Rousing the Politically Aloof

'Two-thirds of us are Mennonites.'

Part 1: The Flatbed with the Roof Truss Sign

Kevin Willeboordse, host of the ‘Kevin Unscripted’ podcast, Andy and Bern. This photo accompanies the podcast, which was recorded 7 Feb. 2022 (click image)

Bern, who’d driven in from northern British Columbia, says he “really didn’t know what to expect with Ontario itself, much less Ottawa,” but he says the Freedom Convoy received “crazy support” there, too. “You know, we rolled through a lot of Ontario later in the evening on a Friday night, a bunch of it. And just bonfires everywhere and people making a party of it.”

That final evening, prior to Ottawa, was spent in Arnprior, 45 minutes shy of the capital. The next morning “it took us four or five hours to get out of there,” Andy remembers. Bern explains:

We wanted to come in as a nice Convoy. All along the way it had been a bit of a logistical nightmare because there were so many people in smaller vehicles that wanted to join in. Most of these vehicles wouldn’t have radio communication, right? So they’re just in and out…So at Arnprior…the plan was to get all organized…and then roll into Ottawa as a full solid Convoy. Because it would just be more impressive to come in with a whole row of trucks. So they did that. They led with the bobtails [big rigs without trailers], then the trucks with the trailers after that.

Unbeknownst to most of these western Canadian truckers, two Ontario convoys – one originating in Windsor, the other from the Niagara region - had arrived in Ottawa 24 hours earlier. Obeying police instructions, those trucks had already packed Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill. Numerous citizens had also independently headed to Ottawa in all manner of trucks, campers, and cars in order to join the protest.

Bern entered the nation’s capital via the Sir John A Macdonald Parkway. He remembers it as “a scenic little drive” along the Ottawa River. Then everything stopped dead. Large machinery blocked their way, preventing the western Convoy from getting anywhere near Parliament.

After all those trucks had spent Saturday night on the Parkway, Sheldon - who later became their block leader - approached a group of them. It sure was beautiful, he said, but they hadn’t driven thousands of kilometres across the country in the dead of winter to enjoy the scenery. Shortly afterward, eight or so big rigs managed to turn around. A pickup truck on the back of one of them was then used to scout out possible parking spots closer to downtown.

Andy & Bern on the Sir John A Macdonald Parkway. Photo posted to Facebook by Bern.

After a destination was identified, and after their group of trucks got close, two made it around the corner onto Rideau Street before police blocked the intersection. The rest of their trucks were instructed to remain where they were, two lanes wide along Nicholas Street, at the far eastern end of the Rideau Centre shopping mall. In Andy’s words, there was “lots of visibility right there. Lots of traffic going by, which was good for us.”

A week later, Bern and Andy sat down in front of microphones and did something they’d never done before – appear on a podcast. Episode #33 of Kevin Unscripted is two hours, 37 minutes long. They’d been away from home two weeks by then – six days on the road, followed by eight in the nation’s capital. Bundled up in winter clothing, they were indistinguishable from tens of thousands of other Canadians who’d flooded Ottawa to protest the nature and duration of Canada’s COVID policies.

After Andy mentioned being born in a Mennonite colony in Bolivia, prior to his parents relocating to northern Alberta, Bern said he, too, “grew up pretty traditional” as a Mennonite. Then he provided a wider context:

For anybody that’s not aware, Mennonites…[are] known to be pacifists. They won’t get involved in physical confrontations…And they don’t get politically involved, for the most part.

I think that’s starting to change a little bit, I mean obviously it’s changed because we’re here. We’ve got, I forget what we are right now, eight trucks maybe, but there’s about 12 of us or so that are associated with that little group…on Nicholas Street. And two-thirds of us are Mennonites.

next installment: The Brotherhood Shines Through