Freedom Convoy 2022

Crumbling down (convoy talk)

/ Re-Farmer / 12 Comments

There’s stuff going on so quickly right now, it’s hard to keep up, but I’ll just start with this video, to give you a taste of what’s going on with the Freedom Convoy. If, for some reason, a video below doesn’t load for you, try clicking here. (original TikTok source) This is from the lawyer representing the Freedom Convoy.

Right from this morning, I was hearing some of the most infuriating things regarding the Freedom Convoy. One of the radio stations aired questions messaged to them. In part of it, while “graciously” acknowledging the right to peaceful protest, they went on to ask, what gives people the right to use vehicles?

Seriously? Suddenly, the right to protest is limited to… what? People on foot? There have been many protests that included cars, trucks, motorcycles, RVs and even horses. But now, it’s suddenly in question?

Then there was the question of, what gives protestors rights over the general public?

Has this person never seen a protest before? Especially all the “mostly peaceful” protests during Trump’s presidency that included riots, vandalism, theft, arson, assault and murder?

More than that, the protestors are protesting legally, and have the exact same rights as the general public. But this person seems to believe that, because they don’t like this particular protest, they should be denied rights all Canadians are supposed to have?

It’s right up there with people demanding that the protestors have to be quiet and super polite, and must never show strong emotions – which always get interpreted as “angry” (as if there’s something wrong with being angry over what our governments have done to us over the past two years). Also, see the statement above out protests we’ve seen in the past few years.

The person who shared this had sent in their own response, which did not get aired. The narrative must be upheld!

Speaking of narrative, our government overlords and the media are doubling down on the hateful rhetoric, slander and outright lies.

But before I touch on that more, that $10million that was raised to support the truckers through GoFundMe? Money the government has been salivating over? Or at least Ottawa’s mayor. Well, they succeed in having the account frozen, and now it’s shut down. GoFundMe is claiming they have police reports of violence, and that the protest has become an “occupation”. Which is utter BS. The police have suddenly started issuing a slough of tickets, mostly for traffic violations. I’m curious how they ticketed someone for speeding, when the trucks are all just sitting there. And the only violence has been against the truckers, not by them.

Basically, GoFundMe has stolen $9million ($1 had already been released, to help pay for things like fuel). The statement at the site said something about working with the organizers to have the money donated to the charity of their choosing. People, however, donated to help the truckers, and all over the various social media groups I’m following, they are demanding refunds.

Also, a new Bitcoin fundraiser has already been started. People want to support the truckers, and GoFundMe is hardly the only way to do it. Frankly, I am not surprised they did this, given their history of double standards. Lord knows, they’ve allowed fundraisers for things that absolutely went against their terms of service, but they looked the other way.

This press conference below was done yesterday, before GoFundMe stabbed them in the back, and they were still thinking things would work out.

This move is going to be a whole lot of mud on GoFundMe’s face.

As usual, The Rubin Report covered the story well.

I tried to embed a video from Facebook but it’s not working, so here is a link. This was a live stream from someone that’s been an online friend of mine for years, and a real standup guy. He was at the Coutts border protest, and makes reference to Jason Kenney, the Alberta Premier, who has proven to be completely untrustworthy. The RCMP have also proven to be untrustworthy. Definitely worth clicking through and giving him a listen.

Viva Frei has been covering the whole thing a lot, including many live streams. Here, he talks about the GoFundMe fiasco.

He interviews people taking part in the protest in this video.

Gosh. All those crazy, “white nationalists”.

Here’s from another guy who’s in the middle of it all.

True North is among the independent media that are reporting accurately. This next video is a “fake news Friday” show and covers the media issue rather well.

The independent Rebel News also asks a very good question.

Why are the truckers being treated differently than past protestors?

Also, the truckers are making sure there are lanes open, so that people can get to work and emergency vehicles can get by. People complaining about not being able to get through are lying. Likewise, claims that they are hurting small businesses (as the government hasn’t been destroying small businesses for the past two years), when the protestors are actually giving places more business than they’ve had in years – when they’re not being jerks to the protestors, that is.

Check this out… people came for a protest, and a dance party broke out.

While this has been going on in Ottawa, other convoys of people who couldn’t go to Ottawa and converging on their own provincial legislatures, and even smaller towns are organizing their own protests in support of the Freedom Convoy. Some started today, while others will be held tomorrow. Oh, and there are still more trucks on their way to Ottawa. In some cities, the police have created blockades to stop the protestors which, ironically enough, is creating more disruption than the protestors would have, in the first place.

If you were to listen to the media and our government overlords, you would be told that these people are violent, rage filled racists, misogynists and homophobes. One of the stories I caught this morning mentioned a business in the area (at least I assume it is in the area) that found their front window broken – a business that just happened to have a pride flag displayed. The implication was that this was done by the truckers, because they’re homophobes, but there was absolutely nothing to support that. It’s just the narrative they want to frame. Oh, and the business went ahead and opened, anyway, with the broken window boarded up. Just more media manipulation.

So why would the media be lying like this? Well, our own Prime Dictator bragged about that, back in 2019.

Yes, he was leading into a joke on this, and went on to read some of the few critical headlines about him. The reality is, all our government approved media is dependent on the government. Aside from the $600million of our tax dollars he’s joking about, they are being kept afloat with all the Covid ads, also paid for with tax dollars. Governments don’t have their own money. It all comes from us. And right now, they are doubling down in slandering the Freedom Convoy, and whipping up anger and hatred. Since the protestors themselves have been doing things like dancing, singing, shoveling snow, feeding people and being an incredibly loving, passionate, positive and peaceful group, that has managed to not rise to the bait while being goaded, these media have no other option than to just lie through their teeth.

