Dear Editor:
My wife and I took our children to see the insurrection and racism on display in Ottawa. We figured this would be the one time in our life we could see such events in person.
After watching the protestors in America toppling statutes and looting and burning police cars, we were quite curious. So imagine our disappointment after three days, of being unable to figure out where all the trouble was hiding.
We followed the media as they walked around trying to find an camera angle that could maybe support their story. After a few hours of that we tired and realized they couldn’t find it either. We watched BBC reporters desecrate the Terry Fox statute as a table for their equipment.
We watched the police for a while, encouraging them and thanking them for staying calm. No fighting or excitement there either, they just chatted with the truckers and shook their hands.
After three days we began to realize that unfortunately we had been duped. There was no rabble rousing, no flaming police cars, no toppled statutes, no charge on parliament. What kind of pitiful excuse for an violent, racist insurrection was this anyway? A free barbecue? A prayer circle and crowds singing O Canada? People giving my children flags and asking for pictures?
Shame on those who failed to deliver the stories I had been told to expect. How can they think it’s okay to peacefully protest after reading in the news what they are supposed to be doing? They did manage to hold a few back from their livelihood for a few weeks, mostly the city workers as the truckers swept the streets and took away the garbage. But seriously, two weeks? Amateurs. I’ve seen others manage to withhold and attack our livelihoods for two years – now that’s impressive.
I wish the news had managed to capture the truckers forcing out the man with the nasty flag. The truckers placing endless flowers at the monument and statute a few jerks had defiled. The truckers singing our anthem and praying. It would have saved me a trip, and a lot of gas. Why did those reporters have to be on lunch at that precise time?
All joking aside, the closest we got to violence was when a reporter pushed my son off a snow bank so they could have a better shot of the crowd from higher.
Welcome to Canada, folks. I wanted the truth and I went to see it. If you want the truth you might have to do the same.
Joseph VanGrootheest,
Centre Wellington