Juno News - January 30, 2023


Revisiting the Freedom Convoy one year later


Episode Stats

Length

3 minutes

Words per Minute

205.86644

Word Count

634

Sentence Count

26


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 We're at the one-year anniversary of the Freedom Convoy first taking root in Ottawa.
00:00:05.720 And I think if you were to sit down most Canadians and talk to them about what went on 12 months ago,
00:00:12.100 ask them for their perspectives on it,
00:00:14.280 I think they'd have a more sympathetic view of what the convoy was doing now than they did then.
00:00:20.520 Of course, there were many Canadians who supported the convoy,
00:00:23.240 but a lot of people who didn't, for whatever reason,
00:00:26.140 because they had exaggerated fears about where the virus was at at that point in time,
00:00:31.760 or because they heard things said by politicians or reported in the media
00:00:35.480 about what was going on at the Freedom Convoy that just weren't true.
00:00:39.600 Reports of violence or that the reason they were there was to aggressively overthrow the government
00:00:44.820 or that they tried to burn down an Ottawa apartment building.
00:00:47.760 That was being trafficked as one of the lies that was later exposed to be false.
00:00:52.600 But I think a year later, Canadians step back and you say,
00:00:55.640 hey, remember it was only 12 months ago that the schools in Ontario, at least, were shut.
00:01:00.800 You couldn't go into a store without a mask on,
00:01:03.860 and there were people who were being fired from their jobs
00:01:05.900 because they didn't have two doses of the vaccine.
00:01:08.120 People go, oh yeah, that was kind of something.
00:01:10.000 And you put to them now, look, we had this virus, there are people dying of it,
00:01:13.480 you want to help people out, you want to support the healthcare system.
00:01:15.900 But do you not think that maybe some of that was just a bit too overbearing,
00:01:19.280 a bit too extreme?
00:01:21.080 And I think people now, now that they've had some distance from it,
00:01:24.080 are able to maybe think through that, yeah, I think maybe it was a bit of overkill.
00:01:29.340 You know, if there's one or two people who just didn't want to wear the mask for whatever reason,
00:01:32.700 okay, fine, you don't need to lose your marbles about it.
00:01:35.380 And ultimately, what I saw the Freedom Convoy symbolizing was people saying,
00:01:40.880 give us some breathing space, give us some room, allow us our individuality, allow us our humanity.
00:01:47.140 The idea that you need 100% of people to submit to these things,
00:01:52.400 I mean, that's just not on.
00:01:53.520 That was always a very authoritarian impulse that the government really seized and really ran with.
00:01:59.200 And it was really frustrating to see that take hold.
00:02:01.800 And it did gain a lot of public support at times.
00:02:04.460 And it was kind of worrisome that no matter what happened in other countries,
00:02:08.400 because Canada, particularly Ontario,
00:02:10.460 was one of the last holdouts for having severe COVID-19 restrictions,
00:02:14.160 a lot of people still supported it.
00:02:16.960 And I think looking back, the idea that some Canadians,
00:02:19.540 and of course, one of the other falsehoods about the people who participated in the convoy
00:02:24.140 was that they were monolithic in their demographic.
00:02:27.000 It was really people from all walks of life and even all different political backgrounds.
00:02:30.940 It was really interesting to see what happened there,
00:02:33.060 that this was a sign of people saying,
00:02:34.820 hey, government, just give us a little space, give us a little breathing room,
00:02:39.340 and just lay off on the aggressiveness of these measures.
00:02:42.160 And I hope when we look back a year later,
00:02:44.120 one of the main things that we can acknowledge as a society is,
00:02:47.900 yeah, stuff was just too hardcore.
00:02:50.440 And it's reasonable.
00:02:51.440 People are going to disagree on different aspects of this, that, and the other.
00:02:54.640 That's only human.
00:02:56.240 But this idea that everybody must do this,
00:02:58.800 everybody must submit to these different edicts,
00:03:01.360 I mean, it's just wrong.
00:03:02.460 And that's not how a free society works.