Canada has more legal leeway to freeze trucker convoy donations
Attorney Andy McCarthy weighs the legality of the Ontario government blocking donations to the Freedom Convoy on ‘Your World.’
"Real Time" host Bill Maher kicked off his panel discussion Friday night on the ongoing Canadian Freedom Convoy protest that has garnered international attention.
"What's happening this week, it looks like, is people are understanding this is about something more than just the vaccine mandate," Maher said. "It's becoming a big thing. It's happening all over the world now. They're thinking it might happen here in Washington on Super Bowl Sunday."
"People are understanding this is about something more than just the vaccine mandate."
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"Woke, Inc." author Vivek Ramaswamy agreed, telling Maher it's about the "uprising of everyday citizens" against "the rise of this managerial class in democracies around the world."
"These are the unelected class leaders that ultimately, I think, are using the bureaucratic power to supplant the will of everyday – not only Americans but Canadians and Western Europeans too – and that's why we're seeing a fusion of both the left and the right here saying that, ‘Actually we want our voices heard. We want to be able to speak without fear of putting food on the dinner table,’" Ramaswamy said.
A girl and her family walk through a line of truckers, handing out thank-you notes (Lisa Bennatan/Fox News Digital)
Maher asked himself "why truckers" specifically were organizing such a protest and went on to answer his own question by pointing out they were the ones making the deliveries to the people working from home during the pandemic.
"You didn't use that word ‘elitist’ in your whole speech, but, like, that's the word I think is on people's tongues and minds," Maher told Ramaswamy. "There is this idea, and it's not wrong, that some people are staying home in their Lululemons and other people can afford to, like, wait out and get a free vacation and money from the government, and other people can't. And they're p---ed off- the people who can't."
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Trudeau sounds ‘like Hitler’
The HBO star then took aim at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who he initially thought was a "cool guy," for his vicious attacks toward the unvaccinated throughout the pandemic and his smearing of the trucker protesters.
"He was talking about people who are not vaccinated. He said, ‘They don’t believe in science. They're often misogynistic, often racist,'" Maher said, quoting Trudeau.
"No, they're not," Maher reacted. "He said, ‘But they take up space. And with that we have to make a choice in terms of a leader as a country. Do we tolerate these people?’
"'Tolerate these people'? Now you do sound like Hitler," Maher said.
"And recently, he talked about them holding unacceptable views… I mean, c'mon!" Maher exclaimed. "I think that's what get under people's skin."
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said that he had tested positive for coronavirus, speaks during a media availability held at an undisclosed location, near Ottawa, Canada, Jan. 31, 2022. (Reuters)
Maher went on to cite a New York Times report about the $800 billion in COVID relief that was spent and how "72% of it "ended up in the households with income in the top 20%."
"I think this is what the truckers are mad at … all that money went up to the people who are in the top 20%?" Maher asked.
‘The system is so corrupt’
"This is what people are angry at because the system is so corrupt. The system is so corrupt, and it's not just corporate elites, it's the corporate elites who are corrupting the system because of the money that corporation, their undue influence on a very, very corrupt government. This corruption is so baked into the cake and, of course, people are angry, people are enraged and they are legitimately enraged," former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson said.
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"The Small Business Administration tried to keep it secret. They said because of privacy, they didn't want to let out the numbers. And the judge said, ‘Oh no, the people need to know this’ and made those numbers public. So what's happening is the people are getting receipts for what we have been feeling for so long. This kind of economic injustice, this type of structural rigging so that whenever there's a problem, take care of the people who already have, and then the rest of the people who don't have -- well, good luck. We'll drop a few crumbs to you. It's been going on for decades, people have felt it, they acted on it, and now we are getting the receipts," Williamson added.