Ottawa Changed Me
'I am a better man today,' says trucker who held the line until the bitter end.
Csaba (pronounced CHAW-BAH) is a Romanian immigrant truck driver from Windsor, Ontario. After losing his cross-border job due to a government-imposed vaccine mandate, he joined the Freedom Convoy. Three weeks later, while being arrested, he was gratiuitously assaulted by police.
When interviewed a month later, Csaba told Kyle Cardinal he left home angry and “looking for justice” (beginning at 18:23 minutes here). He says he had “no idea” what to expect after he arrived in Canada’s capital. What he found was a life-altering experience:
Ottawa changed me, completely.
I meet all these people. I saw all that joy. People they care for each other, they help each other. I meet probably hundreds of people a day. I heard their story. I keep their pain.
Near the end of the protest, he says some individuals urged him to retreat:
I made all those promises, to thousands of people, I gonna stay there until the end. And I couldn’t leave. I’d been called: ‘Leave your position and come and regroup.’
I said, ‘No, thank you. Just regroup without me. I’m gonna be fine. I want to be able to look into the mirror, you know, after I made all those promises.’
For many participants, the Freedom Convoy was a spiritual experience. The circumstances were extraordinary, they felt the hand of the divine. Csaba recounts being asked whether he’s now working for the same company. He points to the ceiling, and replies: “I’m working for Him, now.”
In his words:
Like I said, Ottawa changed me completely. I am a better man today.
If I have a chance to re-live that three weeks, what I experienced in Ottawa, even if I’m gonna get another beating just like I get, I will leave [for] Ottawa right now.
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