Love Freedom and Love Peace

Written By Zuowang

2022.2.1

Translated by Zuowang

On the 28th of January, on Friday,it’s a pedagogic day for Jojo. I didn’t take him out for a long time. One excuse was it was freezing cold and another excuse was that I had been so busy that I forgot about the mundane life. So that afternoon, I took him downtown and agreed to buy him deserts. I was often so abstracted in everyday life so I missed the bus stop and we had to get off near the Parliament Hill. I pay a little attention to those political news, so I wasn’t surprised to see trucks after trucks honking into Wellington Avenue. Canadians rarely honk their horns while driving. Usually, this is tacitly regarded as a kind of pushing and offending to others, while Canadians are very gentle and caring for others, and generally do not do this unless there are extremely special circumstances. My elder son Noah is a child who is particularly sensitive to sound, which may be related to his love for music since childhood. When he returned to China at the age of ten years old, he was dumb by the honking of car horns on the streets of Beijing. He made a small statistic and told me: Mom, there has never been an interval of silence for ten seconds without horns. I was very embarrassed at that time and I did not know how to respond.

So why are these trucks like this? Because it was a Truck Convoy that opposes t Canada’s mandatory vaccine policy. Each of these trucks is far apart, at least 500 meters, and slowly drives into the avenue in front of Parliament Hill ,Ottawa. There are slogans and Canadian flags on the trucks, “Anti-mandatory vaccines!”, “Freedom is over fears.” , “God-given natural immunity trumps acquired vaccines!”

Now the policy is like this, many public officials, who work in government departments, the military, and hospitals must be vaccinated, otherwise they will be fired. People will not get CRB if you aren’t vaccinated. If you do not have a vaccine passport you are not permitted to restaurants/cafes eating. You are forbidden to the cinema, indoors fitness/swimming pool, or even outdoor skiing. The recent new policy in Quebec, Canada is even more worse, and people are not allowed to those large malls, such as Walt-Mart and Costco. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, Quebec has always adopted several curfews . For example, it is not allowed to go out after ten o’clock in the evening. What does this mean? Do the virus only work at night and stay at home in the daytime? Therefore, in this “Freedom Convoy”campaign, Legault is the only politician in all the province governors in Canada who has been condemned the same as the Prime Minister Trudeau. “Fuck Trudeau” and “Fuck Legault!”, I see a lot of these flags and the former is much more than the latter. For security, the family of Prime Minister Trudeau has left the house temporarily where they usually live.

It was very cold on Friday afternoon, it was minus 20 degrees, my young son and I were both careless, so Jojo didn’t wear a hat, his ears were red from the cold, and he mumbled it was cold. I put my hands covering his ears respectively to warm him but sometimes I was attracted by those protesters and took pictures. There were tall and long trucks parked in front of the Parliament Hill. Canada is a sparsely populated country with many plains, developed agriculture, and a lot of forests, oil, and minerals. Big trucks should meet the needs of these functions, forgive my ignorance, I can’t name the specific names of these trucks, I have to only call them “big trucks”.

I turned and saw a middle-aged couple, heavily dressed, hats, and Canadian flags waving, who were supporters of the truckers. The lady was holding a black hat in her hand, she smiled and said to me, “Hello! Can I give this hat to your son?” I was moved and embarrassed, then I accepted it readily, because Jojo is frozen into red nose.

Every time I read the word “protest” previously, subconsciously, the image of “May Fourth Youth” always popped up in my mind, young men in Chinese tunic suits, young girls with short hair, dense crowd, people roaring angrily in the procession . Having lived in Canada for more than ten years, manifestations are quite common. What I saw before were small-scale people. In the summer of 2020, it was on a larger scale – the Montreal manifestation caused by the Floyd incident in the United States, the main people was undergraduate students with young ages and excess hormones, full of self-moving drama complex, also like naughty children. A musical instruments store was robbed of a guitar, a sporting goods store lost their running shoes, and the riot police drove away them like chasing ducks and they used gas bomb. I confess that I am an old mean woman and at that time I couldn’t help laughing loudly as an indifference observer.

