I didn’t let the “Freedom Convoy” ruin my vacation. I’m vaxxed and not oppressed. I’m helping my friends, family, neighbours, community and country by being responsible.
Most of all I believe I am doing my part to help a health care system that has helped me numerous times. I wasn’t going to let a small portion of our population bully me from a day visiting Toronto. Hell, I’ve earned my freedom with a few jabs and a mask.
I decided to drop by a relatively truck and tractor-free Queen’s Park area. There were scattered groups of protesters with their “No Man-Dates” signs. The police presence was strong. This was not going to be a repeat of the occupation of Ottawa.
There were a few hundred protesters on the lawn behind the Legislative Assembly building. Many of their signs worked the word “love” into the plea to end the mandates at this event, but adding the word love and a Mercedes logo to your placard doesn’t erase the connections to racism or right-wing extremists.
I’m glad I decided not to head towards Bloor Street. According to the Toronto Police, sh** was flying there. An arrest was made at the corner of Bedford Road and Bloor Street. A 34-year-old man was charged with assault with a weapon when he threw feces at another person.
As I travelled away from the protests a few convoy supporters were driving their pickup trucks with Canadian flags on hockey sticks. Many people walking the streets hearing these honking honkies attempted to ignore them or displayed outright irritation, but there was also shouts of support that would greet them.
For instance, at the intersection where University Avenue meets York Street, a black pickup with Canadian flags proudly flying off their hockey sticks drove down Front Street past Union Station.
One woman walking on the sidewalk bellowed “Woo hoo! freedom for Canada, yeah!” at a taxi driver waiting for a fare.
He smiled back but the woman greeted his smile with “Go home,” and followed that with an F-bomb and a racial slur.
This incident happened far from the heart of the protest but does display attitudes of some convoy supporters’ support. I realize while the majority of the convoy supporters are white, there is multi-racial support. Hell, I would even go so far as to say municipal governments would be lucky to have the same multicultural makeup.
The co-opting Canadian flag as a symbol of the kind of “freedom” that the “freedom convoy” represents is ridiculous. Sure, there was plenty of people draping their bodies in the red and white flag at the protests but, take a town like Atwood for example, where Canada Day has been their bread and butter for many years. Not every flag there is in support of this movement.
How about GofundMe’s decision to stop the Freedom Convoy 2022 campaign? That put some smiles on some faces? Well, it did until the No. 1 free Christian crowdfunding site, GiveSendGo decided funding violence and harassment is a good way to “connect with the body of Christ around the world.”
Golly, I would love to support some violence and harassment. Can I use PayPal to donate?
PayPal cut ties with GiveSendGo after the funds to support the American insurrection were raised on the platform.
It is also the No. 1 free crowdfunding site for Proud Boys. I know they “dissolved” their Canadian chapter when the federal government deemed them a terrorist organization last January, but did their “western chauvinism” dissolve with the name? I wonder how many convoy supporters are ex-Proud Boys without the uniform.
If, as Elon Musk tweets, the ‘fringe minority is actually the government,’ there were confused protesters in Toronto embracing the fringe minority label hollering things like “We are the fringe and you have to listen to us.”
What does a guy like Musk know about the Canadian culture anyway – the outside view?
During interviews I conducted in Perth County while reporting on the development of an Anti-Racism Charter last year, several of the new Canadians told me Canada has a global reputation for being inclusive and multicultural, but when people arrive here that is not always what they find.
Amina Musa, a Multicultural Association of Perth-Huron volunteer, summed it up from her own experience saying that many “have faced some discrimination in the streets… (and) got told ‘go back to your own country.’”
I wonder if Musk were to visit the house in Poole, Ont. where the Confederate flag has flown for many years – would he be greeted by a government employee?
I have watched Greg Fergus, MP for Hull-Aylmer, QC, speaking about the Confederate flags and swastikas flown amongst the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa.
“Every February, I normally rise to encourage parliamentarians and Canadians to celebrate Black History Month,” he said. “These are not normal times. This past weekend, a small minority thought it acceptable to bring swastikas and Confederate flags to Parliament Hill. Let us not mince words: The Confederate flag is a symbol of slavery. Whips deformed Black bodies. Forced labour mangled limbs. Torture almost always preceded lynchings.
“Intellectually, I know that very few people today would support what the Confederate flag represented. I will assume that the Confederate flag was tolerated this weekend out of respect for the individuals’ freedom of expression. However, in my heart, I was left wondering who else supports this flag. Without real-time denunciations, how am I to know? That is what scares me. Even 188 years after the abolition of slavery in Canada, in some people’s eyes I am not equal, nor should I be free. This is why I celebrate Black history, and Black Canadian history, every February and throughout the year.”
The emotion Fergus felt was palpable. As the camera goes to a wide shot of the House of Commons, everyone can be seen clapping in support. I wonder if it was sincere applause from all Conservatives or were they just offering “an olive branch.”
Bigotry is in Canada’s DNA. The fringe embraces it. Within a 90-minute drive of my front yard in the period from November 2020 to July 2021 when I reported on the development of the Perth County Diversity, Equity and Anti-Racism Charter, there were at least four incidents that could arguably have been considered hate crimes.
In January 2021, an incident at a Stratford carwash included racial slurs and physical assault against an employee. Then in June, a London resident used his pickup truck to run down a Muslim family, killing four of them. Islamophobia was the stated reason for the crime. A few days later, a TikTok video shot in Harriston made “disturbing references” to the targeted hit-and-run in London. Also, during that period, a trans woman was assaulted while making a delivery in Listowel. How many more incidents could have been added if we looked at the entire country during that period.
The “freedom convoy” does not speak for me. The organizers may have taken off their yellow vests but they are the same people underneath.
I believe the true heroes of the pandemic are the health care workers. Thank you to the nurses, doctors and all the other staff who have worked so hard to keep us safe and healthy. I may not always be the best patient, but I’m happy you’ve kept me alive all these years thanks to advances in medical science.
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Colin Burrowes is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter with Midwestern Newspapers.
