If you’re following the news, chances are that “Ottawa” has popped up on your feed in the past few weeks.
Rolling into Parliament earlier this month, a large trucker convoy wanted to make a statement against the country’s never-ending vaccine mandates and COVID restrictions. These protesters gain much momentum over the following weeks, eventually with enough support to fill the streets of downtown Ottawa.
The movement has been called “The Freedom Convoy.”
The Protests Garnered Mixed Responses
Even before the convoy reached Canada’s capital, it was getting a lot of attention… primarily because of how the Prime Minister reacted. Days before their arrival, Justin Trudeau released a tweet stating that he was exposed to someone with COVID-19, requiring isolation. People immediately raised eyebrows, pointing out how convenient this development was and mentioning that he’s fully vaccinated. That’s where the memes came into play.
Regardless of how Canadians felt about the protests, many agreed that Prime Minister Trudeau’s reaction was not becoming of someone in his position, labelling him a coward by his own people. It also didn’t take long before other countries started weighing in, like the U.S, India and even Brazil. Seriously, look up “Justin Trudeau denied handshake,” and you’ll get an idea of how the world now views the PM.
When the truckers finally made it to the capital, they were met with many positive responses… along with some negative as well. There were reports that there were sightings of hateful symbols being presented at the demonstrations, including flags that bore a swastika and the Confederacy. This was enough to label the convoy as “white supremacists,” even by Trudeau himself.
There were also reports of people, mainly those who chose to continue wearing masks, being harassed by protesters. It was almost as if they were getting a little too “excited” about their cause.
It also didn’t help that the truckers didn’t really ease residents into their cause. Complaints of constant honking into the night, along with the other allegations of harassment, did not help smooth things out.
But, Have They Done Any Good?
If you’re following the media, you’d probably give that question a hard “no.” However, believe it or not, this Freedom Convoy has made a few impressive accomplishments since they arrived in Ottawa.
Fundraising has been a controversial talking point for the convoy. This is because, within days, their GoFundMe page had raised millions of dollars from thousands of supporters. Many criticized this, stating that it was taking away from other important causes, like clean drinking water for Indigenous communities.
This has been a problem for these communities for decades. Many thought that this new protest should not be getting more attention than people’s right to clean water. Well, the convoy agreed with this declaration.
Soon, another GoFundMe page was opened by Megan Howarth on behalf of Water First Education and Training Inc., and protesters completely took it over. You’ll find a good chunk of them refer to the Freedom Convoy through the comments. Some even credit them for bringing this issue to their attention.
After a week, Megan closed the fundraiser and the cause raised over $730,000 for Indigenous communities.
Soon after the convoy arrived in Ottawa, they were accused of allegedly harassing the Shepherds of Good Hope food bank. According to them, they not only harassed them but also begged for food, eventually giving in to their demands so that they would leave. The convoy promptly responded.
Supporters almost immediately started to gather around Parliament, bringing them supplies from gasoline to food. Upon hearing the incident at Shepherds of Good Hope, they actually built and opened their own food bank to give away food for the homeless.
There’s also the news that many other provinces, including other countries, have decided to drop their restriction due to lower risk of COVID, higher rates of vaccinations and just overall exhaustion from the last two years. While this news has worried some, it has given others a boost in their mental health.
What About The Ugly Side?
Well, this is a complicated part of the story. As mentioned before, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s reaction to the convoy did not garner positive responses. Many, even people protesting against the convoy, were critical of Trudeau’s inability to open communication with the protesters, stating that this could have been avoided if he had done so from the start.
If you remember, the word “coward” was thrown around a lot on Twitter.
Eventually, Trudeau did “attempt” a response to the protests by passing a law that prohibits honking for 10 days and law penalties for anyone supporting the convoy by bringing gasoline. This was also not met with the nicest of responses and eventually, the protesters were allowed fuel once again. Trudeau still had not attempted to open a line of communication with the convoy at this time.
So, upon hearing nothing from Trudeau for weeks, the convoy felt they had to up the ante, if you will. They began blocking off Coutts, Alberta, via Alberta Highway 4, an essential trade crossing between Canada and the United States. This was not met with many positive reactions, with both the convoy and Trudeau.