The main force of this Ottawa anti-mandatory vaccine demonstration is people over the age of 30, and there are many family members, and children also participated in this movement. Many slogans read “For children!” Because the epidemic has brought many restrictions on children, they cannot go to school, party, or travel. My young son Jojo is outgoing after several months of the lockdown he went out to play. When a stranger asked him his name, he became awkward. In the past, he was the kind of kid who is after others to ask about names, hobbies, and common topics. , regardless of the age of others. I later asked him why did this happen, and he told me he had been restrained indoors for too long, he has not seen anyone else except families for a long time, so he had changed.

On the Saturday, I was going to study hard because the schoolwork was too heavy, but I accidentally damaged the charger of the my elder son’s iPhone! What the heck did it happen? How can you break a charger? ! well, Not to mention! The fear of my elder son going crazy is over the anxiety of not finishing my assignments. I had to go out and buy a new one, then just watch the Freedom Convoy in the Parliament Hill again. After all, the Saturday is the climax, and yesterday was just the prelude.

On the second floor of Rideau Center through the glass window, I could observe very well, the entire Wellington Street was blocked, many cars also joined the protest team, many pedestrians were holding or wearing national flags, and flags condemning the Prime Minister JustinTrudeau. Many people held placards and honked their horns again and again. The indoor flyover area on the second floor originally had a lot of power sockets. The dammed government power! The bureaucratic surely had known that there would be a lot of prostrators who came out of Ottawa and they really need some place to rest and charge their cellphones. So all of these powers were cut off! Cut–Off! So I couldn’t charge my cellphone.

The proprietress of a small wonton restaurant told me that in these two years since the epidemic, the price of a barrel of oil has risen from 20 dollars to more than 40 dollars, and the price of detergent has increased from 2 to 4 dollars, not to mention the price of the real estate which has risen by 30%. Trudeau’s pidemic relief policy has caused many people to be reluctant to work, because unemployment benefits are higher than salary. Nursing homes in Canada have always been the hardest hit by poor management and are understaffed. This epidemic relief policy has led to an even greater shortage of nursing staff.

On Wellington road someone was giving a speech. It was a young mother, and she wanted to protect her child and not let her live in a big cage and lose all normal rhythm of life in such a world. The Parliament Hill has gotten to the point where it’s almost blocked without a pot of water pouring into. There’s a truck driver giving a speech that seems to be condemning Trudeau? I couldn’t hear clearly. A placard on the big truck said, ‘Aren’t you ashamed now since that your father, Prime Minister Trudeau, brought us the Canadian Charter in 1982, giving people freedom and human rights. ”Trudeau ‘s father is also a former Prime Minister of Canada, and is the longest-serving term in this position. A young lady had a handwritten placard in French behind her back, “Our Constitution is sick!” The important content of this demonstration was to defend the freedoms and human rights protected by the Constitution.

Are vaccines effective? To what extent they are effective? Is it necessary to mandate vaccine? How to achieve a balance between epidemic prevention and protecting human rights? I am not a medical expert or a politician, I can only judge by common sense. So far, the three countries that have done well defending the epidemic as well as safeguarding freedom should be Sweden, the United Kingdom and Japan. Sweden adopted all of the advices of epidemiologists during the whole process of covid-19. So the normal life of the people is almost holding. The Swedish people were rarely affected in any aspect, and their mortality rate for covid-19 was not high. Although the United Kingdom and Japan also have their ups and downs situation in this two years, and the governments sometimes were complained by their people for their poor policies. However, the two governments have never dared to take advantage of the situation to grow a strong government intervening citizens transcending the borders. Whether the politicians in these two countries are more high-esteem or more cowardly? or their people are more dauntless enough to rebel the wicked rules? I don’t know the answer.

Two years later, the new coronavirus has gone from a virus with a high fatality rate to a virus with a high transmission rate and a low fatality rate. For any virus, it is only possible to choose between a high fatality rate and a high prevalence. This conclusion does not require medical knowledge, but only logic. Because the fatality rate is high, the parasitic host dies, and naturally the disease will not spread, and the prevalence is high, which naturally means that the host can stay alive for a long time after infection.

