In the summer of 2021, about 80 truckers moved through Squamish in honour of Gail and Merrill Ross who died of COVID-19 hours apart.
The truck leading the way had a poster that read “get vaccinated.”
Those who lined the streets shed tears to see the touching memorial. Those truckers did the mourning family and this whole town proud.
But the same can’t be said about the separate truckers’ “Freedom Rally 2022.”
Don’t get us wrong, the right to rally is baked into what it means to exist in this country.
It is in our Constitution — the highest law in all of Canada.
Section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees everyone in Canada — whether or not you are a citizen — freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.
Therefore, we support the right to hold all protests, including those opposed to mandates and the Justin Trudeau-led government.
And heck, there is plenty to criticize about how the pandemic has been handled.
Further, much of what we use daily was brought to us by underpaid truckers working long hours under challenging conditions — made more difficult during the pandemic.
Truckers deserve our respect and our thanks.
However, that’s where support for this rally by rational and compassionate Canadians must end.
Everyone in Squamish who drove down Highway 99 in support of this convoy needs to look clearly at who and what infiltrated the stated cause.
Canadian journalists, who have covered every war there has ever been, were faced with threats and abuse trying to do their jobs.
Those who hold up the charter for protests must also recognize the right of the press to cover them.
“Journalists have received death threats littered with racist epithets. Others have been spat on and verbally and physically harassed. In another case, the windows of a CBC/Radio-Canada news cruiser were broken,” reads a warning to editors by the Canadian Association of Journalists.
Today has not been easy. Protesters were mostly peaceful Saturday. Today has been different. Setting up for a live hit with @CP24 we were yelled at and swarmed by a group of protesters within seconds. We can’t get close without this happening. @ctvottawa @CTVNews pic.twitter.com/i6v8YTaIbA
— Jeremie Charron (@JCharronCTV) January 30, 2022
That is not freedom.
Though there were folks of all stripes at the rally, there was, undoubtedly, a white supremacist element.
In addition to the sickening displays of the confederate flag and other Nazi symbols, due to threats, a vigil in Ottawa for those killed while they worshiped in the 2017 Quebec City mosque shooting had to be cancelled.
That is not freedom.
There were calls to overthrow the current, democratically-elected government.
That is not freedom.
Ottawa homeless shelter staff were harassed by protesters demanding food; folks carried transphobic messages, and Indigenous sacred rituals were mocked and appropriated.
That is not freedom.
Some organizers have a very public history of white nationalism and racism.
Protesters defaced the Terry Fox monument, jumped and urinated on the National War Memorial and staff at Ottawa businesses were harassed for wearing masks.
Is that freedom, and if so, for whom?
If you are a civilized, democracy-supporting Squamish resident, these nods to alt-right ideology and downright despicable behaviour must not be shrugged off or excused.
They have nothing to do with trucking freedom.
