Whether truckers and their cross-country protest made the point they set out to make is still up for debate.
“To anybody who studies this stuff, this was not surprising at all,” said Tim Abray, who is a PhD candidate in political studies at Queen’s University.
Abray, who lives just blocks from Parliament Hill said the so-called “Freedom Convoy” may have embarked on a journey to protest vaccine mandates for truckers crossing the border, but by the time it arrived at its destination, some who joined with the truckers seemed to be following a different path.
“Unless the objective was just simply to disrupt a city and its people — if that was the objective, they’ve succeeded,” Arbray said. “But otherwise, they have done nothing to further their cause.”
And then there were incidents that for some overshadow the original purpose of the protest.
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Perhaps the biggest was someone dancing on the grave of the Unknown Soldier.
The images obviously did not go over well with a lot of people, including Mark Gerretsen, MP for Kingston and the Islands.
“This is sacred ground,” Gerretsen said. “This is where we have our national place of remembrance for those that have given us the freedom that we have.”
Gerretsen was busy on social media over the weekend, upset by some of the acts that were happening around the nation’s capital.
“The problem is, it’s not just a one-off. This wasn’t just the Terry Fox statue or just the war memorial or just nazism symbolism. It’s a whole whack of stuff that we’re seeing,” Gerretsen said.
“This is a campground of grievances that the city is now going to have a very difficult time digging itself out from under.”
Charges are pending in relation to a number of those incidents. Holding individuals responsible may separate the upsetting acts from the protest as a whole.
“It certainly did not represent the values of Canadians nor does it represent the values of any truckers that I know,” Gerretsen said.
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