A Costly Experience

The final installment of a New Brunswick trucker's Freedom Convoy story.

One of the Valentine’s cards Travis received from grateful members of the public.

During his third week in Ottawa, Travis Macleod got carbon monoxide poisoning after his truck’s exhaust system malfunctioned. Sleeping in his bunk, he stopped coming out in the morning as usual.

Many of his symptoms - headache, nausea, shortness of breath - were similar to COVID symptoms. At first, friends were "bringing me all sorts of medications." But he could barely stay awake, was losing weight fast, and was becoming confused.

A fellow protester from Quebec - whom he hadn't known prior to the Freedom Convoy - got him a hotel room, where he spent the final three days. His buddies had to lift him out of the truck, and help him get to that room. By then, he says, it was "almost too late." Travis doesn't know who realized he was being poisoned. "They had multiple different people come and check on me."

All of this meant he was sidelined when the protest finally came to an end:

I wasn't there the last day. And I feel horrible about it.

I didn't get arrested. I didn't get my truck's windows beat out. I didn't get my truck impounded. And I kind of feel bad that I wasn't there.

When the police crackdown began, another person from Quebec drove Travis' truck out of harm's way. Shortly afterward, a chap from Nova Scotia hauled that Peterbilt all the way back to New Brunswick on own his float truck, which sits lower to the ground than a flatbed. Travis didn't know him before Ottawa, either.  

Having lost 35 pounds, and still dreadfully sick, a friend drove up to Ottawa to bring Travis home. For two months afterward, he was unable to work. "It takes 90 days to get the carbon monoxide out of your blood," he says. "So it was a very costly experience for me."

Part 1: What Were People Thinking?