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LETTER: Freedom Convoy unified the nation, writes supporter

'Canada has become an international beacon of hope by demonstrating how we can come together peacefully to make our voices heard,' writes Sharon Findlay
20220127 Freedom Convoy KA 12
File photo of the Freedom Convoy 2022

GuelphToday has received the following letter from Sharon Findlay regarding the Freedom Convoy:

The COVID-19 pandemic has divided and alienated Canadians; families and communities ripped apart by division and fear on all sides. The devastation of not being able to visit dying loved ones, restricted funerals, school lockdowns, lost jobs, depression, and suicide has taken an enormous toll. Wherever one stands on the central issues, one thing is clear to everyone – our society has been suffering under divisions in many realms.

The Freedom Convoy was born in British Columbia in protest against vaccine mandate laws that impacted truckers' ability to cross the US/Canadian border. However, the plight of the truckers spoke to many Canadians, and a newly found flame of hope launched a campaign for freedom that has caught the world's attention.

Finally, rather than alienation, we felt unified: Western Canada and Eastern Canada, French and English Canada, Indigenous, Non-Indigenous and newcomers to Canada, all united under a single cause for the first time. The movement swept across our nation, and Canadians of all stripes stood up peacefully and productively to say this is enough, no more division!

The Star, the CBC, CTV and even the prime minister stubbornly insist that this has something to do with anti-vaxxers and claim that since 85-90 of truckers are vaccinated, it must be some sort of fringe movement. In this obstinate and obtuse persistence, they are grossly missing the point – the vaccinated and unvaccinated truckers and their supporters are unified: The Freedom Convoy is not about who is or is not vaccinated; it's about the mandates and passports.

Predictably, today, a news article hit piece called the Freedom Convoy racist and Islamophobic, anti-Semitic and several other terrible names. Detractors, using the problematic sentiments expressed over the years by specific individuals, brandish those examples as ammunition to malign hundreds of thousands of Canadians from every background.

As Pierre Poilievre rightly said, "(individuals) say unacceptable things, and they should be individually responsible… but that doesn't mean we disparage the thousands of law-abiding and peaceful truckers, who quite frankly have kept all of you alive these last two years."

Justin Trudeau has tried his best to discredit Canadians who support the convoy by calling them a "fringe minority with unacceptable views," thereby failing once again to recognize that this is not about vaccines; it is about individuals' right to self-determination and constitutional freedom. He commits a strategic error in assuming that just because a majority of truckers have taken the vaccines, they agree with his policies.

Standing on an overpass in the freezing wind and snow to cheer on the Freedom Convoy, I saw Canadians of every ethnic background and age coming together in a celebration of unity and pride - unified opposition to Trudeau's heavy-handed mandates.

This Canadian initiative has inspired a global movement of Freedom Convoys in other countries like Brazil, Italy, Australia, and many more. Individuals and organizations from countries in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Britain have publicly voiced their support and encouragement of Canadian truckers and the Freedom Convoy.

Canada has become an international beacon of hope by demonstrating how we can come together peacefully to make our voices heard.

Let us not allow detractors to discourage us with petty name-calling and slurs, but rather, let's rejoice in unity, freedom, and Canadian pride.

10-4

- Sharon Findlay