A Canadian national learned the hard way that political rage can carry a hefty price tag — including a possible one-way ticket out of the country.
Kaitlyn Tracey, a 33-year-old living in Asbury Park, allegedly lost her cool on the Point Pleasant Beach boardwalk on Jersey Shore over the Fourth of July weekend and is accused of <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/07/15/us-news/canadian-woman-kaitlyn-tracey-detained-by-ice-after-allegedly-assaulting-teen-girl-wearing-trump-clothing-at-jersey-shore/">unleashing a physical assault</a> on a teenager whose only crime was her wardrobe choice.
According to authorities, Tracey filmed herself confronting a group of four young girls on July 3. The trigger? Two of the minors were wearing patriotic sweatpants emblazoned with the words &#8220;Trump&#8221; and &#8220;ICE.&#8221; Tempers flared, and Tracey allegedly smacked one of the young girls across the face and body. While the teenager escaped physical injury, Tracey couldn’t escape the law.
Cops used security footage to track down the angry Canadian. She was hit with a laundry list of charges, including endangering the welfare of a child, assault, harassment, and obstruction.
But her troubles didn&#8217;t stop there. On Monday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents snatched Tracey up and threw her into the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark.
Her husband, Matthew Geroni — who calls himself the &#8220;Clown of Asbury Park&#8221; and regularly mocks conservatives — scrambled to TikTok to beg his 140,000 followers for help, conveniently leaving out the part where his wife allegedly slapped a kid. A GoFundMe page he promoted for her legal fees was quickly yanked down after angry MAGA supporters reported it.
The leftist&#8217;s boardwalk tantrum is just the latest flashpoint in a years-long wave of violent outbursts targeting everyday Americans for wearing red hats or flying conservative flags.
Just two months ago, the hatred turned lethal. Kerry Sheron, a 69-year-old Army veteran known for his patriotic &#8220;Trump House&#8221; in Escondido, California, was brutally beaten in his own front yard. The elderly veteran <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/army-vet-dies-after-hes-beaten-outside-his-famed-trump-house">died of his injuries</a> days later.
The rage extends to even the most mundane settings. Back in July 2018, a Texas teenager sitting in a San Antonio Whataburger had his MAGA hat ripped off and soda thrown in his face by an angry patron. In August 2019, a man was jumped outside a Portland, Oregon bar by two thugs simply because he was <a href="https://www.opb.org/news/article/maga-hat-trump-portland-oregon-assault/#:~:text=By%20Rob%20Manning%20(OPB)%20Portland%2C%20Ore.%20Aug.,to%20the%20Multnomah%20County%20District%20Attorney's%20office.">wearing the signature red hat</a>.
Even law enforcement has been caught in the middle of the madness. A federal appeals court previously ruled that Trump supporters attacked at a 2016 campaign rally in San Jose could sue local police. Officers allegedly funneled attendees right into a hostile mob of anti-Trump protesters and stood by while they were pummeled and pelted with garbage.
For Tracey, her next date in court is on August 4 if Uncle Sam doesn&#8217;t deport her back to the Great White North first.

Nation’s Capital Prepares For President-Elect Donald Trump’s Second Inauguration

ICE Takes Action After Canadian Lefty Accused Of Slapping American Teen Over Trump Pants

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A gay couple is suing a single mother for an estimated $600,000 because she refused abortion after potential minor birth defects were discovered by ultrasound.
A surrogate in Canada says a gay couple told her to abort the baby she was carrying — which was created using a donor egg and one of the men&#8217;s sperm — at nearly six months pregnant over a possible cleft palate and a potential minor heart issue. A lawsuit obtained by the National Post says the couple is suing the woman for causing them emotional distress and not keeping them informed in a timely manner.
After the woman, who is not being named, refused to kill the child, the couple allegedly stiffed her on reimbursement for pregnancy-related expenses, lost income, and other costs, which were supposed to be paid per agreement. When the woman tried to take them to small claims court to try to get the $10,000, the couple hit her with an estimated $600,000 lawsuit.
“You know I’m a single mom, you know I have a daughter, and you’re basically suing me for my house. It seems very sh*tty, it’s just awful,&#8221; the woman said. “I just feel used … They didn’t get the perfect child they wanted and they threw me away.”
In Canada, women are not paid enormous sums for surrogacy as they are in America; instead, they&#8217;re only allowed reimbursement for pregnancy-related expenses. The woman in this case said she decided to become a surrogate to help others. She said she was inundated with dozens of requests for surrogacy after she announced her intentions. She added that she chose the gay couple after much consideration.
After the woman told the partners about possible birth defects, which were a cleft lip, a potential cleft palate, and a possible minor heart defect, the couple said in a letter that they wanted their surrogate to kill the child.
“Considering that medical tests indicate that the fetus has, or is likely to have, a genetic, chromosomal or other abnormality or defect, and in accordance with article 8.5 (a) of our surrogacy agreement … we want to inform you of our wish that the pregnancy be terminated,” the gay couple reportedly said. “Although very difficult, this decision is free and informed.”
The request left the woman feeling &#8220;devastated” and a “mess,&#8221; she said.
She ended up delivering a baby boy through an at-home birth, which further upset the gay couple, who reportedly wanted the baby delivered in a hospital because of the suspected birth defects. The at-home birth was agreed upon in their original surrogacy plan.
Surrogacy has become increasingly controversial, with critics arguing that the process turns motherhood into a transaction, preys on the poor, and treats children like a product.
Pro-life activist Lila Rose <a href="https://x.com/LilaGraceRose/status/2077207953451692129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">posted</a> about the lawsuit on Tuesday, writing, &#8220;A same-sex couple is suing their surrogate for $600K after she refused to abort their baby at 22 weeks in Canada. Scans indicated the child had a cleft lip and a possible heart defect,&#8221; she said. &#8220;The little boy was born healthy.&#8221;
&#8220;That child is alive today not because of the men who purchased his life, but because the woman who carried him in her womb protected him. Children are not commodities,&#8221; Rose added. &#8220;Ban surrogacy now.&#8221;
The gay couple declined to comment on the matter, according to the Post.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/surrogacy-is-the-worst-outcome-of-throwaway-culture">Surrogacy Is The Worst Outcome Of Throwaway Culture</a>

