Canada's Biggest Cultural Event in the Last Decade Just Turned a Year Old

A Freedom Convoy Retrospective

A year has officially passed since a convoy of truckers, protestors, and “freedom fighters” occupied the downtown core of Ottawa for nearly a month and sent a message that was seen around the world. Few Canadian events have had such a wide reaching audience, and few will after this, so let’s take a look at what was the 2022 Freedom Convoy.

I assume everyone reading this article is familiar with the Freedom Convoy, which cannot be said about many events that have occurred in Canada. Few events have divided Canadians like this. During this occupation you had so called “leftists” asking for full-scale police occupation and had right-wingers asking for abolition of the police. So, needless to say this event was a bit wild. 

So what actually happened? 

Beginning in Vancouver, British Columbia, on January 14 a convoy of truckers, Canada Unity leaders, and civil protesters began a weeks-long journey that would take over the news cycle for weeks to come. It was protesting vaccination policies, Covid lockdowns, and anything else Covid related with the end goal of abolition of all Covid related policies. This was triggered by a newly introduced mandate for truckers crossing the US-Canada border. This mandate required truckers crossing the border to be vaccinated (coming either way) and if not they would have to go through a 14-day quarantine upon entry/re-entry of the country. Over 80% of truckers are vaccinated and companies large enough just avoided sending unvaccinated truckers to border routes. So needless to say many truckers across Canada did not support this protest. But as many came to learn, this protest was never really about the truckers or how they felt. 

During this convoy’s trek across Canada to the nation's capital (Ottawa) it gained more traction than anyone would have imagined. Supporters of the protest came out to catch a glimpse of the lengthy convoy’s journey all across Canada. If you live in Canada you undoubtedly caught a glimpse of these supporters whenever they were on top of highway overpasses, in your downtown area, or at your local Tim Hortons. Other smaller convoys even popped up around the country with some joining the larger convoy along the way.

By the time the convoy was approaching its destination of Ottawa it had become somewhat of a national event. Just look at the supporters that came out to one spot along the 401 in Ontario where the convoy was passing through. When the convoy did make it to Ottawa, well everybody knew it. Horns blared throughout downtown Ottawa as trucks swarmed parliament hill, the Freedom Convoy had arrived. 

Typically protests do not last very long until police begin poking, prodding, and provoking the protesters. In Canada this is especially true for protests pertaining to Indigenous peoples and other minority groups. Countless protests led by Indigenous leaders meant to protect Indigenous lands have been ravished by police in Canada, but this was not the case for the Freedom Convoy. In fact the police in some instances supported the protest and even worked with the convoy to ease its arrival and subsequent occupation of downtown Ottawa. 

Now say what you will about the Freedom Convoy but you cannot deny that the police's reaction to it compared to any protest led by Indigenous peoples or another minority group is absolutely unacceptable. The dichotomy between the police’s behavior towards the Freedom Convoy in its early stages and Indigenous protests in BC should anger every single Canadian and show how the police act as a gang protecting capital rather than civil servants, but I digress.

In the beginning it appeared as any other protest held in Ottawa, except a lot bigger. Honks and hollers bellowed about downtown Ottawa. Flags, signs, and shirts that lampooned Justin Trudeau and anything somewhat related to him could be seen in plenty. But what quickly caught the eye of social media viewers and the assortment of media covering the event was not the quips criticizing the prime minister of Canada but rather the Nazi related messaging floating about in the crowd. As the media began to focus on these messages it became clear that the atmosphere surrounding and within the Freedom Convoy changed. 

Before the convoy had arrived in Ottawa it seemed as though a majority of Canadians supported or were at least indifferent or unaware of the convoy. Now I don’t really have an article to point to for this since a majority of press coverage and polls focusing on the Freedom Convoy did not begin until after it got to Ottawa. But as someone who lived in Canada during the protests even I was relatively indifferent towards the protest, although I didn’t support the cause, but I did support the right to protest. But when leaders of the convoy could be seen on live streams preaching talking points the KKK developed (Pat King) and numerous nazi related messages could be seen in the crowd in Ottawa it became difficult for many Canadians to sympathize with the protest.

This souring of the protest was amplified by many media outlets forming an image of the protest that was one of a convoy of people who were racist, disrespectable, and far-right. Now was this true of some? Of course. Was it true of all? Most certainly not, this is perhaps the fact that gets lost most in coverage and discussion of this protest after the fact. 

Now it is important to understand how wide reaching of a net the protest had cast on Canadians. The convoy leaders and supporters were able to harness the anxiety and discomfort that many felt due to the pandemic and made the protest a sort of release or light at the end of tunnel for those feelings. Due to this, everything even semi related to Covid was being protested by this movement, and trust me it did not take long to find someone in Canada who had something to complain about regarding the pandemic. Everyday people were being drawn into this protest that to put it lightly, had bigots throughout its ranks. 

