Catholic Register: "On Parliament Hill, I saw hundreds of Canadian flags and an incredibly diverse cross-section of Canadians. Imagine guys wearing hunting camo and an odd group of white Boomers trying to drum. Throw in some Sikhs, a lot of little kids all wrapped up in snowsuits and an enormous crowd of Quebecers. Imagine them standing around in delight and bemusement, looking at each other and saying, “Hello? Do I know you? Is that you, Canada?”
"For the record, I did not see one Confederate flag or swastika. Middle-aged ladies were draped in Trump 2024 regalia, but they were one fewer than the three counter-protestors holding #FLUTRUCKKLAN signs. Both groups seemed to be looking for friends but hadn’t found them.
"We saw lots of signs. One teenage girl’s said: “I lost my graduation; I lost my prom; Trudeau, you lost nothing.” The police, while we wandered around, did not seem concerned or on guard. I read this morning not one arrest was made.
"When I returned to the house, and my fingers had thawed, I turned to Twitter on my phone. I learned that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family were whisked away for safety; that the CBC was speculating the Freedom Convoy was directed by Russian operatives; that a former press officer for Stephen Harper deleted her account after being hounded for tweeting that the day’s events felt like a happy Canada Day; that NDP leader Jagmeet Singh tweeted, “today Conservative MPs have endorsed a convoy led by those that claim the superiority of the white bloodline and equate Islam to a disease.”
"Say, what? I felt like a cartoon character giving its head a shake. The friend I went to Ottawa with is the daughter of a Trinidadian-Canadian. She stared as I read out Singh’s words. I felt a little sick. There, on my phone, was the mob."
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