Profiles In Courage: The Canadian Truckers

Authored by Margaret Anna Alice via ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’ Substack,

Celebrating the Winter of Love & the Worldwide Freedom Convoy Movement

“The importance of the event [the storming of the Bastille] lay simply in the psychological fact that for the first time the people received an obvious proof of the weakness of an authority which had lately been formidable.

“When the principle of authority is injured in the public mind it dissolves very rapidly. What might not one demand of a king who could not defend his principal fortress against popular attacks? The master regarded as all-powerful had ceased to be so.

“The taking of the Bastille was the beginning of one of those phenomena of mental contagion which abound in the history of the Revolution. The foreign mercenary troops, although they could scarcely be interested in the movement, began to show symptoms of mutiny.”

—Gustave Le Bon, The Psychology of Revolution (paperback, Kindle, audiobook)

This profile may seem like old news. The Canadian Truckers Freedom Convoy is so February. The hypnotizing bauble is now yo-yoing over the Ukraine. That’s what we’re supposed to be fixated on now.

Forget about the contagious burst of freedom that broke out in Canada—and especially forget about the emergency powers seized by Tyrant Trudeau without ever deigning to engage in diplomatic talks with the truckers, physicians, veterans, business owners, or ordinary citizens who gathered to support them.

Ottawa residents Alycia @plantbasedb and @SounguiFitness who live in centertown curious about the protests went to check them out and found only love and kindness. Songui brought his mother to the protests. She had only seen the mainstream coverage and she changed her mind. pic.twitter.com/T9UB1DgJkN

— Rupa Subramanya (@rupasubramanya) February 10, 2022

But I cannot forget. And I will not forget. Because what the Canadian truckers achieved in that courageous act of peaceful mass noncompliance is one of the most beautiful expressions of what I described as the secret to capsizing tyranny in my second essay, COVID IS OVER! … If You Want It, courtesy of Étienne de La Boétie’s The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude:

“You can deliver yourselves if you try, not by taking action, but merely by willing to be free. Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break into pieces.”

This video from Dr. Roger Hodkinson conveys the euphoria that erupted around the world as we witnessed the Canadian truckers—after two cruel years of escalating tyranny and breaches of rights—stand up and say, “NO! NO MORE.”

The truckers did not do this for themselves. Indeed, they risked everything—their income, their licenses, their rigs, their assets, even their freedom. The State threatened to take their children away and said that if they were arrested, their dogs would be seized and considered “relinquished” after eight days. They fearlessly put everything on the line to fight for the freedom of not only Canadians but all of humanity.

And what happened next was magic.

I call it the Winter of Love. When I saw this jubilant photo1 of a Canadian couple kissing while holding the Canadian flag aloft, I immediately thought of Alfred Eisenstaedt’s “The Kiss”:

Both of these epic images capture the elation of liberation following years of terror, repressions, and fatalities wrought by totalitarian regimes. The first was a physical war, the latter psychological. Each teaches us the “only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

During the most exuberant three-and-a-half weeks in Canadian history, tens of thousands of citizens converged on Ottawa. Canadians like Sirka Sie—a reader, friend, and chef who sent me the opening video her daughter filmed of her—leapt up and down on the side of the road, cheering on the Freedom Convoy as it rolled through their neighborhoods.

Once the convoy reached Ottawa, kids frolicked in bouncy castles (much to the chagrin of grinch politicians); grandmothers batch-baked muffins; Sikhs danced and practiced seva by serving up free food; and protesters broke into snowball fights, played street hockey, soaked in hot tubs, thawed out in saunas, roasted marshmallows, whipped up batches of cotton candy, threw pancake parties, set off fireworks, danced, and sung “O Canada” while hugging police officers and “Lean on Me” when cops arrived to arrest them in Milk River, Alberta.

This woman, a program director at a Calgary radio station, traveled to Ottawa to see the protest for herself, and an irrepressible smile bubbles up as she finds herself awash in an ocean of love:

The last living signatory of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Brian Peckford2 delivered an electrifying speech in which he announced the filing of a lawsuit against the government for violating this sacred charter:

Naturally, Trudeau; WEF-penetrated Cabinet members3; and the complicitous, state-funded media fabricated an ersatz narrative so incongruous with the thousands of hours of live-streamed joy that only the most brainwashed failed to recognize the uproarious dissonance.

In yet another demonstration of how closely the establishment left has aligned itself with authoritarianism, public figures like Noam Chomsky, Amy Goodman, and Michael Moore unironically bashed the working-class dissenters; counter-protesters labeled them “terrorists”; and so-called “anarchists” vehemently opposed them.

I proudly drew ire from Montréal-based “anarcho-syndicalists” Liberté Ouvrière for “support[ing] the truckers and talk[ing] of the Great Reset, a conspiracy theory” in my Letter to Justin Trudeau, LOL.

