So how's the last few days been for you?
Mine have been thoroughly unpleasant.
Just a word: lots of coarse language ahead, but it's entirely justified.
On the last Friday of January, a horde of truckers, pick up trucks, and misguided souls started pouring into Ottawa with a truck load of grievances, misinformation, and alt-right foaming rage. They came, started occupying the streets, honking their horns, driving aimlessly all over the city, making a nuisance of themselves. National monuments and statues were disrespected. Some of them are demanding the death of the prime minister. Others are demanding the abolition of the Liberal party. Because abolishing those parties you disagree with... that's democratic. At least in their minds.
In short, the residents of this city were under siege for days on end. By fuckwits proclaiming themselves to be heroes, freedom fighters, and patriots.
I wrote the following on Facebook a week ago, on Monday morning after two nights of little sleep:
To the "freedom convoy": you're not patriots. You're not freedom fighters. You're not heroes. You're angry, misguided narrow minded fucking morons. Your convoy is being supported by a western separatist party. How is going hand in hand with separatists patriotic? So no. You're not patriots.
You came to this city, honking your horns at all hours, driving all over this city. You keep its citizens awake and on edge. You will never convince me that you're anything but angry alt right conspiracy theory anti vax, anti science, anti fact motherfuckers.
I have seen with my own eyes the Confederate flag carried in my city by you. I have heard the fucking goddamned Trumpist slogans from you with my own ears. White supremacists at their worst. In my city.
And you show disrespect to the statue of Terry Fox, and make light of it. You climb all over the War Memorial, and dance on top of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. And you want to paint yourselves as freedom loving patriots?
Freedom also means responsibility.
Do you fucking get that?
Get out of my city. Take your blaring horns and leave.
While you still can.
I've had maybe two hours sleep the last two nights total. Because assholes in pick up trucks are driving through neighbourhoods honking horns at any and all hours.
This city is being held hostage. By motherfuckers who are wearing on our last nerve.
How long before we, the citizens of this city, have had our fill of it?
In short, freedom convoy: commit suicide.
And fuck you.
I took three shots of these assholes a short distance from each other. And personally told a couple of them to get out of the city in a thoroughly unpleasant way. I even left an unpleasant review at the place of business for the asshole in the third photo. That particular business is getting a lot of unpleasant Google reviews right about now. Which they deserve. Along with all of the other asshole owner-operators who thought this was a bright idea.
I photographed this sign, posted on a hydro pole; the remark comes from a place of basic sense.
So, what do we have?
We've got a protest who, when you do a little digging, was actually started by western separatists, white supremacists, and the like. They're the ones pulling the strings behind all of this. We've got a protest that isn't a protest. Because when you occupy streets, harass the citizens of that city, drive all over it honking your horns at any hour of the night, you're not demonstrating. You're occupying. You're terrorizing.
We've got protesters carrying around Confederate flags- and even a swastika or two. These are facts. I've seen the Confederate flags with my own eyes, and the swastika was spotted on television- defacing a Canadian flag- while an idiot member of parliament from the Conservative party was being interviewed out in the streets. It was also seen in full as one of the flags in Major's Hill Park, a short distance away from Parliament Hill.
Of course the supporters and apologists will never see that. They'll trot out the usual 'liberal Marxist operatives' line. Instead of accepting the reality that white supremacists are among these protesters.
When you're carrying around symbols of hatred- and that's what the Nazi swastika and the Confederate flags are- you're on the wrong side of history. And if you're one of the other protesters and you're not doing something about it, you're on the wrong side of history. And if you're a supporter at home making excuses and trying to explain it all away- you're on the wrong side of history.
What else do we take away from this? A multitude of downtown shops closing up instead of having to deal with the harassment and tension of the current situation. Protesters urinating and defecating on people's properties. Continuous harassment of the public with horns being honked, keeping us awake at nights. Citizens being yelled at by these assholes. Oh, yes. And hassling staff and clients at a homeless shelter, demanding food be given to them instead.
Yes, read that last part again.
I'd say they should be ashamed of themselves, but clearly that's beyond them.
I mentioned in my Facebook post about screaming at a couple of these guys on that Monday morning. I told them to get out of my city, in extremely unpleasant terms. And I had to walk away. Why?
Because I wanted so much, in that moment, to hurt them. To bash their faces into the side of their trucks. And I can't say I would have been able to stop bashing their faces in.
That's how far this has gone.
I felt homicidal.
I wanted to kill these two fuckers. I wanted them dead.
But I walked away. At home I felt awful that I could have had that impulse, but there it was.
I now feel plunged into a deep depression. It's going to take time to work my way out of this one.
The important part is that I didn't follow through on that impulse. Part of that is I refuse to turn any of these fucking scum into martyrs for their goddamned cause. Part of it is that they're not worth it. They're not worth the jail time.
But when the residents of a city are effectively being held hostage by a hostile force who have no regard for anything but their own goddamned misguided world view, tempers are going to get frayed. People will snap. Someone will decide to take the law into their own hands and do what the police won't.
And the frustrating part of this has been that the cops seem to refuse to do anything about it. Yes, I'm sure they're quietly trying to negotiate with these verminous excuses for human beings to convince them to leave. They don't want to escalate the situation. But when you're not protecting the citizens you're sworn to protect, and just asking us to 'be patient' and 'avoid the downtown core' while these assholes continue to not behave peacefully and harass us... all while you do things like pose for selfies with these same assholes....
Well, you've violated the trust of the citizenry.
We won't forget that.
Living in society carries with it certain responsibilities as a citizen. These protesters scream about freedom, but as I've noted, it's freedom from responsibility. That's all they want. It's all about them, and to hell with anyone else. And they don't seem to care that their strings are being pulled by white nationalists who are largely keeping to the shadows, but who are the ones who set this in motion.
If you don't want to be a responsible citizen, fine. Go live on an island. With no infrastructure, power, or source of employment. See how long you last.
I'm tired of Covid. I want this to end. But by doing so in a responsible manner.
By listening to doctors. And science. And fact. And reason.
All of which the alt-right anti-vaxxer movement seem to hold as obscenities. While they hold tight to their sources of information: angry talk radio hosts, a guy they know on Facebook, and the latest bit of nonsense from the dark web.
I've had as much as I can take of all of it. These people are wretched, awful excuses for human beings. When they're gone, the residents of this city are not going to forgive, or forget. The wounds caused by this run too deep.
We'll remember the police standing by and doing nothing. We'll remember our lame duck mayor fretting and doing nothing.
But we'll really remember people calling themselves Canadians.... behaving in the most disgusting, repugnant manner, occupying our streets, harassing us, keeping us on edge, and de-legitimizing real protests.
To every last idiot member of the truck convoy protesters, and to their supporters and apologists, I have only three more things to say to you.
Fuck you.
Burn in hell.
God damn you for what you've done.