Not only did these blockades block off essential goods, but they also crippled the automotive industry. If you know anything about the auto industry’s current state, you know they weren’t doing that great before.
For most of the pandemic, the auto industry has been plagued by chip shortages that have slowed down production, ultimately losing a lot of profit. With these blockades, it was estimated that the industry took a total hit of approximately $300 million.
According to the Anderson Economic Group, the demonstrations resulted in a loss of $144.9 million in direct wages. At the same time, General Motors, Ford, Honda, Toyota and Chrysler lost an additional $155 million. Patrick Anderson, the group’s CEO, even had to go on record to say that the losses led to painful shutdowns.
“Three-hundred million in losses in eight days is quite a bit of loss,” he said. “It’s definitely very painful and very visible in Ontario and Michigan and extends down to Kentucky, Ohio and even Alabama.”
Anderson also said this was a hit they could not afford amid their supply chain issues due to their chip shortages.
“Many of the cars that weren’t produced during the past ten days will not go to the customers that would have bought them, as those customers are already headed elsewhere or are simply going to go without a new car at this time,” Anderson said in the statement.
“Within hours of the trade disruption at the Ambassador and Blue Water bridges, we observed shortages and then slowdowns at assembly plants. Only some of that lost production can be made up given the tightness of the auto industry’s supply chain right now, so these are real losses to the men and women working in this industry.”
Patrick Anderson, CEO of Anderson Economic Group
Then Things Got Uglier
On February 14th, Justin Trudeau announced that he would be invoking the Emergencies Act to respond to the “illegal” protesters, in his words. The Emergencies Act, once called the War Measures Act, authorizes the federal government to take extraordinary temporary measures to respond to public welfare emergencies, public order emergencies, international emergencies and war emergencies. This gave the government unlimited power to stop the protests including freezing bank accounts of those who donated to the cause and using extreme force from law enforcement.
Many people felt that this was one or two steps too far, even for Trudeau.
Back when it was known as the War Measures Act, it had only been invoked three times in Canada’s history. Once during WWI, once again in WWII and in 1970 during the October Crisis when the French separatist group Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped British diplomat James Cross and Deputy Premier Pierre Laporte, who was eventually killed by the group. Give you three guesses who invoked this act back then.
Pierre Trudeau, Justin Trudeau’s late father. Quite the coincidence, huh?
Many other members of parliament, especially the Conservative Party, tried their hardest to stop this act from going through. Even the protesters felt they needed to protest harder, labelling Trudeau a “tyrant” and “dictator.” Wonder which is worse for his image, coward or dictator?
Trudeau even had the NDP Party on their side, with party leader Jagmeet Singh saying:
“This was not a protest. This was an occupation and a convoy bent on hurting working people, taking away people’s ability to work and harassing residents of a city that had to be shut down.”
Jagmeet Singh, NDP Party Leader
However, here’s the kicker. Parliament took a vote on whether or not the Emergencies Act earlier this week on Monday, and it passed with 185 MPs voting in favour of the act, while 151 voted against it… only for Trudeau to revoke it less than 48 hours later.
Oops.
Justin Trudeau gave a long speech as to why he revoked the act, stating that there will be investigations into how it was used and if it was necessary in the first place. For over a week, protesters were abused, beaten and arrested by police in riot gear and Trudeau mentioned that police activity will also be investigated. So, essentially he’s throwing police under the bus for following the orders he gave them.
As of now, the convoy has left Ottawa, on their way to the U.S capital to continue their mission. However, they have left behind a large number of protesters who have not given up their goal to end all vaccine mandates and COVID-19 restrictions in Canada.
So, it would definitely seem as though the Freedom Convoy has been an actual double-edged sword for the people of Canada and the United States. While it’s true the convoy tried hard to demonstrate peaceful protests, it’s impossible to ignore the impact their protests have done on both the economy and supply chains.
But, now with Justin Trudeau’s approval rating dropping more and more rapidly as the days progress, there’s at least one thing most Canadians can agree about.
