My Day In Ottawa

Provincial flags fly on a rope as demonstrators protesting COVID-19 restrictions gather on Parliament Hill for the second weekend in Ottawa on Feb. 5, 2022. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

WNU Editor: Another fascinating day in Ottawa, and this is what I saw and experienced.

It was cold (-15C when I arrived at 11:00EST), but nothing but blue skies and intense bright sunshine. A typical Canadian winter day.

And even though it was cold, tens of thousands of people still showed up.

I saw many families with their kids.

I saw people of all ages.

Canada is a multi-cultural society, and every cross-section of this country was present in Ottawa today.

Signs everywhere. But none were hateful or disrespectful.

I have to mention the flags. Lots and lots and lots of Canadian flags.

The atmosphere was also festive, positive, and cheerful.

A lot of police were present, but they were all relaxed and smiling. In fact many were talking with the people who were there.

Trucks were honking their horns. And while they were present on the roads around Parliament hill, all these roads had a lane open to permit emergency vehicles to pass. So much for the media narrative that everything was closed down and emergency vehicles were not being permitted to pass.

Another thing that I noticed was that the area around the Parliament buildings were clean. Usually demonstrations produce a lot of trash. That is/was not the case today.

I have a good friend who lives only two blocks away from Parliament Hill, and I went to see him and get his take on the trucker protest that is now entering week 2.

His number one inconvenience has been his car. More specifically. The police telling him and everyone else in his building that for their safety they are not permitted to drive out. But this was not always enforced.

He also misses not using the restaurants and stores in the area because they are sometimes closed, but this is again due to the police telling the owners to close up for their safety.

And as for the trucks honking their horns. He told me that it stops anywhere from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM, and resumes the next day at around 8:00 or 9:00 AM. So much for the media and government narrative that there is honking throughout the night depriving everyone of sleep. But my friend believes that because everyone is having a good time today, the honking and loud music will continue until late tonight.

My friend is (of course) looking forward to the end of this protest. But he thinks that if it continues as it has been (i.e. peaceful and friendly), it is going to be very difficult for the police and their political masters to justify using force to end it.

I agree.

Canadians do not want to see the police being used against protesters that are having more of a good time than protesting. The backlash from the Canadian public will be enormous.

One more point .... and confession.

It was surreal to be at my friends place watching the main stream media's coverage of the protests, while these same protests were happening only two blocks away. And what I saw left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Almost all of the coverage was false, biased, and primarily focused on giving a message that the trucker protesters and their supporters are extremists/racists/violent, and that the authorities must end these protests immediately.

Sighhh .... to say that Canada is not being served well by its news media is an understatement.

In closing.

Check out the live streams below on today's protests in Ottawa.

The main stream media may not want to cover what is happening on the ground, but Canada's citizen journalists and alternative news media are stepping up.

My favorite is Viva Frei's because of his narration (see below), but the others also doing a good job in revealing what happened on the streets of Ottawa today (Hat tip SmallDeadAnimals).