Pregnant woman’s belly with barcode – stock photo

Gay Couple Sues Surrogate For All She Has Because She Refused Abortion

Abortion

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LGBT

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Politics, in its original understanding, is the art of securing the happiness of a people through reasoned deliberation about justice and the common good. In modern democracies, however, it is increasingly the art of manipulating passions that obliterate reason and obscure the common good. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is a striking example of this degeneration. He has ascended to power by pandering to his citizenry’s lowest and most convenient resentment: anti-Americanism.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Gordie Howe Bridge affair, which lays bare the contradiction at the heart of his rule. Having ridden this wave to victory last year, Carney now discovers that the very passion he inflamed has become a tyrant over his own judgment. He confronts a hard truth: his personal electoral interest is now at war with the national interest, even the self-preservation, of Canada itself.
To understand the gravity of the problem, one must begin with first principles. No political order can endure if it deliberately miseducates its citizens to hate the very conditions of its existence. Canada’s geography, economy, and security are inseparable from its friendship with the United States. To pretend that Canada can flourish while treating the United States as a permanent enemy, a perpetual object of contempt, is to deny the truths upon which Canadian peace and prosperity rest. Yet Carney’s political genius has been to transform that denial into a badge of national honor.
Any prudent statesman might criticize particular American policies that conflict with Canadian interests. But this is not what transpired. Rather, Carney’s campaign invited Canadians to define themselves against America. He courted and inflamed a virulent anti-Americanism that treats the United States as a principle of corruption: culturally vulgar, economically rapacious, politically decadent. Canada, by contrast, was painted as the purer North American nation, morally superior, more compassionate, more enlightened. It was a flattering tale, and flattery is the great solvent of good judgment in democracies.
The teaching implicit in this rhetoric is simple: whatever comes from the United States is suspect; whatever separates Canada from the United States must be inherently virtuous. Having accepted such a teaching, the electorate is now predisposed to see any close cooperation, any agreement, any “deal” with the United States as a betrayal.
But a nation cannot sustain itself on the proposition, “We are what we are not.” Canada does not become more truly itself by hollowing out its own material foundations in order to maintain a heightened sense of moral indignation. Pride is not a substitute for prosperity, and contempt is not policy.
The Gordie Howe Bridge episode crystallizes the danger. The bridge represents a critical artery of trade and supply between Windsor and Detroit: an embodiment of cross-border integration. Millions of jobs, billions of dollars in commerce, and the daily lives of citizens on both sides depend upon it. It is a standing refutation of the delusion that Canada can seal itself off from the United States and flourish in isolation.
But Carney is, by his own design, the tribune of an anti-American demos. He has indoctrinated his supporters to believe that American “demands” are, by their nature, insulting, and that any accommodation is proof of weakness. He has courted commentators and activists who treat every bilateral agreement as another chapter in the supposed story of Canadian victimhood.
Thus, when the bridge crisis emerged, he found himself caught between truth and the passions he had stoked. Business leaders, economists, and provincial officials could see the stakes: disruption of a vital trade corridor, damage to supply chains, risk to investment and employment. Every rational argument pointed toward a negotiated deal. But these considerations had to confront a public teaching: that to bend in any way to American insistence is to forfeit Canadian dignity.
The path he chose was characteristic of a politician who fears the electorate he has miseducated. Outwardly, he postured as the defender of Canadian sovereignty, drawing “red lines,” using the rhetoric of defiance, promising no compromise. Inwardly, his government scrambled to find a formula that would prevent another economic calamity. The eventual resolution gave the United States much of what it had sought from the beginning, but it came late, obscured by semantic evasions and half-acknowledged concessions.
The results satisfied no one. Those Canadians most committed to the anti-American line saw only capitulation under the cloak of empty bravado. More sober observers, who understand that Canada cannot risk a trade war with its indispensable neighbor, saw a prime minister incapable of saying in public what he was compelled to admit in private: that Canadian survival requires cooperation with the American colossus.
The bridge incident, therefore, reveals that Canada is being habituated to a fatal confusion: the belief that to do what is necessary for national self-preservation is somehow ignoble, while to indulge sterile defiance is virtuous. A political order that teaches such a lesson to its citizens corrodes the very faculty of judgment on which self-government depends.
In its classical understanding, prudence is the chief political virtue by which a statesman discerns and pursues the true good. Prudence does not mean timidity or surrender; it means seeing things as they are and acting accordingly. For a Canadian prime minister, prudence must begin with the acknowledgment that Canada’s fate is entwined with that of the United States. Geography and power are not nullified by rhetoric. The question is not whether Canada will deal with the United States, but on what terms, with what clarity, and in what spirit.
Anti-Americanism, as Carney has wielded it, is the enemy of prudence. It does not permit a calm weighing of advantages and risks. It insists that the very act of dealing with the United States is suspect. It inverts the moral order: necessary compromise becomes shameful, and theatrical defiance becomes noble. Under such conditions, the statesman who seeks the true good of his nation must either defy the prejudices he has helped create or surrender to them and preside over a long decline.
The question, then, “Is it in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s interest to secure any deals with the United States?” must be answered on two levels. If by “interest” we mean his interest as a seeker of re-election, then a comprehensive rational agreement with the United States may well be contrary. Every sensible concession will be denounced as treason by those whom he taught to equate dignity with defiance.
But if by “interest” we mean the preservation and flourishing of Canada as a free and prosperous nation, then such a deal is indispensable. To jeopardize crucial economic and security arrangements for the sake of indulging national vanity is to prefer shadow to substance. It is to sacrifice the future for the intoxication of the present moment.
Carney’s predicament is thus emblematic of a deeper crisis in demagogic leadership. The statesman worthy of the name seeks to elevate opinion toward truth, to discipline and educate passion so that the people can recognize their true interests. The demagogue does the opposite: he magnifies passion against reason and then becomes its captive.
Nations can die more subtly than by invasion, bankruptcy, or demographic collapse. That is, by losing the capacity to recognize their own good when it conflicts with their favorite resentments. Canada now stands at such a crossroads. It can have its cathartic anti-Americanism, or it can have a serious future in which its prosperity and security are guarded with adult sobriety. What it cannot have, no matter how skilled its prime minister, is both.
***
Dimpee Brar currently serves as the Director of Engagement for Allies for a Strong Canada. She is a writer whose work can be found in the Federalist, American Spectator, the Western Standard, and the Toronto Sun. She appears frequently on various podcasts and radio shows. You can follow her on X: @isthisdimpeeb

