- 2023
- Feb
- 16
The End of the Beginning
Thursday February 16, 2023
By Johnny Rowe
Dearest Canadians,
Please let me speak the truth.
We are in a terrible situation. Our country and our culture are crumbling around us. We have failed at every turn. Our institutions have become completely dysfunctional. The people of Canada are suffering beyond their limits. The trauma, terror, and tyranny every Canadian has endured over the last three years has resulted in unprecedented damage.
We are all reacting and responding, repairing and rebuilding. We are recovering from the most horrific time of our lives, and it takes time. We will need to heal, because it will get worse. We are suffering from a moral crisis. Each one of us has been morally tested - and we, on the whole, have failed. This is because we have no idea how ignorant and weak we really are.
Things are bad. Corruption is everywhere. Our ability to control and maintain our systems is degrading before our eyes, like an ancient city going to ruin after they stop maintaining the canals. The Canadian people have been traumatized on a massive scale. Millions of peoples’ lives have been destroyed. Irrationality runs loose through our society like a monster running amok. Fear is on every face.
- 2023
- Feb
- 15
Innocence Lost
Wednesday February 15, 2023
By Kristen Nagle
I had been back home in London, Ontario for nearly a week, after spending four weeks in Ottawa during the Convoy. Life at home was the same as when I left it, but I wasn’t the same. We were going about our usual routine, including taking my boys to our favourite local coffee shop where we have been going for years. A place our local police force often frequents as well.
As I waited in line I found myself beside one of our London Special Forces officers. Seeing his grey uniform with all the gadgets, my heart started racing. I became almost paralyzed, and tears ran down my face. I was shocked by my own response; I had been visiting this coffee shop for years and was used to seeing many different types of officers in the cafe. The officer also appeared surprised and I managed to muster, “I’m sorry for my reaction… I’ve just arrived home from Ottawa.”
“Oh, were you at the convoy?”
“Yes, for four weeks, and I was on the front lines for the last two days.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you - I want you to know many of us did not want to be there, and many refused to go.”
I could see the sincerity in his response and his heartfelt apology, and it was at this moment that I realized that the traumatic events I had been a part of still lingered inside me.
- 2023
- Feb
- 14
In the Name of Freedom: A Veteran’s Experience
Tuesday February 14, 2023
By Sergeant Garrick Halinen, Royal Canadian Armoured Corps (retired)
As I patrolled Kent Street in the middle of the night I could smell the ice and snow, the fumes of diesel and generators. The lingering aroma of food from the twenty-four hour cook tent wafted through the air. I encountered threats that came out at night, intent to cause damage and havoc. I was doing my duty as I was trained to do.
I often wondered what the next day would have in store for us as the police presence ramped up. Wondered what their plans and strategies would be. Wondered what actions they were willing to take. I was concerned for the safety of the innocent citizens and supporters. My mind had returned to military mode, although I had only one mission in mind when I had prepared to go to Ottawa in the name of freedom.
All members of the Armed Forces take an Oath to protect our Freedoms and Rights - a signed blank cheque up to and including our lives. It had been a long journey to get to this first night of patrol on Kent Street. But let me step back in time and tell a story of what led to this moment. Let’s go beyond this to our National War Memorial and the moment I met Tamara Lich.
- 2023
- Feb
- 13
The Emergencies Act
Monday February 13, 2023
By Chris Shivcharan
It was very cold and the snow stuck to the ground like it did on most winter days. Mornings are usually dull and slow-moving in the nation’s capital, but not today; the day starts with a buzz and a frenzy of activities from the visitors who came to have their voices heard. It has been a party of cultures and of colours and a great show of love and unity the past couple of weeks – who knew a protest could be done with joy, peace and harmony? And a fitting day for it to culminate, Valentine’s Day — a feeling of synchronicity was in the air, a perfect way to symbolize the essence of the moment, but it wasn’t meant to be. February 14th would be a day which would go down in history for the wrong reasons: not because of love or unity, not because of kindness given and harmony shared amongst strangers, not because of roses, kisses or hugs - this day would be remembered as the time the prime minister invoked the Emergencies Act.
This Act is the most powerful piece of legislation available to our head-of-state. It is Canada’s equivalent to America’s famous DEFCON system — it was previously known as the War Measures Act. The invocation was the first under the new Act; has been three times in our nation’s past where it has been used under the old name: World War I, World War II, and The October Crisis. My objective is to take you through the history of the legislation – examining its intended purpose and its underlying mandate– to make a case that this most recent invocation was unjustified and heavy-handed and sets a bad precedent for future uses of the Act. We will look at the past, the present, and the future, of the Emergencies Act.
- 2023
- Feb
- 12
Other Side of the Fence
Sunday February 12, 2023
We’ve chosen our side, and we wouldn’t change a thing.
By Jeremy Mackenzie
Originally published on January 26 2023 on his Substack, The Diagalon Dispatch
Used with permission.
Goblin communists tried to pass off my recording the crowd as a “Hitler salute” because they have no decency whatsoever.
As we near the first anniversary of the most important cultural event in contemporary Canadian history, I will offer my perspective on what was a life changing experience for many veterans at the Canadian War Memorial in Ottawa.
For propaganda reasons, the corrupt liars owned by corporate interests that are posing as national leaders had our War Memorial fenced off to assist in perpetuating this wretched lie that the demonstrators in Ottawa were some sort of un-Canadian mob of unhinged lunatics. An ‘unacceptable fringe minority’. Those of us that were there know full well how much of a egregious and harmful lie this is.
Few took issue with this unfounded, unjustified caging of the national monument to our war dead more than the Veterans themselves.