Yep. If you don’t live in Ottawa, please stop trying to tell us how peaceful and reasonable the attempt at overthrowing our democratically elected government, attended by nazis flying swastikas on our monuments and involving people trying to burn down buildings, was.
(Just to be clear, is case anyone doesn't know about this, the above is either an absolutely insane or absurdly dishonest characterization, it's easy to do your own research)
I did my own research on the subject when I attempted to skate down the canal (a usually enjoyable winter activity) during that time period. The above characterization is mostly correct. However they forgot to mention the racial slurs. They also forgot to mention the constant harassment of medical staff at city hospitals just trying to get to and from work.
A bit ironic to get upset because your canal skate was disturbed by people peacefully protesting a government that was forcing everybody in the country to comply with all sorts of absurd measures.
I apologize for not presenting my experience more clearly then. Ottawa is a city that is used to protest. Being the nations capital, they happen quite frequently. I am quite used to having certain aspects of my day distrupted by protest. So allow me to share some experiences that demonstrates what made this event unique:
- being unable to sleep for weeks due to train horns being blared at all hours of the night.
- having every single one of my friends and family who is some sort of visual minority having racial slurs hurled at them daily.
- seeing someone waving a nazi flag near the War Memorial.
- Having fireworks explode in between apartment buildings right next to where people lived.
- Daily harassment of any medical staff, sometimes coming directly into hospitals to shout conspiracy theories about doctors killing people with vaccines. Nurses self-organized into protection groups and were instructed not to come to work wearing scrubs to avoid harrassment.
- a group of grown men yelling at a kid who could not have been more than 17, who was unfortunate enough to be working at Tim Hortons, calling him a mask wearing faggot.
All these are personal stories either directly from myself or from those who were close to me. I share these because I am well aware of the those attempting to frame these types of stories as small, performed by a few bad actors,not representative of the movement, and that the media was highlighting a few isolated incidents to spin the image as negative. So let me assure you, these types of behaviours were constant, everywhere, and actively encouraged by many who were there. The supposed "media narrative" was quite real, as was apparent by anyone who lived in the area.
I believe in the right to protest, but there is a line where a "protest" becomes harassment to those around you. Let's recall that parliament was remote at the time, so the government who this anger was directed at was not even present at the location. Nor do government employees typically live in the city. So the justification of getting back at those who wronged you was not even present. They weren't even inconveniencing the people they came to protest. Instead they blared horns in residential areas, shot fireworks next to high-rises that were people's homes, threatened health care workers, and yelled at Tim Hortons employees. They had / have a legitimate right to protest. They instead chose to occupy a city who's inhabitants were not even those who they were angry at.
People in Ottawa used to get about as upset about Bluesfest when it was held downtown, because there was some music from a summer festival for a few nights. They're not really a good measuring stick for how disruptive something is, more like a bunch of entitled civil servants that don't want to be disturbed while they cross off the days until their pensions arrive.
Comparing truck and ship horns with closed circuits for 22 hours or more a day to "music from a summer festival" might not be the MOST disingenuous comparison I've heard, but it's pretty close, if not.