Gordie Howe International Bridge Nearly Ready to Open

The Gordie Howe Bridge Affair And The Costs Of Canada’s Anti-Americanism

DW Opinion

Gordie Howe Bridge

Mark Carney

Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has officially traded his cabinet meetings for choreography, hitting a humiliating new low as a backup dancer in a Katy Perry music video.
It’s quite the pivot for a politician who once ran a major Western G7 nation and now finds himself playing second fiddle to a pop princess.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Katy Perry is 41 years old. She&#39;s dressed like a child while Justin Trudeau jumps around with her like a child with ADHD. <a href="https://t.co/pTBB4FAYeN">pic.twitter.com/pTBB4FAYeN</a>
&mdash; Ian Miles Cheong (@ianmiles) <a href="https://x.com/ianmiles/status/2075556151484432624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2026</a></blockquote>
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At age 54, Justin Trudeau finally gets his big break in the entertainment industry with a bit-part playing a mexican jumping-bean in a Katy Perry video. <a href="https://t.co/vJgYPiKkpp">https://t.co/vJgYPiKkpp</a>
&mdash; Josh Ryan 🍁 (@joshryanjames) <a href="https://x.com/joshryanjames/status/2075535664787964252?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Trudeau, 54, and Perry, 41, first sparked romance rumors in the summer of 2025 after getting cozy in Montreal and locking lips on her yacht. By October, they made it official, holding hands at a cabaret show at Crazy Horse Paris while celebrating her birthday.
In April, the duo was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-canadian-prime-minister-goes-all-in-on-coachella-boyfriend-vibe?author=Amanda+Harding&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Former+Canadian+Prime+Minister+Goes+All-In+On+Coachella+Boyfriend+Vibe">roasted</a> for acting like aged-out frat boys at Coachella. While Justin Bieber phoned in a sleepy performance, Trudeau paced the festival grounds in a backward cap, clutching a red Solo cup like a middle-aged dad trying to crash a college rager.
Should we be surprised? Trudeau’s embarrassing pivot from head of state to boy toy is just the natural evolution for Canada’s ultimate &#8220;woke&#8221; poster boy.
During his decade in power, Trudeau became a global laughingstock for prioritizing virtue-signaling over actual leadership. He infamously pushed gender identity laws that led to a father <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/canadian-father-jailed-after-misgendering-daughter-lands-win-in-appeal-court">being jailed</a> for misgendering his child, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JustinPJTrudeau/posts/when-women-and-girls-are-empowered-entire-families-communities-and-societies-suc/759160075566385/">declared</a> that &#8220;trans women are women&#8221; on International Women’s Day.
When Ottawa truckers protested for basic medical freedom in 2022, the hypersensitive PM fled.
And while anti-Israel rioters burned cars in Montreal, Trudeau was spotted dancing his worries away at a Taylor Swift concert in Toronto.
After driving Canada into the ground with high costs of living and mass immigration, Trudeau finally resigned in early 2025.
It didn&#8217;t take long for him to find a new gig. While his ex-wife, Sophie Grégoire, and Perry’s ex, Orlando Bloom, move on with their lives, Trudeau is busy trying to stay relevant under the stage lights.
From running Canada to dancing for Katy, Justin Trudeau has finally found the role he was always born to play: a harmless, self-absorbed theatrical extra.

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Justin Trudeau Makes Surprise Debut as Katy Perry Backup Dancer

Dancing For Katy: Trudeau Finds New Career As Backup Dancer

Justin Trudeau

Katy Perry

My Dearest America,
From across your northern border, from a nation that has enjoyed the serene luxury of your shadow and your shelter, I write to you on the occasion of your 250th birthday — as a grateful beloved and not some moralistic scold or resentful neighbor. For I am acutely aware that the liberties I enjoy, and the clarity with which I know myself free, are gifts of your thought, your daring, and your existence. I am a Canadian woman, yes, but in the profoundest sense that matters — one which appeals to nature and not to passports — I am your daughter.
Others will say you are a “propositional nation,” while some still cling to the hope that you are a “heritage nation.” Both miss the point, because each misunderstands the revolution behind what you really did and who you really are. The radicalism of your proposition lies in its claim to be true by nature. In brief, you are and will be true in all times and places. You did something unprecedented: you took equality and liberty out of the realm of myth, custom, and historical accident, and you wrote them on the tablet of nature itself. “All men are created equal.” You said that what you claim depends not on particular English habits, Protestant temperament, or colonial grievances; it depends on the soul.
That is why I, a foreigner, can claim you with gratitude and seriousness. The moment you say “created equal,” you obliterate the boundary between your citizens and the rest of mankind — not politically, but philosophically. You announce that the standard by which regimes are to be judged is man’s eternal nature and not tradition, blood, or geography. And if that is true, any regime — yours, mine, or any other — that repudiates that standard becomes an enemy not merely of Americans, but of humanity itself. This is why your existence is more than a political fact; it is a philosophical revolution.
You are called arrogant for speaking of yourselves as a “city on a hill.” But your most profound audacity is your humility before nature. You dared to assert that the truths upon which you rest are not yours. They do not belong to Boston or Philadelphia. They are not an American custom; they are a human truth. You did not create the equality of men; you discovered it. You did not grant inalienable rights; you recognized them. That is why you are, and must be, a light to other nations.
The light you bear is not the sentimental glow of humanitarian feeling, which rises and falls with fashion. It is the light of nature—a light that flattens false hierarchies and exposes tyrannies as both false and unjust. It is the light by which a peasant in China, a dissident in Iran, and a woman in Canada can quietly measure her rulers and know whether they are legitimate. It whispers to the soul: You were not born to be a subject. You were not born to be a means. That whisper is your greatest weapon.
You are the New Zion and its new chosen people. This is not to say God prefers your soil or your accents, but rather that you have been chosen for a specific task. You are chosen to live with the burden of having declared to the world that there is a standard above tribe, throne, party, and epoch. The burden is that you cannot retreat into the consolations of relativism without betraying your foundation. You cannot comfortably say, “Well, every culture has its own truths,” without also sawing off the branch on which you sit. If equality and liberty are not true by nature, then your founding is a magnificent illusion, and you are only one more tribe defending its prejudices. But if they are true by nature, then their reach is universal, their demand inescapable. You carry that demand. You carry it in your institutions, but more profoundly, you carry it in your self-understanding. You are condemned, by your own first principles, to care about the fate of liberty everywhere — out of philosophic consistency and not of imperial ambition. This is the burden of being New Zion. You cannot hide your light under a bushel without ceasing to be yourselves.
From my vantage point, in a nation that has grown accustomed to retreat — to the modest comfort of thinking we can live as if history has ended and geography will protect us — I see you for what you are: the keystone of Western civilization. Remove you, and the arch collapses. Your military power is the result of this reason. The real keystone is that in you, the philosophy of natural rights did not remain an abstraction in a book or a lecture, but took the frightening step into reality. You wagered that men, understood as by nature free and equal, must govern themselves. The West’s greatest achievement — the union of reason and liberty—has its most concrete home in you.
That is why your crises are never local matters. When you grow weary of yourself, when you tire of the old words and regard them as empty slogans, it is not only you who are endangered. A world already suspicious about reason looks on and concludes that even the noblest attempt to found politics on nature is a failure. Your decadence is offered as proof that the longing for liberty must submit at last to some new form of gentle despotism, administrative and “scientific,” tidy and soulless. The world is always looking for an excuse to give up on the demand that regimes justify themselves by appealing to something higher than power. Your failure would be that excuse.
This is why — on this 250th anniversary — I write to thank you, not simply to flatter. You are tempted today by two opposite forms of forgetfulness. One is the temptation of heritage idolatry: to imagine that what makes you is a mere continuity of blood and custom, an ethnic story dressed up as philosophy. The other is the temptation of pure proceduralism: to see yourself as nothing but an empty framework in which any “culture”, any “values,” any “identity” may be poured.
Both are evasions. The first reduces you to a tribe among tribes and abandons the universality at your essence. The second strips you of all substantive claims and abandons the truth by nature that gave you birth. Between these lies the hard road of self-knowledge: to remember that you are, in origin, argument and not blood — the argument that there are truths about man and justice that are true everywhere and always.
As a Canadian, I have been spared many of your struggles. But I have not been spared the consequences of your ideas. I live in a world fundamentally shaped by the fact that, in 1776, a group of men on the eastern edge of a vast continent dared to write that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed,” and that when any form of government becomes destructive of the ends of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it may be altered or abolished. Whether my own nation remembers it or not, I know, because you taught me, that any regime which denies the equal natural freedom of its citizens is illegitimate.
That knowledge is a liberation and a wound. It liberates because it tells me that I am not crazy when I feel outraged by injustice; I am simply judging by the nature of things. It wounds because it leaves me no refuge in the cozy lie that “this is just the way we do things here.” Your universalism leaves me cosmopolitan in the deepest sense, unable to be satisfied with local excuses.
So today, on your 250th birthday, I thank Providence that my quiet, conciliatory nation has been blessed to share a border with you and not with a despot. I thank Nature’s God that your existence keeps alive the possibility of politics grounded in nature and not will. I thank you that your flag, mocked and burned in some quarters, still stands as a symbol that there is such a thing as a rational standard by which the mighty may be called to account.
My love, the chosen people of natural right, you remain the one great nation that staked everything on the claim that man is by nature free and equal, and that government must humble itself before that fact. For that, a woman across your 49th parallel can know, without permission or apology, that she is free and equal by nature. That knowledge is your gift to me. Do not renounce it.
In awe and wonder,
An eternally grateful Canadian
***
Dimpee Brar currently serves as the Director of Engagement for Allies for a Strong Canada. She is a writer whose work can be found in the Federalist, American Spectator, the Western Standard, and the Toronto Sun. She appears frequently on various podcasts and radio shows. You can follow her on X: @isthisdimpeeb

