After closely following the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa, Canada, I was disappointed to see Brockport mayor Margay Blackman disparage the truckers as far-right extremists. Thanks to a few citizen-journalists live-streaming from Ottawa on YouTube, anyone interested could see the protest up close and meet many of the participants. In over 30 hours of observation I did not see the offensive flags so frequently cited to smear the truckers but I did see among the convoy supporters a vast array of races, ethnicities, and religions from all over Canada, including many from groups that would supposedly feel threatened by those extraordinarily unrepresentative flags. I saw much evidence of unity and love, in contrast to the Prime Minister’s narrative of division and contempt. Despite the convoy’s disruptive impact on Ottawa, there were many local residents who came out to support the truckers.
The mayor says the protest was not about vaccines. Tell that to the protesters who spoke of family members with vaccine injuries. The mayor says the protest was not about freedom. What? The protesters spoke incessantly about freedom — freedom from lockdowns, freedom from mandates, freedom to attend church, freedom from medical coercion. About a dozen of the many random interviews I saw were with refugees from communism. They had all seen the government’s tyrannical tactics before and were determined not to let their adopted country become the dystopia they left behind. Yes, it’s about freedom.
