I think there is a misunderstanding of who the people in Ottawa were based on personal experience.
You talk to your friends and family, and they are anti-"mask mandates" or anti-"vaccine mandates" and you know they are not racists. They are just so sick of this pandemic and because Uncle Jack posted that the vaccine corrupts your DNA and prevents you from getting to heaven, you just don't want to take that chance.
And you have taken that personal experience of what people who are against COVID measures and applied it to the people who were in Ottawa. But you can't do that. This was organized by known white supremacists and the people who came follow these people as leaders. There is a reason the downtown was littered with hate propaganda. There is a reason why they carried Canadian flags with swastikas markered on. There is a reason they targeted the BIPOC community for harassment and assault.
I said I was postering last night in a group of 6. One person said that she works in a Chinese restaurant on Bank street. On day 3 of the protest, a group of 4 convoy participants walked in and yelled some very racist insults before saying "we will be back and we will kill every last one of you". Restaurant immediately closed. Three weeks later and they are still closed.
It was not a small minority of the people here who were racist. It was pervasive. But it is hard for people who were not here to understand that because of their own personal experience.
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