It’s the government rhetoric that is most troubling. The language they are using to describe the protest, now calling it an “occupation” in a militarized sense (not like when the Occupy movement actually did engage in occupations, apparently), and doubling down, is very troubling.

Someone had brought up an interesting point. In India, they gained their independence through peaceful protest. Non-violence was their method. What was pointed out is that this only worked because they were up against the British who, for all the things they may have done, did still have a sense of objective morality. They may not have lived up to that morality very well, but it was there. It would not have worked if they had tried such non-violent protests in, say, the USSR. Their morality was completely different, and they had no problem just slaughtering people. Which they did, at times, to the tune of millions dead over the years. I have family who were involved in Poland’s fight for freedom from Communist rule. Some of them permanently damaged by the beatings they got as they fought for freedoms we have been taking for granted. The Polish people did eventually win, but it was not “peaceful” or non-violent. It couldn’t be, because of what they were up against.

What I fear is that our government overlords are a lot more like Soviet Russia. Listening to them, I feel they are priming us for something drastic, so that when it happens, people will blame the truckers instead of the government.

Canada has been living under medical tyranny, and the powers that be are not willing to give up that power, just because people they view with contempt are finally standing up to it.

How far are they willing to go to keep that power?

It feels like everything is crumbling, but I can’t tell which way the pieces are falling.

The Re-Farmer

Keeping watch (convoy talk)

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

I was hesitant to talk about the Freedom Convoy again. I’ve tried hard to keep this blog pretty neutral, and focus on what we’re doing here on my childhood farm. Over the years, I’ve found myself pretty involved with contentious stuff, and part of moving out here has been to get away from this stuff. It’s hard to avoid, when living in the middle of a major city, and we were more than happy to get away from that. Yes, living here has had its own issues, but it’s still an improvement.

The problem is, what’s been going on over the past couple of years has long fingers, and even managed to affect us in our little corner of the world. What is happening now, with the Freedom Convoy, and all the other convoys and protests forming around the country, is going to affect us.

That, and apparently many of you following this blog are wanting to hear this, considering what traffic has been like when I do talk about it!

We are still very much on the outside of things, since we aren’t in a position to get directly involved in any way, and most of what’s going on is quite distant from us. Still, we need to keep watch on what’s happening. How things turn out in the end will affect the entire country. There are already some sudden changes; the Conservative Party of Canada just ousted their leader. He was the official leader of the opposition, but has not been leader of this party for very long. I’m not a member of any political party, but when the CPC were choosing a new leader, this one was not at the top of the list of who I would have preferred. Still, I had some hope for him. Unfortunately, he turned turned out to be about as two faced as they come. That the party turfed him after his complete failure to be an effective leader is a positive sign and, frankly, I think all our major political parties need to do the same thing. Even at the provincial level since, most of the disastrous restrictions and mandates fall under provincial jurisdiction.

The response from both our governments (at all levels) and our media has been pretty terrible, and the media, of course, continue to report lies. They just go through the list of accusations that they’ve been using on anyone they don’t approve of, to see what will stick. Racists? Nope. Misogynists? Nope. Extremists? Nope. Violent? Nope. Vandals? Nope. Stealing food from the homeless? Nope. Even “Islamophobe” has been tossed in the mix. Nope.

Now, it turns out there has been vandalism in Ottawa, but not from the truckers. During the day, there is a heavy police presence, but not at night – and that’s when people against the convoy have been coming out, vandalizing trucks and causing other problems.

Ottawa’s mayor has already tried to say, okay, you’ve made your point, now leave. Which is hilarious. Even more hilarious is that the city tried to get tow trucks to haul the rigs away (ha!), and they refused. I’ve heard they tried to do things like remove all the garbage cans, but people just started hanging garbage bags around for others to use. Public washrooms were closed, so people brought in porta-potties. Protestors are not just singing and dancing and honking horns. They’re shoveling sidewalks and keeping the area clean.

It’s not just in Ottawa. Other convoys and protests have formed elsewhere, including at an Alberta border crossing. The province tried to get tow truck drivers to haul them away, and they refused – some of them joined the protest, instead! Farmers are coming out with their tractors, too. The RCMP tried to from their own blockage to prevent them, but… seriously. How are you going to stop a vehicle that can just go through the ditches around you?

Worse, Alberta’s premier openly lied, claiming protestors attacked the RCMP.

Thankfully, independent media are on the ground, doing actual reporting – and right now, anyone with a phone and an internet connection is independent media!

Even media around the world are noticing just how badly the convoy is being misrepresented within Canada.

Watching all this, I can’t help but make comparisons. Our government and media are going to extreme lengths to attack these protests, where if someone so much as sneezes in the wrong place, the entire movement – and it is a movement, now – gets slandered.

I remember, years ago, when the Occupy protests were all the rage. Groups of people set up camps at Legislative and other government buildings and public parks. Where we were living at the time, they set up camp in what turned out to be a private park, but they stayed, anyways. The media portrayed them in the most positive light, and the varying levels of government paid them lip service. Even as the camps reached states of squalor, with theft and rapes happening, there was no real condemnation. I’m the sort of person who has no problem walking down a dark alley at 2 am. Apparently, I’ve perfected the look that makes other people cross the street when they see me. Which is funny, because I also apparently have “Mom” stamped on my forehead. Yet, when I had to walk past the Occupy camp, I crossed the street and stayed well away. I remember, long after they were gone, still finding damage to art pieces and trees, cause by the signs they attached to them, as well as whatever ropes and whatnot they set up. They all left damage and garbage behind.

