Some heed the call to go to Ottawa for a third weekend of protest
This is a third report from the Ontario Farmer newspaper about the ongoing protest in Ottawa and another smaller one near the Canada/U.S. border in Cornwall, Ontario (from the weekend of Feb.12-13, 2022).
Author of the article:
Ian Cumming • Ontario Farmer
Publishing date:
Feb 14, 2022 •
From left, Franz Bueckert (Alberta farmer), Monique Young (Thunder Bay Truck magazine journalist), and Johnathan Douglas (Alberta farmer)
OTTAWA – The breaking dawn of the third Sunday of the transport occupation at and around Parliament Hill was a unique time for first-time Canadian visitors to see the heart of government.
About 40 people from the Lighthouse Gospel Church in Port Burwell had driven down through the night and were walking the streets. They were talking and pointing, as visitors do, at the splendour of the buildings, the pristinely clean Terry Fox statue, and the war memorial where veterans had torn down the protective temporary fence the day before.
They were visibly moved by all the transports proclaiming religious and patriotic messages, while crinkling their noses at the severe cursing displayed on others.
Decency and politeness predominated here in minus 20C weather at 6:30 am, as wakening drivers clambered from their idling rigs with a polite ‘good morning Ma’am.”
Three sisters-in-law, Nettie and Eva Enns and Nettie Froese, all from Aylmer, were part of that church delegation who had driven down through the night.
From left, Nettie Enns, Nettie Froese, and Eva Enns at the Ottawa protests
They had come down for what they called “a prayer walk,” said Nettie Enns. “Plus we brought free coffee and hot chocolate for thousands of people.”
“If we don’t fight for our freedom, our children will not grow up with the freedom we saw,” she said.
This is the third week sleeping in his pickup in front of Parliament for Darin Vetch, from Narin Centre, near Sudbury.
A power lineman, when the western transport convoy was going through his area, he and three buddies jumped in his double cab pickup, hooked up to his skidoo trailer and joined the lineup.
Never masking or getting vaccinated, “because being Christian is at the core of my beliefs,” he’s faced a fair share of abuse in his community when out shopping, but takes comfort that his immediate family “are behind me.”
Two of his sons “had to get vaccinated to keep their jobs” which he finds hypocritical by the government, implying that all vaccinated people did so under their own volition.
Darin Vetch: Heading down to Ottawa and seeing thousands of people from North Bay to Deep River began “the most profound two weeks of my life.”
Heading down to Ottawa and seeing thousands of people from North Bay to Deep River – one town of 800 had over 1,000 people on the overpass – it began “the most profound two weeks of my life.”
He was deeply touched going through one lonely community late at night, in minus 30 weather, and “a little old lady was standing outside her small home with a light, waving us on.”
Chris Carson, a roofer from Guelph, said the main reason for “sleeping in my suite” for over two weeks in his pickup here, was how COVID regulations overturned his and other’s professions and businesses, with no one in governments seeming to be aware or caring.
“You would give a person a quote based on what you paid for lumber and plywood that day and when you went to the yard to pick it up the next day, if it came in, the price had jacked up so much in just that time, they had sold what you ordered to someone else.”
That devolved to “stuff not coming in at all, or else being really delayed.”
With government payouts to young fit people not to work, “you couldn’t get help.”
“At best I was putting roofs on for nothing, or losing big money to keep my agreement,” he said.
A $5,000 cheque handed to Martin Roth from a stranger to “help farmers and truckers protesting”
Elcho Farms from Wellandport has a huge transport here. The driver Luke has been here through the whole protest period and as far as great people, “it’s the best place you can be right now,” he said.
A return visit was made to Corry Van Gorp’s grain truck and the rap on the truck door caused her head to appear through the sleeper cab curtain.
This being her third weekend here, “the time is sure getting long,” said the farmer from Watford. “But then people from the city here come up to you crying and say don’t you leave until we get our freedom back. So we have to stay.”
At Cornwall, about 60 farm tractors and an equal number of pickups adorned with Canadian and black Trudeau flags, slowed traffic across the international bridge on February 12, lending support to other bridge closures and the trucker protest in Ottawa, happening at the same time.
This protest, only conceived at breakfast time the day before, took about eight hours to put together participants. Spearheaded by MPP Randy Hillier who called several contacts and then with social media, “by about 3 pm we had all these people committed to come,” said Martin Roth.
From the other side of the Ottawa River, at Pontiac, Quebec, Roth also has “my two big Masseys down on Kent Street in Ottawa. They’ve been there over two weeks.”
He brought another tractor to Cornwall.
He was joined in Cornwall by dairy farmer Thomas Kilchmeiel from nearby St Isidore, one of many local dairy producers present, ranging from 50 to 500 milking per farm.
Both were passionate that the COVID mandates, combined with other government overreach and legislation and mismanagement at all three levels of governance, “has to be stopped.”
From left, Martin Roth from Pontiac, Quebec, and Thomas Kilchmeiel from St Isidore, Ontario
Alberta feedlot and transport owner, Franz Bueckert said the main hit in government regulation for him is that it’s going to cost $24,000 in carbon tax per transport in 2022. He was part of that western convoy now parked in Ottawa and, needing a break from looking at the Parliament buildings, jumped in a pickup that was heading to Cornwall.
Despite the closed Alberta crossings, “there are plenty of other crossings” where they can and do get US grain trucks across for their cattle, he said.
Johnathan Douglas, from Brooks, Alberta, has livestock and grain and had a transport parked at Coutts, Alberta and another in Ottawa, which he drove across the country. He also wanted a break from the Capital and took a ride down to Cornwall for the day.
He said he was at peace with being arrested, “or whatever happens. We are not giving in until we have our freedom back.”
Seeing the steady erosion of freedom and personal liberty, exacerbated by COVID, “I looked at my kids in the farm shop one day and realized I’m going to have to fight for you,” said Douglas.
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