Jon: I want to release another a solo podcast in order to set the stage of what made me start this podcast as well as why I called it the unexpected activist. So as mentioned in the first podcast, it wasn't something that I was intentionally going to do was to take a stand on this and definitely make it public, but I feel called to do so.
And I wanted to go more into the origin story of that. This all kind of surrounds the freedom convoy in Canada, which started at the end of January in 2022. The freedom convoy is a set of Canadian individuals, mostly truckers that decided that they were going to make a public stance against the mandates the vaccination mandates that are taking effect or have taken effect within Canada. Originally it was said that these mandates were only going to be in place temporarily. They are still here and there's absolutely no indication of when they're going to be ending.
Conversely it seems like the mandates are getting to have more power behind them and hence why the truckers are doing their freedom convoy to the capital in order to make their voices heard. The beginning of this, and the reason why it's such a big deal for truckers particularly is because the Canadian government has stated that in order to maintain employment as an international trucker, which obviously there's a significant amount of trade that happens across the Canada/U.S border in terms of distribution of goods and the movement of goods between the two countries.
If somebody is unvaccinated in terms of the trucking community they are required to be vaccinated or if they cross the border, they need to self isolate or quarantine for the five days after crossing the border, which takes away the economics of what they do for a business you can't cross the border and be forced to isolate for five days and still be able to maintain a schedule as a trucker. So essentially what's happening is that with this mandate of having the quarantine, if you cross the border and you're, un-vaccinated it is taking away the livelihoods of the truckers that are unvaccinated. And so this is the grassroots movement of where this came from.
What we're looking at here is a group of individuals that do not agree with the underlying principle of this mandate and what they're doing and why they're calling it a freedom convoys, because this is more about the constitutional rights and freedoms that we have as citizens of Canada. And our access to a livelihood and our access to make the choice or the ability to make a choice with our own body and what we want to do with it.
So a lot of the arguments being placed here are it is a choice. Fundamentally I disagree with that logic because it's not. A choice is here is an issue and you can either choose yay or nay. To any given issue what's actually occurring is more of an ultimatum, it's say, yes, you have the ability to say no, but it is going to fundamentally change your entire way of making money and having a livelihood.
And to me, an ultimatum is not a choice. I wanted to cover the freedom convoy because this was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. In the sense that this event by itself is the thing that made me realize that we are blatantly being lied to by our mainstream media in Canada, as well as the Canadian government. Even though I've had my own views about being lied to by corporations and by the government.
Those were always just opinions of mine. I always felt as though that was going to be the case, but this event itself and the coverage of this event has literally shown me and other people that we are blatantly being lied to. That there is an agenda in place for the government and the mainstream media to try to reduce this movement into a hate movement, even though in the age that we are living in, when everybody has a smartphone and a camera on hand at all times, it is very easy to see that the evidence of these freedom convoys and the protests and movements that are going on right now have been peaceful and we're on day 10 now, and there's been no significant events in terms of violence. However, if you look at what the mainstream media is actually portraying to the public is that this is a small movement that is full of hateful acts and hateful people. And there is a narrative that they're trying to push, which is not based in reality.
The reality of the matter is. This has been a peaceful protest, peaceful demonstration from people from all walks of life, all different ethnicities and ages and vaccination status. It really is quite a beautiful demonstration, probably one of the most peaceful demonstrations I've ever seen. Yet, that is not how it is being portrayed.
And so I want to look more into the information that was provided by the mainstream media versus the, I guess the evidence that is quite easily found by just a quick search online and to answer the question as to why this is happening and to whose benefit does this actually suit. First and foremost, I want to cover the the point of this freedom convoy.
It's called the freedom convoy. It's not called a mandate convoy. It's not called an anti-vaxx convoy. It is simply a group of Canadian citizens standing up for the constitutional right to maintain autonomy over their body and their constitutional right to make their own decisions when it comes down to maintaining their livelihood and their overall individual sovereignty without the influence of government policy to take away civil liberties.
So what I wanted to focus on here was the mainstream media response to this freedom convoy, which like I had mentioned earlier, there is a large discrepancy between how the mainstream media is covering this entire movement and what's actually happening on the ground in terms of the peaceful protest that is occurring.
And I think the easiest way to look at this is to see what our prime minister, Justin Trudeau, had said to the media at the outset of this movement, his words, and his address to the nation has elicited the response from our mainstream media. They are just following his. His lead essentially. So I'm going to play a few clips from that address that Justin Trudeau made to the nation.
And you'll hear his voice and then you'll hear my commentary on it as well.
Justin Trudeau: I know you're wondering about what you saw in our capital city this weekend, as my friend Irwin Cotler said on Saturday, freedom of expression, assembly, and association, our cornerstones of democracy. But Nazi symbolism, racist imagery and desecration of war memorials are not, it is an insult to memory and truth.