These camps lasted for months, and yet… they accomplished nothing. There were all these little Marxists, imagining themselves as brave revolutionaries, who deliberately removed themselves from society for months to protest and…

No one missed them.

They contributed to little to the world around them, that when they left it to protest, it made no difference.

Now let’s compare with what’s happening now. The people protesting are truckers and, increasingly, farmers. They have so much support, the GoFundMe is now over $10 million, as of this writing. Between that and the direct donations, they could stay there for years. However, without truckers and farmers, everything collapses. No country can last long, if their truckers and farmers stop working.

Which is likely why the government has been trying very hard to deny them the money people have donated. One MP in Ontario is apparently trying to have the funds seized, and used to pay for things like the cost of policing or whatever. As if the government has any right to money people donate!

As of this writing, that GoFundMe is currently “Under Review”. No one can donate, and the funds are frozen. This, even though the organizers have been working closely with GoFundMe to make sure everything is above board and in compliance with their terms of service. There are serious questions as to why it would suddenly be “under review.” People who have donated are very angry. Particularly if the government does try to seize it. Many are already saying that they’ll withdraw their donations. There are many other ways to get support to the truckers.

So what’s going to happen? I know the truckers and their supporters aren’t going to back down. I also know our Prime Dictator is going to dig his heals in as long as he can.

This is not something that can end in a stalemate.

The Re-Farmer

Well, isn’t that interesting (convoy talk)

/ Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

Today has been one of those days where I haven’t been paying much attention to things outside our little cave. I’ve been using various apps to keep in the loop about the Freedom Convoy, but simply have not been able to keep on top of the hundreds of messages, posts and videos. I have had to mute most of the channels. Otherwise, my phone would be constantly singing at me with notification noises.

This evening, I finally got to sit down and try to look at some of the stuff, and figured I’d check out some of the YouTube videos that so many people have been posting.

Well, now.

First, not a lot of related videos were showing in my feed, even though quite a few channels I follow are directly involved in some way. So I did a search. I did that yesterday and found all sorts of interesting videos, some of which I shared.

Not today.

Today, about 99% of the videos that showed up in my search were from mainstream media. Since they aren’t really covering it much, most of them are also days old. After a while, I did see more independent videos show up, but they are even older than the media ones.

YouTube is messing with the search results, and keeping people from finding videos made by anyone other than our government approved media.

The mainstream media has, of course, been spreading all sorts of lies and slander about the Freedom Convoy. Our Prime Dictator came out and made a little speech, supposedly to explain why he refuses to talk to the truckers. It was a speech filled with lies, misrepresentations, and was clearly intended to create more division and hate against the truckers. The former drama teacher was over acting again, too.

One of the few politicians that has openly and unapologetically supported the Freedom Convoy from the start has been Maxime Bernier, of the PPC; the video above has his response to some of the disgusting things our Prime Dictator said. The NDP leader, Jagmeet Singh, who is Sikh, also made some really vile comments denigrating the protestors as racists. Which would be a real surprise to all the Sikh truckers and supporters of the protest. In fact, the Sikh community has been one of the staunchest supporters. There have also been a lot of immigrants, some truckers, some supporters, that talk of having escaped tyrannical regimes. They are saying they are there, supporting the truckers, because they could see the same things happening here in Canada, that lead to the destruction of human rights and freedoms in their homelands. Of course, there are also the many First Nations groups that have joined the protests. It’s gotta be the most racially and ethnically diverse group of “white supremacists”, ever!

This article deals with the media lies. The Canadian Legacy Media’s Eleven Worst Spins on the #TruckersForFreedom Convoy

One of the YouTube channels I follow is The Rubin Report, and I still had to go looking to find this coverage.

Other platforms, such as Rumble, aren’t censoring videos.

The Rebel, which is completely independently funded, is one of the few larger media covering the protests. This one addresses the real problem of people infiltrating the protest to deliberately mess things up.

This is something everyone knew was going to happen. It’s a standard MO, really.

If we were to listen to the mainstream media and our own federal government, we would believe that there’s just a “fringe minority” of racist hicks that can’t be taken seriously, that are also domestic terrorists bent on violently overturning our (oh-so-saintly) government and the greatest threat our nation has ever faced.

Well, I suppose you could say it is an uprising. An uprising of courage, hope, unity, and love from ordinary Canadians, standing up against division, medical apartheid an government enforced segregation.

The Re-Farmer

Update: well, this didn’t take long. I just found this story, from The Counter Signal.

Ottawa moves to seize GoFundMe cash from Truckers

“Ottawa City Councillor Mathieu Fleury wants to seize the protesting truckers’ GoFundMe support account, which has raised upwards of $9 million, to cover the costs of policing the city — among other costs.

Fleury, who represents the city’s Rideau-Vanier Ward, publicly announced on social media that he asked the city manager and city solicitor to “immediately launch court proceedings targeting the millions of dollars in funds frozen by [GoFundMe] so Ottawa taxpayers are not left holding the bag for these protests.””

More convoy talk

/ Re-Farmer / 23 Comments

A lot of people are following this story, so I figured I’d make a separate post to talk about the Freedom Convoy.

To start, I just have to share this news conference, from Keean Bexte of The Counter Signal. I absolutely recommend watching the whole thing.

As of this writing, the GoFundMe is over $8.8 million. If you listen to the interview above, they say they have the resources to stay in place for several years, if necessary.

Years.

And convoys are still arriving. There are so many convoys out there right now, they’ve lost track.

Meanwhile, truckers that weren’t able to join the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa have been holding their own protests at their provincial legislatures and at Canada/US border crossings.

