Hopes for Peaceful Demonstration as Freedom 2022 Nears Ottawa

As the “Freedom 2022” convoy nears Canada’s Capital for a Saturday protest on Parliament Hill, most involved are hoping for peaceful protest. Ottawa police are asking residents to stay off city roads over the weekend. Some news outlets are reporting “fringe” elements have attached themselves to the convoy and wish to promote violent demonstration, ala January 6 protests in Washington D.C. last year. 

Protests are part of our democratic rights, not violence.

After two years of COVID this, and pandemic that, most everyone is fed-up. Lockdowns, shutdowns, masking mandates, limits on family gatherings, you name it, the population as a whole has mostly reached its limit. 

Although the average Canadian has the right to choose whether they take a COVID-19 vaccine or not, truckers crossing the border have lost that right. Laws enacted by the U.S. and Canadian governments in the last few weeks require that truckers crossing the border, must be vaccinated against COVID-19, or if not, they must quarantine upon arrival. 

This mandate essentially takes away a trucker’s right to choose to be vaccinated or not. Some may have to forfeit their jobs as cross-border truckers. That is what started the Truckers’ “Freedom Convoy”. 

Approximately 10-15% of cross-border truckers are unvaccinated. Some of these truckers say that because they have a job that requires them to isolate most of the time, they pose little or no risk to the general population should they choose to be unvaccinated. Others are protesting because their livelihood may be lost or taken away. Still, others believe their rights and freedoms are lost if they are mandated to take a vaccine.

Canada Unity is the group that organized the convoy. 

https://canada-unity.com/ 

Led by James Bauder who says “It’s about the mandates, all of them. Masks, the passports, the shutting down our businesses,” 

Bauder added that he thinks the medical industry is highly politicized.

After two years of pandemic unrest, many are dissatisfied in our country, for any number of reasons. 

Mike Millian, president of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada told the CBC that the convoy’s original message has been hijacked by far-right or extreme rhetoric. “We’re seeing signs calling our government communists and Nazis and comparing [the mandate] to the Holocaust. And if you’re comparing this to the Holocaust, you need to educate yourself,”

The report continues that what began as a group of truckers against the cross-border trucking vaccine mandate has amassed the support of groups broadly opposed to public health measures in general, with some even calling for a Canadian version of the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.

Some Canadian Anti Hate groups say the “Freedom Convoy” is nothing but a vehicle for the far right. But are these anti-hate groups, ones that advocate for the far left who are saying his?

Where does the truth really lie? 

We do know that the trucking industry as a whole is opposed to violence of any kind. 

The Canadian public sees truckers and the trucking industry as heroes after their tireless and brave commitment over the last two years, as they helped keep the country supplied with necessities during the pandemic. They became frontline workers providing essential goods for the nation. 

Presently truckers are held in high esteem by the populace. Any signs of violence or hatred associated with the “Freedom Convoy” would hurt the trucking industry. 

 The key to every trucker’s job is safety. We have all made sacrifices over the past two years for our safety and the safety of others. Safety should be the right word for the “Freedom Convoy” to embrace.

Let us hope that leaders of the “Freedom Convoy” denounce any forms of violence before their protests on Parliament Hill this weekend. That is what are democratic rights are about, protesting peacefully.