Battle of the Bouncy Castles
The Ottawa Freedom Convoy
Humble Beginning
On January 15, Canada implemented a vaccination requirement for essential service providers, requiring unvaccinated Canadian truckers re-entering Canada from the United States to be tested for COVID-19 and to be subjected to quarantine.
At 7 am, the first transports left Prince Rupert and arrived in Prince George at approximately 7:45 pm. From there, the convoy would grow to stretch approximately 70 kilometres long by the time it reached the Manitoba-Ontario border. Streets and intersections were shut down to allow the convoy to move through.
Nobody could have or would have predicted such an outpouring of excitement, which swiftly grew into a grassroots movement. At seemingly every major overpass on the way to the capital, Canadians gathered to encourage the trucks. Many people brought food, while others offered meals from home or restaurants. Some gathered along the roadside to cheer, some joined the convoy temporarily and others spontaneously drove to Ottawa. Some estimates put the number of participants as high as one and a half million.
From Small Group to Grassroots to National Pride
A wave of people standing up for freedom has arisen across Canada. What started as neighbours gathering to cheer on the convoy as it passed through has blossomed into the people gathering to hold their own freedom rallies. Spontaneous protests took place in almost every city throughout the country and will most likely continue to do so. Participation ranged from tens of thousands to a lone man standing on the roadway waving our flag, an army unto himself.
Preparations for a Party
Before the convoy arrived, a gathering began forming in front of the Ottawa legislature. As a result, the Trudeau Liberals announced lane closures on the Macdonald-Cartier and Alexandra Bridges on January 28. The bridges straddle the Ottawa River, linking Ottawa, Ontario, with Gatineau, Quebec, but they were only accessible to pedestrians and bicycles.
The rally brought together Canadians who had become polarized by the media for generations. It made no difference whether they were French or English; they’re all Canadians gathered in front of Parliament. They worked together to prepare the welcome wagon for the approaching convoy.
The Prime Minister then condemned the Freedom Convoy before self ‘isolating,’ claiming to have come into contact with someone who tested positive for covid. Trudeau was heavily ridiculed for what was seen as hiding, while others believe there was an ulterior motive.
Biggest Protest in Canada History
People were hugging everywhere as they greeted each other, it was a beautiful, humbling sight. There were jumping castles and street vendors feeding people, volunteers shoveled snow and garbage cleaned from the street. They had gathered to honour our troops at the war memorial and there was even a dance party, all while live streamers walked the crowd. After two years of question lockdowns and rule by decree, people were excited to get out and express their love and appreciation for one another. If you had been watching any of the live streams you might call it ‘The Hug Convoy.’ Despite unfounded reports, like that of our beloved Terry Fox monument getting desecrated on every occasion, the actual mood was still joy.
The character assassination of truckers by the media and our so-called public officials seems to increase daily. Never having to justify or are held accountable for their statements. The real threat to freedom came when Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act, but the government didn’t start there.
Shady Government Response
One of the first publicly known, troubling steps taken was to threaten anyone with a pet with imprisonment long enough for the vet to euthanize their animal. At the same time, they also threaten to use Children’s Aid to seize the kids sleeping in the trucks. The next big event was the confiscation of truckers’ jerry cans. The police, raided two days later, again confiscated jerry cans, only this time they took firewood also. The protest had not gotten violent after all, but the police did. They claim that a bicycle was thrown at the feet of one of the horses with intent to injure. This was the rationale for the most notorious event, in which mounted police trampled on an older disabled woman with a walker, along with an unidentified male.
An honourable mention also goes to the man getting viciously kneed while being arrested.
Even the media was not immune. Alexa Lavoie, a journalist from Rebel News, was struck with a baton and shot at close range with a tear gas canister, appearing to be targeted by the police.
Also: Via Twitter and with follow-up questions, Ottawa Police committed to identifying, investigating, sanctioning and criminally charging any protester who remained in Ottawa, over the months to come. Also stating, it will not end when protesters return home.
After the Emergency Act went into effect, everyone was fair game. If you were a local, you couldn’t just walk in for a cup of coffee.
Strong Choices in Hard Times
Outside The Iconic Cafe, police assaulted Canadians because the government told them to. On at least two occasions, the brave owner Enrico Cuhns, went outside and yelled at police to stop abusing the people.
It wasn’t until the protesters thinned that the police attempted to enter the premises. “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” he can be heard saying with authority. It worked, unsurprisingly, unable to enter the door due to a lack of a warrant, police went back to arresting protesters outside.
The Ontario shutdowns took their toll on Enrico and his wife Deborah as their business kept sinking deeper into the red. They had taken stand and The Iconic Cafe was forced to close its doors after receiving an eviction notice from their landlord. After helping the truckers and standing with Canadians, Enrico is on the hook with a large bill and no way to earn a living to pay it.
Crowd Funding Websites
One success story is the Adopt-A-Trucker page on GiveSendGo where they had been able to get a lot of the money before Ontario courts froze all accounts. Over $20 million in total was donated, with nearly half coming through GoFundMe and GiveSendGo however, they were only able to get access to a small amount thanks to government intervention. The campaign was going great until they surpassed $1 million when GoFundMe, temporarily froze the account for review. Once reinstated, it quickly grew to about $6.5 million before being permanently closed. For some reason, the website continued to allow donations even though they didn’t allow access to the money. After some controversy, GoFundMe decided to refund everyone’s money without request. The focus switched to GiveSendGo, which received another $10 million, but the government intervened with another court order.
When asked, GiveSendGo co-founder Jacob Wells said, “Police cleared the convoy protest last month,” so, “there is now no way for the funds to be distributed for their stated purposes and the site is refunding amounts to donors in order to protect our givers’ intentions.”
Lawyers for the class action suit claim “GiveSendGo is in breach of the freezing order,” and lawyers from the Attorney General of Ontario’s office agree.
Justice MacLeod, however, said the order targets funds that were clearly in possession of the defendants and were not intended to apply to undistributed funds on fundraising platforms.
The Crown lawyers go on to talk about how the province of Ontario is applying for civil forfeiture and that applications allow the Crown to freeze or seize assets linked to unlawful activity.
How It Ended
Events moved quickly after the police assaulted the Canadian people. Countless arrests were made only to bring the detained person several km away to let them go. It’s a practice among Canadian cops that has resulted in several deaths. After all, was said and done, police claim more than 100 people have been arrested and 21 vehicles getting towed. Tamara Lich spent 18 days behind bars while Pat King continues to be held on charges of mischief, counselling to commit mischief, counselling to committing an offense to a court order and counselling to obstruct police. The trucks that did get towed to the yard have various amounts of damage, with several items missing, such as money and equipment.
Today the trucks are gone, but people are still showing up to keep the movement for freedom going.