February 10, 2022 - 5:52pm
On January 15, the Canadian government announced a vaccine mandate for long-haul truckers. Over the days that followed, a convoy of unvaccinated and vaccinated truckers drove in solidarity across the country to protest against the measures. The convoy gathered in Ottawa on January 29 with a rally at Parliament Hill and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau promptly left town. Truck convoys were then joined by pedestrian protesters who have set up makeshift camps across the city centre.
Mainstream coverage of Ottawa’s trucker convoy over the last fortnight has been more focused on confederate flags and far Right factions than the truckers themselves. To get a view from the ground, UnHerd dispatched roving reporter Leila Mechoui to take us on a tour of the convoy. Beaming in from the cabin of his truck, Freddie Sayers spoke to Tim, an unvaccinated trucker-turned-protester. Tim told Freddie what first motivated him to join the convoy and why he still isn’t moving.
Additional reporting by Leila Mechoui @leilamechoui
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SubscribeFreddie in top form. Excellent interview, and I was also struck by the sign early on reading “No to censorship. Yes to critical thinking” about 5 minutes in.
The interview with the deplorable (trucker) was beyond excellent. If ever there was the voice of the common man! I can’t help but imagine the utter contempt that Justin, the mayor of Ottawa, and the other elite’s have for this guy, who makes all of our lives possible with their hard, lonely work! It really is an Atlas Shrugged moment when le Deplorable talked about going home and parking his truck–fearful that the government would seize, I mean steal, it, and not move goods. His best line: they work for us, we don’t work for them–something forgotten by ALL of the elites.
If anything, being Canadian, the protest is a bit too polite, and somehow I missed the enormity of it. As an American, I’d like a bit more righteous anger. But perhaps that is coming. Perhaps Justin will outlaw singing O, Canada, as too disruptive, too loud, too offensive to the locals. And I hope the trucker is wrong in that it’s only about the mandates: it should be about dictatorship, censorship, freedom, and the forgotten fact that “they” work for us, not the other way around.
And let’s hope that the 81 year old grandfather who had the audacity to honk his horn becomes one of the faces of this movement!
Bravo to Canada! Bon Courage.
The convoy started off well but overstayed and caused numerous small Ottawa businesses to suffer. As well, parliamentarians couldn’t even get to work. When a protest becomes an occupation it is no longer a protest, and there is no constitutional right to an endless blockade.
When the trucker gave Freddie “His best line: they work for us, we don’t work for them–.” he was only partly right. Who is “us”? It isn’t only the small percentage of the Canadian truckers who support this form of protesting. They work for all Canadians, including those harmed by 15 days of a blockade in Ottawa and Windsor and other cities.
While I might agree that our Canadian government has gone overboard with vaccinating that last reluctant 10 percent and been excessively authoritarian blocking the Ambassador Bridge to the US and putting thousands of other truckers and auto workers out of work is not helpful. Now our government can’t afford to appear to have capitulated to the truckers so the coercive policies will stay in place even longer.
The truckers, and their supporters, can’t overstay because they are fighting for freedom. It’s not only the vaccines–I’m jabbed, but stridently against vaccine mandates–make your own decisions.
Some civil disobedience in the name of freedom is a small price to pay for a free country, which Canada is not any more, but perhaps there is hope….
I think it’s hilarious that the same government that shut down businesses for 2 YEARS is now saying that the shutdowns due to the trucker protests are “hurting people”. Plus, my understanding is that most of the businesses closed in Ottawa are not closed because they were forced to by the truckers, but rather because Trudeau et al called it a “state of emergency” and demanded they shut. My friends in Ottawa would LOVE to be patronizing businesses in the area. It should actually be a boon to local restaurants and other businesses to have so many “tourists” in town. But the government shut them down, then blames the truckers for hurting business! And the sad thing is that many people (including you apparently) have fallen for this.
Trudeau has said (closely paraphrasing “If you would only do what I said, I wouldn’t have to make all these rules”. A bizarre twist of logic. He has suggested that we can comply our way out of tyranny. But I wonder how well that would work, considering that is how we got here in the first place?!
As a doc who has dealt with many abused spouses, I can say that Trudeau’s wording reminds me of the typical abusive husband who says “If you’d only do what I say I wouldn’t have to beat you! You bring this on yourself with your behaviour!”
The government didn’t GIVE us our rights. They are not privileges bestowed upon us by Trudeau, but rather inalienable, fundamental, and “god-given”. I’m sorry that you seem to have forgotten that, based on your comment.
hahaaa
“While I might agree that our Canadian government has gone overboard with vaccinating that last reluctant 10 percent”
‘Wile I might’…..Are you including this guys wife forced to vax so she could help her mother locked down in the old person’s Concentration Camp, as one of those reluctant 10%? Or in your mind is she one of the compliant 90% who back the vaccines?