And then, of course, you have tyranny apologists/propagandists like The Guardian mocking the idea of “standing up for freedom” and equating the concept of freedom with right-wing extremism as part of their “War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance Is Strength” campaign.

The media spray-painted these magnanimous, loving, responsible folks as Nazis, racists, misogynists, and transphobes (you know, the usual repertoire of slurs slung when they can’t supply any substantive criticisms)—all while the Naziesque blackface leader behaved like a petulant tyrant, first tucking tail and hiding while feigning COVID, then slandering the peaceful protesters, then hysterically overreacting by pole-vaulting to a last resort that was only to be invoked after all other avenues had been exhausted (none of which had been attempted)—thus earning the well-deserved descriptors as “a disgrace to any democracy” by German Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Christine Anderson and “exactly like a tyrant, like a dictator” by Romanian MEP Cristian Terhes, all while presiding over “a dictatorship of the worst kind,” according to Croatian MEP Mislav Kolakusic.

Contrary to the media narrative, the protesters represented a cross-section of every conceivable demographic (minus pro-tyranny Covidians), prompting some to express their disgust and others to wear signs asking, “Am I Racist?” and “Do I Look Like a White Supremacist?”

One protester humorously thanked Justin Trudeau for “bringing everybody together” in unity against him for his divisive rhetoric.

Real People’s Media covered the Freedom Convoy with an emphasis on the indigenous community. In this video, Audrey Redman (Dakota-Cree from Saskatchewan) and Neecha (Ojibway Nation of Saugeen) share their experiences of the demonstrations, which they witnessed from the outset.

Audrey says:

“It was such an event of unity that brought everyone together.… I’ve never been anywhere … other than a powwow, where people were so united and happy to be together.”

In this message from the Mohawk women from Grand River, the speaker notes:

“We send love and gratitude to all of the brave men and women who are holding the line, uniting together with kindness and compassion in their hearts for freedom so that truth and justice may prevail.”

My contact at Real People’s Media shared the following statement by owner and cofounder Kanenhariyo:

“Real People’s Media has been on the ground in Ottawa for several days, and our teams did not see or film any swastika or Confederate flags. We have filmed for several days and we have not heard any hate- or race-based speeches.

“This movement has attracted many different groups and cultures. But Real People’s Media correspondents have not observed any obvious hate, racism, or violence.”

In what appears to have been a literal false flag event, a highly suspicious character held a Confederate flag with a semi truck printed on it. An eyewitness who was present confided in me:

“I saw the Confederate flag guy up close that first weekend. Pretty much the only person out of thousands I saw wearing a mask, and he was masked and wearing very cop-like sunglasses.”

“I remember looking at him many times as he was a sore thumb in a sea of smiling faces.”

“A very odd flag. I thought to myself where on earth would you get a Confederate flag with a truck superimposed in the middle? In all my time visiting in the Southern states, I had never seen anything like it.”

“From this photo, it looks like he must have been there starting early! I was on the hill by noon at latest, and there were hundreds more people.”

Additionally, there are reports that Justin Trudeau’s photographer, Adam Scotti, was present taking photos with the guy who “just happens to have a brand new confederate flag that still has wrinkles on it.”

Whether or not the “Nazi flag guy” was legitimate, the protesters denounced and attempted to identify him, and this infinitesimal drop in the ocean by no means represented the overall movement.

In at least one instance where a swastika appeared on a protest sign, it was being used to convey the fascistic policies of the Canadian government. The sign is clearly not advocating for Naziism but rather condemning today’s medical tyranny for its similarities to the Third Reich’s discriminatory and genocidal laws. That said, use of the swastika makes for horrific optics that can and will be exploited by the propagandists, so it is prudent for protesters to avoid inadvertently baiting the media with such symbols of hatred.

Fortunately, the awake among us observed ample evidence of the reality on the ground, thanks to innumerable round-the-clock live-streamers, including Mr. Sunshine Baby, Viva Frei, Press for Truth, Ottawalks, and ZOT. The footage shot by the myriad participants in this historic event is now being woven into the forthcoming documentary, Trucking for Freedom:

Heather Heying4 covered the Canadian truckers with her usual lucidity and passion at her Substack, from Truckers for Freedom to “Proud to Be Canadian Again” to We Leave When We Are Free to Get Ready for the Biggest Game of Whack-A-Mole the World Has Ever Seen.