Regarding the origin of the virus, when it first broke out, I was hit by it dually both in China and Canada because firstly I stayed in Beijing in the end of 2019 then I flew back to Canada in March 2020. At that time, I was still innocent enough, and I caught the opportunity when China’s blockade of epidemic news was not as strict as it was later. So I followed various official, non-official, domestic and foreign news every day. I wrote lots of poems (metrical poems and free style ones)and diaries to describe the covid-19 living of Chinese. Was the Chinese official making trouble for me? No, no one invited me to have a cup of tea in the police station except deleting my threads on internet. However, the strong power of Chinese people dwindle me dramatically . If possible, they would pull me out along the wifi, put on the high hat of “traitor”, twist me as a jet plane body gesture , fight all kinds of fights, and then trampled me down to the ground, eating my flesh and drinking my blood. The saddest part of this story is that “they” are included some relatives and former friends of mine.

Half because of the terrible strength of the people’s tyranny, and half because I found in this process of tracing back to the source that all governments are untrustworthy and bad (this position is correct), and I am too lazy to find the white one among the black crows , and don’t want to catch a bird of truth in the sky of lies. Out of sight and out of mind, I would calm down so I chose to read books in my small reading room.

Though when on the Saturday I heard some Chinese sweared that the virus was passed on to China by the Americans through the Military Sports Meeting, I, I… I actually refuted it again! Does is mean I am a real fool who never changes born personality.

From the point of view of the origin of the virus as I know, this virus is the grasshopper of the post-autumn era, in other words, they can’t live a long life.I don’t believe that the artificial virus life form that came out of the laboratory can produce infinity offsprings in this globe. Human beings are too minuscule and weak before God, not to mention the virus created by us.

When I went out after 9 a.m. that Saturday, the Alexander Bridge between Quebec and Ontario blocked the passage of people, temporarily changing the bridge for passing vehicles to pass people. Many people on the bridge are participating in the demonstrations on Freedom Convoy because they carry flags and slogans. The weather is really cold, so many people were wearing snow pants. I don’t know if wearing snow pants will cause the walking posture to be very similar to when wearing ski shoes. In short, the walking appearance of many people in front of me made me feel instantly the illusion, I was marching in the group skiing team, I was laughing secretly.

At three or four o’clock in the afternoon, I was so cold that I went back to Rideau Center again. Many marchers entered here, so many people needed to use the bathroom, and also needed to eat in the restaurants. Many people were sitting by the wall, and I really wanted to chat with them and know more about the situation. Consequently I also found a place to sit down, however, the man beside me was silent and serious. I didn’t get anything except knowing that he came from Quebec. I ended the chatting embarrassingly.

Another old lady is interesting. She is about 60 years old and also from Quebec. She likes to chat, but she is full of a subtle arrogance of some people in Quebec, because she said to me, Where did you learn English? I also heard this kind of question from another unfamiliar old Quebec woman. Her question was, “When are you going back to China?” That was a conversation that happened when I attended the Quebec Provincial Celebration and was waiting for the parade. But I usually just smiled it off in these circumstance. The lady came to the Freedom Convoy parade with her daughter, who seems to be from a far-away province, and a very active and engaged person, and the mother and daughter will go to meet the parade organization leader later. I said, we should all sing “Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry men!” The old lady was surprised, you know this? I thought to myself, a piece of cake !Probably I am over the average level of Canadians about the western culture. I told her that in 2018, I voted for the governor of Legault, and she responded very quickly, and immediately said oops and her facial expressions, which is equivalent to saying that you had a false voting, and I told her I was very much regret for my ever choice today.

The government closed the Rideau Center early on that Saturday and the Ottawa public library was closed too. All of Starbucks in the downtown were closed, and McDonald’s and Tim Hortons were still open. These companies also silently expressed their support or opposition to the event. Someone put up a sign at the entrance of the Parliament Hill, telling everyone where to buy food, because all the nearby shops were closed, and at the end of the bulletin there posted a sticking tag insulting Trudeau.

I have personally experienced the troublesome of not finding toilets in public places because of the epidemic blockade. So on Sunday, when I found out that the Rideau Center was closed, neither as McDonald , I was very worried for those truckers heroes. I wondered how would address this problem.

