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Discussing False Claims Made About The Canadian Truckers Freedom Convoy

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Whether or not you’re against what the truckers are protesting, one thing is for sure, violence, white supremacy and vandalism were not present anywhere at the Canadian Truckers Protest. The complete opposite was claimed by Teen Vogue, in this Teen Vogue article, published on the 10th of Feb, 2022. The only violence present came from the police, who trampled an old lady (see here, and here) during the protest. So today we will be debunking the lies and rumours they spread in their writer’s attempt at an informed article. We will be providing all relevant links and evidence to support what we state in this article.

Table of contents

Disclaimer: It is evident that since this article has been published, Erica Marrison, the author of the post we are discussing, or her editors, have removed all of the tweets that she used as evidence in many of her claims about the Truckers. As a result, some of the embedded Tweets we used from her article are not present due to deletion, changing of the URL or being made private. Fortunately, some remain.

Erica implies the truckers urinated on statues

At the start of the article, Erica claims in her opening statement that the protests aren’t really about mandate freedom but “that the Ottawa “Freedom Convoy” is really about white supremacy and white nationalism.” If you’ve seen any honest coverage of the protests then you’ll know that at best this is a misinformed statement, and at worst, a total lie.

Let’s take a look at some of the evidence (if any) Erica uses to back up her point. Instead of citing a video or testimony of some sort, she instead links to another blog post by Blogto, which, if you scroll down further enough includes some tweets from January. Let’s take a look: (scroll down to view the Tweet)

https://twitter.com/TheBogie74/status/1487828290333143040?s=20&t=M06nyCb9m1aiUZgl8C2Taw

So what we have here is a photo of a statue, with some snow beneath it. A small part of the snow is stained yellow/brown. The tweet has about 15 likes and a few replies and does not prove anything. For one, the stain could be anything, just use your imagination. It could be Tea, Juice or anything of that colour. Yet this is taken/used as some sort of evidence by Erica that “The Truckers” did this?

Another Twitter user rightly pointed out that anyone could have done this, even the very individual who took the photo. See the Tweet below: (scroll down)

Claiming the Truckers “harassed staff at an Ottawa homeless shelter”

Now onto the next claim that Erica makes, where she says the truckers harassed staff at homeless shelters. Maybe this time she’ll link a video of this so we can see if what she is claiming is true.

Nope, just another fancy tweet from the 30th of January again this time a little later at around midnight of someone tweeting this: (scroll down to view the Tweet)

Seriously? Normally when you accuse a large group of people of committing a potentially arrestable/imprisonable offence you’d want to provide some sort of substantial evidence right?

Maybe a witness statement, a video showing the event taking place, or even a news article. But no, Erica links another tweet of someone just claiming it happened. This time the tweet had 115 likes so maybe it’s a bit more trustworthy. Either way, this is in no way any sort of evidence to suggest such a thing.

It’s just someone on Twitter claiming this happened. Imagine if this was all you needed to prove people committed a crime these days, just a link to a random tweet of someone saying they did it, and there you go! You’ve just proven your point.

This would make sense since the people who read Teen Vogue aren’t going to do anything close to that anyway. (Although in the tweet they link to a weather site to prove themselves right when they claimed that it was -30 degrees.) In my opinion, Erica wasn’t counting on people clicking on these links and checking them out to see if what she was claiming was true.

Now in this Tweet by the Shepherds of Good Hope, a provider service for people in need of shelter and food, who display, among others the slogans: “Homes for All” and “Hope for All” on their public Twitter account, claimed in a short Tweet: (Scroll down)

The Tweet from what appears, in my opinion, to be a respectable charity, claims that it was brought to their attention that during the day, some of the protestors from the convoy harassed the staff of the soup kitchen, while they were seeking food.

Whether you believe that is up to you, it could certainly be true. Personally, in 2022, when everyone even 10 has cell phones, usually with HD cameras you would think some of this may have been caught on film, or maybe even there would be some kind of video of people talking about it just after it had happened.

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However, there is not, and due to this, it’s hard to believe. I can certainly imagine some arguments breaking out if the staff refused to give them food. And if that happened, then the Truckers, who were in Ottawa for a legitimate reason, would be in the wrong.

However, all we have is a Tweet from a Homeless Shelter stating they’ve been made aware of it (they say: Hi everyone, thanks for bringing this to our attention.) as in they may not have been fully aware it took place.