United States flag, letter and pen

A Grateful Canadian’s Love Letter To America

America 250

American History

Founding Fathers

The Canadian Parliament is poised to pass a bill that would ramp up restrictions on so-called hate speech and remove religious protections in a move that concerns conservatives and Christians whose worldview stands in opposition to the LGBT ideology. 
Canada&#8217;s &#8220;<a href="https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/45-1/bill/C-9/third-reading">Combatting Hate Act</a>,&#8221; or Bill C-9, targets so-called hate crimes such as the public display of the Nazi swastika and other terrorist symbols, and it also increases the punishment for “intimidation” around places of worship and safe places. But also buried inside the bill is a controversial section that removes Canada&#8217;s religious exemption for so-called hate speech. Some worry that the bill could be used to silence Christian expression that opposes gay marriage.
The bill passed the country&#8217;s House of Commons in March and was adopted by the Senate last week. It was then sent back to the House of Commons to resolve amendments made in the Senate, and it is expected to be accepted without opposition and be signed into law by the governor general.
Canada&#8217;s Liberal government made an <a href="https://www.cccb.ca/media-release/proposed-restrictions-on-religious-freedom-bill-c-9/">agreement</a> with the secular Bloc Quebecois, a party devoted to Quebecois nationalism, to include in the bill a section that removes the religious exemption clause to hate speech that is currently in Canadian law code. With the removal of the religious exemption, people can be prosecuted for hate speech even if “the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text.” 

Josh Dehaas from the Canadian Constitution Foundation <a href="https://theccf.ca/bill-c-9-has-passed-heres-what-you-need-to-know/">warned</a> that the bill could even target the reading of certain scripture passages due to the removal of this religious protection. 
“It is unlikely passages from religious texts read on their own will lead to criminal charges,” Dehaas stated. “The Crown would need to believe that the intention of reading the text was to incite hatred, promote hatred or promote antisemitism.”
&#8220;However, with the defence now removed, certain passages from religious texts could now lead to charges depending on the context including when they are read, where they are read, and what other words are used when they are read,&#8221; he added. 
The Canadian Supreme Court has made a test for hate speech by looking for &#8220;hallmarks of hatred.&#8221; The &#8220;hallmarks&#8221; include calling a specific group a “powerful menace,” accusing “a group of carrying out secret conspiracies to gain global control or that they are plotting to destroy western civilization,” calling a group “liars, cheats, criminals and thugs,” labeling a people group “subhuman,” or blaming a group for the problems of society. 

The bill does include at least one protection against abuse, requiring the approval of the provincial attorneys, so the charge cannot be weaponized by local police.
Hillsdale assistant professor Dr. John Petrakis, an expert in comparative political systems and Canadian and American law, told The Daily Wire that the Canadian Supreme Court would likely defend bill if it becomes law, following its decision in Saskatchewan (Human Rights Commission) v. Whatcott, in which the court upheld a penalty for a man who spread anti-gay pamphlets.
&#8220;It is difficult to predict exactly how these legal changes will operate in practice, and whether people might be able to challenge them on constitutional grounds (freedom of speech and freedom of religion,)&#8221; Petrakis declared. &#8220;I will say that the Court&#8217;s Whatcott decision should make one pessimistic. The courts are likely to dismiss constitutional challenges by saying that the laws and their application to specific cases are &#8216;reasonable&#8217; limitations to constitutional rights.&#8221; 

Petrakis said that with the advent of this new legislation, Canada will likely emulate countries such as Great Britain in their crackdown on reported hate speech.
&#8220;My overall take is that Canadian free speech law and culture is much less robust than the U.S., though more robust than Western Europe, but that this new law will reinforce our trend away from American-style speech culture towards the European version,&#8221; Petrakis said.
The Senate sponsor of the bill, the Honorable Kristopher Wells, <a href="https://theprogressives.ca/in-the-senate/speeches/third-reading-of-bill-c-9-an-act-to-amend-the-criminal-code-hate-propaganda-hate-crime-and-access-to-religious-or-cultural-places/">described</a> his experience working with the “Jewish, Muslim, Asian, black, indigenous and 2SLGBTQI+ communities,” stating that their universal plea to the government is that “they do not feel safe, do not feel seen and do not feel the law is there to help them at their time of greatest need.” 

“Bill C-9 is our answer to those responses,” Wells stated. “It is an opportunity for Parliament to say, with unwavering moral clarity and with the strength of criminal law, that our country sees you, Canada will stand with you and hate will not be tolerated in this country.”
One section of the bill creates a separate hate crime offense for an “offense &#8230; motivated by hatred based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, color, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.” Previously, the charge of a hate crime could only be used to extend the sentence for a crime, but this bill creates it as a separate, punishable offense.
Wells argued that Canada needs a separate hate crime offense after claiming to witness a rise in so-called hate crimes against the LGBT community. 
“Drag storytimes are protested; pride flags are burned or removed from municipalities and schools; and 25% of adolescents in Canada have experienced at least one form of cyberbullying, with trans and non-binary adolescents almost twice as likely to be targeted,&#8221; Wells said. 
“Bill C-9 corrects this by creating a dedicated hate crime offence, ensuring that when someone wilfully commits a criminal act motivated by hatred against an identifiable group, that motivation is recognized as the very essence of the wrongdoing,” he added.
The bill also prohibits the public display of a symbol that “is principally used by, or principally associated with, a listed entity.&#8221; This bans hosting the flags for <a href="https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/ntnl-scrt/cntr-trrrsm/lstd-ntts/crrnt-lstd-ntts-en.aspx#2025-02-20-7">designated</a> terror organizations, such as the Palestine Liberation Front, the Taliban, and Al Qaida, and gangs such as La Mara Salvatrucha, along with far-Right groups such as the Proud Boys.
The bill seeks to prevent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-hamas-protesters-chant-allahu-akbar-as-they-tear-down-and-burn-american-flags-hamas-is-coming">terrorist demonstrations</a> like the pro-Hamas demonstrations in the United States, where Left-wing rioters shouted “Allahu Akbar&#8221; and burned the American flag in response to a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