There are people I know who are there in Ottawa, including neighbours, and I follow many others who are there. So I’m getting a lot of uncensored, first hand commentary on what’s going on – though it’s so huge, even that is barely touching the surface. The atmosphere remains incredibly positive, uplifting and united.

Our mainstream media, of course, isn’t reporting that.

One of the things people are suddenly clutching their pearls over is that protestors *gasp* draped Canadian Flags on a statue of Terry Fox, along with a paper sign saying “Mandate Freedom”. Terry Fox is a major Canadian hero. They are claiming the statue was “defaced”.

Seriously. They are actually saying that the statue was being defaced by the Canadian flag.

There have been other reports focusing on portraying the protestors in the most negative light. In one of them, a horde of protestors supposedly pushed their way into the soup kitchen of a homeless shelter, demanding food. The shelter organizers claim they were able to diffuse the situation by giving them soup.

To say that doesn’t pass the smell test is a massive understatement. There has been so much food, and other supplies, already donated to the convoy that people who approached truckers, intending to donate food, instead found themselves being offered food from the truckers! There is more than enough food for everyone. No one actually part of the protest has any reason to go to a homeless shelter for food, nor would they “demand” food from a homeless shelter.

An exception to that statement just showed up in one of my groups. If you can read the screen cap below, there are truckers on an isolated part of the highway, barricaded by the police.

So any troubles truckers are having to get food is outside the city, and deliberate. From the timestamp, this is was posted 2 hours ago, from the time I’m writing this.

While I have no doubt the incident at the homeless shelter happened, there is no way this was done by genuine protestors in Ottawa. Quite a few people have been outed for inserting themselves as if they were part of the protest, while doing things like carrying Nazi flags.

There has been an interesting thing going on. Communications are being blocked. Anyone could download the Zello app and listen to chatter on the CBs. There is no longer a signal. I’ve tried to listen in myself, but it’s dead. People have talked about other communication troubles, widespread enough to suggest they are being blocked externally.

Our media’s representation (and lack of it) of the Freedom Convoy is even being blasted by other countries, as in the video above.

You know things are bad in Canada in regards to the restrictions, when they are commenting on how extreme it is, in Australia.

How the media is handling this was the topic of conversation with Viva & Barnes. This is an excerpt of their regular livestream from a few days ago.

Viva and Barnes are both lawyers, so they provide some very interesting perspectives.

Most people know better than to listen to our own mainstream media, not to mention most of our politicians. However, there are still those who swallow the narrative, hook, line and sinker. They have gleefully accepted the notion that the truckers are white supremacists, Russian operatives, or whatever favorite derogatory narrative fits their preconceived notions, all on the edge of violence, and no amount of first hand evidence will change their mind. It’s bizarre to see, but they are most definitely in the minority. You can easily tell the difference between those who support the truckers and those who don’t. Supporters are overflowing with excitement, passion, love, hope and joy, and it’s infectious. The detractors are angry, condescending, insulting and dismissive. Mostly, though, they are contemptuous of people they clearly see as beneath them, and unworthy of being viewed as even human. It would be an interesting psychological study to look into how their views of humanity developed into what they are now. It is so opposite from what is happening across the country right now.

For many years, my biggest frustration with my fellow Canadians has been apathy. We’re so busy being “nice” and “polite”, it’s been destroying our country. With my own family having escaped the evils of both Nazism and Communism, I could see the road we were going down, and it was incredibly alarming. It is one of the reasons I am so thankful that we were able to return here to my family farm, and escape the city. Now, for the first time in my life, I see that something has broken. Something has snapped. A dam has broken, and there is no stopping the waters pouring through. Canadians have been pushed to far, and the apathy has been swept away.

Our country will be a completely different place, when this is over.

The Re-Farmer

Happy Freedom Day!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

What a difference between this winter and last winter!

Though Chadiccus doesn’t know that, since it’s his first winter.

I’m sure the older cats are appreciating it, though!

Last year, we could barely go anywhere because it was too cold for our vehicles. At one point, we even had to ask my older brother to do some shopping in the city for us, because we couldn’t use our own van, or even my mother’s car. They started but, my goodness, the noises the engines made!

This winter, we’ve been able to head out as often as we needed – or wanted – to. I think I’ve gone somewhere almost every day this week!

With Butterscotch and Nosencrantz being dropped off at the vet on Monday, the earliest we expected to be able to do our Costco trip to the city would have been Tuesday, so I decided to pop into town after doing the morning rounds and pick up a few things we figured we’d need. It was disappointing to walk around the grocery store and being the only person open faced again, but not surprising for this town. At least I don’t get harassed in this grocery store. When I was done, I made a quick stop at the garage to finally book a much needed oil change. I kept forgetting to phone. Not a single sign on the door for the illegal restrictions. Gosh, it was so wonderful to see a beautiful, open face. It’s amazing how much removing people’s faces causes stress and anxiety that isn’t even noticed until it isn’t there. Anyhow, with the oil change booked, that makes Wednesday the earliest we’ll be able to head into the city, so I’m extra glad I made a small trip, today.

Today is Freedom Day. In support of the Freedom Convoy, all businesses have been asked to open fully, without discrimination or segregation. The main convoy has reached Ottawa, though it may well take days for them all to stream in. I’ve heard there are six convoys in total, coming in from different directions. Our Prime Dictator and his family have apparently been whisked away somewhere, for their “safety”, while the media continues to prime viewers to expect violence. As has happened before Antifa riots, people have reporting seeing trucks unloading piles of bricks in the area, while others are reporting finding piles of bricks already in place. Whistleblowers within the federal government have warned of paid agitators. Within the convoy groups, those who have reporting finding these bricks are being encouraged to report them to the police, and the constant thread is to encourage people on site to not allow themselves to be goaded into doing anything stupid. Considering that the overwhelming atmosphere among the Freedom Convoy supports is more like a massive, joyful, exuberant celebration, it would be pretty easy to spot the agitators.