Surely they would have made a more formal statement about it or even a video. Neither happened, unfortunately. Much like this Teen Vogue article, it lacks evidence & certitude.

Repeats a claim that the truckers conspired to commit theft

In addition to this, one Twitter user, only known as R, claims that the protestors were plotting to steal food from the shelter in a Vimeo video of voice recordings from what appears to be an iMessage or Telegram group chat with alleged Truckers discussing and asking directions to places they can stay and find food.

See the Tweet below: (scroll down) – (the Tweet was not included in the Teen Vogue article but I’m using it to demonstrate that most people who were criticising the Canadian Truckers Freedom Convoy made baseless claims with no evidence, just like Erica.)

Listen to the audio for yourself and make up your own decision on if the protestors were “discussing stealing food from homeless” people.

I have listened several times myself with headphones and in my opinion, it just sounds like a bunch of people asking advice on where they can find shelter for the night and food to eat. More importantly, there is no mention at all of them conspiring to steal any food from the shelter the user claims. Have a listen to the audio yourself:

I guess that R misinterpreted what they were talking about. On the other hand, it could be a direct attempt to smear the protestors as some kind of angry, thuggish mob, who are out to steal food from homeless people that need it.

One of the men in the chat can be heard stating that as far as he’s concerned they are homeless in this city. Obviously, he’s not claiming that they are actually homeless but saying that since they are protesting and in a different city, they should be entitled to the food provided by the shelter.

I disagree with what this man says, I don’t think that this gives you the right to try and seek food from the shelters that are meant for the local homeless people of Ottawa, even though the Truckers may need it. It’s not up to the shelter or any other institution of person to provide them with food. This is because I believe a protest should be self-sufficient.

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Regardless, there is no mention of them plotting to steal food at all. The claim made by R is false and it makes it look like she did not listen to the voice messages that she included in her own Tweet.

This isn’t to say that the Truckers didn’t need food and shelter themselves, many of them who slept in their trucks needed food and supplies. However, in my opinion, a respectable protest would be a self-sufficient one. One where you make enough noise to cause a problem so your demands can be met, but not in any way harm the citizens of the country, region or area that you’re protesting in.

One of the people in the chat actually can be heard saying that one of his “buddies” was kicked out of a hotel and was in need of a place to stay, also saying “he’s got his kids with him”. This is sad, and my heart goes out to any of the protestors who experienced hardship during that time.

Wouldn’t be a corporate media article without Trump

Her next claim was wonderful because it had nothing to do with her claim about the trucker’s protest being about white supremacy and white nationalism.

While what she says is true, it does not really prove anything, only that Trump didn’t approve of what Trudeau was doing. She just says that Donald Trump said Justin Trudeau was a far-left Lunatic.

“This commentary from Trump is a reminder of the insurrection at the United States Capitol, which rendered plain what’s at stake when years of sexist and racist political rhetoric, unregulated technology companies, and an economic system that privileges individual power are given a dominant role in shaping society.”

This doesn’t prove anything about her argument and claims that the “Ottawa “Freedom Convoy” is really about white supremacy and white nationalism” at all, just that Trump supports the movement. Interestingly, although I’m not a Trump supporter and disagree with many of his former policies, I vividly remember him saying this:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0qD47QFFkTU%3Fstart%3D158
Trump condones the KKK, Neo Nazis, White Supremacists and Racists. © Insider Business

Trump condemns white Supremacists even going as far as to say it in an official announcement. Let’s move on to what she says next as I lose more brain cells reading this pathetic excuse of a journalistic article.

Only attacking a protest you don’t agree with

Now, something that Erica does throughout her article, is called the protest an occupation. You can call it that all you want, but that would mean you would have to also call many of the BLM riots in 2020 and 2019 occupations as well.

Do you remember C.H.A.Z. ? (the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone) sometimes also called CHOP? Armed individuals from Antifa and other groups took control of an entire precinct for 3 weeks.

Inside CHAZ, there was violence, and guess what? 100% of the people who died in CHAZ were Black. So in their attempts to create a safe space area free of Racism, Homophobia, Transphobia and so on, they actually created an area where Black people were the only race which died within the zone.

That’s just extremely disturbing, and my condolences go out to the families and people affected by all the people murdered in that zone. Two young black men, one of whom was just 16, had their car shot out when they entered the zone. Fortunately, one survived to tell the tale.

Now that’s what you call an occupation. Not a bunch of fed-up protesters peacefully driving their trucks through the capitol protesting freedoms which have been taken away from them.

