I Arrive in Trucker Town

Restaurants were off-limits to the likes of me. I was a pariah, a leper - barred from planes and trains in my own country.

Taken on my first evening in Ottawa. The cardboard sign on the right reads ‘[Prince Edward Island] welcomes you Canada. Come in, warm up.’ A day or so later, open fires like this were shut down by the police.

Early on a Monday morning a year ago today, I tossed yoga mats and sleeping bags into the back of a car equipped with snow tires and headed to Ottawa with a friend. I’d heard that hotel rooms had been impossible to acquire that weekend, so we hadn’t yet attempted to secure one.

We were exploring options, asking friends if they knew anyone in Ottawa. It was by no means clear where we’d be spending the night, or when our next shower might be. By then the Freedom Convoy had been in Ottawa for 10 days. History was being made, and I needed to be there with my camera to document it.

Deb, my retired maintenance mechanic friend, wasn’t sure about the truckers at that point. She said she was there to support me. She has tons of first aid training and jokes that she always carries bail money. I couldn’t have asked for a more cheerful and loyal companion.

During the seven-hour drive, my husband managed to find us a hotel room a five-minute-walk south of Parliament Hill. Throughout the week that followed, we blessed him many times for its proximity as we sought refuge from the numbing cold. Toes needed thawing. Faces needed shelter from the wind. Camera and phone batteries drained quickly. Thank goodness our room was close by. Thank goodness we hadn’t ended up staying with friends-of-friends somewhere on the outskirts of the city.

The light was beginning to fade as we arrived in town. Earlier that day a judge had ordered the truckers to stop honking. The carnival spirit had been dialed back. Concrete barriers were everywhere. We circled a couple of times, trying to get close to the hotel where we’d been told there was underground parking. Trucks weren’t the problem. Concrete barriers and police officers were. No through traffic allowed here. No turning there. Entire streets inaccessible. Finally, we gave up. We parked blocks away and, dragging our rolling suitcases behind us, arrived at the hotel on foot.

During check-in, we discovered that upgrading from a room with one queen-sized bed to a two-bedroom, two-bathroom suite equipped with a kitchen was an affordable option. We even had in-room laundry facilities. Whoa. Yet lots of regular amenities remained unavailable. No functioning hotel restaurant, no room service.

Monday night in February. Downtown Ottawa. Finding a hot meal wasn’t going to be easy. After wandering cold, darkened streets for a bit, we discovered a pub with warm light in the windows. Only one table was occupied. It would have been beyond lovely to take a seat, to unwind with a glass of wine after all those hours in the car. But they were checking for vaccine passports and I had none. Like the true friend she is, Deb shrugged and told the chap at the door she’d forgotten to bring her own proof-of-vaccine, even though I knew it was right there in her hand, loaded onto her phone.

We stood in the lobby for 20 minutes, masked, while our takeout order was prepared. By then, I’d been barred from indoor dining for more than four months and hadn’t let it bother me much.

But that night I noticed. Those empty tables were off-limits to the likes of me. I was a pariah, a leper - someone who’d been told by my Prime Minister that I shouldn’t expect to board a plane or a train in my own country.

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Dr. Simon Goddek @goddeketal

Hi @JustinTrudeau. You said that unvaccinated people "shouldn't think to get on a plane or a train beside vaccinated people and put them at risk". Let's be honest – that statement was bloody fascist! Therefore I ask you to tell us on what scientific evidence this claim was based.

Video clip above features Canada’s Prime Minister at an August 2021 election rally in Calgary. It’s worth noticing that this mainstream news article (which establishes the date) doesn’t mention his nastiest remarks.