EDITORIAL: Let's get this country moving again
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Late Friday afternoon, anti-development activists shut down the intersection of Yonge and Dundas in downtown Toronto.
It is perhaps the busiest, most high-profile and pedestrian dense intersection in the country. And yet, just like at every other activist flare-up in this country, the authorities did nothing.
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Clearly, the protesters weren’t paying attention to the weak words from our political leaders.
“We are not the kind of country where politicians get to tell the police what to do in operational matters,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in Germany, where he was attending a security conference.
“We are a country that recognizes the right to protest, but we are a country of the rule of law. And we will ensure that everything is done to resolve this through dialogue and constructive outcomes.”
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What on earth does all that mean? It apparently means that the activists are free to continue obstructing this country. If we were a country of the rule of law, none of the mob rule we’d be seeing in our streets and on rail lines would be happening right now.
Transport Minister Marc Garneau, who also spoke to the press today, would have been well-advised to march right up to the mic and lay out an action plan to end the blockades that have caused passenger and freight trains to come to a halt all across this country.
Instead, Garneau simply said he was “deeply concerned” about what’s happening and hopes for a peaceful resolution, as if he was some kind of disinterested observer on the sidelines.
That’s not enough.
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We need a plan to stop activists from blocking British Columbia legislators from entering their place of work, a plan to stop them from halting Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland from entering a government building in Halifax, a plan to stop them from harming our economy as is now the case.
Canadians have watched police refuse to enforce court injunctions. They’ve watched as activists who pretend to represent First Nations people childishly demand our natural resources sector be shut down.
It’s time to bring this little episode of mob rule to an end and get things moving again.
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