I'm Gonna Dance You to Safety

Pepper sprayed by the police, a protester is aided by a splendid soul.

Random photo I took in Ottawa. The sign on the pickup truck reads: ‘The community of Freedom convoy make clean up, remove ice and garbage for all citizens. Freedom 2022.’

Here’s another gem, a small and beautiful Freedom Convoy anecdote. In her book, An Attic and a Blank Diary Kym Kennedy tells us about Jody Ledgerwood, who was protesting on an Ottawa street when the police turned violent. After Jody was temporarily blinded with pepper spray, Kym says a “protective stranger” came to her rescue.

In the documentary film, Unacceptable Views, Jody gives a firsthand account of this incident at the 1:22:32 minute mark:

And then [the police] started shouting ‘Push back, push back.’ So we, as the crowd, started to move because the police are now pushing us with their batons and their hands. And then I see this arm come over top of the officer that’s in front of me, over him, and he’s got a black can...and he just starts spraying the crowd.

Jody felt one side of her face start to burn. Within moments, both her eyes felt like they were on fire:

I just started yelling, ‘I’ve been maced, I can’t see. My eyes are burning, I can’t see.’

And the guy behind me who’s got me, he’s like ‘Don’t worry about it, I got you. Just follow me, I’m gonna dance you out of this crowd.’

And he did. He got me to safety.

With an arm around Jody’s waist, this unidentified gentleman did exactly the right thing. He maneuvered her away from the action, then departed as other people helped her decontaminate.

Was this because he’d had first responder training? I asked two female friends - a former paramedic and a police officer. Both said they’d never been trained in such a technique. Some people “are innately good at these things,” one of them said.

In the words of the other, whoever he was, he “thinks great on his feet and probably moves pretty great, too!”

Amidst shouts and screams and police brutality, this individual kept his cool, providing necessary aid to another human being in distress. What’s more, he danced while doing so.

see also: The Man in the Wheelchair