Humorist and Dilbert creator Scott Adams coined the phrase “one screen, two movies” to analogize how groups of people can agree on observations and events but interpret the meaning of those events to reach very different, and often opposite, conclusions. Adams describes this difference as resulting from having different mental frameworks and a healthy serving of cognitive dissonance.
This concept is well on display with respect to perceptions of the Freedom Convoy 2022 protest in Ottawa in February. At the time we were presented with two extremely different views of the protest. The story presented by the Liberals, NDP, and much corporate press that the protestors were anti-vax, violent, racist, misogynists who wanted to overthrow government and could never be met with.
The other story is that this was a peaceful protest from the start, was anti-mandate (not anti-vax) aimed at recognizing our Charter Rights, was aligned with the WHO guidelines on mandates from April 2021 (and various councils on bioethics), and was inclusive of people of all backgrounds.
We are now well into the investigation of Trudeau’s invoking of the Emergencies Act. The current investigation has some great revelations to discuss in a later post, but one of the key summaries thus far, I believe, is that nobody has yet been able to point to any specific demands, acts of violence, threats, or offensive behaviour that can be attributable to the protest or its founders or delegated authorities. Critics of the protest still make generic, vague, defamatory smears rather than point to anything specific. The most concise reference seems to be toward the Canada Unity Memorandum of Understanding which neither had anything to do with the Freedom Convoy 2022 protest nor contained any threats of violence or of overthrowing the government. It was a rather politically inept document requesting civilian representation on a joint oversight committee on COVID-19 mandate matters affecting public rights and was delivered to Senate on December 10, 2021, more than a month before the founding of the Freedom Convoy 2022 by different people for a different purpose.
A summary of the revelations in the investigation testimony is forthcoming, but this article aims to document the original intent of the protest as professed by the founders in real time as it unfolded.
Perhaps the best summary is in Tamara Lich’s interview on January 22, 2022, on Marc Patrone’s show:
A few key takeaways here are that she is Metis, she was talking to other First Nations, the protest is to be peaceful, the goals are to protest vaccine mandates and vaccine passports, and aims to be as inclusive as possible "bringing people together from all walks of life, all races, all religions."
We can also investigate the origins via her Twitter feed. While it seems to be taken down periodically I had captured the content and content of much of it.
On January 18, 2022, she tweeted:
I was just contacted by a Clanmother from the NWT. She called to express her support and the support of our FN across the country. She is reaching out to the Tribes she is connected to across Canada to organize drummers, prayers, food, shelter and anything they can do to help and support this incredibly important cause. After years of a govt working their damndest to divide us by race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, etc I feel it’s safe to say that we are not divided! We are all coming together for a common goal.
This seems rather inconsistent with the media and government portrayal. On January 21 she covered the founding efforts:
A week ago I woke up, went to work, came home, built a Freedom Convoy FB and twitter page, started a Go Fund Me to help raise a little money for Chris [Barber] and some truckers get to Ottawa, grabbed my guitar and melted some faces. Life is funny.
On January 22 she listed the intended demands that were the basis of the protest:
1. Federal & provincial governments must Terminate the covid passport and/or any and all other obligatory vaccine contact tracing programs or inter-Canada passport system.
2. Terminate covid vaccine mandates and respect the rights of those who wish not to be vaccinated.
3. Cease the decisive rhetoric attacking Canadians who disagree with government mandates.
4. Cease to limit debate through coercive means to censor those who have varying or even incorrect opinions.
The protest founders and their approved representatives maintained items 1 and 2 as the protest goals throughout the protest, and I believe still to this day. Items 3 and 4 are asking for civility from the government and recognizing Charter rights toward free speech.
On January 23 Tamara retweeted the following video of her:
In it she says:
We are now starting to be attacked and smeared, and they're starting to say some pretty nasty things. ... So what I'm going to ask of you is to, if you are inclined, pray for them because they know not what they do. We are not here to spread hate. We are not here to create more division. We are here to stand up together and we are here to love one another, and forgive one another.
On the same day (January 23) she retweeted the following image:
It is a photo of an indigenous man with the statement:
When millions come together, even the bravest run in fear … The one thing the government fears is the day we stand together.
On the same day she retweeted this message of support from a social worker:
On January 24, she tweeted her own words:
Did you ever think there would be a time in Canada where Quebec and Alberta would come together and unify under the virtue of #Freedom? See what happens when politicians & the media get out of the way? You guys all make me want to cry.
On January 25, she retweeted a video by Ontario police supporting the truckers, calling them heroes, fighting for freedom, and representing Police On Guard who are fighting loss of freedom and divisiveness of mandates.
On January 27, Lich retweeted an indigenous woman dancer saying,
We are so lucky to have such a strong indigenous community in Canada. Thank you to those of you who are actively standing with #FreedomConvoy2022
On the same day, she retweeted co-founder BJ Dichter saying:
Please join us in Ottawa for a peaceful and loving protest where we can rediscover freedom together.
She also tweeted her own message:
We are going to win this by showing love for one another. Be spiritual and be kind to all those around you.
On January 28 she retweeted this photo of Hutterites supporting the convoy.
This was their day of the arrival of the convoy in Ottawa, and Lich tweeted her own message:
Calm, peaceful and with love for everyone including those we disagree with.
She also addressed concerns of the attacks on them, calling out expected agitators and agent provocateurs, and says "Keep calm and peaceful."
She tweeted a photo of her grandmother, an indigenous woman on a drum, and notes "#Stopthehate"
Consistent with the above warnings, she also retweeted a January 27 post saying,
Everyone in Ottawa PLEASE film everything and everyone. If someone calls for violence GET THEM ON CAMERA. Shout “fed” at them and surround them. Ray Epps types will be in there trying to set people up. The media has shown that this is what they plan on framing the convoy as.