Support continues to be overwhelming, and overwhelmingly positive. The GoFundMe now exceeds $8million, and armies of people are cooking, baking and donating food and beverages. Businesses that used to sell maybe 4 or 5 Canadian flags in a year, have been selling as many as 150 in a day – if they have any left to sell at all, anymore. Farmers in the area have plowed snow clear on their fields for truckers to park their rigs and get some sleep. Support flows in from around the world, with many forming convoys of their own.

It’s absolutely amazing.

Now we just wait and see how our governments respond. Whatever happens, this is big enough to affect even us, in our little hidden pocket of the world.

The Re-Farmer

More normal things, and freedom convoy talk

/ Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

Phew.

After writing and update about Cabbages and announcing a fundraiser for her, I figured I should post about less exciting things. 😀

This afternoon was my day to visit my mother and help her with errands. She wanted me to “not be in a hurry” and not have to rush home, so… I had to rush out earlier to make sure I got to the post office before it closed to pick up some packages. 😀 Mind you, the only reason it was a rush was because of how much time I was on the phone, being updated about Cabbages by the cat lady, so that was quite acceptable.

She had actually called at first to talk about these two. She still has the cat carrier she borrowed to carry Cabbages, and she wanted to make sure I didn’t need it before Monday. We do still have 2 more carriers that we can use. Butterscotch is Cabbages’ mother. It will be good to finally get her fixed! Nosencrantz isn’t even a year old yet, and she is easily twice the bulk Cabbages ever was!

After leaving kibble in the tray under the shrine, I turned around and saw this.

Seeing how deep the snow is, in relation to the size of the cats, is just funny.

They just love the paths we’ve dug for them. 😀

Once I was done with the morning rounds, and the call from the cat lady, it was a quick run to the post office to get what turned out to be two parcels, not one, then to my mother’s. While I was gone, the girls did some work in the sun room in preparation for having Butterscotch and Nosencrantz recovering in there. After one section was reorganized, they made sure to cover the windows where the inside panes have cracked, with some sheets of rigid insulation, so there would be no chance of them hurting themselves. Tomorrow, I’ll work on it some more, as I’ll be going through some of our seed starting supplies, plus I want to bag up the sunflower heads that are still there. They got knocked about a bit when Tuxedo Mask was recovering in there, and I know Butterscotch will be far more destructive!I made sure to stop at the gas station to pick up some chicken and wedges for lunch, first.

I had a good visit with my mother while we had lunch, which with my mother is not guaranteed! She didn’t get to her usual criticism until after we were done and the groceries were put away. LOL The first stop she wanted to make was to a small department store, which I took advantage of. The handles on her walker wiggle, and while there are knobs on the outside that can be turned to tighten them, I can see the screw heads on the other side, turning instead of tightening. I never have the right tools handy to deal with that, so I picked up a multi-tool, to keep in the zippered pocket under her walker’s seat. I paid for it right away, so I could use it to tighten her handles while still in the store. They still wiggle, but it won’t tighten any more than they are. Hhmm.

While there, I was also happy to see a new display of Jiffy pots that can be buried directly into the soil when it’s time for transplanting. Those will be perfect for the squash and melon starts. When I did our Walmart shopping, yesterday, they didn’t have any of these in stock yet.

After that, we did her grocery shopping. I had been encouraging her to stock up as much as she could, just in case. She’s been seeing about the trucker convoy, too, and she has started to understand what I was trying to explain about potential supply shortages. We’d talked about it before we left, and even from the incredibly horrible news coverage she has been seeing, she recognised how utterly ludicrous is was for our federal government to impose the new restrictions on truckers. I was quite happy to see her doing things like picking up larger sizes of things she would normally get. Her needs are small, so it doesn’t take much for her to be stocked up for quite a while. I am hearing about shortages in the city, but so far, that has not been an issue in the smaller towns. I recall, when the shutdowns first happened and people were panic buying, it was similar; things ran out in the cities, but not so quickly in the more rural communities.

As for the freedom convoy itself, it’s just amazing! Not only are we getting thousands of trucks coming in from the US – and from what I’ve heard, none are being stopped at the border! – but there are now freedom convoys being organized in countries around the world!

The excitement and sense of unity it has generated is absolutely amazing. The level of positivity is infectious and inspiring.

There are still the detractors, of course, that are doing everything they can to mock and belittle the truckers and anyone who supports them. Most of it is parroting the media and government narrative. One example was some commenter who, after reference was made to the convoy stretching across Manitoba, from border to border, was to along the lines of “truckers can’t do math, huurrrr, duurrrr…” Apparently, this person thought it meant the people were saying it was bumper to bumper trucks across the province. With so many trucks, there is no way to know how many there are at any given time. On the open highway, they have to spread out. Those big rigs need a lot of space if they have to make an emergency stop. Plus, there would constantly be trucks going in and out of the convoy, as they stop to gas up, eat, use a bathroom and sleep. So of course, the convoy itself is going to be really stretched out in places, while packed together in others.

There are still people saying the GoFundMe was frozen. It never was. As I write this, more than $7.5 million has been raised. Yesterday, the money started to flow. The last I heard, there were about 100,000 registered truckers in the convoy. The first priority for the funds it to reimburse truckers for fuel. Then, as needed, to reimburse for the costs of food and lodging. The organisers have been working closely with GoFundMe to make sure everything is above board.