As the Freedom Convoy grew more controversial, people who supported the protest felt the pressure and had to decide whether to back down or double down. Let me tell you something, Canadians do not like to back down. So many continued to support the protest citing the “positive” messages being spread throughout the crowds of supporters. Those who opposed the protest, including the media in Canada, began to double down on labeling all protesters as bigots, racists, homophobes and the like, which once again was true of some, but not all. 

As the protest went on other protests popped up along trade routes on the border and American politicians began showing support which further fueled the protests, likely contributing to the nearly month long occupation of downtown Ottawa. On social media and in real life it just became this back and forth between supporters and detractors citing what good or bad things were done. Until eventually Trudeau and the police force put an end to the occupation of downtown Ottawa. As we sit now, much of the discussion surrounding the protests focuses on how the police reacted in Ottawa, whether or not the emergency act was used improperly or not, and whether there will be another one. Plenty of ink has been spilled discussing these topics and quite frankly I don’t think any of them matter that much. The real question is why did 15,000 Canadians drive all the way to Ottawa (And countless more showed support elsewhere and online) to stand in the freezing cold over something as silly as vaccine mandates, a concept we have had in schools and workplaces since before many of us were born?

What I think Canadians were actually protesting during the Freedom Convoy was a lack of control. For decades now middle to lower class citizens have been losing control over their lives. The simple idea of buying a house has become unthinkable for middle to lower class Canadians. As time goes on we must work harder, get up earlier, leave work later, and be doubly careful at work just to make ends meet. For many, every passing year just accrues debt and they shudder at the thought of the future. As the Covid pandemic began this lack of control got exponentially worse. Despite valid reasons for the temporary transformation of society, the fact that jobs were lost, future plans were wiped out, and loved ones passed without a goodbye caused anger, anxiety, and unrest. 

What is one to do if they desire a change in society? The first intuition is to vote, but this is no course for immediate change, if change at all. The only way to have real change through voting is on the local level where it is perhaps the most difficult. The other way to effect change as an everyday citizen is through organization on a social or labor level. This is what the Freedom Convoy was able to do. 

The leaders of the Freedom Convoy had experience at organizing protests (Yellow Vest Protest) and had a large enough reach to go beyond their echo chamber of followers and into mainstream audiences. Due to the Convoy’s ability to spread a general anti-Covid message to wide audiences it successfully captured the feeling of anxiety, anger, and unrest caused by the pandemic. It gave many Canadians an outlet for change, or at least perceived change, and this is why they were able to mobilize so effectively (And the millions in US donations). 

Canadians were not really protesting the vaccines, they were trying to fight back for control of their lives. Now did this protest really result in bringing control back to their lives? Of course not, I mean sure the Covid policies got lifted later in the year but that was going to happen anyway, as seen by the rest of the world. So, if no real change was made, why has activity surrounding the Freedom Convoy and its numerous offshoots died down so much? Well they got what they wanted, and nothing changed.

The Freedom Convoy represented a “revolution” for those who supported it and when nothing came of it, all momentum was lost. This “revolution” failed not due to a lack of support, finances, or organization but because they were misguided.. The lack of control we feel in our lives is not due to the Covid mandates, carbon tax, or even Justin Trudeau, it is because of late stage capitalism and the addiction to constant growth our society has. The wealth divide continues to grow as we are told that billionaires and CEO’s deserve excess wealth while we live paycheck to paycheck. I want you to really ask yourself, does a billionaire really work a million times harder than you do? Because if not then why do they deserve to have a million times more money than you for less work? 

Canada and North America have begun to have a swell of organization movement for social and labor issues, the largest of these in Canada being the Freedom Convoy. But the Freedom Convoy failed to bring control back to its supporters, but this is not the case for all movements. Labor Unions have begun forming all across the US and Canada in the last couple years. These unions have been able to secure higher wages, more vacation time, and job security amongst other benefits for their supporters. In other words they have given control back to their supporters. 

To continue to gain control back in our lives we must organize using our most powerful tool, our labor, this is how control can be reclaimed. Not through the occupation of a downtown area for weeks at a time protesting policies that have nothing to do with the true problems we face but rather simply annoy us. It may be difficult to imagine real change being caused by any movement, but to this I may ask, do you know what the biggest protest in Canadian history was? It was the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike that saw 30,000 workers strike in Winnipeg due to unfair and exploitative labor conditions. In the aftermath of this strike a royal commission determined "if Capital does not provide enough to assure Labour a contented existence ... then the Government might find it necessary to step in and let the state do these things at the expense of Capital.” Time to do some organizing at the expense of capital.