I'm living in Ottawa at the moment in the downtown core.
This protest in Ottawa was / is the most horrible and questionable Canadian "protest" I have ever witnessed first hand.
They said it was about "mandates" and "vaccine passports" but it was secretly planned by Pat King, a white supremacist who is extremely racist to muslims, amongst other minorities, on the 5 year anniversary of the Quebec Mosque shooting. The vigil for this shooting tragically had to be cancelled when the convoy rolled in due to safety concerns.
I was listening in on the truckers CB radios and Apps and they were at times yelling "Hail Pat King" and saying how awesome he was as they rolled into Ottawa to reign terror on local residents, the convoy reserved a special spot for Pat King right in front of Parliament Hill. It seemed like most on their comms were aware of what was going on and who the real organizer was.
Once the convoy rolled in the nazi flags, confederate flags, and other blatant hate symbols starting coming out without any resistance. Participants danced on the tomb of the unknown soldier, defaced our statues including that of Terry Fox, pissed and shit everywhere causing what some people are saying is spring time biohazard, and are going around openly intimidating people. They also intimidated the staff at the homeless shelter, took the food that was intended to be for the homeless, and left them with nothing. As they drive around honking until 2-3am many of them are wasted, shooting fireworks from cars, doing burnouts, and going the wrong way down one-way streets. Small stages were set and some speakers tried to say that white supremacists were just "freedom fighters" trying to help the anti-vaxxers cause. All of this has been recorded.
They said the convoy was just truckers, but in an industry that is made up of mostly immigrants, this convoy was all white guys. Lots of minorities in Ottawa are STILL staying off the streets, they are still scared. Some minorities on reddit are saying they were too scared to even walk their dogs and were staying in their apartments until it ends. I know of at least one assault so far that has been filmed.
The roaming convoys of vehicles were going around constantly honking, some of them put train horns on their trucks to be extra loud, many people's pets were really freaked out and having panic attacks, this was a really a cruel experience for not only citizens but also their animals.
I know soldiers and veterans of many colours in this city. If O'Toole truly supports this thing, he has really turned on the CAF's ethos for nothing more than a few cheap votes from those who support blatant racism. Max Bernier is here and on board as well but that's not really a surprise.
Anyone who doesn't see what this really is, needs to give their heads a shake. I suspect there will be a lot more coverage of this awful event over the next few weeks.