The mainstream media and our federal government have, of course, been increasing the negative narrative. Most people know better than to rely on them. They are acting as if the truckers are intending to stage a violent insurrection, and invoking the fake-news “insurrection” in the US last year, every chance they get (never mind that the FBI itself concluded that there was no insurrection). The Counter Signal published about internal documents leaked, exposing how our government is treating this though violence is a given. You can read about that here.

What is happening is priming. The federal government and the media that relies on them to keep them from going under are doing everything they can to create the very situation they are condemning, even though it doesn’t exist. It has been very obvious, from the beginning, that violence is exactly what they want. They are trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. It would be just the excuse our Prime Dictator needs to do what his father did when he was PM; declare martial law.

Make no mistake. If there is any violence when the convoy arrives tomorrow, it will not be instigated by the truckers, but with the media and the feds already priming viewers to believe the truckers are evil incarnate, they expect people to believe them.

There is a problem with that expectation.

The past two years has seen our “leaders” doing everything the can to divide us. It’s been masked against the unmasked, the vaccinated against the unvaccinated, the believers against the heretics. The only acceptable thing we are supposed to shoot for is complete acquiescence.

However, this convoy has done the opposite. It has united this country at a level I have never seen before. Yes, people are angry, but that anger is being channeled into unity, positivity, excitement and joy.

These are people who are fighting for our freedoms with a giant party. Do people want our “leaders” to step down? You bet. That is because they have failed us, over and over. This gets twisted into being “hateful”, “anti-government” and “dangerous.” These leaders have imposed restrictions and mandates that have destroyed people’s lives, even causing developmental delays in children that they will probably never recover from, devastated the physical and mental health of our nation, and yes, even killed people, whether through deaths of despair, or from not getting diagnosis and treatment in a timely manner, to harmful treatment protocols. And when people try to stand up to what is happening, these “leaders” cry victim, while calling their victims the abusers. Pure gaslighting.

So what is going to happen over the next few days? Who knows. Our Prime Dictator has announced that he was exposed to Covid 19. While a rapid test came up negative, he says he’s going to isolate himself for 5 days, following the Ontario Public Health recommendations. The problem with that is, those recommendations actually say that a fully vaccinated person – which our Prime Dictator claims to be – does not have to isolate if exposed to someone with Covid. They’re just supposed to keep masking and distancing and watching for symptoms.

Meanwhile, in Ottawa, areas of the city are being marked off for a “special event”, so that people won’t be parking on the streets.

But only for 2 days.

Which suggests they expect it to all be over within 2 day, or at least under 5 days.

The truckers plan to stay there until all mandates and restrictions are lifted, however long that takes.

Thousands of them.

That doesn’t even count supporters that aren’t truckers.

How will our leaders respond?

Only time will tell. Whatever it is, it will affect every single Canadian, and possibly have ramifications around the world.

The Re-Farmer

A new path, and more convoy talk

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

The wind changed direction this afternoon, so I took advantage of it and headed outside to shovel the path to the compost ring that was completely filled in. Knowing we would be getting a delivery from the pharmacy this evening, I made sure to unlock the gate, first. The driver always calls when he’s close so we can unlock the gate, but I knew I would still be outside when he did.

Once I got the path to the compost ring clear, I continued on and cleared the path to the back door of the garage. It want much faster, since it doesn’t get blown in as much.

I had just reached the back door of the garage when I saw a car pulling up near the chain link fence.

To go to meet him, I had to take the path to the compost ring, across to the house, then down the sidewalk to the person gate he’d pulled up to.

I’ve been meaning to make a path from the back of the garage to the vehicle gate for a while. I wish I’d done it earlier! LOL

By the time I was done, it was getting dark. I had to adjust the lighting in this photo, just to see the new path! It now joined up with the path dug along the garden bed between the two gates, where there is a path to the driveway.

Normally, the inner yard would be cleared of snow enough for us to drive up to the house, with room towards the outhouse for turning, and we wouldn’t have needed all these little paths. Last year, we were able to keep it clear just with our little Spewie, but there is too much snow for the little thing, this year. We probably could have done it if the big snow blower was working. When I was a kid, my dad would use the old Farm Hand tractor to push snow into a pile about where the kibble house is now. It would reach most of the way between the house and the maples that our now outside the chain link fence, but used to be part of the inner yard back then. I remember one year, my siblings and I carved the pile of snow into three sets of stairs, with tunnels in between, leading to a two step platform at the top. The centre staircase had a wide, curved bottom step. We wanted to carve a throne at the top, but the snow pile wasn’t tall enough. 😀 Gosh, that was fun!

This year, we’ve got snow more like what I remember as a kid.

Anyhow, without the heavier equipment, paths will have to do!

It was as I was near the garage door, and having to fling the snow ever higher, that I finally noticed just how deep it was.

I couldn’t quite stretch my arm out far enough to get a good angle, but the snow here is about hip height on me. Maybe a bit higher.

No, not all of where I was shoveling was that deep, though I wasn’t exactly shovelling right down to the ground in most of the paths, either.

After I cleared the new path, I kept on going, clearing the path in front of the garden bed, then scraping the sidewalk and clearing it wide enough for my husband’s walker. Which is really handy, when we have to use the wagon to haul stuff from the van to the house, like the sack of deer feed and other stuff I picked up today. Then I went ahead and cleared the cat paths, too, while there was still light out.

Clearing those paths is getting harder in places. The piles of snow from all the shoveling are getting high enough that the new snow I’m shovelling slides back down if I don’t throw it far enough – or falls into another path if I throw it too far! LOL

The cats were very happy with the cleared paths. 🙂

As I write this, I can see more snow blowing around in the live feed from the security camera. I’m glad I got it done when I did! It’s still rather warm out – only -8C/18F as I write this. We’re supposed to have a high of -18C/-0.4F tomorrow, then it’s supposed to warm up a little bit again, and stay there for the next week. Much nicer than the couple of days of deep freeze we got, when our mini-convoy headed out, and the big one passed through our province.

