Honk, Honk!

Making noise is part of peaceful protest.

Protests are about influencing public opinion - and about influencing politicians. Protesters are objecting. They’re dissenting. They’re complaining. The main message of any peaceful protest is: We disagree with what’s going on, things need to change.

During the early days of the protest in Ottawa, many of the truckers blared their horns frequently. If you were close by, those horns were extremely loud. They were disruptive. That was the point.

Had political leaders such as Canada’s Prime Minister engaged in a dialogue with the truckers, had negotiations taken place, the horns may well have ceased blaring, and the protesters may well have returned home.

Instead, a judge ordered the truckers to cease honking their horns on February 7. Since the truckers were law-abiding citizens, that’s what happened.

According to this sworn affidavit (see paragraphs 7 and 8), the honking was by no means a 24/7 occurrence prior to the court injunction.

By February 1st, the truckers had voluntarily and collectively agreed not to honk between 8 pm and 8 am. During the rest of the day, honking took place in a coordinated manner every half hour - for between 1 and 10 minutes.

I saw boxes of free earplugs being distributed by the truckers in a manner similar to the cookies mentioned yesterday.