The following was written by Toby from Dundas, Ontario. She and her husband cheered the convoy from the Guelph Line overpass near Burlington, Ontario on January 27, 2022. He describes the experience as pure ‘euphoria.’ The photos on this page were taken by them.
By Toby from Dundas
23 months into the Covid mess, we heard truckers were forming up out west with the intention of taking a Freedom message to Ottawa. We live along their southern route, near the spot where the Detroit/Windsor/London group would be joined by the incoming USA/Niagara convoy. No question we needed to be there and see them.
The day of, as we came over a slight hill on the 403 eastbound, we were thrilled to see a huge presence on the Guelph Line overpass, maybe 300 people. I had no idea we'd be more than a handful of flag-wavers.
My heart lifted so sharply - it actually brought tears to my eyes. I couldn't get parked and out of the car and into the crowd fast enough with my bristol-board-and-wrapping-paper flag sign.
We got separated immediately and both went on to meet such lovely people. The joyful crowd was full of young people (yay!), families from Eastern Europe who'd taken the kids out of school for the important day, and grey- and white-haired types like us.
And it was COLD. Sunny and gorgeous, but very cold. Everyone was laughing, happy, helping one another up the slippery snowy hill, and making room for newcomers. Not a mask in sight nor a harsh word in the crowd, even as we jockeyed to see what was coming down the road at us.
The excitement of so many big trucks, blaring their horns and flying their own flags, is beautiful to remember. They'd honk; we'd roar - which made them honk; which made us roar. I realized the drivers were as amazed as we were, and were, incredibly, sending their thanks to us!
It was brilliant ~ my happiest day in the whole 23 months. The biggest, most exhilarating uplift in memory. It took hours to come down and get the smiles off our faces. It was a shock to learn, later, that not everyone shared our love for these beautiful truckers.
I will always thank them. And laugh with pleasure at their lovely antics (the empty gas cans, the bonfires, the dance parties, hot tub and kids' play areas). Patriots: smart and capable of great problem-solving, and with a sense of humour ~ wow!
Canada Proud moment for me.
When I was in High School my dad and I cut and hauled posts to a treating plant. I skidded the trees to a landing with a very good horse, cut them into posts lengths and loaded them on the truck. At the end of the day I took off the harness and rubbed down the tired, faithful, horse and gave him some oats. The relief from the burden he had gladly carried all day was clearly visible. I thought of that experience when I watched the Canadian peoples response to the truckers. Most had plodded along for the last 2 years, willing to carry their burden, but anticipating the relief and when it came they not only recognized it but clearly let their pleasure that it had arrived show.
Thank you, Truckers.
Not just patriots. Free-thinking individuals.
The kind of people who compose freedom, understand freedom, live freedom, and seek freedom. Not anarchy. Freedom. Free-thinkers negotiate an ethical modus vivendi with others like themselves. They are fit to derive and live within an individual-rights-based democratic republic.
Those who oppose the truckers -- Canadians and USAsians, both -- are unfit to so live. Freedom upsets them. They do not feel comfortable without a group morality to guide themselves and to judge others. Hence thought-crime, cancel-culture, and censorship. Group morality brooks no heretics.
It's a matter of innate psychology.
I do believe the Enlightenment was a cultural speciation event -- the emergence of those psychologically composed to frame themselves as individuals. As such they see intrinsic rights with respect to others.
The prior species frame themselves as part of a collective. Their self-worth depends upon their adherence to group morality. The worth of others is grounded in their conformance to the group. Individual rights have no place among them. Nor, especially, freedom of thought, of conscience, or of expression.
The conflict now, at its visceral level, is two species fighting over one ecology. People -- collectivists especially -- invent conveniently righteous excuses for their participation in the conflict.
But it's all about categorical survival. Free-thought vs. thought-crime. Individual worth vs. collective loyalty. Human rights vs. no rights.
Individualist humans vs. collectivist humans. Biological evolution, species competition, and the surviving state of humanity.
Collectivist cultures tend to stagnate. They have no future. Only a persistent present.
I want no part of them.