OPINION: Convoy shows how Canadian society has become 'sick'
Honk if you’re sick of everything connected to the convoy?
Yeah, me, too. Except that I can’t get the visions out of my mind of what I have just seen in my country.
I really tried to understand what the main message was in having this trucker protest go to Ottawa.
Supposedly, it was to protest vaccine mandates for Canadian truckers, but then it morphed into something entirely different.
As far as I can tell, it was basically a weekend to get out and whine about everything from masks and supply shortages to gas prices and not being able to eat in a restaurant to not being able to party like it's 1999.
I get it. Everybody is angry. We are tired, fed up, broke, and cranky. People wanted to get outside with others of like mind and vent.
I get that, too!
We are mad about everything from $8 bacon to $1.50 for a litre of gas, crazy high rent to freezing cold weather to steamed-up glasses due to masks and we want someone to fix it all.
However, causing even more congestion on our highways, wasting fuel and possibly causing safety concerns for first-responders trying to manoeuvre to get to an emergency was a thoughtless way to do it.
Whatever valid points the organizers might have had got lost in the chaos.
There may have been an original message, but all I saw was a mess.
You lost me when reporters trying to do their jobs and cover the protest got spat upon and verbally abused.
You lost me when the woman being interviewed said, “the media is not covering this” literally as it was being covered. It wasn’t that there was no coverage, it was that you didn’t like the report.
For every logical, civilized speaker I saw there were dozens more who seemingly had no clue why they were really taking part.
It seemed as if they were just repeating phrases they heard somewhere:
”I am against mandates.”
“I’m here to get my freedom back."
“I’m fighting for Canada!”
When pushed as to what freedoms exactly have been taken away, they fumbled and reverted to yelling at the journalists and swearing about the prime minister.
Yelling. So much yelling.
Some protesters say they will stay in Ottawa until their demands are met.
Huh? What exactly is it you expect the politicians to do? We’ve never dealt with this type of pandemic before. Do you seriously think they aren't trying to make it better?
I take that back. I guess that’s exactly what the conspiracy theorists believe.
Has it been hit and miss? Has the messaging changed and been confusing? Yes, because we’ve never experienced this virus in our lifetime.
I made a point of watching coverage from many different sources and I saw a lot of half-naked, attention-seeking yahoos trying to get their 15 minutes of fame by waving obnoxious signs and screaming obscenities.
Does that move us forward in any meaningful way?
No doubt there were well-intentioned, average Canadians in the bunch, but they got drowned out by the rabble rousers.
When that woman danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and others parked their vehicles on the National War Memorial, I was done trying to empathize.
You hang a hat, a sign and and an upside-down flag on the Terry Fox statue, you both lost me and you enraged me.
The mob mentality was reminiscent of Jan. 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol. I saw confederate flags and swastikas. I truly thought we were better than that.
For the first time in my life, I was glad my dad, a veteran, wasn’t alive to see this in our nation’s capital.
If any of the protesters get COVID — and many likely will from this super-spreader event — I say get to the back of the line at the hospital. And after they’ve been treated, hand them a bill. You don’t get to pick and choose what benefits Canada offers you when it helps you, and reject things that make you uncomfortable.
From all that was shown to me over the last few days, I realize our Canadian society is sick — and it has precious little to do with COVID.
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