Children's Medical Specialist Thanks Truckers

'You guys have restored hope and love and courage.'

On the second Saturday of the Freedom Convoy protest, Dr Eric Payne stood on the stage truck and took the microphone. “I grew up in Ottawa,” he said. “I’ve seen so many Canada Day parties and I’ve never been in one this big…This is awesome.”

Looking out over the massive crowd, he addressed the protesting truckers:

I, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for everything you guys have done. You guys have restored hope and love and courage at a time when so many of us were missing that, including myself.

Dr Payne works at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary. He’s a neurologist who studies epilepsy in kids. He trained in Calgary, earned a Masters degree in Public Health from Harvard, and spent six years on staff at the Mayo Clinic. Only after being actively recruited by the Alberta Children’s Hospital, did he and his family move back to Alberta.

But the pandemic hit soon afterward, and his life took a sharp turn. Today, the career of this highly qualified medical specialist is in tatters. Someday we’ll all be crystal clear about one thing: The COVID era was one in which dissent was forbidden - even dissent by eminent medical personnel.

On that Ottawa stage, on February 5th, 2022, Dr Payne told the crowd children were being harmed by counterproductive COVID measures: “These lockdowns have to stop,” he said.