Canada Geese aka the Ivermectin Insurrection

My lovelies, it’s been a long 2 years since I have sat down to write here. The last I wrote I had been diagnosed with Dengue Fever Covid that became long Covid and lead to an 8 month nap. Since then it’s been a stream of losing beloved people and pets (RIP Tofu) and watching family develop dementia, interspersed with a few random bone breaks to keep it interesting. One day an archeologist will dig me up and announce “we’ve got a stuntwoman here!”

But now there’s something to write about – we have been invaded by geese. The whole of downtown is filled day and night with honking and shitting. It’s been a week and people would dearly love them to go south, or anywhere really, so we can sleep.

Why did the geese come to Ottawa in the middle of winter? Well, it all started with a white nationalist and a western separatist who tapped into the anger and frustration of anti-vaxxers, Covid deniers, the anti-lockdown, anti-mandate crowd and, unfortunately, riled up some Nazis for good measure. They fundraise and tell everyone they are doing it for the truckers and they are all coming to Ottawa to reverse the trucker quarantine mandates. Yay! Who doesn’t love a trucker? They bring our food and toot at little kids with their charming air horns. Fun fact: 90% of truckers are vaccinated and the main trucking associations all condemn this convoy.

So they drove into Ottawa last Friday and Saturday. Tractor trailers, pickup trucks with Confederate flags and cars full of families arrived in a typical January freeze of -35. Do you know what a January weekend downtown looks like? Empty! They were basically protesting to themselves. The House wasn’t sitting. Trudeau was off catching Covid from his kid. There was no one to protest at – except the residents and businesses.

To win friends and influence the fine people of Ottawa they decided to harass anyone they could find wearing a mask. Extra points for teenagers doing weekend shifts in stores and restaurants trying to enforce the mask mandates. Businesses and the Rideau Centre had to close. Hoteliers were berated and, in one case, assaulted. Nazi flags, confederate flags, patriote flags, “pureblood” signs, swastikas and yellow stars were all being waved around. They demanded food from homeless shelters, raided the Highjinx outdoor pantry meant for the vulnerable, threatened women and gay people, threw rocks at ambulances, danced on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, pooped on lawns, dressed Terry Fox up like a doofus and instantly wore out their welcome.

And then they started with the fireworks and horns. At first I thought, hey Ottawa sounds like India! But they didn’t stop. And vehicles in India generally aren’t using ear splitting air horns and train horns in a mixed residential area all through the day and night. These geese drive through all the residential areas near downtown honking like mad, but they mainly sit in the streets downtown and honk continuously. There is no way to describe how loud these horns are but they are literally crazy making. People in apartments and condos are trying to sleep next to these and comfort their kids and pets. It meets the definition of torture.

And oddly, no one in power can decide what to do with them. Our Chief of Police has ordered his officers to be hands off to avoid violent confrontation. I understand that, I do. Some of these people are armed and no one wants a riot. But some officers seem to be suspiciously chummy and they are assisting them to acquire more fuel. Not a good look, and deeply unappreciated by the people being tormented and harassed by these guys.

Chief Sloly seems to have taken the peculiar position that there is nothing to be done to protect the citizens of Ottawa. That’s pretty fucking dumbfounding. These occupiers enjoy Charter rights that don’t seem to apply to marginalized protesters and residents of Ottawa. He refused Trudeau’s offer of military aid and help from the RCMP, although I heard last night that some RCMP will be joining in under his jurisdiction. Not sure what his endgame is, but it doesn’t look good from the middle of this chaos.

Residents have formed walking buddy groups to get people through the throng and another group is handing out earplugs. People outside the downtown core are offering respite rooms in their homes. Since we have been abandoned by the people paid to keep us safe, we are looking out for one another.

The other bright spark in this are the people who have tuned into the English and French trucker radio platforms. They troll, oh do they troll. It’s hilarious, but mostly sad. These people who have come to occupy – they finally feel a purpose – although they don’t seem to agree exactly what it is and many don’t have any idea what the endgame might be. They generally don’t like masks, vaccines, the medical system in general, any media aside from Rebel News, definitely not Trudeau, and there are loads of casual racism and misogyny in their conversations, with some Hitler appreciation sprinkled in. Some love a conspiracy, and some claim to hate the conspiracy theorists, blocking them from the channel and then engaging in the conspiracies they prefer. Many who are on the channel have no grasp of the Canadian political system or how it works. They have no idea the vaccine mandates are provincial or that the media don’t have the power to remove Trudeau from office or make the US remove its quarantine mandate. They were told to come to Ottawa and all the things would happen, so they came.

A lot of the people in this convoy finally feel that someone sees and hears them and they are with like-minded brethren. It reminds me of what I have read about Charlie recruiting the Manson family. He found disenfranchised teens, convinced them that only he loved and understood them and brought them into a community so they would do anything for him; to disastrous effect. And, like Charlie, these leaders are in it for their own power and purposes. They stay in hotels with showers and access to GoFundMe money, while no one even arranged for porta potties or food for the convoy.

And then there are the darker elements we have been warned about – well-armed American-funded insurrectionists, neo-Nazis and lone wolf extremists. These guys are the reason our peaceful protest scheduled for Saturday was called off. Intelligence says these guys are present and waiting for something to set off violence, so we needed to not be the spark.

More geese are set to arrive today and tomorrow, along with additional convoys to Toronto and Quebec City. We shall see how all these elements play out. Stay safe, everyone.