Canada’s freedom convoy and the overfeeding factor

Right now, the downtown area of Ottawa, the Canadian capital city has been taken over by protesting truck drivers and others in support. On the face of it, the truck drivers, or truckers as many call them, are protesting against COVID vaccine mandates introduced by the Canadian government. Slated to take effect on January 15, 2022, truckers crossing the US into Canada were to be fully vaccinated or face a 14-day quarantine upon arrival plus a pre-arrival test. An estimated 26,000 unvaccinated truckers of the 160,000 truck drivers who regularly cross the US-Canada border would be affected. To protest this, truckers drove from far ends of the country arriving downtown Ottawa on January 29, 2022. There they have been camped going on 10 days. All day, there’s the honking of horns and all kinds of noise. In fact, there are deejays as protesters have turned it into one big jamboree. Not even the sub-zero temperatures have kept supporters out. And as the last count, these people had raised over $10 million through GoFundMe. With supporters like Donald Trump Jnr., some protesters were pushing for Canada’s own January 6^th like the January 6 insurrection. That was when some protesters had stormed the US congress building with a plan to disrupt Joe Biden’s confirmation as the winner of the 2020 elections. electoral.

However, there have been complaints that some other people with less than noble intentions have hijacked the Freedom Convoy to perpetuate all sorts. And their supporters say these happenings are in the minority. But does that make the fear groups of people feel any less? By the way, the truckers are largely white, as are the majority of the protesters. So, you can understand why a Black person or any other non-white person would hesitate to go anywhere near the protesters. For most of the first week, the police were advising people to steer away from the downtown area. Except that many people live in the downtown area. These people have had to listen to honking and loud noises for the second week running.

There’s a lot this protest has revealed. The fact that the police have reacted differently than they usually do against protesters of colour. For a week, the police said they didn’t want to aggravate the situation, didn’t want to risk a violent confrontation, wanted to be mindful of the civil rights of the protesters. It’s also become obvious that many people who mouth love, even Christians, only care about themselves. No one cared enough when in December Canada put 10 African countries on a no-fly list acting as if COVID-19 originated from Africa. They were just happy to be protected from those ‘so-and-so’ people down south. Meanwhile, the federal government led by Justin Trudeau acts like Ottawa is not the capital city of Canada. Well, after much hand wringing, Ottawa’s Mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency on Sunday, February 6, 2022.

I’m watching all this as a Nigerian from Buhari’s own country where protests have become almost suicidal. Almost everyone who talks about this freedom convoy references how they’ve fought hard for their right to protest. Never mind that their freedom is depriving others of their own freedom to sleep peacefully in their homes. This freedom has held people hostage in their homes too afraid to venture out even for much-needed medication. Supporters of the protesters paint a picture of how peaceful the truckers have been. Except that many businesses in downtown Ottawa have remained shut for over a week losing thousands of dollars in the process.

So, where does overfeeding feature in all this? Overfeeding is the equivalent of what many now call first-world problems. It’s usually for people who have a lot of privilege and freedom to pursue all kinds of schemes. And overfeeding was the insult my father usually reached for when he was really angry. Because my mother sold food, if like kids, we laughed too much, my father would say it was because of overfeeding. His other go-to insult was foolishness. In fact, this one is the umbrella of all insults. Like him I believe –almost everything can be traced to foolishness, be it arrogance…But I digress. The fact remains that the truckers are suffering from overfeeding. Imagine raising over $10 million in such a short amount of time.

I don’t expect them to worry about less fortunate people or care about those with by far worse problems.  And some of their demands are that Trudeau government must resign, etc. Remember #EndSARS, October 10 2020 protests, and how young Nigerians were murdered while they waved the Nigerian flag. Yet, the Nigerian government turned that into a case of #EndSARS being about removing President Buhari from power. Now in Canada, we have people saying it directly and not hiding that they want the Trudeau government to resign. Not that I’m comparing Nigeria to Canada. I wouldn’t make the mistake of comparing Nigeria with Canada. The question remains: How long will the siege last?