The so-called Freedom Convoy was a very strange event to occur in Canada. A large number of transport trucks, pickup trucks, and other vehicles simply drove into downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and parked illegally in the middle of the streets. They completely blocked the major downtown streets and honked their truck air horns continuously around the clock. Of course, that profoundly disturbed the sleep of thousands of downtown residents. The protesters didn’t seem to care about that at all. This was hard to understand. It’s one thing to parade around carrying signs but to profoundly impose your will on so many people without a shred of guilt is difficult for most civilized Canadians to understand.

A picture of transport trucks and pickup trucks flying Canadian and Quebec flags.
The ninth day of the Truckers “Freedom Convoy” protest in Ottawa, Ontario, February 5, 2022. Photo by Garth Gullekson

Despite mask mandates, they refused to wear masks when entering the stores and the major RIdeau Centre mall downtown. This forced the stores and the mall to close for the three week duration of the protest.

Exploring the Cause

So what was going on? Was the Freedom Convoy just a bunch of really bad, inconsiderate, and rude people? As usual, I don’t think it’s that simple. I think a combination of things led to this event, which consisted primarily of unvaccinated people. One key item, of course, was resentment of the vaccine mandates implemented at the Federal and Provincial government levels. They also believed that they represented the majority of Canadians and were saving democracy, despite them doing precisely the opposite. They also had very strange ideas about how our parliamentary system works in Canada. On top of that, they also had strange ideas about how the law works in Canada. They seemed to think this was the USA. In the end, though, I think this was a case of good people very badly misled.

I touch on some of this in my video, The Freedom Con. But there’s more going on than that. The key to understanding the Freedom Convoy is to understand what led the participants to believe the nonsense behind it. The emotions were keenly felt and they felt empowered by their numbers. But they believed in nonsense. Why? This video will explore this in some detail. Coming soon.

Status

This video is scheduled to be worked on after the Should I Get Vaccinated? video.