That’s one of the amazing things about the convoy for freedom. This is happening in Canada, in flippin’ January. A friend of mine in the city had gone out to cheer the convoy as it passed by. She estimated there were about 150 people, just around where she was. It was about -32C/-26F where she was, at the time. In places, the convoy is so long, it took 4 hours to go by, with people outside, cheering them on, the whole way!

As the main convoy makes its way from the Western provinces towards Ottawa, more mini-convoys from the Eastern provinces are starting to make their way out as well. They don’t have as far to go, so they started later, timed so everyone gets there on the 29th. I heard there were so many trucks from Newfoundland, they got a ferry out just to take the trucks across. I’ve also heard that one of the border crossings into Ontario had so many truckers from the US coming in to join the convoy, the line stretched back 70 miles!

Our mainstream media has been avoiding reporting on it as much as possible, but they can’t avoid it any more. Of course, they are misreporting it, completely. One of the things they’re doing is wildly underreporting how many trucks there are. It’s just a few trucks, according to them. Not very many. There is also the usual, predictable slanderous reporting. They’re portraying the truckers as “anti-vaxxers” (most of them are vaccinated, and if they’re coming in from the US, they’re allowed to cross only if fully vaccinated), of course. Today, they’ve been ramping up the disparaging portrayal. The truckers are white supremacists, right wing, extremists, racists, and homophobes. You know. All the tired old insults that get thrown out so much, the terms have lost all meaning. Then there is that truly Canadian insult that comes from the leftist media that gets trotted out every election, and is being trotted out now. The truckers are inspired by *gasp* “American style politics.” Apparently, being compared to Americans is supposed to be an insult. This time, one news station even suggested that the convoy is somehow inspired by the January 6/2021 protests in the US that the media continues to lie about. They are really pushing the idea that the truckers and their supporters are violent crazies. Oh, and another claim that is supposed to be an insult: the truckers are “anti-government”. Because if you don’t 100% agree with what the current government is doing, that can only mean you are “anti-government”.

It’s all BS of course. Unfortunately, too many people believe it, and it’s endangering lives. A number of trucks were found to have their pins pulled. In one incident, a trucker who was not part of the convoy, and did not agree with it, apparently deliberately rammed his own truck into a truck that was part of the convoy. It’s been portrayed by the media as an “accident”. With the way the media is whipping up hatred and division – while accusing the truckers in the convoy of spreading hatred and division – they may very well get people killed.

And our Prime Dictator? Apparently, he’s on vacation in Costa Rica right now, though I don’t know if that’s true.

Thankfully, we have independent media who reporting on the convoy with better accuracy and truthfulness. Best of all are all the people who are documenting it themselves and posting about it. Like this guy.

Language warning!

It’s absolutely amazing! Our Prime Dictator has actually managed to accomplish something useful, in spite of himself. He has united the country. Against him! I have never seen so many wildly diverse groups, completely united in their support for the convoy and the push to end all the mandates.

The guy who made the above video is just one of many supporters, and he can only cover so much. We are also seeing many First Nations groups stepping forward in support. FN peoples are notorious about not getting involved in anything that could be considered even remotely political, with good reason. I’d mentioned before that a group of Hutterites had planned to set up kitchens to feed the truckers. The police wouldn’t let them, apparently because the parking lot was too full, so they drove 2 1/2 hours to the next major city, ahead of the convoy, and set up there, determined to feed them all. The GoFundMe has, as of this writing, reached over $5.7 million. I can’t even estimate how many hundreds of people are even joining the convoy in their own vehicles, so it’s not just a convoy of long haul truckers, but of all sorts of vehicles, too. Then there are the people getting together to prepare meals in take-out containers to hand out to the truckers, people arranging for things like porta-potties along routes where public washrooms are few and far between, and on it goes.

Meanwhile, there is stuff like Facebook deleting groups supporting the convoy, all of Toronto’s traffic cams along the 401 not working, people posting their own videos on social media are finding there is no share button for some reason, and I’ve lost track of the number of people I know who have found themselves suddenly restricted from posting on social media, and not knowing why. For all that, there is still tonnes of stuff out there, for all to see, showing what’s actually happening, and how huge this whole thing is.

Our Prime Dictator has already tried to call in the military and RCMP to stop the convoy, and they refused. So far, publicly, he’s been vocal about framing the truckers as angry (duh!) and potentially dangerous people, chastising them and their supporters for being angry, saying we don’t want to be that way as Canadians. Pure gaslighting, of course. The only truckers he’s talked to is an organization that is heavily connected to the Liberal party, condemns the convoy, but does not actually represent the truckers at all.

It’s a remarkable thing to see happening, and I honestly don’t know how it’s going to turn out. What I do know is that it is going to affect all our lives, here in Canada.

The Re-Farmer

Update: I just had to include this video, too.

Morning rounds still have to be done, and more convoy talk

/ Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

After the very sad call this morning about Cabbages, I headed out to do my morning rounds and take care of the outside kitties.

Though the temperatures at the time were about -28C/-18F, it actually felt a lot warmer. At least around the house. There was a wind chill, but the wind is from the west, so we weren’t really feeling it. The outside cats were a lot more active, too.

It was feeling warm enough that I shoveled out the burn barrel again, and got it going.

We clear enough space to have room for the bags of burnables. That wall of snow is now taller than the barrel in places!