On that Sunday, I finished my homework earlier than I supposed. It was 5:30 PM, I still had time to go to the Parliament Hill, and I really went again. The bus was completely blocked this time, and I was forced to change the subway. It was my first time on the subway in Ottawa. During the transfer, I saw some truck drivers from other provinces were blocked on the road and could not enter the downtown. They just rested on the spot and started playing drums and honking horns. Some riot police were watching them here.

There were not as many people on the Sunday night as during the day on Saturday. Some people set up a fire to keep warm. I was attracted by the warmth. Those people greeted me and I sat down. They’re not truck drivers, but they’ve come all the way to participate in the protests, from Manitoba, so far! They were men in their thirties and forties. They were typical Canadians. They were simple and honest. They didn’t look like intellectuals. They were ordinary laborers. They also didn’t like to talk a lot about the meaning of the march. Securing freedom, cancelling the epidemic blockade, that is their purpose, and they don’t have any hating or abominations.

After a while I got together in another fire crowd, and there was a farmer, Albert’s, who had a truck, and he came with his wife, and Annabelle, an eight-month-old puppy. The rest are young people from Quebec, in their thirties. Those Quebec young people treated the peasant with an adoration to a hero. The peasant didn’t say much, but he said loudly, I don’t want to live in a communist country, I want to live in a free country .

This made me open the conversation box, I started to complain, and the young people joined in. We were all complaining about Quebec’s epidemic prevention policy. I said, Trudeau also said that the protesters were only a small group of fringe people, the younger man burst into laugh and said :wait, there will be many people laughing at his words soon. It turned out that soon I saw Elon Musk mocking Trudeau on Twitter – Now, the government is a small fringe group, isn’t it?

In fact, everyone of us has spent much more time to tease the lovely puppy Annabelle rather than chat. She is in the hostess’s nursery bag, only showing a small head, looking at people with dark eyes. From time to time, people come to say hello to her and touch her head or her mouth. The hostess answered my doubts about the toilets. Their activities are organized very well. The problems of eating, bathing, and going to the toilet have been taken into account. Some people can finish these things in the trucks . I also know from other ways that there are greeting organization in every province. The staff in churches and citizen volunteers will help them.

Those huge trucks in downtown Ottawa were honking their horns on Sunday night, with placards saying, “Thank you truck drivers!” On the Parliament Hill, the gathering crowd began to set off fireworks. Before the epidemic, there were often beautiful fireworks to watch in summer evenings in Ottawa. But the covid-19 made all the beautiful things disappear. One of the many slogans posted on the railings outside Congress Square struck me: “I was born in a communist country because of bad luck, then I’m going to die in a free country – it’s my choice!” Some were , “We are the majority and will not be silent!” “Freedom for all Canadians!” “Mandate free!” “True North! Strong freedom!” “Freedom for the children!”.

A grandmother with three or four children also participated in the protest. A handsome boy motioned me to take a picture for him in front of the placard. I couldn’t find any madness, hatred, inflammatory slogans everywhere. What people shouted the most was “Freedom! Freedom!” in French or in English, and “Trudeau should go!”.

As a Canadian who was born in China I was raised in a communist atheist country and in the second half part of my life, I began to persistently reflect about whether there exist God in the world, and finally I came to a positive conclusion. So I can understand the anxiety and anger of these christian protesters. In the course of history, if people were unfortunately covered by dark clouds, they would feel panic and horrified, because they have lost the familiar order and aura in their familiar world. Yet I am also deeply impressed by their attitude, which is genuinely Canadian, gentle, and firm, when it comes to raising objections.

However, the education and instillment I received since I was a child is completely different with that of Canada. Whether it is the history of revolution in China or the history from the Soviet Union, France and Germany, revolution is not a dinner party, revolution is not gentle, respectful and thrifty, on the contrary, revolution is a singular choice between life-and-death, treating enemies like the autumn wind sweeping leaves away, generally ruthless!

Violence pervades the world I was familiar with, not just physical violence, but verbal violence as well. When we oppose something, we have to show a fierce and vicious state. Without such an attitude, it is not enough to match a strong determination. Similarly, when we see other people’s refuting, we immediately become a cat who is trampling on its tail, ready to fight back at any time.

But the Canadians and Canada I love, tell me how people express their disapproval in a normal civilized world. I am grateful for this valuable lesson.