Hate can never be the answer over the past few days, Canadians were shocked and frankly, disgusted by the behavior displayed by some people protesting in our nations. I want to be very clear. We are not intimidated by those who hurl, insults and abuse at small business workers and steal food from the homeless.
We won't give in to those who fly racist flags. We won't cave to those who engage in vandalism or dishonor. The memory of our veterans.
Jon: So we're in a bilingual country. So the addresses made both in English and in French. So when Justin Trudeau swaps over to the French part of his address, you'll hear a translator's voice come into play here. I just wanted to reference that so that it's not confusing as it's a woman's voice who is translating for the prime minister during his address.
Justin Trudeau: The statue of Terry Fox and the tomb of the unknown soldier are not only symbols of the past. They're important symbols from our history that represent Canadian heroes and the values for which they fought sacrifices that these heroes made, allowed us to build a better Canada.
All Canadians have the right to express their opinion or their disagreement with the government. But they don't have the right to threaten or harass their fellow citizens or to spread hateful messages.
Jon: So from the very outset of this address, Justin Trudeau is trying to make it seem as though this freedom convoy is full of a bunch of hateful people that are desecrating war memorials that are spewing hatred rhetoric and harassing people.
That we, as a nation must stand up and denounce the actions of this freedom convoy. Although on the first weekend of this movement there were incidences that they're pointing to in terms of, the Nazi flag, the Confederate flag, the desecration of when I say desecration that's a very strong word.
Desecrating would mean like ruining something or vandalizing something where in reality, there was On the Terry Fox Memorial statue, which Terry Fox is a national hero and an amazing person that stood up for the awareness of cancer within Canada as a country. Justin Trudeau is saying that those have been desecrated. The Terry Fox statue had an upside down flag put onto it, which is disrespectful. I agree but far from desecration. And then the other one was the war Memorial. The unmarked soldier war Memorial, which every nation has, but it was reported that people were dancing on it and urinating on this war Memorial.
And there was one video of people standing on it, which once again is disrespectful, but these are just a couple of individuals that had made very bad judgments and did things that I also find completely disrespectful. The difference is the actions of a few, do not show the overall magnitude of the movement of being overall peaceful.
The other thing about this is during that weekend there. The protestors that were there denounced the actions of these people that were doing that kind of thing. And they have since put on guards essentially to protect both of those statues, making sure that they are given the respect that they deserve.
In terms of the Terry Fox statue, they cleaned it. There's videos of them like literally scrubbing it down and cleaning it. And with the war Memorial, they did the same thing and then made sure that there were flowers that were placed at the war Memorial. It is funny when you hear the protestors and what they're saying is that when we went to war and the soldiers that gave up their lives for the Canadian civil rights and liberties, they were doing exactly what this freedom protest is doing. We are standing up for civil rights and liberties in the name and in the name and against oppression where these liberties and our freedoms are trying to be stripped away.
I would also like you to notice the rhetoric that Justin Trudeau is using. It's very divisive to start off with saying that anybody that's participated with in this movement is overall hateful. He also makes it clear that this movement does not represent the vast majority of Canadians and that it is a fringe and hateful movement. It's just an overall very divisive message coming from the leader of our country.
He says that the actions of this freedom protest is disgusting. What I find disgusting is how they are only pushing one narrative out of what was seen during this weekend. So the one narrative would be like the flying of Nazi flags. There was one small group of individuals flying Nazi flags, and there's a lot of information out there in terms of where these people were. They were on the other side of the canal not even close to parliament hill flying the Nazi flag. So they weren't even part of the movement. And there was nobody there that was able to To denounce those actions from the larger protests, because they weren't even part of the larger protest. They were there in what a lot of people think is a deliberate ploy or deliberately put in place in order to create a headline, same thing with the Confederate flag, there was one individual who showed up fully masked, a completely anonymous flying this Confederate flag that had a semi-truck on it. I don't know how this person was able to do that in the course of a day but there are videos of that as well. If you go onto social media of that one person being denounced by the public that was there protesting and was ushered out of the movement because they do not stand for the hatred symbolism of the Confederate flag or the Nazi flags.
The other thing that Justin Trudeau brings up is stealing food from the homeless. There is only once again, one report of this happening where there was a few truckers that went into the homeless shelter, asking for food wasn't necessarily that they were stealing food or harassing anybody. They were just seeing where they could get some food. Once again, Maybe a lack of judgment from a few people that were part of this movement, but in response to that, and this is where we should be looking at things in response to these negative things that our prime minister and therefore our media has been focusing on there are reconciliation events that have occurred. And so there are multiple videos out there, again from on the ground where the truckers are hosting kitchens and where food, anybody can get like truckers, protesters, homeless people. It doesn't matter. There's no prejudice. There's no rules on who gets this food and they've set up these kitchens to feed everybody that's part of that movement but once again, that's not being highlighted.
