Flying Towards Ottawa and Freedom
Three friends hopped in a small airplane, joined the truckers, and took some awesome photos.
Below is a guest post by Frank, who flew a 6-seater plane to Ottawa the first weekend of the trucker protest.
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After a whole year of attending anti-lockdown protests in Toronto and in towns closer to ours, times changed by late 2021. There were more public health policy failures and more people opening their minds to freedom. When the trucker convoy got started, social media and mainstream media attention started rocketing. In January 2022, our family and friends saw the southwestern convoy off to Ottawa. We witnessed dozens of bridges over the 401 filled with an eyeful of celebrating people. Finally! Ottawa was going to be huge. We had to be there too.
As far as we knew, it was only going to last a weekend. Six hours' drive each way was one option, or even longer by train, but circumstances made flying a possibility. No, we're not crazy rich, just managing to keep a small old plane airworthy. Tailor-made for missions of this length (about 90 minutes each way), a day trip to Ottawa was practical and much easier.
Three of us departed a little after 8 am. Our 1973 Piper Aztec seats six, so it's fairly comfortable with half the seats empty. Inside, it's tight like a minibus, not spacious like a pickup truck. The engines are very loud (rumbling, not honking!), so we always wear headsets to talk/hear. On that clear cold day, we flew "visually", self-navigating at 7500 feet or so, at a little less than three times the speed limit of the cars below. We traveled on a straight line to/from Ottawa, so we saw more of the hinterland - frozen lakes and forests rather than highway comfort stops. It is a beautiful and intimidating land. We landed at Ottawa International around 10 am. (Yes, big airports let little airplanes in!) We prearranged a rental car to drive to Parliament Hill, but the attendant warned us that something dangerous was going on downtown. Thanks for the tip!
The police blockades were limited at the time, so we could drive almost all the way there, found parking a few blocks away, and walked the rest of the way. The closer we got, the more honking cars, more flying flags, more dripping joy. Our little camera drone stayed just warm enough to score a few shots of the area.
Everyone knows how the first day went: a throng having a wonderful time in the cold. Nothing dangerous, except perhaps standing too close to the truck horns, or falling off the logging trailer.
One part of the story fewer people know is what happened at the Rideau Centre shopping mall that first day. Normality happened. Hundreds of people went shopping, resting, and warming up inside. Most locals appeared glad to serve so many customers. There were only a few exceptions: the food court A&W blocked itself off, and the occasional masked person tut-tutted.
We flag people sang the anthem and yelled "freedom!" every now and then, in between bites of food. Now, near the end of 2022, this may be a weird thing to emphasize, but remember that at the time, masks and vaccines were compulsory, and boisterous behaviour unheard of. No wonder that powers-that-be joykills closed the mall that same afternoon and kept it closed for weeks.
After making our way back through the crowd to the car and then to the airplane, the same airport attendant repeated mainstream news assertions that a "January 6th" was happening at Parliament Hill. We corrected her as best we could, then took off. We flew as close to downtown as we were permitted by the airspace controllers, and took a few last photos. We felt a bit spoiled to have the means to travel so easily and so aloof.
In 90 minutes or so we were home, filled with optimism. We didn't foresee the hardships the truckers would later experience. For all the later talk about a city under "siege" or "occupation", our photographs revealed just how large Ottawa is compared to Parliament Hill. The vast majority of the city was unaffected by the trucks whose windows glittered like gems in the sunset of that wonderful day.
Pretty impressive shot of Parliament Hill! By the time I went in the summer to welcome James Topp, Parliament Hill was fully secured with security checks at every entrance and designated walkways marked by metal fences.. Heartbreaking!