It’s difficult not to conclude that many Canadian officials are now incapable of distinguishing between reality and fullblown hallucination.
Yesterday, at the hearings into whether Canada’s Prime Minister was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act against peacefully protesting truckers, Ottawa mayor Jim Watson said swastikas and confederate flags were commonplace.
If that’s true, why didn’t I see a single one during the week I spent in Ottawa photographing the Freedom Convoy?
Why did journalist Rupa Subramanya, who lives close to Parliament Hill and circulated amongst the protesters for three weeks, not see a single instance, either?
It has been eight months since Ottawa violently shut down this protest. The mayor has had plenty of time to check his facts, to ensure that the words that come out of his mouth are accurate and truthful.
There are numerous videos showing long lines of big rigs forging their way across this vast nation to Ottawa. None of those trucks flew swastikas or confederate flags. On the very first Saturday the protesters were in town, a couple of unsavoury flags made brief appearances. They were photographed, under circumstances that appear stage managed.
And then they were never seen again.
How can Mayor Watson possibly be confused about this?
UPDATE, 20 OCT. 2022
Here’s a 30-second video clip of the mayor’s testimony. He thinks the reason the Freedom Convoy congregated directly in front of Parliament Hill was so that photos could be taken of swastikas with the Parliament buildings in the background. Lordy.
According to Mayor Watson:
The prize pig was Wellington Street. They wanted to have Wellington Street, with a flatbed truck, and a podium, and sound system to denounce the federal government. So if they couldn’t have that, going on to Queen or Albert or Slater - not much of a backdrop on those streets. So this was very much, I think their intention was to go in and have them with these vulgar flags and swastikas and confederate flags and so on swirling all over the place with the backdrop of Parliament Hill like they’d taken over the country.
As George said to Jerry "...it's not a lie if you believe it"
So glad you have addressed the issue of THE FLAGS Mayor Wilson saw “all over the place”. I guess he is a CBC viewer!