Canadian Trucker Convoy 2022- Our perspective

I'm halfway hesitant to write this blog post.  My previous three posts about the Ottawa protests tell how calm and caring the truckers and others were.  I don't really want to distract from that but I also think it is important to counter at least some of the lies the media, police and certain politicians, (he who must not be named), are telling. 

No-one threw bicycles at horses.

No-one from the protesters threw gasoline at the police.

No-one was desecrating the War Memorial.

No-one was desecrating the Terry Fox Memorial.

The protesters that were supporting the truckers and the truckers themselves were completely non violent. 

Do you know how I know? 

WE WERE THERE!! 

We interacted with truckers and supporters alike.  Not one ‘nasty’ flag.  Apparently there was one flag with a swastika on the first weekend, only long enough for a photo op.  The man and flag were chased away by protesters.  And one Confederate Flag, also chased away very quickly.

“Bicycle” Incident

As I mentioned earlier, there was no bicycle.  The police on the horses  rode over a woman that was in a small mobility unit.  She needed that to get around.  Because the horses were trotting instead of walking, there was no way she would have been able to get away in time.  Remember that this was a peaceful, legal demonstration…  regardless of what the PM says to the contrary.   One officer lunged his horse into the crowd.  

I’ve seen police use horses in actual violent protests.  One example was in the Toronto Riot (Rodney King) in 1992.  The police there used about a dozen horses and calmly walked through the crowd and completely dispersed them.  With absolutely no harm done by the horses to the crowd.  I was there as well and watched how beautifully the Toronto Police handled the situation.

Yesterday, in every aspect of what the police did, it looked like they were trying to get the protesters riled to the point of violence.  And that never happened. 

The only violence perpetrated was by the Ottawa police and the help they had, whoever they were. 

When the police started confronting and herding the protesters, there was one man that was getting a bit irritated and loud. Several protesters pulled him back from the police blockade and calmed him down.  I believe there were a few other instances of this.

That was the general handling of anything that was untoward.  Other protesters would sort it out very quickly. 

Please read my earlier three posts of how calm and peaceful it was earlier in the week.

My wife and I feel like we are going back and forth between alternate realities.  We spend the day at the protests, meeting and speaking to truckers and others.  Then in the morning in the cafeteria at the hotel we watch the news.  And that news was completely different than what we witnessed the day before.  It was surreal.  Almost nothing the same.

The latest is the new police chief Ottawa (the third in the last two weeks - they keep quitting) saying that that photos and video have been photoshopped. And that there was no mobility walker for the woman that was knocked over.  Try telling that to the thousands of people that watched the live feed.

Someone here is trying to rewrite history as it happens. 

Some photos below of the Terry Fox Memorial, Unknown Soldier and more.  The tuba player spent most of the time playing Oh Canada.