Stephen Thirlwall
Some have compared living under the pandemic to living under conditions of war. While there are similarities, the analogy never quite worked for me.
However, it works very well with the experience of living beside the trucker demonstration that tied up downtown Ottawa for almost a month. There were not a lot of deaths, but there were many casualties.
A core group of protesters planned a deliberate military-style invasion and occupation of Centretown and some adjacent areas. Demonstrators filled the airwaves with propaganda. Convoys of vehicles entered the city, quickly blockading strategic transportation routes and centres. City authorities were caught off-guard, probably expecting just another regular demonstration.
Only federal land on Parliament Hill was guarded. Businesses (including banks, library branches, pharmacies) either closed their doors or operated on much shorter hours. Those open were hard to access by the public. Some park areas were occupied. Operation centres and camps were set up in public spaces, and supply chains arranged to support prolonged occupation.
Throughout, members of the public were constantly harassed by aggressive and intimidating behaviour, intense noise, high pollution, and overall disruption of normal life.
Residents fought back
As in war, the public eventually began to organize and take action to oppose the occupation, especially with the relative inaction of city authorities. Public pushback caused the voice of local citizens to be heard more widely. Previous to this, the demonstrators got more media coverage, giving them a certain credibility. One of the first counter-demonstrations, started by a group of concerned mothers, became a huge gathering blocking protest trucks from entering Centretown. The truckers were held up for hours, then one by one sent home after taking down their signs and promising to leave. This was a major turning point, enacted peacefully.
And then governments…
With emergency legislation coming into play, government action at all levels was finally and belatedly released. Clear warnings were given, funding was cut off, supply chains were begun to be disrupted.
Then the united police force (including RCMP, Ontario, and Quebec officers, plus others from further afield) acted in a well-planned, high-level military action. The demonstration was cleared away within three days. Police operated with patience and restraint, minimizing any heavy-handed tactics in the face of obstinate and aggressive protesters.
Checkpoints were set up throughout Centretown neighbourhoods to keep “weekend” protesters away and gradually shrink the containment area of the demonstration. Trucks were systematically removed and noncooperative protesters arrested. Some demonstrators left quietly. The peaceful shutdown was completed and violence avoided.
In the aftermath, certain checkpoints and barriers remained in place for more than a week. While these caused some inconvenience, particularly with bus routes, residents generally accepted them. The police are prepared to bring them back quickly if needed.
The impact remains
Post-demonstration, residents most directly affected began to realize that serious impacts have not ended. People felt battered. Damage and disturbance were done to both residents and the functioning of the city.
Centretown offices, small businesses, services, restaurants and cafés are only gradually reopening; some are permanently closed. After a week, some people still felt uncomfortable to come outside, even with easing of pandemic restrictions.
As the aftermath continues, groups of residents have gathered to take back their parks and streets. Posters have appeared calling for safe neighbourhoods and an end to hate.
A trickle of demonstrators, on foot and following protest rules, remain; their cries insignificant. They have not been able access their central camp area on Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill, which remains closed to car and truck traffic. An aftermath of ripples will continue for some time.
Like Woodstock, “You had to be there”
People across the city, country, and the world heard about the demonstration and thought they knew all about it. But they were not here. They did not directly experience it. The inner-city population was inescapably present and directly felt the serious impacts.
On speaking with friends living in other parts of Ottawa, I realized they had a range of differing misunderstandings about the demonstration.
Clear knowledge of what was happening dropped off exponentially with distance from the epicentre.
I, on the other hand, had to walk through or near to the main demonstration several times to get to specific destinations. The air was full of tension. It wasn’t jovial, although many of the truckers hugged or high-fived one another. That was to hype themselves up. Towards Ottawa residents, they primarily projected aggression and meanness.
The core members appeared like thugs, while “part-timers” acted like this was an excuse to party. The latter group did not stay overnight. Most came just for weekends and stayed around the fringe yelling and waving flags.
Close to home, a woman with a microphone screamed at the top of her voice that we were dogs, brain-damaging our children. Within this atmosphere, I was enraged by the protesters.
As soon as I was beyond the toxic zone, I felt huge relief. I could breathe fresh air again and calmed down. Each experience reconfirmed the earlier ones.