LGBTQ2S+ Protest In Edmonton

Canada Poised To Escalate Crackdown On Christian Resistance To LGBT Ideology

Free Speech

Freedom of Religion

Hate Crime

Hate Speech

An Air Canada captain was arrested after being accused of spending more than 16 years flying commercial aircraft without the certification required for the position, Canadian police announced Tuesday. 
Geoffrey Wall, 59, is accused of serving as an airline captain from 2009 through 2025 despite never obtaining the proper pilot license required for the position, according to Peel Regional Police.
Authorities launched an investigation called &#8220;Project Icarus&#8221; in January following Wall&#8217;s retirement late last year.
According to investigators, Wall was promoted to captain in 2009 after spending 11 years as a commercial pilot. The promotion required an airline transport pilot license, which <a href="https://www.peelpolice.ca/news-feed/posts/project-icarus-former-air-canada-captain-arrested-for-allegedly-flying-over-900-flights-without-licence-pr260027841/">police say</a> he never possessed.
Over that period, Wall operated more than 900 domestic and international flights and earned more than $2.1 million. 
Deputy Police Chief Nick Milinovich said Wall had been “flying for years misrepresenting himself and his credentials” while working as a captain for Air Canada.
“This is very similar to a doctor that is licensed to practice family medicine but is doing brain surgery in their office,” Milinovich told reporters, describing how Wall was able to avoid detection for so long.
On June 1, Wall was arrested and charged with fraud over $5,000, two counts of uttering forged documents, three counts of possession of counterfeit mark, and public mischief.
“This case is deeply concerning and strikes at the heart of public trust and safety, as the accused is alleged to have put hundreds of thousands of passengers at risk across more than 900 domestic and international flights,” said Chief Nishan Duraiappah of Peel Regional Police.
Air Canada emphasized that “safety was not compromised” in a statement released Monday. The airline said Wall was fully trained as a pilot but lacked the certification required to serve as a captain.

Airplanes Depart

Pilot At Major Airline Accused Of Flying For Nearly Two Decades Without Required License

Air and Space

Pilots

A vile anti-Israel demonstration in Montreal sparked global outrage this week after radical protesters paraded through the streets with effigies of Donald Trump and top Israeli politicians swinging from nooses.
Footage blasted across social media shows the sick display, orchestrated by the extremist group Montreal4Palestine during a Sunday rally in the heart of the Canadian city. Among those depicted hanging by the neck were U.S. President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
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🇨🇦 Montreal, Canada, May 2026: The pro-Hamas group “Mtl4Pal” has been displaying effigies of Jews wearing kippas, Israeli politicians, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Donald Trump hanging from nooses at protests. <a href="https://t.co/nTYaAXjPOR">pic.twitter.com/nTYaAXjPOR</a>
&mdash; Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) <a href="https://twitter.com/CombatASemitism/status/2059186316676354074?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 26, 2026</a></blockquote>
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The grim spectacle sparked instant fury online. Strangely, a Montreal Canadiens hockey flag was also spotted attached to the gruesome display.
The hate-fueled stunt drew immediate, blistering condemnation from government officials and Jewish leaders.
Canadian Member of Parliament Anthony Housefather <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/anti-israel-protesters-hang-effigies-of-netanyahu-ben-gvir-trump-at-montreal-rally/">blasted</a> the display as “disgusting, antisemitic, and clear incitement,” while Montreal City Councilor Leslie Roberts called the incident “unacceptable,” demanding a full police investigation.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) slammed the mob, warning that the rally crossed the line from activism into outright terror tactics.
“This evokes some of the darkest antisemitic imagery in history and is completely unacceptable,” CIJA said in a fiery statement on X. “This is not ‘peaceful activism.’ It is the promotion of hatred and the incitement of violence that fuels the radicalization of our social climate.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Let us be clear: this is not a debate about the Middle East. Hanging effigies of Jews in the streets of Montreal evokes some of the darkest antisemitic imagery in history and is completely unacceptable.
This is not “peaceful activism.” It is the promotion of hatred and the… <a href="https://t.co/M9tX1PmRvO">https://t.co/M9tX1PmRvO</a>
&mdash; CIJA (@CIJAinfo) <a href="https://twitter.com/CIJAinfo/status/2059059580085195183?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 25, 2026</a></blockquote>
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The terrifying display comes as Canada grapples with a skyrocketing explosion of antisemitism following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror attacks on Israel. B’nai Brith Canada recently <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lE1cqaXMit8cIHXtCAm7-spMbfVWogd2/view">reported</a> a staggering, record-breaking 6,800 antisemitic incidents across the country last year alone.
Jew-hatred has exploded online: “Online harassment now constitutes 92 percent of all recorded incidents, up from roughly 74 percent in 2019. Online incidents alone increased by 16.4 percent in a single year and by 203.9 percent since 2022,” The Hub <a href="https://thehub.ca/2026/05/25/6800-antisemitic-incidents-and-counting-canadas-crisis-demands-a-civilizational-response/#:~:text=Canadian%20Jews%20are%20not%20encountering,most%20civic%20life%20now%20flows.">reported</a>. “Ontario recorded 3,194 incidents, a 79.2 percent increase from 2024. The Atlantic provinces — not typically associated with large Jewish communities or intense political conflict — saw a 114.5 percent increase. The Prairies were up 88.1 percent.”
Worse, the hate has turned bloody. Less than five months into 2026, violent incidents against Canada’s 400,000-strong Jewish community have already eclipsed all of last year. Recent horrors include a Toronto Jewish girls&#8217; school being <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/bais-chaya-mushka-gunshots-toronto-1.7416067">targeted by</a> gunfire three separate times, Montreal institutions hit by <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/10075973/montreal-synagogue-firebombing/">firebombs</a>, a Jewish man <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/montreal-police-probing-attack-on-jewish-man-in-front-of-his-two-children/">brutally beaten</a> in front of his children, and terrifying <a href="https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/americas/artc-canada-effigies-of-netanyahu-ben-gvir-and-trump-hung-at-pro-palestinian-rally">bullet holes</a> discovered at two Toronto-area synagogues.

