Thousands have blocked traffic outside parliament with trucks, cars and motorcycles, inspired by ongoing demonstrations in Canada.
Police arrested over 50 people on Thursday and forcibly removed hundreds more from the premises, where protesters had been camped for the past few days.
Prime Minister New Zealand Jacinda Ardern told reporters Thursday the protests did not reflect nationwide sentiment. Some 94% of eligible New Zealanders are vaccinated.
"Obviously every New Zealander has a right to protest, but there are also rules around what is able to happen on parliament's forecourt... All of us want to actually move on, we're working very hard to put ourselves in the best possible position to do that."
New Zealand has earned worldwide praise for keeping the country virtually virus-free for the past two years.
But strict COVID restrictions have taken their toll, and Ardern's approval ratings have taken a hit.
Borders are still closed, cutting off tens of thousands of New Zealand expats from their families, and leaving tourism businesses struggling to stay afloat.
Police said those arrested will face trespass and obstruction charges.
Reader Comments
New Zealand was NEVER a bastion of freedom, just a phony, virtue signaling haven for fascists pretending to be otherwise. Nor is it 'clean and green', as the rapacious Brits stripped the islands of their magnificent Kauri trees (the NZ redwood/sequoia), leaving only a few pockets, usually too costly to log out. The land was converted to farmland, which is what the ignorant see as the 'green NZ'. It really looks more like rural England than anything else, once you know what you're looking at, i.e., farmlands where once majestic forests stretched endlessly.
For those who still want to believe NZ is somehow 'free' and 'green' and a 'democracy', please watch this movie, entitled "Operation 8". It is about how Maori activists and their supporters were destroyed in every way by the fascists in the NZ government, especially the police, who clearly enjoyed systematically destroying and terrorizing the Maori and their supporters using guns and law-fare to wipe out innocent people merely trying to draw attention to the lies and injustices in NZ that the indigenous people of NZ suffered and endured on a daily basis since the British invasion:
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NZ wasn't a peaceful utopian paradise before the english settlement. There were tribes. The tribes fought, killed and ate each other as survival here was hard. When they defeated another tribe, slaves were kept. There's not much pre english history here. History was verbal myths, nothing written. When the missionaries first came here, you know, to spread the good word haha, before any real immigration, they documented a lot, bias of course, but still some facts.
There was a chief who was taken to meet the queen of england. He asked her for muskets. She refused to supply muskets knowing a slaughter of other trbes would occur. Maori only had stone age weapons. She gave him a gift. It is written in the captains log on the ship travelled, that on the way back to nz the ship stopped in sydney. The gift was swapped for muskets. The sĺaughter begins.
Read "unrestrained slaughter, the maori musket wars 1800-1840 by john robson.
These days we are sold a romantic notion of days gone by.
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These tests offer the ability to detect quantities of RNA fragments per minute, but no one knows whether this RNA represents an infectious virus or not. Based on experiments conducted by independent laboratories, it is not even certain that this type of test can detect SARS-COV-2.The usefulness of RT-PCR is to be used as a manufacturing technique capable of replicating DNA sequences millions and billions of times but never as a diagnostic tool for viruses.“Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is a biological macromolecule present in almost all cells as well as in many viruses. DNA contains all the genetic information, called genome, allowing the development, functioning and reproduction of living beings. It is a nucleic acid, just like ribonucleic acid (RNA).
Nucleic acids are, along with peptides and carbohydrates, one of the three major families of biopolymers essential to all known forms of life.”In addition to the mercantile aspect of RT-PCR and other tests, discreetly called antigenic, these tools are therefore linked to the collection of genetic material and not to any diagnosis. In cruder terms, the pandemic has been a perfect opportunity for the forced and massive collection of genetic material from populations that normally do not consent but are deceived about the use and destination of this collection.This partly explains why President Emmanuel Macron and his close entourage refused to submit to an RT-PCR test or an antigen test during his trip to the Russian Federation. They are not the only ones.
They know that these “tests” are means of collecting DNA for non-medical purposes.Manipulation of the human genome is no longer a secret. The security and police use of DNA samples is however known, even if it gives rise to controversy. Logistical questions remain:How to collect facial photographs of billions of people without implementing colossal logistics? Track the movement of these billions of people and be able to scan the fingerprint and iris of each individual? Better his DNA?We now have answers to these questions. Imposing a tacit ban on removable batteries on smartphone manufacturers, then, as a result of the trend, the inclusion of increasingly precise sensors, generalist fingerprint readers and facial recognition technologies have proven to be insufficient measures. A massive, self-funded farm of human genetic material was needed.
This is what has been happening since 2020 with the emergence of veritable general farmers of human DNA of more than seven billion individuals out of a total of nearly eight billion inhabitants.So you've been tricked through the fear factory. A classic social engineering before forcing you to submit to a consented collection of your genetic material under false pretext (diagnosis) and you do not know until this day the real use of your collected genetic material.Sometimes you have to say NO and give up a certain psychological comfort zone.
Welcome to zombie pandemic [Link]