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This week’s R&D provides resources on the Ottawa truck protests. For the past week truckers who are protesting the Canadian government’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for those crossing the U.S.-Canadian border have blocked traffic in the Canadian capital city. They have been joined by other far-right groups and opponents of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government. The protests also played a role in the ouster of Erin O’Toole, the moderate leader of Canada’s Conservative Party. There are also fears by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that similar protests could occur in the United States, causing economic chaos.
Explainer: How Ottawa’s anti-vaccine mandate protests are spreading globally https://t.co/1eTffYVGoc pic.twitter.com/zFRS3GjqCN
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 10, 2022
A convoy of trucks and other vehicles operated by people protesting Covid-19 vaccine mandates and social restrictions are clogging downtown Ottawa. Here’s what you need to know. https://t.co/N9j37yajy1
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) February 10, 2022
The optics of Canada’s usually placid and orderly national capital overtaken by truckers and their supporters protesting coronavirus restrictions has shaken the country. https://t.co/rilknmOiDU
— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) February 9, 2022
Last week Canada was rocked by two terrorist attacks. On Monday, Martin Couture-Rouleau drove his car into two Canadian soldiers in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, killing one of them, and on Wednesday, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau killed a soldier guarding the National War Memorial in Ottawa and wounded a guard in the Canadian Parliament. Both men were killed in their attacks and were recent converts to Islam. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper argued that the actions of Couture-Roleau and Zehaf-Bibeau were inspired by the Islamic State, which has urged its followers to attack Western nations. Harper plans to push for legislation that would grant more powers to Canadian intelligence services and strengthen authorities in anti-terrorism operations, but his opponents argue that these security reforms could do significant damage to Canadian politics and culture. These Canadians worry that Harper will push anti-terrorism measures too far and that their country will eventually have the same intrusive surveillance systems as the United States and Great Britain.
Here is today’s premium R&D to accompany 
Canada’s Q1 growth tops 6%
While Canadian politics is not a topic that extempers are accustomed to speaking about at great length, the last month has slowly began to change that evaluation. Loyal readers of the SpeechGeek HOTtopics services know that several weeks ago I wrote a topic brief concerning the outcome of the Canadian elections, elections which strengthened the Conservative Party but denied Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper a majority government. While analysts debated how long Harper’s government could hold on, and my earlier topic brief indicated that the government would last until the summer, just several weeks into its term the government has been thrown into a crisis, as opposition parties have unified to oust Harper and the Conservative government from power.