‘Freedom Convoy’ gone, but lanes of trust still blocked in Canada

For René de Vries, it was peaceful and party-like. He made pancakes on one of the days he visited with members of the “Freedom Convoy” as it occupied downtown Ottawa in protest of Canada’s public health restrictions. “I thought it was great,” he says. 

So when the convoy was condemned as a radicalized minority and cleared out with emergency powers by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, it reconfirmed his mistrust in mainstream media and mainstream politics. He says we’ve all been “bamboozled.”

For Zexi Li, an Ottawa resident whose apartment looks over the downtown core, where rigs and heavy trucks parked for three weeks, the past month has been oppressive. She barely slept, and only with the help of speakers and ear plugs, amid incessant honking of air and train horns. 

“We didn’t see any steps taken by our leadership to help us when we so desperately needed it,” she says. So she agreed to be the lead plaintiff in a class action against the convoy.

Friday marks one month since hundreds of trucks first drove into the capital of Canada and catalyzed a far