Justin Trudeau: There is no place in our country for threats, violence, or hatred. So to those responsible for this behavior, it needs to stop to anyone who joined the convoy, but is rightly uncomfortable with the symbols of hatred and division on display.
Join with your fellow Canadians. Be courageous. And speak out, do not stand for, or with intolerance and hate.
Jon: So I've already covered this, but these people did stand against those people. They stood against them in both of their intolerance and hate denounced the actions of the few and kicked them out of the movement because that's not what they're standing for.
So once again, our prime minister, even though all of this information was available at the time of this address, only focused on the hateful actions and is calling people to leave the freedom protest and join the vast majority of Canadians and therefore denouncing the movement overall and making sure that the general public thinks that it's a hateful movement.
Justin Trudeau: In these difficult times all politicians need to show responsible leadership. We need to work to bring people together in a positive way. We need to fight division and fear. With facts, politicians exploiting people's fears. I ask you to think long and hard about the consequences. Are we talking about the importance of freedom, democracy and the rule of law?
We must stay true to our values, to who we are as Canadians as Canadians, we stand up for what's right. And mostly we stand up for each other.
Jon: So I feel like this is the. Kettle calling the pot black and also a level of projection of Justin Trudeau's own actions. He's the one that's creating the divisiveness.
And he is the one who is not being a responsible leader to our entire country and spewing data that is not factual. Once again, this beautiful thing of our social media, there's lots of people that carry cameras in their hands at all times. It's very easy to get this information and either, they didn't look for it or they purposely secluded it because it didn't follow the narrative that they were going to try to push to the overall populous. He also says that he's going to be standing up for democracy, freedom and the rule of law and that all Canadians should band together.
This is what makes Canadians, Canadians is us helping and supporting each other. And yet here he is trying to create a division within our country on a group of people who are actually trying to stand up for our democracy, our freedoms, and the rule of law, but he's denouncing them as if they're not,
Justin Trudeau: I have attended protests and rallies in the past. When I agreed with the goals, when I supported the people expressing their concerns and their issues, black lives matter is an excellent example. But I have also chosen to not go anywhere near protests that have expressed hateful rhetoric, violence towards fellow citizens and a disrespect not just of science, but of the frontline health workers. And quite frankly, the 90% of truckers who have been doing the right thing to keep Canadians safe. This is a moment for responsible leaders to think carefully. And who they stand with.
Jon: It's only okay to support protests that serve his political agenda. It's very obvious that he is making this a political ploy or politicizing the entire movement of us versus them liberals versus conservatives.
And he's also saying once again, that this is a violent protest when there's absolutely no facts to say that anything has actually turned violent. This is on day two or day three of this movement. We're at day 10 of this movement, and then there's still been no violence. So he's still pushing these narratives to the general public that are not there to witness them and are only listening to either Justin Trudeau's address or to the media. And he is creating a prejudice from people that should be seeing both sides of this narrative, but people do still inherently trust our government and our media.
And this is like I said, the straw that broke the camel's back is this is a blatant lie to the.
Media Question: Supporters of this movement will say that it's a small minority of people in this protest who are causing trouble. So Is it fair to focus in on the obviously terrible behavior of some and paint, all protesters with that brush?
Jon: I just want to interject and say, did you hear that audible sigh? After that question, I'm going to play it again.
Justin Trudeau: Obviously the right to free expression, the right to assembly, the right to make your displeasure known in a democracy is extraordinarily important and needs to be heated and respected. But there have been many, many protests over the past years that I've seen that I've been a part of that I've watched from a distance on parliament hill and elsewhere people come together angry about a certain thing, wanting something else to change that don't see the level of hateful rhetoric of swastikas, of abuse towards their fellow citizens. There is always a right to protest peacefully that I, and others will defend fully. As part of this democracy.
There is not a. To incite violence, to perform acts of violence or to spew hatred
Jon: Once again, doubling down on the narrative that this is a hateful movement and that we have no right to be violent or harass anybody. When, once again, factually that's not correct. That didn't happen at all. And also he's saying that he would defend the right of anybody to uphold the right to protest. It's the pillars of our free and democratic society, but yet he's standing there as, this is the largest protests that I've ever seen in my entire life. And at least here in Canada, and yet he's denouncing it saying that he would defend it if it was right, but this is wrong and so therefore he doesn't defend it at all.
Justin Trudeau: We know that Canadians across the country. Are against the hateful messages that we've seen. The protesters are talking about freedom. Canadians know that freedom means getting back to the things that they used to enjoy and the way to be able to do that is to get vaccinated.
The way that we built this country was by being there for each other. That's what defines what being Canadian is. So while this fringe minority is protesting. The vast majority of Canadians are thinking, come on. But the vast majority of Canadians know very well that the way out is not protesting the pandemic. It's getting vaccinated.