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Forgive me, but the point I’m trying to make here is that it seems many people (such as Erica) like to smear protests as occupations when it suits them, but when it’s a protest that they hold dear to their hearts, then suddenly, it isn’t. (I’m assuming Erica would not have any issues with the BLM protests).

You can’t pick and choose because you support one movement, but disagree with another. Now again forgive me because Erica seems to go off on a rant again by just quoting random Black BLM activists who are disagreeing with the American legal system and talking about racism in Canada.

Again, it’s pretty irrelevant and doesn’t have anything to do with the Canadian Truckers. In fairness, the same can be said about when I mentioned the BLM riots, (most of which were peaceful) however, in that respect, I was illustrating that so-called journalists like Erica, choose to call the Canadian Truckers Protest an occupation, whilst most likely support of the BLM movement occupied that precinct in the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone.

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To support what I’m saying, according to a Washington Post article, when Antifa did merge with BLM it was rare. Meaning that when there was violence it would have been hard to blame it on either side, anyhow, I conclude that there’s no way Erica would condone the scenes of violence we saw, (here), (here), (here), (here), (here) and (here) and in many other places. Read more here: ACLED Data on George Floyd violent and non-violence Protests.

Do you remember when the protestors occupied a large part of the CNN Center Building? That was an occupation that required police presence and protection but I haven’t seen any article or condemnation from Erica against that. But why would we?

In my opinion, Erica only attacks & smears protestors she does not agree with, even though the Truckers were peaceful and their right to protest is just as valid as the BLM protestors, some of whom were very violent as we have just shown.

Is Far-Right Activism growing in Canada?

Erica’s next claim is that Far Right activism is growing in Canada. On this point, I somewhat agree with her. Far-right extremist groups are becoming a large problem in Canada and the world we live in.

We have groups like the Proud Boys in the USA, Golden Dawn in Greece, the Azoz Battalion in Ukraine and many more all over Europe and America. Challenging these groups should be a necessity in our society and I agree with Erica’s frustrations about this.

The same thing can be said about Far Left groups like Antifa,  Action Directe, New World Liberation Front (who laid pipe bombs, being responsible for 70 bombings in the San Francisco Bay Area), and the John Brown Gun Club.

Although slightly less professional and more decentralised, they have posed a significant threat to the US democracy, just like Far Right groups. They’re both bad, and we should do our best to condemn them both.

No matter if it’s on the left or the right, we should do our best to combat it, even if that means putting ourselves out there in this corrupt world we live in.

Claims there’s a 320% increase in Far Right groups operating in Canada

Anyway, next she claims that there’s been a 320% increase in Far Right groups operating in Canada. I don’t know if this is true or not because she didn’t link the study she was citing, she just linked the website that did the study, determinedly trying her best.

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Another thing she stated was: “The protests have included white supremacist and white nationalist imagery” – again, no links, no images, no video, no evidence, just a claim.

How can you argue that “the Ottawa “Freedom Convoy” is really about white supremacy and white nationalism” without any evidence? It’s just your opinion.

Claiming the Truckers flew Nazi Party flags

Another claim Erica makes is that (and I’ll quote her) “and have been seen carrying Confederate flags and Nazi symbols”.

What’s her evidence of this? Well, she links to this article by the Montreal Gazette, which I encourage you to read here: Montreal Gazette: Convoy protesters’ use of Nazi symbols ‘shocking in 2022’: genocide expert.

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Nowhere in the article are any images, videos, witness testimonies, audio recordings or any other conceivable pieces of evidence that could back up her claim that: “and have been seen carrying Confederate flags and Nazi symbols” – nowhere in the article.

The article has no images or videos, bar one embedded YouTube video, which, if you watch all the way through shows no evidence of what she claims. A section from the top comment from that video reads:

“The Ottawa Citizen should be ashamed about this extremely biased reporting”.

When you watch the video, all you see are a bunch of people walking around slowly with Canadian flags and old French and English flags, as well as umbrellas in the Sun, there’s no violence or unrest.

It’s kind of boring to watch, not like the France riot videos you can watch on YouTube which see high levels of violence on both sides.

I sent Matt Scott, the writer of the article an email about his article, asking if he could provide any videos, images, or other evidence of Nazi Flags and/or symbols being used at the protest, as there were none in his article.

Unfortunately, I did not get a response, and I don’t think I will get one. Nonetheless, I thought it was important to include what I sent him anyway. Please see below the full email.