An effigy of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was

Anti-Israel Extremists Hang Effigies Of Trump, Netanyahu From Nooses At Sick Rally

Anti-Israel Extremists Hang Effigies Of Trump, Netanyahu From Nooses At Sick Montreal Rally

antisemitism

Donald Trump

Israel

Montreal

Actress Margaret Cho said she turned down a role in the popular gay hockey drama “Heated Rivalry” because it was filming in Canada and she was afraid of being “detained at the border.”
The 57-year-old comedian and outspoken Trump critic made the comments during a recent appearance on the “I Never Liked You” podcast.
“Last year, I got a pilot script for a show that I really loved, but it shot in Canada. I was, like, so scared because I’m so vocal about hating ICE and hating this administration,” she said. “I was like, I will get detained at the border and I will be put in ICE detention if I go. And I was like struggling over it, and I had to talk to all these people about it, and I was super upset, and I said no. And it was ‘Heated Rivalry.’”
“Like, it kills me,” Cho added. “And it’s all because of Trump.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Margaret Cho - Matteo Lane &amp; Nick Smith - I Never Liked You 119" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gpNmAVYT-Aw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
She further stated that she asked showrunners about being involved in season two, which is currently in development. “I asked them, we’ll see,” Cho said.
The stand-up comedian <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/disney-actress-says-its-time-for-a-trans-disney-prince-princess">made headlines</a> in 2023 for advocating for trans characters in Disney projects. Cho said as much after playing an LGBTQ guidance counselor in the made-for-TV Disney+ movie, “Prom Pact.”
“I would love to see them everywhere,” Cho said of “queer characters” in kids&#8217; films. “I would love to see trans characters and different types of people in roles of, like, Disney princess, Disney prince, and Disney everything.”
“I think this would be really important and it’s a move towards the future,” she added. “It’s a move towards who we are. I think it’s really admirable and really exciting.”
“Heated Rivalry,” which became a breakout hit in 2025, follows two closeted hockey players who engage in a romantic relationship. It’s been criticized for featuring graphic sexual content. Despite that, it has been especially popular with heterosexual women.
Former first lady Jill Biden was fully prepared to shell out $35,000 for a chance to appear in an upcoming season of the show after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jill-biden-paid-how-much-for-a-chance-to-appear-in-gay-hockey-show">bidding on the prize</a> during an LGBT charity auction last month.

Margaret Cho

Trump-Hating Actress Rejects Role In Gay Hockey Drama Over Fears Of ICE

Actress Rejects Role In Gay Hockey Drama Over Fear Of ICE Raids

Celebrities

Entertainment

Television

Democrats spent the weekend in Canada strategizing with foreign progressives.
The headlining success story was Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who took over a Liberal Party badly trailing in the polls and won by doing something American Democrats have not yet dared to do — Carney <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mark-carney-drops-carbon-tax-1.7484290">scrapped</a> a consumer carbon tax, <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/commentary/carney-government-relocates-ev-mandate-regulatory-witness-protection">killed</a> an electric vehicle mandate, and <a href="https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2026/04/23/prime-minister-carney-delivers-commitment-accelerate-homebuilding">announced</a> funding to accelerate homebuilding.
The annual conference, organized by the Center for American Progress (CAP), sought to answer one simple question: &#8220;Why voters keep choosing the other guys.&#8221; The gathering featured former President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI).  At the summit, Carney shared success stories from Canada, where his progressive party has beaten the populist right.
Slotkin <a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/05/11/2026/less-climate-talk-more-growth-us-progressives-take-a-lesson-from-canada">said</a> that progressives have spent too much time lecturing and not enough time delivering. “The most important thing is delivery of services and governance to people. The environmental movement, in general, needs to adjust, and say: ‘We can’t just be about stopping things.&#8217;” She added, “The average American is going to struggle to care about climate change if they can’t figure out how to pay their rent.”
President and CEO of CAP Neera Tanden, who previously served as the director of the Biden White House Domestic Policy Council, echoed Slotkin’s statement. She said that attendees “are learning from our example that it’s important for progressives to deliver on results as soon as possible.”
She argued that Democrats were stuck in disagreements over permitting and land use that took focus away from their &#8220;ambitious investment plans before voters got to see results.”
The Democratic Party has a growing divide between more moderate Democrats and self-described socialists such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Obama told late-night host Stephen Colbert that he&#8217;s not worried about &#8220;this so-called rift.&#8221;
&#8220;There are a bunch of things that we agree on. And it’s really more of a question of, what are the specific things that we have to do,&#8221; he said. The Canadian conference focused on those &#8220;specific things&#8221; the party needs to do — and held Carney up as an example of how to do them.
But Carney has also begun to reposition Canada in terms of the global economy, calling publicly for a &#8220;reset&#8221; in his country&#8217;s relationship with China and openly criticizing longtime ally and trading partner — not to mention neighbor — the United States.
In recent weeks, Carney panned economic ties with the United States as a “weakness” rather than a strength, basing that assessment primarily on tariffs implemented over the past year and a half by President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration.
&#8220;The U.S. has fundamentally changed its approach to trade, raising its tariffs to levels last seen during the Great Depression. Many of our former strengths, based on our close ties to America, have become our weaknesses, weaknesses that we must correct,&#8221; he said.
Addressing his nation in late April, he said that American tariffs were hurting Canada&#8217;s economy — and claimed that they needed to lessen dependence on the United States. In his address, he outlined his plan for “Canada Strong” — an agenda that has netted 20 new trade deals in less than a year.
Carney has also pushed the country closer to China, traveling to the communist-controlled nation in January to announce a <a href="https://www.asiapacific.ca/publication/what-carneys-china-trip-really-signalled">new</a> strategic partnership between the two countries.

NOCH GESPERRT Conclusion of the inaugural visit of Federal Finance Minister…

Democrats Turn To America’s China-Loving Neighbor To Learn How To Win Again

Barack Obama

China

Global Politics

The northern border has historically been open season for smugglers, who exploit its harsh terrain and wall-less boundary for profit.
Edgar Sanchez-Solis, 23, himself an illegal immigrant from Mexico, helped smuggle hundreds of others through the U.S.-Canada border on a weekly basis for years. Now, the Daily Wire can exclusively report that he&#8217;s pleaded guilty to his role in international conspiracy.
The illegal immigrant led the smuggling operation while living in Kansas City, Missouri, according to court documents.
The group brought hundreds of illegal immigrants from Mexico, Central America, and South America, into the United States through New York each week, <a href="https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-leads-investigation-4-mexican-nationals-charged-international-smuggling" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Each migrant presented thousands of dollars in profits for the smuggling ring.
Once his customers crossed into the United States, Sanchez-Solis&#8217; organization sent drivers to pick them up and take them farther south, according to court documents. The group also instructed the smuggled illegal immigrants &#8220;to make testimonial videos touting the enterprise’s services,&#8221; Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, previously said.
For Sanchez-Solis&#8217; part, he directed and participated in the smuggling operations with other top dogs in the group.
The smuggling organization also engaged in dangerous, high-speed chases with border agents on several occasions.
Smugglers set off a Border Patrol sensor in Franklin County and fled the scene at a high rate of speed in April 2023. Border Patrol caught up to them and stopped the car, apprehending the smugglers, who had seven adults and three children in tow.
During one of the smuggling operations in May 2023, Border Patrol engaged in a high-speed chase with a van loaded with illegal immigrants. The agents had to call off the pursuit because of the dangers it posed to the community.
The Clinton County Sheriff&#8217;s Office eventually stopped the vehicle using a tire-deflation device, but the smugglers and their customers fled on foot.
In August 2023, another smuggling vehicle struck a motorist while fleeing Border Patrol agents in Plattsburgh, New York. The driver and six illegal immigrants fled the scene of the collision on foot and were eventually caught.
Sanchez-Solis pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling and five counts of alien smuggling for commercial advantage and private financial gain, according to the Justice Department. He now awaits sentencing.
He faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years behind bars and a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
Three other Mexican illegal immigrants were arrested and charged alongside Sanchez-Solis. Two of them were previously deported from the United States, according to ICE.