In every other tyrant’s paradise everywhere, you might fit right in with your amazing final remarks:
“Now our government can’t afford to appear to have capitulated to the truckers so the coercive policies will stay in place even longer.”:
So once a rule is made by a government it must not ever back down, less correcting an obvious wrong is seen as capitulating to both the Citizens, and to justice. And no government should ever capitulate and thus jeopardize the iron fist of control they wield over their subjects…. WOW.
I’ve watched some clips of CNN, MSNBC and the like reporting – it is the perfect example of why so many of us have come to mistrust corporate media and why their viewership is plummeting. They paint a picture of howling, angry, rioting, racist mobs waving confederate and Nazi flags (are they muddling this with US riots circa 2020 one wonders?). Stories as unlikely as anti-vaxx truckers taking food from the mouths of homeless people….
Really? News has changed. We have seen many hours of footage on YouTube. We have seen interviews with truckers on the ground, with their supporters and with the organisers who are beseeching Trudeau to meet them. We have seen a frail old man in his pyjamas being beaten up by several policemen for honking his horn, we have seen videos of hundreds of civilians carrying fuel to the truckers when they have been prevented from getting gas. We know of the food and water and money and love and support from ordinary citizens. All of this in minus 20 to 30 degrees. THAT is fortitude and desire for change by strong, good people protesting for democracy and for freedom.
Yet Trudeau still hides away… stirring hatred and division in his speeches. Suggesting that the truckers are shutting down the economy – as though his lockdowns haven’t shut down the economy. I have utter contempt for this fraud of a man.
“Now It Makes Sense”:https://youtu.be/DtUJpWYtGWM
Honk! Honk!
Lol
Just heard Antifa claiming Honk Honk is HH and therefore Heil Hitler and therefore Right Wing Fascist… Quite creative aren’t they.
Gotta give them prizes for creativity, to be fair.
Does this also apply to my Helly Hansen jacket? It does have HH as a logo. Does that make me a fascist? I’ve seen others with such jackets and they always give me a knowing look, try to hold my gaze a bit too long. I didn’t know how to interpret this, but now I do. Thanks!
Won’t be long before Antifa is on the scent….
White supremacist! 😉
Great interview. You won’t find anything like this in the msm. They’re too busy censoring ‘misinformation’.
Just had a long post gone immediately into moderation. Unherd really needs to review its censorship package.
Same here. Happens to me a lot.
Someone insulted me in the comments which resulted in me not being able to post any further on that article.
Oh no… how bizarre. That is the first time I’ve heard of this. Did you write to them to ask why?
These guys are heroes! Thank you Freddie for providing amazing interviews and going asking questions where no one wants to go.
I liked that he had a trucker. And that the Trucker showed how normal a working man is in mental capacity and ability to articulate and to have thought things through.
Almost all Freddie’s guests are the Elite – and talk the talk of the elite – and that is a special kind of way, – very cautious in wording – watching their words less they make any mistake and stray into controversial places – a stilted way of presenting ones views.
This guy just said what he has decided it is all about – And also is good as so many here are so removed from the actual ‘Common Man’ they sort of think of them as super clever examples of a ‘worker’ if they can say their case well….
It is a great deal harder to fool the working man than it is the educated man, because the workers have a much greater amount of ‘common sense’, they deal with realities, and they also can see a lot because of that.
Hmm, just today someone (a Canadian expat living in London ) told me that the ‘working class’ is an outdated concept. Must be what the Zoomer class consider to be the the case. Will follow up with her when a get the chance!
I wonder if she eats food from restaurants or supermarkets, and if so, if she considers the people who grow, process, package, ship, shelve, sell (and prepare and serve) that food to be part of the ‘working class’.
I wonder if she shelters from the rain in a heated home with running water and a waterproof roof, and if so, if she considers the builders, suppliers, painters, plumbers and electricians to be part of the ‘working class’.
Perhaps she considers food and shelter to also be outdated concepts.
Go Leila!
Just to say thank you for providing genuine journalism. I remember we used to get more balanced reporting like this in the MSM and it’s so great to see the principle living on in different websites like UnHerd.
I was wondering when the video would come.
Look forward to watching it.
How true is THIS!
https://twitter.com/consumersos/status/1491939045689249795?s=21
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-E3S_vEzsA
Trudeau saying he will Crush The Truckers – take their trucks, fine them, give them criminal records, implied he will take their children. Then Ford (Premier Ottawa) said SEVERE punishments$100,000 fines, take their money, freeze funds, take fuel, take Licenses, take Trucks…. TO DESTROY THEM.
Here is the Canadian Government at war with its working Citizens…..
Shame about the sound. Difficult to understand what the people are saying.