We couldn’t use the burn barrel in the summer, because of the drought, but we are now burning the wood pellet cat litter, instead of having a cat litter compost behind the outhouse. With so much snow around, I let it go down to a smolder, then put the cover on and leave it. It can continue smoking for days. As the pellets are used by the cats, they break up into sawdust. Which then freezes when the girls dump it into the burn barrel. By leaving it to smolder, the sawdust slowly thaws out, dries out, then smolders. It can take a few days, but it eventually gets burned away. It’s been so cold, though, I’m still finding frost inside the burn barrel when I uncover it, even as smoke still rises from the contents!

As soon as I cleared the area around the barrel and moved on to clear the path to the electricity meter, the space around the burn barrel got filled with cats! Not only does the space give them shelter, but the smoldering barrel gives off a bit of heat, too.

Still not as cozy as an insulated, sheltered, sun spot!

Oh, I got a peak at Potato Beetle this morning. The wound on his head seems to be healing up just fine. I could barely see the wound, and he looks more like he’s got a weird bald spot.

In other things, I’ve been keeping on top of what’s going on with the trucker convoy. This is something that affects us, even out in the boonies. We are surrounded by farms, and farmers need truckers. Heck, a lot of them have their own trucks. Most farmers have to have some other source of income. Farming doesn’t pay very well and, unlike most businesses, farmers have to buy retail and sell wholesale, instead of the other way around. So everyone around here is very supportive.

So are many others.

Last night, I heard that an estimated 10,000 truckers from various US states are heading for the border to join the convoy. Those that are not allowed to cross the border plan to stay at the border. Chances are, there are even more truckers from even more states by this morning.

The provincial convoy that started yesterday is still at the city. The national one is expected to arrive this afternoon, and they will join up and continue on to Ottawa.

In the Facebook groups supporting the convoy, I’m seeing numerous restaurant owners announcing that anyone in the convoy will be fed, for free. Food truck owners are announcing where they will be setting up to provide food. At least one of the Hutterite colonies has announced they are setting up kitchens in one of the muster points to feed everyone in the convoy.

Garages are offering free mechanical repairs.

People are offering their extra bedrooms for overnight stays, and bringing meals to the truckers.

The GoFundMe has topped $4,000,000. Because of how eager our government and GoFundMe are to prevent the money from actually getting to the truckers, there is a whole process worked out where truckers will be submitting receipts to be reimbursed for expenses, etc.

I haven’t confirmed it yet myself, but people have talked about finding the traffic cams along the convoy route are showing images of empty roads, or have simply been shut down.

The mainstream media is finally reporting on the convoy, but have been misrepresenting it like crazy. Almost all that I’ve seen have been reporting wildly lower numbers. A CBC article that tried to claim the truckers were protesting icy road conditions was so inundated by people calling them on it merely added a “correction”, saying they were talking about a different protest. Which they weren’t, because there were no truckers out there, protesting winter. Others I’ve seen have tried to say the truckers are protesting only the most recent mandate made against them. They aren’t. They are protesting to have all government mandates and restrictions for everyone, ended. That last mandate against them was just the straw that broke the camel’s back, after being treated like crap for years.

Commenters have been calling out the media like crazy for their misinformation and sloppy reporting. What’s interesting as well have been the (very few) detractors. I’m seeing people say things like, what difference does it make for them to protest in Ottawa, when it’s the US that won’t let them cross the border. Which has nothing to do with what the convoy is about. I’m guessing some media somewhere claimed that, and they believed it. Others have been calling the truckers selfish and making the usual insults about people just being scared of needles. I’m still seeing people saying that losing their jobs is just a consequence of their “choice” not to get the vaccine, and calling them anti-vaxxers. Most truckers are vaccinated, bigots don’t care about truth or reality.

I think the funniest detractors are those trying to portray the truckers and their supporters as PPC “cultists” (the PPC are the People’s Party of Canada, a new party that ran in the last federal election). Even more laughable are those trying to accuse the truckers of “dividing Canada”. I haven’t seen Canada more united over something in my life. I’ve even seen people dismissing the truckers for protesting now, instead of when our Prime Dictator called a useless, early election.

Oh, I just tried looking something up and saw that the GoFundMe has now exceeded $4.4million. Someone posted a screencap showing a $10,000 anonymous donation. I also just found this screencap.

May be an image of text that says "#TruckersForFreedom ForFreedom #FreedomConvoy2022 Rollando Lepageo Colorado 420 trucks Georgia 675 trucks South Carolina 650 trucks California 19,000 trucks Heading to Canada 1h Love Reply 2 2:55 AM. Jan 25, 2022. Twitter for Android"

If for some reason you can’t see the image, it reads:

Colorado 420 trucks
Georgia 675 trucks
South Carolina 650 trucks
California 19,000 trucks
Heading to Canada

Way to go, California!! Assuming that’s not a typo. That’s a massive number.

Not on this list are the trucks coming from Tennessee, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, Alaska and Florida, that I’ve seen elsewhere.

The most recent update I’ve heard is that the main convoy from BC is now over 150km long. That’s over 93 miles. I don’t think they’ve even crossed the middle of Canada yet, and more mini-convoys are joining all along the way.

What I’m not hearing is much from our politicians. Including our own Premier. I might just be missing it. As for our Prime Dictator, I’ve heard he’s on another vacation. The truckers are supposed to arrive in Ottawa on the 29th. Parliament was supposed to resume today, though from the parliamentary calendar, they’re scheduled to sit in parliament for only 1 day this month, and that’s on January 31.

The truckers and their supporters don’t plan to leave Ottawa until all mandates and restrictions are lifted.

It should be interesting to see how our “leaders” handle this.

The Re-Farmer