The Shed Spreads Its Wings

A platform is built on the roof and cameras are installed.

Part 1: Jay, the Trucker Who Brought the Shed

Halfway through the three-week Ottawa protest, the ice fishing hut on the back of Jay’s truck morphed into something else. In a recent interview, he explains how this happened:

A fella named Sam hopped into my cab, just needed to get warm. And he said ‘My ride to North Bay [Ontario] is leaving, but I feel like I need to stay. I just don't know where I'm gonna stay.’

And I said, ‘Well why don't you sleep in the shed with us.’ So he did. And the next morning he said, ‘I got this really crazy idea. I think we should build a media platform on top of the shed.’

Jay says he was busy with other things, such as trying to arrange showers for truckers who were parked nearby, so he told Sam, “You have my blessing. You do whatever you wanna do with the shed.” Over the next 24 hours or so, he says, donated lumber arrived, and some “skilled people built it in no time.”

I witnessed that firsthand while I was in Ottawa. Construction began in earnest on the morning of Thursday, February 10th. In the photo above, we see someone in a Santa costume delivering hot breakfast to a truck parked in front of Parliament. Overhead there’s a chap with a cordless, power screwdriver constructing the frame of what would soon be a floor. This photo is timestamped 10:32 am, here’s a closeup:

An hour later, the floor was finished and safety railings had been constructed. But a ladder was still required to get up there:

By the time I circled back and took additional photos at 4:30 that afternoon, a set of stairs had been built:

The same day this construction took place, a new channel was started on YouTube, called Live From The Shed:

By noon Friday, the following day, not only had custom banners been printed, they were draped around the sides of the platform:

Along the way, cameras got installed. Initially, this was a security measure. But then those cameras began livestreaming what was happening at that intersection.

As Jay says in his recent interview, “So many people across Canada watched Live From The Shed. Because they could see exactly what was happening on Wellington, whereas the news people were telling another story.”

next installment: I Got Told to Get Out of My Truck at Gunpoint