Untitled design – 2026-05-07T104619.832

EXCLUSIVE: How An Illegal Immigrant Smuggled In Thousands More, And Got Rich Doing It

Department of Justice

Illegal Immigration

Smuggling

The following excerpt is taken from the new book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/End-Road-Inside-War-Truckers/dp/1967613028/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1UP8KDOSWY3ES&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.QbLM4aRWWFaQiN9zyl11ZY2PbjV1hUeagK4cN_PVCCd3mXA_rXwetJvwK97ol4vt73RgMO-QWLZpNXWzgUZEvDVXcEIzJqyWNXFaP-izNdKFUTEistDHjnCfiXC6DAWJDN1QCVneawl8UCxe4awRI-r2RW0h52NG9rPsKvZTrCZ4m1UUaEEYUoG_y-kNjEekn6f7Zr1u29uF8C1T0oSVEkfFaOm658FFCzE4_zDOgUk.870LMXCqRYp6NNb2NIi8x2PTYsuyEBaOoPXE7ssEBno&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=end+of+the+road+gord&amp;qid=1776374636&amp;sprefix=end+of+the+road+gord+%2Caps%2C273&amp;sr=8-1">End of the Road: Inside the War on Truckers,</a>” by Gord Magill. (Creed &amp; Culture Books, 2026)
* * *
On Saturday, January 29, 2022, thousands of trucks and other vehicles from across the country entered the city of Ottawa. I was there to welcome the Western Canada convoy with a group of friends on an overpass above Highway 417, about half an hour west of the city. The truckers were animated by righteous frustration, yet I saw thousands of people full of love for one another, smiles, outbursts of hugs, and national flags attached to hockey sticks. There was even a sense of relief: it was as if a nation exhaled and exulted, “Finally, the cavalry is here to save us from our captors.” There are no words to adequately describe the feeling of everyone I interacted with on that overpass and also later when we went into Ottawa to join the party on Wellington Street.
<div id="attachment_1079819" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1079819" class="size-large wp-image-1079819" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1238067992-864x576.jpg" alt="Demonstrators gather as rows of trucks sit parked on Wellington Street during a protest near Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. A convoy of truckers and others who oppose vaccine mandates began rolling into Ottawa on Friday, putting Canada's capital city on edge amid warnings from police that they dont know how large the protests will get. Photographer: David Kawai/Bloomberg via Getty Images" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1238067992-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1238067992-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1238067992-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1238067992.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />David Kawai/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
People outside Canada could tell that the cause of the Freedom Convoy was just. When I went back to America after that weekend in Ottawa, as the Convoy settled in for what would be a three-week-long winter encampment, I was amazed to find my American neighbors cheering us on in solidarity. I delivered propane and hauled logs in the weeks after I came home, and I had never seen so many Canadian flags flying in the United States. It was unbelievable.
People I met while working or otherwise traveling, upon finding out that I was a native Canadian and a trucker, would exclaim, “Good for you guys; someone had to stand up to this nonsense,” or “Man, I thought Canadians were p*ssies, but those truckers have made me change my mind about you guys.” At the time, I had been living in America for six years, and almost no one had ever said anything about where I was from. For a hot minute, I was a minor celebrity simply for being from Canada.
<div id="attachment_1079895" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1079895" class="size-large wp-image-1079895" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Gord-convoy-768x576.jpg" alt="Gord Magill at Freedom Convoy." width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Gord-convoy-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Gord-convoy-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Gord-convoy-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Gord-convoy.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" />Gord Magill at Freedom Convoy.</div>
Up north, however, things were not looking good for my colleagues in the protracted standoff between the truckers and a government whose officials refused to speak with them. In total, thirteen Convoys had arrived in Ottawa, and numerous protests were held at other sites across the country, most famously at Coutts, Alberta, and on the Ambassador Bridge, which connects the Canadian city of Windsor with Detroit and is the busiest of all border crossings between Canada and the U.S. Although everything was more or less peaceful—despite the outright lies and fabrications of the Canadian media about the truckers’ behavior in Ottawa—the two border-protest sites gained the attention of very powerful people outside Canada whose interests were not at risk from the hockey games, bouncy castles, and techno parties taking place in the streets of Ottawa.
<div id="attachment_1079473" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/End-Road-Inside-War-Truckers/dp/1967613028/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1UP8KDOSWY3ES&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.QbLM4aRWWFaQiN9zyl11ZY2PbjV1hUeagK4cN_PVCCd3mXA_rXwetJvwK97ol4vt73RgMO-QWLZpNXWzgUZEvDVXcEIzJqyWNXFaP-izNdKFUTEistDHjnCfiXC6DAWJDN1QCVneawl8UCxe4awRI-r2RW0h52NG9rPsKvZTrCZ4m1UUaEEYUoG_y-kNjEekn6f7Zr1u29uF8C1T0oSVEkfFaOm658FFCzE4_zDOgUk.870LMXCqRYp6NNb2NIi8x2PTYsuyEBaOoPXE7ssEBno&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=end+of+the+road+gord&amp;qid=1776374636&amp;sprefix=end+of+the+road+gord+%2Caps%2C273&amp;sr=8-1"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1079473" class="size-large wp-image-1079473" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/End-of-the-Road-Jacket-Cover-384x576.jpeg" alt="Cover credit: Creed &amp; Culture" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/End-of-the-Road-Jacket-Cover-384x576.jpeg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/End-of-the-Road-Jacket-Cover-200x300.jpeg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/End-of-the-Road-Jacket-Cover-768x1152.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/End-of-the-Road-Jacket-Cover.jpeg 1000w" sizes=" (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" /></a>Cover credit: Creed &amp; Culture</div>
In Coutts, Tony Olienick had found an atmosphere similar to that which presided in Ottawa. People were peacefully assembling and saying no to the mandates that were ruining their lives. He met and spoke with Americans who had come to the Sweetgrass, Montana, side of the border and to bask in solidarity and common cause with the protesting truckers. Tony also volunteered as a sort of security detail for the protest site. It should be noted that although the government and media were claiming that the protesters had shut down the border, the crossing itself remained open for all but three days during the three weeks of the Coutts protest. Other, nearby border crossings remained open the whole time and were available for trucks to use, although with more limited hours than the normal 24/7 customs services available at Coutts. 
<div id="attachment_1079903" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1079903" class="size-large wp-image-1079903" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Gord-convoy-II-1024x576.jpg" alt="Gord Magill personal archive" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Gord-convoy-II-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Gord-convoy-II-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Gord-convoy-II-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Gord-convoy-II.jpg 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Gord Magill personal archive</div>