Jon: Boom. There you go. That is the entire purpose of all of this, the overall narrative get vaccinated. Don't question anything. Do exactly what we're telling you. And that was the entire agenda of this address. Denounced the people who are standing up for the rights and freedoms over maintaining their civil liberties and maintaining an autonomy over their body, maintaining an autonomy over their right to choose what to do with their own body, maintaining the ability to maintain a lifestyle and a livelihood without government intervention. And without having to face an ultimatum by a government in a place where they actually have no right to be. So this isn't an anti VAX movement. There are people from both sides of the fence who have been vaccinated are still unvaccinated at this protest. It is about the freedom. It is about our civil liberties. It is about the bill of rights.
It is about the things that make us Canadian, that we live in a free country, where we have these liberties where the history of us as being Canadians and working together was to make sure that we were enforcing our ability to maintain a level of freedom. And at this exact moment, when there are mandates in place that are trying to strip away the liberties from the normal individual.
In order for them to push a vaccination mandate on us, to make sure that we're all doing the exact same thing, that we don't actually have a choice that we're stripped of this choice and that we're forced to get a vaccination. And we've seen that rhetoric in a few different ways, get vaccinated, follow the science, even though the science is changing quite frequently has in the past and is actually changing a lot now.
But follow the science trust in the science trust within us. Well, you know what? I don't have trust in these things because it's blatantly clear that we're being lied to. We're being lied to from the top down and we're being lied to via the mainstream media from our prime minister from their direction, so that, they're pushing this agenda of everybody gets vaccinated.
Plus don't question your freedoms, go back to what you were before. Everything worked fine before when people were not awake to the fact that the government was always pushing their own agenda, that the government was never actually keeping the public aware of the things that were impacting them. But this vaccination mandate is impacting average Canadians normal Canadians that do not agree with this government's ability to make these choices for the individuals that is not what sovereignty is. That's what our bill of rights and our civil liberties are about. Our civil liberties is that we have the ability to choose these things for ourselves and not to be told them. And then also, not to be created as an other, or with this divisiveness, he also talks about being a responsible leader.
In no way, is Justin Trudeau being a responsible leader to the Canadian citizens right now. He is politicizing all of this and creating hate and divisiveness. And to an extent, anybody who is taking a stand, like what I'm taking right now is facing the scrutiny of family, friends, and colleagues. I will lose my personal relationships with some of these people because of this topic, because Justin Trudeau is plugging things about this movement being hateful. And when it's really not the case, I have seen the actual videos of the denouncement of these hateful acts from the protesters themselves. But yet most people only get their news from either the social media or from mainstream media of which both are only plugging this hateful rhetoric.
And they're not actually showing the other side of the matter. So he is not being responsible as our leader and I don't necessarily have any views about if he should remain our leader or not. I think, if your leader lies to you, which this isn't the only case where it's been proven that Justin Trudeau lies to the public but I don't think that a leader should lie. A leader should be open and authentic. Our government should be open and authentic. That is the point of maintaining civil liberties and having trust within the system. Once that trust is broken, that trust is gone. And for the people who are showing up during this freedom protest, this freedom convoy, they've lost trust in the systems that are supposed to be there to uphold our freedoms as a people.
Because that trust is broken, I think that there's going to have to be some major changes to occur. The point of me releasing this was to show people the other side, I implore everybody to do their own research. Don't just take what I'm saying at face value, even though I know that the facts are out there, if you were only listening to one method of the media, in terms of other than news, like CBC global or whatever, mainstream media source that you follow or on Facebook, if you're only reading the articles that are being pushed to you by your friends, I implore to go and look for the details. Like if you go on YouTube, you can find so many videos of the very peaceful protests that have been happening for the last 10 days. There are even videos of the police chief Captain Sloly in Ottawa saying that he is very impressed with the lack of incidents that have occurred during the last 10 days.
Now the rhetoric, as of me recording, this is the police are taking a much more tyrannical stance against the protest and trying to limit the support but up until that point, the Ottawa police basically were, just, there trying to make sure that they were there if anything were to occur, but nothing has occurred.
So please go do your own research. Go look at how this is actually unfolding. Don't just listen to Justin Trudeau and our politicians. Don't just listen to the mainstream media. If you are truly trying to fight for freedoms and civil liberties, it is and in doing so that is maintaining your personal sovereignty over yourself in terms of making decisions.
It is also your responsibility as an individual to inform yourself. So don't just take what I'm saying. Don't just take what the media saying, and don't just take what your friends are saying at face value. Go figure it out for yourself. And if you can, that is when you'll find your own harmony and you'll figure out the stance that you want to take to go forward.
At least if you're true with yourself, then you can have confidence that whatever decision you made is the right one for you.
Episode 2 - Canadian Freedom Convoy