I almost was caught up Saturday as a local convoy of trucks, cars and SUV’s motored down King’s Highway from the west slowing up traffic. Carrying Canadian flags and announcing they were organized to create freedom for Canadians from the rules imposed on them by the federal, provincial, and municipal governments. I have been following the number of cases of Omicron virus in the district and the number of students and teachers absent from class- rooms. It is sobering and it is sobering across Canada. Yes the daily counts are diminishing, due to reduced testing, but the number of hospitalizations are increasing.
The demonstrations in Ottawa by truckers is no more than a toddler’s temper tantrum. The dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and urinating on it is a sacrilege. Canada’s soldiers in the First and Second World Wars fought for our freedom and many of those men were drafted and did not have the right to choose not to go to war. The demonstrators in Ottawa and those supporting those demonstrators have failed to understand the sacrifices that Canadians made in those conflicts. They appear unaware of the rationing of food and gas by Canadians living in Canada during those conflicts.
Those demonstrators feel hard done by. They seem to be- lieve that the restrictions placed on themselves in the 2020’s have harmed them. They forget the number of Canadians who
have died from the Covid virus and that their refusal to be vaccinated may have caused some of those deaths. They seem to have forgotten that patients who have ended up in hospitals because of Covid have eliminated beds that would have been used for life threatening illnesses and that Canadians have died because those beds were not available.
They have forgotten that with school closures and at-home learning, children did not come down with Covid and today we are witnessing a resurgence in Covid particularly in the children of this country as classrooms have reopened and restrictions have loosened.
We can’t condone those demonstrators in Ottawa who waved the Swastika nor the Confederate flag and who desecrated the statue of Terry Fox. It is not who we are in Canada. Almost 90% of Canadians understand the need for vaccinations and restrictions even though they may restrict access and movements. We under- stand that part of our freedom is protecting each other. That often involves accepting the loss of some freedoms, so that in the future we can all be free of today’s restrictions and life will return to a new normal.
