Trucker Town Rises out of a Frozen Farm Field

The story behind Exit 88, thirty minutes from downtown Ottawa.

Half an hour east of Parliament Hill, Michel and Jeannette reside on a medium-sized farm near the village of Embrun, Ontario. Michel milked dairy cows for 46 years, raised rabbits for 12, and laying hens for three. These days, he cash crops grain and keeps honey bees on the side.

During the final week of January 2022, as the Freedom Convoy was rolling across western Canada, discussions were taking place between protest organizers, the police, and others. As Michel and Jeannette understand it, the City of Ottawa needed a favour. A farmer with land near the Trans-Canada highway, close to Exit 88, had been approached. If some of the truckers could gather there overnight, returning to Ottawa during the day, that would relieve pressure on downtown residents and help with traffic congestion. But the site was judged to be unsuitable. The farmer talked to Michel, whose acreage is just down the road. There's a field in his backyard, close to his outbuildings. Would that do?

"The truckers were all for it," Michel remembers. "Their goal was to find a calm, quiet place to go at night." Somewhere the youngsters in some of those trucks could run around. Jeannette, feisty and petite, had her reservations:

I go, 'Are you crazy? We might get in trouble.' I was all worried and panicky. And my calm, cool, collected, nonchalant husband said, 'No, no, everything's going to be fine.'

It's not that I wanted to be mean to the people in Ottawa. But you live in the nation's capital, what do you expect? There's parties, there's protests.

Advised that city officials would be grateful, the couple consulted with their neighbours and spoke to their municipality. "Everything was good," Jeannette says. "We asked permission. The intent was to help everybody. We didn't want to pick sides." 

Over the next few days, camp Exit 88 rose out of that frozen field. A dozen snow-blowing farm tractors cleared a parking lot. 80 acres of parking lot. The people behind the wheel of the tractors in that sub-zero weather were neighbours, pitching in. Someone dropped off three large event tents that had been used for a wedding. Soon they were erected in a row, one feeding into the next. 14 port-a-potties were delivered to the site. "They just magically appeared," Jeannette remembers, and were then maintained by a crew that stopped by every three days. Industrial-sized garbage bins were delivered and emptied regularly. "Yeah, we had a mini city," she says.

As word of mouth spread, chairs and tables, propane tanks, generators, and heaters all appeared. Lights were strung inside and out. Michel and Jeannette were brewing coffee in their barn, in an urn they use when hosting 4H meetings. They'd bring it over to the tent so the volunteers could serve themselves. Then a friend showed up with another coffee urn. Soon, four of them were on the go.

Food began arriving. In Jeannette's words, "It poured in." Two-gallon pails of pancake mix. Fresh baked muffins, store bought cookies. People donated blankets, winter coats, toques, mittens, socks and all manner of toiletries - cough syrup, lozenges, toilet paper, diapers, sanitary napkins. She describes the set-up:

These were big tents. The first, when you come in, was the kitchen area. You'd walk into the entrance and on your left you'd have countertops. And then you'd have the chef cooking. You'd line up and get your plates. Behind the tables, the women would be serving the food. Behind them there'd be shelves full of pots and pans, utensils, paper plates, whatever you needed. If you want soup, there it is, with ladles. Beverages, desserts.

In the middle tent there were two big rows of tables. People would sit there to eat. In the third tent, there were crayons for the kids, Lego, cribbage, whatever games the kids would play. At the back there was room to park strollers. And a portable toilet that was only for the women and younger children - way, way in the corner, inside the tent. The guys had to go outside.

As far as they can remember, their first truckers arrived on Sunday, January 30th - at the end of the first weekend of the Ottawa protest. Michel says he got a call from the organizers, "'We've got 25 trucks coming. Are you OK with that?' It was always asking," he says.

next installment: We Ran a Tight Ship