She also retweeted warnings to stay calm and peaceful and don’t give any reasons for haters to go after them:
It is directed at convoy organizers (the provincial and local leaders who were organizing their own sub-convoys to the whole protest):
CONVOY ORGANIZERS: “There will be activists working at the behest of global authoritarians and think tanks to sabotage our movement. Because of this, we must have a zero-tolerance approach to aggressive behaviour and violence.”
We cannot stress enough how important it is for everyone to do the following:
DO NOT enter any government building or government property under any circumstances.
Treat all police officers with respect. Front line police officers are already under significant pressure from powerful politicized individuals and local politicians. They are our fellow Canadians and the police in regions like Peel defended us when they refused to enforce Doug Ford’s draconian Covid restrictions on citizens last year. Please do not put front line officers in a difficult position. Always be respectful, even if they issue you a citation. Just know that most of them are doing so under duress.
They also noted the smear tactics of the corporate press. Still on January 28, Lich retweeted colleague BJ Dichter citing the defamation of their peaceful demonstration as being fascists by the Toronto Star:
On January 29, Lich retweeted and replied to Jagmeet Singh who accused them of being white supremacists, showing a photo of a Sikh family in a truck, saying
Really Jagmeet??? Think this family have joined the “superiority of the white bloodline”??? You have no shame, do you?
On January 30, she retweeted The Post Millennial showing video of Freedom Convoy participants picking up trash and cleaning up downtown Ottawa:
On January 31, Metis woman Tamara Lich retweeted Jewish colleague BJ Dichter citing his upcoming interview with Lebanese Jewish immigrant Gad Saad, a supporter.
Not only was this origin directly promoting peace and inclusiveness, but independent evaluation also attested to the protests actually living up to these ideals in court. As part of the injunction on using air horns and train horns (not on honking as most of the press misinformed), a United Way worker who lives in downtown Ottawa attested to the following:
The majority of my work involves supporting several key initiatives that UWEO has spearheaded, namely: employment for persons with disabilities, employment for Indigenous youth, successful aging for seniors and community wealth building, which includes social procurement. The bulk of my work centres around community building, the fostering of partnerships to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable or enhancing the capacity of agencies and thereby uplift our collective community engagement to make Ottawa a better city for everyone.
In these encounters, I have observed that all of the truckers I met have been, at all times, friendly, courteous, humble, considerate and peaceful. At no time have observed any aggressive or inappropriate behaviour nor have I at any time felt intimidated or unsafe. I state this as someone who was once the victim of assault on the streets of Ottawa in 2004 and who suffered PTSD as a result.
5. I have also observed that the truckers, and their supporters, are made up of the most diverse, inclusive and varied cross-section of Canadian demographics that I have ever experienced in my life. As examples, I saw a Sikh truck driver with his children, an Indigenous elder giving a blessing to the gathering, a black preacher performing a Sunday service, Canadians of all ethnicities and multiple families with their children.
6. I have observed truckers decorating the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with flowers as well as guarding it. I also observed an encampment beside the Terry Fox Memorial as a means of watching watch over it. At no point have I ever seen violent or threatening behaviour.
...
9. What I have observed is not in accord with what I have seen in the media or what I have experienced directly either with the truckers, their supporters or the gathering of people on Parliament Hill. The media appears to be framing the convoy and the events around their presence in Ottawa in the most unfavourable, erroneous and distorted manner possible.
Could this all be fake? Was there really a hidden agenda spoken secretly behind the scenes, apparently by white supremacists who were just using these fake founders and leaders as a front, and kept that plan hidden even during the protest up to and including when the pseudo-militaristic police effort pushed them back.
Was saying they wanted to be peaceful, asking people to be peaceful and respectful, and actually being peaceful for the three weeks of the protest all an act, and that really underneath all that “peaceful” speech and action was a nefarious, essentialist, violent intent?
Well, I suppose essentialist claims and mindreading “dog whistle” claims are common nowadays. But, in a country of laws do we psychically thought-police people based on what we claim that we “really know” is in their hearts despite “acting” peaceful, or do we police actual actions?
Maybe the protest looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, flies like a duck, weights the same as a duck, produced duck offspring, and genetic analysis is identical to a duck, but really is a wolf like the politicians and corporate press claim. But what then defines something as a "duck" or a "wolf"?
What is the difference between what happened in this protest from one that is what this one claimed to be? What would have been different if it had been really inclusive of people of all backgrounds, races, and religions? What would have been different it had been a peaceful protest? What would have been different if it really had been about vaccine mandates and passports?
At some point the politicians and press will have to show at least some evidence of their claims that the protest was a wolf. The founders’ messaging, and the attestations by witnesses, and the hundreds of hours of live stream from the protests appear to show a peaceful and inclusive protest, with countless interviews with individual protestors on why they were there, along with interviews of protest founders.
It is impossible to prove that there isn't some hidden piece of information somewhere that isn’t publicly available or has been missed. But, to be taken seriously such claims do require some evidence, and at some point it only makes sense to judge the actual protest on its merits, not hypothetical beliefs about what hidden intentions might lurk in some people’s minds. We do not yet have the Minority Report pre-crime capabilities, but many seem to be acting like we do and that such asserted claims of other people’s thoughts and intentions are justifiably policed instead of what they actually do.
I don't know Tamara Lich. But a man I truly respect does know her and vouches for her that she is 'the real deal', ie, that she is sincere, a genuinely kind and caring person, who just wants to do some good. I have NO DOUBT she is who she claims to be. I also have a friend whose husband IS a trucker and who WAS at the protest for the duration, until the day before the police moved in. I know that you don't know me. But this protest was a DUCK. And I am frightened and sickened by what has happened in public opinion based on fabricated and malicious media reports. I wish Canadians would understand....