Another important update after a gruelling day fighting the dark forces of white supremacy, racism, misogyny and all other bad stuff in the crime ridden wasteland of Ottawa. Comedian Hassan Chaudhry, originally from Pakistan, does a stand up routine to rousing applause. Scary.
Ran into these three gentleman from Scarborough. The older guy on the far right (ugh naturally) comes from my hometown in India. They were smiling and said they'd never felt more proud to be Canadian. All very disturbing.
Originally from Iran, @SalmanSima also gave a speech on the importance of freedom, liberty, blah blah. I tuned out cos what credibility could he possibly have on these issues given how liberal and progressive today's Iran is.
With Every Child Matters flag behind them,these Sikh truckers were hounded by this dad & his two daughters for a photo and hugs.I tried preventing this hateful act towards my fellow brown brothers but I was overpowered by a strong forcefield of love and affection. Still shaking.
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I've heard from so many today that some Ottawa hotels have been instructed by the city/feds not to give out rooms to the protestors. The Marriott downtown apparently is empty but evidently all the rooms booked. Someone should really investigate if this is true.
If this is true, this is a serious abuse of government power to say nothing of a huge waste of taxpayers money. Should be investigated.
As an independent voice for the last decade in India, I've been at the receiving end of vile abuse, defamation and threats to my personal safety both from libs and cons, latter more insidious because they're close to those in power. Being liked is not part of a journalist's job.
Independent voices don't have the support of large corporate media houses or other powerful backing. Pointing to facts as uncomfortable as they may be to those accept a received narrative without question doesn't win you friends as I have discovered over many years.
One thing I've learned over the years is if you're a journalist and you receive a threat that's credible, report it to the police. Abusive language as unfortunate as it is is something all public personalities including journalists have to accept.
Here are Sandeep and Jag from Montreal. Both originally from India. They're here to oppose lockdowns and mandates. They say they're not white supremacists.
More mercenaries from Montreal spreading hateful messages of love. I suspect Ottawa can't handle this outpouring of affection. Call in the army.
Meet Ottawa residents Kyle and Meghan with this extremely provocative message of coming together and ending divisions. Should be filed under hate speech.
GiveSendGo site is down. It's overwhelmed by the traffic clearly. Been trying to refresh for several minutes but no dice. #FreedomConvoy is now accepting donations at GiveSendGo. Fascinating how quickly it's managed to raise fresh funds. 😅
#GiveSendGo is at $83,000 so far. All within a few hours. Will the genius who thought that deleting their GoFundMe account would somehow deter this movement, please stand up. This is pretty dumb.
Statement from GoFundMe says they have evidence from law enforcement that FreedomConvoy "has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity." medium.com/gofundme-stori…
This is only going to strengthen #FreedomConvoy 's resolve.What folks don't realize are large private donations individual truckers and even some protestors have been getting from friends,family,farmers,and even some biggies in the private sector etc. So this will be interesting.
And if I were the organizers, I was probably expecting this and planning other alternatives. So this is unlikely to deter #FreedomConvoy . I suspect this will embolden them and bolster support for their cause.
I have now returned from the barren crime ridden wasteland of Ottawa and once again encountered assorted mercenaries, misogynists, anarchists, racists and white supremacists. An update follows. For the faint of heart, you have been warned. Here goes. #FreedomConvoy
Meet Rosina Kharal, Comp Sci lecturer at the University of Waterloo who came with her two kids to the protest. She gave a fiery speech to rousing applause. For her the trucker convoy brings hope. She's not been able to teach as she's unavvxed. She’s Muslim and raised in Canada.
Unfortunately I only managed to get a short snippet of Rosina’s speech. At this point, it was either keeping my fingers warm or have them amputated. It was cold out there. 🥶🥶🥶🥶 She really is a great orator.