Local Resident Explains What it was Like in Ottawa on Saturday

Monday, 31 January 2022 at 13:10

Heart FM was able to interview a local protester who shared his experience in Ottawa this weekend.

There are no signs that a convoy of truckers clogging the streets of downtown Ottawa plans on pulling out anytime soon.

Demonstrators will continue to have block parties and the protest has now entered day 3. Many of the images on social media have shown the protestors, flying flags with racist imagery, and videos have surfaced of historical monuments being desecrated.

The Prime Minister and Premier both denounced the protests today. You can read Fords comments here. You can read Trudeau's comments here.

Heart FM recently spoke with Kevin Miller of Ayr. He went to Ottawa with three friends to show his support for the cause. Miller is double vaccinated, active in the community as a hockey coach and does not align himself with any political party.

He went to the protest for three reasons.

"One was to show my support for the end of lockdowns and mandates. Mandates have not been working and have been adding stress to everyday Canadian life with work, child care, leisure, health care and the list goes on. Secondly the things people put in their body, should be their own choice and shouldn't be anybody's business."

The third reason is because he needs to tell his kids to stand up for what they believe in and how can he tell them that, if he is not willing to do it himself.

Miller says the images of people sharing hateful symbols and defiling monuments do not tell the whole story.

"I did happen to see the person on the unnamed soldiers, they were immediately removed and I was told that the convoy organizers put people in front of the unnamed soldiers, to keep people from being there. There was people praying in front of the unnamed soldiers as well. I didn't see what happened at the Terry Fox monument but I did see it being cleaned up afterwards. If you look back in history, that monument has had stuff on it, through other peaceful protests, gay pride events and others. I saw one image of a swastika flag and those people were booed and removed from the crowd. The whole Co-opted thing is untrue. Co-opted means taking over, there may have been a few bad apples, but if you look at the aerial images, they had thousands of people there, and obviously you are going to have some bad apples. On the whole the crowd was amazing, smile on their faces, having a good time, all while trying to show our frustration with the last few years."

You can listen to the full interview with Miller where he explains his experience at the protest in detail below: