Gabriel & the Firewood
When protesters told a livestreamer they'd run out of wood, Ottawa residents responded promptly.
Michael’s film: Part 1 here. » Part 2 here.
In his video love letter to the Freedom Convoy, Ottawa resident Michael Grandlouis credits YouTube livestreamers with accurately representing what was happening on the ground.
He talks about two Quebec residents who, after arriving in the nation’s capital pulling a trailer, removed the tires from their pickup truck. “They just dropped the truck right on the asphalt,” he says. “It was like: We’re staying.”
While watching a livestream, Michael heard these two guys say they’d run out of wood for the stove on the back of their trailer:
And right away, I jumped up. I mean, you live in a condo downtown, who’s got wood? So I found two planks, I had two planks of wood here.
So I get dressed again, put on my snow pants and my parka…so I head back out and find the guys and I told them, ‘Hey, I just saw you on the livestream.’
I was apologetic. I said ‘look, it’s all I’ve got, but it’s something.’
One of the protesters was named Gabriel. He accepted the wood with both arms, “like he really appreciated it.”
When Michael kept repeating he wished he had more, Gabriel put his hand on his shoulder and said: “It’s going to be OK. Look, someone brought some wood.”
And there was a cart with - literally, it took me 15 minutes to get there - and there was a cart there already. (Someone else had seen.) With freshly cut firewood. Like cordwood. Where do you find cordwood on Parliament Hill?
But it showed up.
If you click the video at the top of this post, it’s cued to begin at 27:11 minutes, the point at which Michael tells this story. Read more about his film:
Love Letter to the Truckers - Ottawa resident celebrates the Freedom Convoy in an 80-minute film
