Chinese Immigrant Says Trucker Protest was 'Civilized'
Mingling for days among Ottawa protesters, she describes friendly, honest, ordinary people.
Zuo Wang was raised in China, but now lives in Gatineau, Quebec, across the river from Ottawa. She writes a blog about poetry and literary matters. Sometimes she discusses women’s rights and child rearing.
Back in January, after witnessing the first weekend of the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa, Zuo documented her experience in words and photos. A few days later, she translated her observations from Mandarin into English.
When trucks began arriving in downtown Ottawa, she and her son were dressed for shopping indoors rather than for extensive time outdoors. It didn’t take her long to discover she’d never been to such a friendly protest. While she was taking pictures, she says,
I turned and saw a middle-aged couple, heavily dressed, hats, and Canadian flags waving, who were supporters of the truckers. The lady was holding a black hat in her hand, she smiled and said to me, "Hello! Can I give this hat to your son?" I was moved and embarrassed, then I accepted it readily, because Jojo is frozen into red nose.
She describes the protesters on that first day as mainly “people over the age of 30” who were there as families - and whose handmade signs frequently mentioned children. On Saturday, among the sights she witnessed was a young mother giving a speech about the importance of kids living normal lives. Drawn back to the protest again on Sunday evening, Zuo joined groups of people keeping warm near open fires after darkness had fallen.
She says she was made to feel welcome by strangers she describes as “men in their thirties and forties. They were typical Canadians. They were simple and honest. They didn't look like intellectuals. They were ordinary laborers.” Some of these individuals had traveled from distant provinces, she reports. These weren’t hate-filled individuals, she says, but simply people interested in freedom.
In the society in which Zuo was raised, farmers are referred to as ‘peasants.’ She writes:
After a while I got together in another fire crowd, and there was a farmer, Albert…who had a truck, and he came with his wife, and Annabelle, an eight-month-old puppy. The rest are young people from Quebec, in their thirties. Those Quebec young people treated the peasant with an adoration to a hero. The peasant didn’t say much, but he said loudly, I don’t want to live in a communist country, I want to live in a free country.
Regarding the fireworks the truckers set off that night, she remarks: “Before the epidemic, there were often beautiful fireworks to watch in summer evenings in Ottawa. But the covid-19 made all the beautiful things disappear.”
She talks about a protesting grandmother, and a “handsome boy” who asked her to take a photo of him. In China, she says, protests are stage managed by the government and include “people roaring angrily in the procession.” After mingling with Freedom Convoy protesters for three consecutive days, what is her conclusion?
I couldn’t find any madness, hatred, inflammatory slogans…What people shouted the most was "Freedom! Freedom!" in French or in English, and "Trudeau should go!"
Her big picture takeaway is that this was a protest by peaceful, caring Canadians:
Violence pervades the world I was familiar with, not just physical violence, but verbal violence as well. When we [Chinese] oppose something, we have to show a fierce and vicious state…
But the Canadians and Canada I love, tell me how people express their disapproval in a normal civilized world. I am grateful for this valuable lesson.
