- 2023
- Feb
- 4
Why Did They Come? From a Freedom-Loving Ottawa Resident
Saturday February 4, 2023
By Beth Blackmore
The Ottawa People’s Commission (OPC) describe themselves as as citizen-led grassroots effort led by Commissioners with experience in human rights and community action, with a goal to promote healing and justice to address trauma and losses experienced by the residents of Ottawa resulting from the convoy occupation. They hosted community consultations, public commissions, and invited written testimonies from Ottawa residents to share their stories and present their views.
During the past fall while the Emergencies Act Inquire was in session, OPC was concurrently running a citizen-led forum. Daniel Bulford (former RCMP and personal sniper to the Prime Minister) actively encouraged Ottawa residents who supported the convoy to participate and ensure their voices were heard in order to avoid a one-sided negative portrayal of the convoy.
OPC did welcome both perspectives, and I was honoured that my submission was accepted. I’d like to share with you the statement that I presented to the commission.
- 2023
- Feb
- 3
Manna from Heaven
Friday February 3, 2023
by Michelle Kloet
While in my Canmore, Alberta home mid January 2022, a TikTok post came across my ‘for you’ page that announced a Trucker Convoy heading to Ottawa. The convoy was set to protest against the Federal government’s border mandates which were coming into effect late January 2022. This was a huge hit to unvaccinated truckers who had been treated in the same at the border as vaccinated truckers. Over the next few several days on TikTok, posts encouraged Canadian truckers to join the convoy to have the cross-border vaccination mandate rescinded.
Over the next week hundreds of social media posts across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, supporting the convoy, came into my feed. Curious, I looked at the comments and saw that non-truckers were also encouraged to join the convoy. As an individual who was affected by federal travel mandates as well as provincial employment mandates, I felt the convoy was something I could join, in the hopes of supporting the trucker’s efforts, would also help every other Canadian affected by the mandates. I decided to pull my 26-foot camper with me - filled with food, medical supplies, water, dog food and warm bedding.
Rolling out of Calgary, Alberta early January 23, 2022, I realized that I was not the only non-trucker in the convoy. There were many people in RV’s and others towing toy-trailers outfitted with wood stoves and bed bunks.
- 2023
- Feb
- 2
A Voice for the Kids
Thursday February 2, 2023
By Joe Anidjar (aka PuckDaddy)
Hockey and sports have always been a huge part of my life. My journey through the last few years all began when Covid-19 hit and they started to recommend restrictions and enforced vaccine mandates in children’s sports.
I began getting a lot of messages on social media from concerned parents. A lot of them did not want to vaccinate their child, but still wanted their child to be able to play. They felt pressured, they felt alone, they didn’t know what to do. I was also against vaccinating my children, seeing a number of red flags in the early research.
So I started a Facebook group for parents who were against the mandates in children’s sports: Youth Sports Freedom Fighters. Within three months to group grew to 11,000 members. It was a group to inform parents, to let parents know they weren’t alone and that they had support. We had a few months of many articles, many conversations, and a lot of truth.
- 2023
- Feb
- 1
Why Civil Disobedience?
Wednesday February 1, 2023
By Dr. Francis Christian
Originally published on August 29 2022 on his Substack, Francis Christian’s Essays
Used with permission.
If our ultimate allegiance were only to the State and the ruling authorities and their laws, then there would never ever be the need for civil disobedience or rebellion of any kind.
If on the other hand, a higher and nobler allegiance binds us, civil disobedience becomes essential whenever the State infringes upon and threatens that nobler and higher loyalty.
The higher power and allegiance may derive from God Himself, or from the Bible, or Koran or the Bhagavad Gita or other holy scripture. Or it may derive from an inherent sense of the exalted set of morals and values to which individuals and nations aspire - the voice of conscience.
- 2023
- Jan
- 31
Gaining Steam: Convoy Through the Prairies
Tuesday January 31, 2023
By Tawney Johnson
When the world shut down in March of 2020, I was not immune to the feeling of isolation, despite being surrounded by my amazing family. I’m a married mother of two, and we live in a small Southern Saskatchewan town, where I am the town librarian. As a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces, I possess a certain way of thinking, of acting and of caring for my fellow Canadians. As an Indigenous woman, I’m also attune to a certain way of viewing the environment around me, as we are all part of a greater collective and it’s up to us to live our lives in accordance with the natural laws, if you so choose. The virus had me concerned and wanting to “do my part” and get through the quarantine and keep my family and community safe. Then it seemed like it was going to last longer than originally anticipated, and we were to buckle down for the long haul. As time went on, the feeling of something not being quite right kept growing but I still was fine with being a “good community minded citizen” and continued to do my part as we slowly eased back into work (with the door closed, and no contact between us and the outside community). Then we entered into what felt like a constant rotation of lock-down, open up, lock-down, etc.
As the fall of 2020 loomed, chatter on various Social Media groups and pages started to get busier and busier with the organization of rallies popping up nationally, voicing opposition to yet more lockdowns. As a former reporter, my research propensity kicked in, and I went looking for more details, as I knew that there were always two, if not more sides to a story and the MSM were only concentrating on the one side. It was refreshing to see that there were people out there that had somewhat the same thoughts and beliefs as I do. Then the announcement of a solution (v-a-x) arose and as I looked into those details, it just didn’t sit right with me.