These Were My People
These Were My People
Ottawa was a step back in time, reminiscent of a more tolerant Canada in which one could speak freely.
In her just-published book, An Attic and a Blank Diary, Kym Kennedy says the truckers’ “epic protest for freedom” helped rebuild her sense of community following two years of pandemic alienation. In her words:
Every person who made the trip to Ottawa, whether it was for three weeks or for an afternoon, was a part of the freedom family. Every Ottawa citizen, who showed up to see the reality of who these protesters were, was a part of the family…It’s how Canada used to be. We could listen to each other and disagree, but still move forward together.
Kym says she’ll never stop being grateful for this family, which treated her with respect rather than scorn. “These were my people. And we stood together, free, happy and full of hope.”
Throughout the book she describes the personal loss and dislocation that spurred her to drive to Ottawa in the middle of the night. Her dissident views, including her decision to decline COVID vaccines, didn’t just result in the loss of her job. She says she was unexpectedly “ostracized by friends, and labelled malevolent by strangers.” As she writes on page 68:
The new normal was broken relationships, harsh judgment, neighbours turning in neighbours, and people cheering for the termination of employment of those who believed differently…I keep reminding myself that they’re afraid, and I’m saddened knowing that it’s me they fear. I love them. I remember that they’ve loved me too…
My ‘new normal’ is a world of new people, absent of so many I’ve cared so deeply for…
Ottawa, she says, made it possible to begin the healing process:
We knew that we belonged there, with the many thousands more who felt the same losses, and recognized that Canada is a different country than it was a couple of years ago, and so are its people. We had come to know loss as more and more was taken from us for non-compliance…
we loved the people who no longer understood us. That was the most obvious feeling at the Ottawa protest. Love. Anyone who attended with an open heart and mind could feel it. It was incredible, and unlike anything I had ever experienced. We didn’t have to be defensive or watch what we say around each other.
