over the course of two years there have been at most a handful of counter protesters, suddenly with the mayor weighing in, a large crowd of opponents suddenly manifest. It comes as no surprises that Calgary police chief Mark Neufeld acknowledged plainly that some of the counter protestors are known to be paid activists.

By week two of the injunction, freedom protests continued in Calgary, with counter protesters having dwindled just as quickly as they manifest in the first place. The only real opposition present was the arbitrary and targeted enforcement of the overbearing restrictions of injunction by police who were issuing tickets to those honking in support of the protests and forcing the gathering to relocate several times before finally being allowed to set up near the Calgary Courts Centre.

At the latest protest this past weekend, people gathered at City Hall, with police remaining at a distance allowing the protest to proceed without direct interference. James Topp, a veteran who is marching across Canada to oppose vaccine mandates was among the speakers who addressed the crowd. My exclusive sit-down interview with James Topp will be available soon at RebelNews.com.

We also spoke with those in attendance about the troubling trend of politicians employing police forces as private arms of ideological enforcement, as was clearly evidenced in Ottawa during the freedom protests and in Calgary over that last few weeks.

We once again captured several instances where people who were driving by the protest and honking in solidarity were being pulled over and ticketed per the injunction on camera, and we were even able to speak with one of the ticketed individuals.

As the event was coming to a close and people headed their separate ways, some of the crowd made their way up Stephen Avenue in Downtown Calgary from an impromptu and injunction-compliant walk.

As we followed them we were alerted to the arrest of Pastor Derek Reimer, who was not involved with the protest, but was feeding the homeless at his weekly street ministry nearby. Police arrested him under the injunction, despite the fact that he was not protesting, only further proving the targeted political nature of this injunction and its enforcement. You can read more on that story here.

The Calgary protesters aren’t alone in their stance against unethical vaccine mandates, while they stand up for freedom in the streets, The Democracy Fund is taking a stand in the courts with a legal challenge of vaccine passports. If you want to make a tax receipt eligible to their legal fight go to FightVaccinePassports.com.