Misinformation, smoke and mirrors
From the very start, many misconceptions were being propagated by the protesters and repeated by the media. The demonstration was based entirely on misinformation.
The notion that unvaccinated truckers, not allowed to cross the U.S. border, were demonstrating because they were losing their livelihoods seems to have been primarily a cover story intended to draw public sympathy. I say this because, firstly, the convoy organizers implied that thousands of truckers from across the nation would be descending on Ottawa. In reality, most Canadian truckers were vaccinated and continued working. Probably many unvaccinated drivers also continued working inside Canada. While the number of trucks coming to Centretown felt very large, it represented a tiny portion of Canadian truckers.
Secondly, the financial backers paid only towards the demonstration, not towards support of truckers in need; and thirdly, the demonstration was underlain by hidden agendas that started surfacing each day, showing up as slander against the Prime Minister, denunciations of all governments, and hate speech and harassment towards the public.
Furthermore, the anti-vax movement and other extremist groups were involved. They called for removal of all government mandates; yet some demonstrators put forward their own mandate to bring down the government. Many protesters had strange slogans and Canadian flags on the sides of vehicles, the flags defaced by foul language. On the first weekend, U.S. Confederate flags were visible.
In contrast, the weekend protesters walked or drove around proudly waving or wearing Canadian flags, supposedly as symbols of liberty.
The call for “Freedom” was false because the protesters had already acted on their right to not vaccinate. They just did not want to accept the responsibility and repercussions that go with their choice. Then they blatantly trampled on the rights and freedom of others. They expected a freedom where they could do whatever they want without consequences.
It was said that a majority of truckers were from the west, particularly Alberta. However, as I walked around downtown, most licence plates I saw were from Ontario and Quebec.
The claim was constantly made that the demonstration was peaceful and legal. Clearly this was not the case. By loudly honking horns, demonstrators generated noise levels well beyond safety standards to both others and themselves. The din continued on for hours, keeping residents awake much of the night. During the daytime, it distracted residents and downtown workers.
Physical violence is not the only form of abuse. There were threats and intimidation, name-calling, hate messages, and other bullying. Demonstrators entered shops in a belligerent fashion, upsetting customers and harassing staff. If local citizens had carried out similar acts, they would automatically have been fined or imprisoned.
An attempt to hijack the government
The demonstration was never what it seemed. This was a protest against the rule of law and government in general. It displayed deep distrust in government. Its thrust was to cause social disruption and destabilization, and hijack the attention of government, at least for a while.
The plight of unvaccinated truckers losing their livelihoods was just a surface rallying point. In the background were individuals and groups (including foreign interests) financially supporting the demonstration.
These actions were antithetical to a healthy community, society, and civilization. These require basic order, participation, and collaboration – not lawlessness.
Fringe protesters may have been just letting off steam because they felt overcome with frustration caused by the pandemic and the consequent loss of services, supports, and income. But we all faced these same frustrations, and the majority of people have united to vaccinate, pay attention to the science, follow the guidelines as best as possible, and find useful things to do.
Why this discontent?
Why is there increasing discontent? One possibility is because Canadian society is undergoing increasing challenges, upheavals, and change. We are confronted by serious global and local issues concerning the environment, identity, civil rights, racism, poverty, rampant materialism and consumerism, increasing diversity through immigration and refugees, jobs going overseas to the cheapest labour, and more.
This is forcing us to reevaluate and change aspects of ourselves, our community, society, industries, and governments. Change is difficult. Many individuals feel inadequate. Some people find it easiest to give up and protest, pointing blame at the “government.” However, no government is currently capable of managing these problems on their own. They are too complex and cross many borders.
Fortunately, there are many options we can explore to manage change that are cooperative, peaceful and constructive, especially when we work together. We don’t have to always reduce our choice to conflict and contention. Inaction also proved itself a poor choice.
To resolve this particular demonstration, forces of aggression, obstruction, anger, hate, misinformation and narrow thinking were overcome by united forces applying justice and the rule of law, flexible thinking, concern for everyone and a stable economy, and very importantly, peaceful action.