I found this letter Heather shared from a Canadian particularly moving and am grateful to powerhouse Steve Kirsch for exponentially multiplying its views at my request (thanks, yet again, for amplifying love and truth, Superhero Steve! 🤗):

In Faces of Protest, Heather shared these radiant, heart-swelling portraits of protesters by photographer Dan Aponte:

Through gentle resistance and brilliant tactical maneuvers such as blockades at Ambassador Bridge and border shutdowns at Coutts and Surrey, the Canadian truckers and protesters inflicted an injury to the principle of authority that awakened the world to the realization that totalitarianism hinges on compliance, showing that We the People must stand up and take back our freedoms from the self-proclaimed “elites” to end our enslavement.

As Michael Malice observes, “The victory here is that their machinations are made public.”

Badass tyranny resister Pastor Artur Pawlowski urged Canadian truckers to hold the line, and pilot Greg Hill explained why summoning courage was so pivotal at this moment in history:

And summon courage they did, becoming a catalyst that would spark Freedom Convoys around the globe—most notably in Australia, where the Canberra convoy rose from the ashes of the Australians’ despondency and reinvigorated a downtrodden people. In Paris, the police joined the protesters in denouncing Macronian authoritarianism. These demonstrators would not have been so emboldened without the Canadian truckers’ example.

Arguably the most essential workers, truckers possess an unparalleled power to stop entire countries and make the honking cry for freedom heard.

As polymath Dr. Jessica Rose (a.k.a. “Unacceptable Jessica”) writes:

“When they stop flowing on the roads of the world, the human societal network stops flowing in turn: the truckers are the red blood cells in the circulatory system of human society as we know it.”

The Canadian truckers gallantly used that power to enact Thomas Jefferson’s dictum, “When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.”

In a galvanizing speech at a People’s Convoy USA event, attorney Tricia Lindsay outlines the responsibility of citizens to defend themselves against a tyrannical government:

After nearly a month of peaceful civil disobedience in Canada, the festive atmosphere transformed from Christmas to Krystallnacht as fascism lashed back.

Instead of listening to the concerns of its citizens, the Canadian government and its colluders:

banned honking;

brutally arrested those who violated this injunction;

illegally stole GoFundMe donations;

froze GiveSendGo donations;

shut down the Freedom Convoy Facebook page;

seized fuel and then returned it contaminated;

tried to entrap protesters with agent provocateurs;

attempted to set fire to an apartment building (foiled by the truckers and later confirmed to be a hoax);

declared a “state of emergency” and invoked the Emergencies Act without meeting the necessary threshold, setting the stage for future violations of Canadians’ inalienable rights;

rifle-whipped protesters;

mowed down and tear-gassed protestors;

trampled an elderly disabled Mohawk woman just after she’d said they were doing this so their children and grandchildren could have “peace and love and happiness”;

said “time for the protesters to hear our jackboots on the ground” and called the horse trampling video “awesome!!!” in a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) group chat;

clubbed and tear-gassed reporter Alexa Lavoie in the face;

staged an arrest;

beat and faux-arrested demonstrators;

froze and seized donor bank accounts and crypto wallets (although the latter has proven more challenging);

threatened to “actively look to identify you and follow up with financial sanctions and criminal charges” in the coming months;

arrested politicians for openly supporting the Freedom Convoy; and

laid the asphalt for digital IDs and a future surveillance state where similar outbursts of freedom become impossible.

They weren’t all bad cops, though. One was giving out hugs until a colleague admonished him to stop fraternizing with the enemy, and numerous police officers spoke out against enforcing tyranny.

The first Canadian cop to publicly condemn the mandates—a noble act that earned his suspension—former Calgary Police Officer Brian Denison called on his fellow officers to disobey unlawful orders.

Retired Ontario Provincial Police Officer Ed Grenier also urged his fellow officers to heed their conscience and not take action against peaceful citizens.

Calgary Police Officer Nick Motycka relays the devastation he felt when witnessing “police doing politicians’ dirty work like hired goons.”

Ontario Police Constable Erin Howard is under investigation for calling the truckers “true heroes” who are “fighting for our rights and freedoms,” while Edmonton Police Service Constable Elena Golysheva was placed on leave after posting this tearful video lamenting the loss of the very freedoms she fled to Canada to enjoy.

There was even a sizable number of standup politicians.

Leader of the Opposition Candice Bergen consecutively kicked derrière on February 8, February 9, and February 10. MP Raquel Dancho also gave Trudeau a terrific walloping.

MP Pierre Poilievre said “freedom is on the march,” and delivered an impassioned lesson on the true emergencies facing Canadians.

MP Melissa Lantsman reproved Trudeau for “fan[ning] the flames of an unjustified national emergency,” and he responded by accusing the descendent of Holocaust survivors of standing with “swastika wavers.”

Just after Parliament was suspended, MP Andrew James Bernard Scheer described Trudeau’s “massive power grab.”

MP Joël Lightbound expressed empathy for the protesters; reprimanded his party for normalizing restrictions and failing to adjust policies based on the latest scientific data; and critiqued their divisive “politicization of the pandemic.”

