Freedom Juice
How the humble Jerry Can became a symbol of public defiance.
The trucks protesting in downtown Ottawa were stationary, but they still needed to be heated. On Feb. 6th, Ottawa Police advised the public “that anyone found bringing fuel to the demonstration trucks…could be subject to arrest and charges.” (See the related Twitter announcement here and a news story about ‘several’ arrests here).
Canadians weren’t about to let the truckers freeze to death, so they began turning up at the protest with Jerry Cans. Voilà! A new symbol of public defiance was born.
In the photo above, taken Feb. 12th, ‘Thou shalt not steal’ refers to police confiscations. The photo below was taken Feb. 9th.
This one is from Feb. 8th:
When the police confiscated the gas the first time I was incredulous. I could not imagine what law had been broken. As close as I can tell there was none, the police were just ordered to take it away without explanation. Possibly it was to intimidate the truckers and their friends but my consternation morphed into a grin as the truckers countered with cans full of water or nothing but air. Weren't the police secretly hoping they would fail their illegally assigned task? How difficult it must have been for these Canadian police to abuse their peaceful, legally protesting neighbors. Maybe Donna could interview some of them to get their thoughts.