The perception that Coutts was closed, along with the growing protest at the Ambassador Bridge in Ontario, which forced most truck traffic to cross at the Bluewater Bridge between Sarnia and Port Huron, was useful for those who were antagonistic to the aims of the Convoy. Wild and unsubstantiated claims about the cost to the economy were thrown around, mostly based on guesstimates made by business associations. Were there delays at those other crossings from diverted traffic? Obviously, and they were sometimes substantial. Did the protests cause delays in shipments and disruptions to the fragile nature of just-in-time delivery schedules for automakers? Of course. Yet not one of those who complained about the supposed costs of the Convoy ever compared these guesstimated costs to the costs to the entire world from the madness of the COVID regime, which lasted the better part of three years, not three weeks, and was solely the responsibility of government, not of citizens who wanted their lives back.
<div id="attachment_1079811" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1079811" class="size-large wp-image-1079811" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1238303996-864x576.jpg" alt="TOPSHOT - Supporters of the Truckers Convoy against the Covid-19 vaccine mandate block traffic in the Canada bound lanes of the Ambassador Bridge border crossing, in Windsor, Ontario on February 8, 2022. - The protestors have blocked traffic in the Canada bound lanes since Monday evening. Approximately $323 million worth of goods cross the Windsor-Detroit border each day at the Ambassador Bridge making it North Americas busiest international border crossing. (Photo by Geoff Robins / AFP) (Photo by GEOFF ROBINS/AFP via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1238303996-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1238303996-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1238303996-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1238303996.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />GEOFF ROBINS/AFP via Getty Images</div>
The whining of the automotive industry, one of the most powerful corporate interest groups in America, got the attention of the Biden Administration. Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, got the ear of Trudeau’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who set up a call between Trudeau and Biden on February 11, 2022. It is believed that this phone call set the wheels in motion for the ultimate crackdown on the Convoy.
Biden’s White House put out a statement about the call with Trudeau, and it is worth a read:
<blockquote>Today President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada to discuss the ongoing blockade of key bridges and crossings between the United States and Canada, including Detroit/Windsor, Sweetwater/Coutts, and Pembina/Emerson. The two leaders agreed that the actions of the individuals who are obstructing travel and commerce between our two countries are having significant direct impacts on citizens’ lives and livelihoods. The President expressed his concern that U.S. companies and workers are experiencing serious effects, including slowdowns in production, shortened work hours, and plant closures. The Prime Minister promised quick action in enforcing the law, and the President thanked him for the steps he and other Canadian authorities are taking to restore the open passage of bridges to the United States. (Bold mine)</blockquote>
Significant direct impacts on citizens’ lives and livelihoods. Oh, like the long nightmare of the COVID regime?
The Coutts border crossing was only ever fully closed for three days, and two other border crossings were available to use. There are no automotive plants in that part of the prairie on either side of the border, and the only road closure that took place anywhere near Coutts was of Alberta Provincial Highway 4 at Milk River, a few miles north of Coutts; it was closed by the RCMP, not the protesters. In any case, the protest at Coutts was about to become the centerpiece of Trudeau’s rationale for the invocation of the Emergencies Act, whose outrageous violations of basic liberties included throwing an innocent trucker in jail, where he remains three-and-a-half years later at the time of this writing.
<div id="attachment_1079823" style="width: 886px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1079823" class="size-large wp-image-1079823" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1238618687-876x576.jpg" alt="A line of police push protesters back on February 19, 2022 in Ottawa, Canada. - Police in Canada deployed to dislodge the final truckers and protesters from downtown Ottawa, aimed at bringing an end to three weeks of demonstrations over Covid-19 health rules. Ottawa police, who pledged the operation would push ahead &quot;until residents and citizens have their city back,&quot; were still working to clear the capital's streets. (Photo by Dave Chan / AFP) (Photo by DAVE CHAN/AFP via Getty Images)" width="876" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1238618687-876x576.jpg 876w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1238618687-300x197.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1238618687-768x505.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1238618687.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px" />DAVE CHAN/AFP via Getty Images</div>
By this time, the Freedom Convoy protest sites were crawling with undercover officers, or UCOs, who poked around looking for any hint of illegal activity or actionable intelligence that could be used against the protesters. Meanwhile, the federal government was waging a media smear campaign later found to have been planned by the staff of Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino. This campaign failed to dent the widespread support the Convoy had in Canada and around the world: almost everyone except the most hopelessly naïve saw right through a staged Nazi flag photo and the usual tiresome accusations of white nationalism and racism. Anyone who went to a Freedom Convoy site to avail themselves of reality unmediated by state propaganda was surrounded by solidarity, happiness, and a genuine outpouring of love. Trudeau was losing the PR battle. He needed scapegoats. He searched for a pretext for invoking the Emergencies Act, something he had been considering since the early days of the protest but couldn’t pull off because those damn truckers were so well behaved. Allegations from UCOs at Coutts would give Trudeau everything he needed.
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Originally hailing from Hamilton, Ontario, Gord Magill has spent most of his life behind the wheel. From spinning along the ice roads of Canada’s Northwest Territories, to hauling logs down volcanos in New Zealand, to steering Road Trains across the outback of Western Australia, to running freight along the interstates of America, Gord has spent over twenty-five years trucking all over the world. His writing about the industry has appeared in Newsweek, the American Conservative, and American Affairs, among other outlets. Magill lives in Ithaca, New York.
The excerpt from “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/End-Road-Inside-War-Truckers/dp/1967613028/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1UP8KDOSWY3ES&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.QbLM4aRWWFaQiN9zyl11ZY2PbjV1hUeagK4cN_PVCCd3mXA_rXwetJvwK97ol4vt73RgMO-QWLZpNXWzgUZEvDVXcEIzJqyWNXFaP-izNdKFUTEistDHjnCfiXC6DAWJDN1QCVneawl8UCxe4awRI-r2RW0h52NG9rPsKvZTrCZ4m1UUaEEYUoG_y-kNjEekn6f7Zr1u29uF8C1T0oSVEkfFaOm658FFCzE4_zDOgUk.870LMXCqRYp6NNb2NIi8x2PTYsuyEBaOoPXE7ssEBno&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=end+of+the+road+gord&amp;qid=1776374636&amp;sprefix=end+of+the+road+gord+%2Caps%2C273&amp;sr=8-1">End of the Road: Inside the War on Truckers</a>” by Gord Magill is published by permission of Creed &amp; Culture Books. Copyright 2026 Gord Magill. Chapter 13: The Truckers Strike Back.

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