This letter is in response to a letter written by Dave Jones in a previous issue of The Review. I was accused of being a right wing extremist – I’ve been called a lot of things Mr. Jones, but never that.

First, let’s discuss our difference of opinion on what constitutes a peaceful protest. Your idea was that of the 23-day protest in our nation’s Capital. My idea of a peaceful protest is like Greta Thornburg’s protest in Montreal over climate change, where close to half a million people joined in the protest peacefully, went through the streets of Montreal peacefully and after being seen and heard, they left peacefully.

Other gatherings of peaceful protest over Indigenous rights, or mass deforestation, have all been conducted very peacefully, honouring the right of all Canadians to protest.

First off, the instigators of this protest did not convoy their way here from out west. One plane picked up six to eight people from out west and flew them to Ottawa.

We had disgruntled truckers, more than likely not vaccinated, angry at the laws of travelling between Canada and the U.S. It’s a bilateral agreement, which means both parties have to agree. Ninety per cent of all truckers are fully vaccinated, and were busy making sure we weren’t running out of produce and doing a great job.

Next there were the people who were unhappy with our Prime Minister and wanted to oust him. Just to inform you, we are not a banana republic, we’re a democracy. If you want change, Vote, Vote, Vote. It’s one of our major freedoms.

Then we had those people screaming Freedom for Canada, more than likely many were non-vaccinated, not able to enter restaurants, movie theatres, but all those mandates were on their way out except for travel.

Let’s see how much freedom you people have. You have the freedom to protest, to take over a large area of our capital; you have the right to honk horns and set off fireworks all night long for the first half of the protest, until Jim Watson brokered a deal to stop the honking at night; you have the freedom to stop thousands of people from working and lose three weeks pay; you have the freedom to disrupt the lives of all people in the area who pay their taxes and moved to the area for peace and quiet; you have the freedom to urinate on the tomb of the unknown soldier to a cheering crowd; you have the right to not be vaccinated; you have the right to protest outside schools telling students not to vaccinate or mask; you have the freedom to protest outside hospitals calling our nurses and doctors murderers – if you got sick and are not vaccinated you have the right to hospital care, and up 50% of our Intensive Care beds for 4 to 6 weeks; you have the right to through your actions to cause the deaths of numerous patients who could not receive their life-saving procedures because of no I.C.U’s.

The protest at The Ambassador Bridge was one week long and cost Windsor 5 million dollars, I hate to even think of how much the 23 days cost the people of Ontario.

So, Mr. Jones, after all is said and done, what exactly did this protest achieve? Truckers are still trucking, Trudeau is still Prime Minister, non-vaccinated people are still free to do so, but after all the mandates are lifted, some families will still not welcome non-vaccinated relatives, friends lost will not be welcoming with open arms and any new relationship will surely have the question come up “Are you vaccinated?”

This pandemic is not over – it won’t be for a long time unless everyone gets vaccinated. I still remember an interview with a nurse who looked very tired after working on non-vaccinated patients saying “This is all preventable”.

So Mr. Jones, what I would really like to be able to do is to have a reenactment of your 23-day peaceful protest outside of your house in L’Orignal, half a dozen big rigs, running all day and night, honking incessantly, fireworks all the time, the smell of diesel first thing in the morning. To make it 100 per cent real we would have to shut all the restaurants and stores in the area and screw them out of 3-weeks pay. Mr. Jones, it is very easy to have an opinion when it’s not happening in your own backyard.

As for my opinion of all the participants who stayed the full 23 days and had to be forcefully removed: I consider them bottom feeders and definitely not representative of the average Canadian.

This is a great country Mr. Jones and it deserves all the respect and honour we should give it. This country hasn’t changed, just the people who are part of it. All around the world, social media is responsible for a massive shift and I believe it has basically take the human out of humanity and we will never be the same again, never.

Good luck with your addiction.

Andy Perreault