In a speech that may have been responsible for spurring Trudeau to end the Emergencies Act out of fear the Senate was about to vote it down, Senator Donald Neil Plett eloquently eviscerated Trudeau for his historically unprecedented actions and behavior toward Canadian citizens, noting:

“For three weeks, the prime minister did little more than hurl insults. He actually left town and let the crisis fester and worsen. He is supposed to be the prime minister for all Canadians, even those he may disagree with, but he clearly does not see things that way, and the result is that his policies are seriously dividing Canadians.

“Then after three weeks of inaction, Justin Trudeau came out and used the ultimate tool in his toolbox. The nuclear option, the Emergencies Act. It is hard to refute the accusation that this is a Prime Minister who is at war with many of his fellow citizens. Instead of trying to understand their concerns and the impact of his government measures on them, he is now using all the power he can muster to crush them. He has taken the sweeping powers of the Emergencies Act and turned it on the very people who were just asking to be heard.

“This is a prime minister who does not like opposition. He admires the basic dictatorship of China. He does not listen. He preaches. He does not debate, he insults. He does not convince, he imposes.”

Although it was a melancholy day when Trucker Convoy organizer Tom Marazzo announced the decision to peacefully withdraw at a February 19 press conference, that same day saw one of the most inspiring speeches of the entire protest when a naturalized Canadian who had grown up under the Romanian dictatorship and witnessed the fall of Ceaușescu reminded the crowd:

“They have the force; we have the power!”

“Violence is the last resort of a dictator, but I assure you that his days are numbered.”

“We are not asking you any more to give us our freedom back. We are taking it back!”

Also on February 19, the scintillating Neil Oliver cannonaded Trudeau in this blistering diatribe:

“The increasingly puffy and pasty prime minister Justin Trudeau—looking more and more like a waxwork dummy left too close to a radiator—has clutched, desperately, drowning man that he surely is, at emergency powers.

“He evidently fears the truckers, and their wives and their little ones, and their freedom protest, and so feels as vulnerable as a desiccated sandcastle facing the incoming tide.”

He closes with these triumphant lines:

“People ought not to fear the power of governments. Governments ought to fear the power, the righteous power of their people.

Lest anyone think the Canadian truckers’ movement ended in defeat, this prolonged act of civil disobedience achieved significant tangible as well as intangible victories.

As early as January 31, the number of Canadians saying they wanted restrictions to end had tipped by a striking 15 percentage points since early January, making the pro-freedom contingency the majority at 54 percent. Two weeks later, that was up to a remarkable two thirds of Canadians. So much for a “small fringe minority.”

The protesters not only bent the needle of public opinion, but they exerted direct pressure on the premiers, who undoubtedly had upcoming elections in mind as they recalibrated their positions to the will of the people. One by one, the premiers began lifting COVID restrictions—Scott Moe in Saskatchewan, Jason Kenney in Alberta, Heather Stefanson in Manitoba, Doug Ford in Ontario, Francois Legault of Quebec, Tim Houston in Nova Scotia, Dennis King in Prince Edward Island, Blaine Higgs in New Brunswick, and Andrew Furey in Newfoundland and Labrador—until all of the provinces had eventually been liberated.

As mentioned above, the Canadian truckers ignited a worldwide Freedom Convoy movement. In the United States, that took the form of the People’s Convoy.

Radio show host and writer March Twisdale joined the US convoy and blogged about her cross-country journey and the dazzling people she met along the way.

Dr. Paul Alexander chronicled his participation in both the Canadian and US convoys, the latter of which culminated in meetings with Senators Ron Johnson and Ted Cruz—a dialogue with legislators that symbolized the stark contrast with Trudeau’s contemptuous refusal to talk with the truckers. Dr. Alexander wound his way back to Toronto, where he delivered a rousing speech at the Toronto World Wide Trucker Rally on March 19.

Demanding accountability for oppressive and lethal policies, Dr. Alexander echoed the cries of those who have been suffering under the boot of authoritarianism worldwide and are thirsting for freedom and justice.

One of my readers, retired British military officer and retired Canadian Armed Forces Reserve officer Stew Staudinger of Real Canadian Liberal, was kind enough to share this video in which he cogently explains how Justin Trudeau is guilty of crimes against humanity under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and why Canadians must take responsibility for seeing that justice is served.

That process may already be underway. On March 14, a joint committee of Canada’s Parliament launched an “unprecedented” official “inquiry into the Trudeau government’s actions against the Freedom Convoy civil liberties protesters.” Once again, the eyes of the world will be on Canada as they see whether a tyrant gets away with criminal malfeasance.

As Frederick Douglass warns:

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

This is the moment in history when we must prescribe those limits, and the Canadian truckers have modeled the courage necessary to do so.

*  *  *

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