Governor General's office inundated by protest supporters demanding the PM be fired

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OTTAWA – “Freedom convoy” supporters convinced that the Governor General can dissolve Parliament on a whim have “absolutely inundated” Rideau Hall with calls over the past week, National Post has learned.

Since the beginning of the week, the phones at Rideau Hall have been ringing off the hook.

But instead of the usual calls regarding guided tours, questions about honours bestowed annually to chosen Canadians, or requests to meet with Governor General Mary Simon, callers have been asking the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General (OSGG) to dissolve the government.

“The Office of the Secretary to the Governor General has received a high volume of calls and emails in recent days related to the protest. Due to this high volume, we are aware of the long wait times and appreciate the public’s patience,” spokesperson Josephine Laframboise said in a short email statement.

The callers are participants and supporters of the so-called “freedom convoy” that has been occupying the streets around Parliament for a week, demanding that the Trudeau government put an end to all public heath measures (even though the majority of them are under the provincial government’s purview.)

Last week, organizers also published a manifesto billed a “memorandum of understanding” demanding that the Governor General and the Senate unite to force all levels of government to end any COVID-19 measures and vaccine passports, and re-instate all workers laid off due to vaccine requirements.

That has seemingly pushed protesters and their supporters to flood Rideau Hall’s phone and email lines demanding that Mary Simon act, going as far as demanding that she dissolve government and remove Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from power.

Rideau Hall’s call centre normally receives between 25 to 50 calls in a day, according to numbers provided to National Post by a source with direct knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to disclose the information publicly.

But that has exploded over the last few days, with over 100 calls registered on Tuesday, more than 1,500 on Wednesday and over 4,600 at one point in the afternoon on Thursday, with callers waiting up to two hours to speak to a Rideau Hall employee, according to the source.

Rideau Hall neither confirmed nor denied that data Friday.

But the protesters’ calling campaign is all for naught as there is no way the Governor General could ever acquiesce to any of their demands, says Daniel Béland, director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.

“The Governor General cannot just decide to fire the prime minister like that,” Béland said.

The Governor General cannot just decide to fire the prime minister like that

Daniel Béland

If anything, Béland says, their best chance of ousting Trudeau is by reaching out to opposition parties demanding that they take down the government and force a new election.

“If they want to bring the Trudeau government to an end, or at least spark elections and the possibility of having a new government, then they should pressure opposition parties to vote down (the government) during the next confidence vote.”

It’s useless for protesters to be “calling Rideau Hall or pressuring senators to do something, that’s not how things work,” he added. “It’s a democratic system, and neither the senate nor the Governor General are elected, so they don’t have the democratic legitimacy” to dissolve government.

This week, National Post called Rideau Hall’s general line. What would normally be a few seconds of waiting to reach an employee instead turned into 25 minutes of waiting on hold before someone picked up the phone.

The worker who eventually answered then promptly apologized for the wait, noting they had been “absolutely inundated” with calls.

This is far from the only disruption caused by convoy participants over the past week. Since last weekend,  businesses in downtown Ottawa have been forced to close because of protestors’ rowdy and sometimes belligerent behaviour towards employees and clients.

Residents living in the streets near Parliament Hill have been subjected to ceaseless honking and other noises at all hours of the day and night by convoy members, sparking increased demand for stricter police enforcement.

“We have not seen this level of protest that has seeped into our residential neighbourhoods ever before,” Ottawa Police Deputy Chief Steve Bell told reporters Friday.

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