Now obviously, with all this said, there is starting to be a common theme here. When Erica made a claim, she did one of three things:

  1. Linked to an article which contains no evidence to back the claim but still uses to article as evidence anyway.
  2. Linked to a site that publishes studies but does not link to the actual study on the site.
  3. Makes an outright claim with no evidence whatsoever.

Her article has all the hallmarks of a left-wing, mainstream, (don’t get me wrong right-wing articles are just as bad) corporate article. What I mean by this is there is no evidence to back the claims she makes and the article is more about ideology than objective fact.

She’s more interested in pushing a narrative about the truckers & far-right/right-wing politics in general than demonstrating (with facts and sound arguments) that the Canadian trucker’s protest (or “occupation”) was about White Nationalism just as Erica claims in her article. This is the current state of mainstream corporate Journalism in America.

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According to TruckersNews.com – Punjabi and Hindi-speaking drivers numbered around 35,085 in total. As well as that, many of them also spoke Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, or Creole.

There were additionally 315 trucker drivers who spoke the Cree language (Aboriginal language). [This was taken from a 2016 national census according to TruckerNews.com]

Do you think the Canadian truckers a substantial number of whom would have been of Pakistan & Indian origin, turn up to a protest (which we know, categorically, was about the COVID-19 mandates) to advocate for, (in Erica’s opinion) white supremacy & white nationalism?

It does not make any sense as I said before. This is why the op-ed argues that the Canadian trucker’s protest was really about “white supremacy and white nationalism” – it’s very far away from believable.

Claiming nearly 90% of “the truck drivers” are vaccinated with no evidence

Another claim Erica makes is this: “It’s not even about truckers, really: nearly 90% of truck drivers are fully vaccinated.” Again, no evidence for this, no study, or data from any site or institution, just Erica’s word. Furthermore, it wouldn’t matter if that were true, because that’s not what the protestors were there for.

They were allegedly there because of the mandates, not because they were against the COVID-19 Vaccine. Even if you’ve taken the vaccine, you can still be against vaccine mandates.

As I’m going through her article, Erica keeps going back, not to the truckers themselves, but to people who probably aren’t connected with them at all.

I was disappointed when she just stated that right-wing people support the movement and that Far Right Facebook groups (whom Facebook do their best to remove anyway constantly) support the movement. There’s no evidence of this again and it’s just another claim she makes, but like me, you’re getting used to it.

I would like to make the point that just because a group of people support another group of people, that does not automatically make the movement, topic or activities that are being supported the same as the group supporting them.

An easy example is English Football (Soccer). Football was invented in England way back in 1863 and is a much-loved sport among people here.

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Now, unfortunately, at these football matches, some fans who attend them are, in fact, racist. (You can view studies that I use to back up my claim here and here) and here’s an article by the Guardian that explains it a bit more: English football is consumed by racism and hatred. Can the cycle be broken?)

Now, of course, it’s not all of them, but a substantial amount are racist. Although I believe in other parts of Europe, it’s much worse, unfortunately.

There have been tons of instances of black or brown football players being harassed and shouted at, and in some cases, fans throw bananas at them. This is a horrible thing to witness, and it puts a stain on English football and Football in general.

Now Erica, does that mean that all Footballers are also racist and support racism?

No, it doesn’t, because like I said before, those fans represent a small, but substantial minority of football fans, (if you can call them that). In my opinion, this does not mean that we should treat all fans the same and just call them racists.

I hate having to explain this because it should be so obvious. It’s clear to see that Erica has been completely misled, and I somewhat feel sorry for her, because she now assumes that the element the truckers are standing for is White Supremacy and White nationalism, when what they are protesting are the mandates and individual freedom. Health is about the individual, not society as a whole. If you can’t respect and uphold individual freedoms society is doomed to collapse.

Erica ends with a conclusion about how people in Canada have prioritized the individual over the collective. In my opinion, this is wrong, as Health has never been public, it’s always been about the individual, and of course bodily autonomy.

Mandating these health measures means a lot of the time, mistakes can and will be made.

We saw this with the ventilators, the midazolam crisis (where many elderly people in England were put on an end-of-life care drug which restricted their breathing) and of course the fact that in countries in Africa, barely any COVID vaccinations were given out at all, and Africa has had one of the lowest rates of COVID in the world.

For some reason, this is not an option in Erica’s mind, and simply being able to choose your own treatment and of course, what goes in and out of your own body is not something that should be solely controlled by you, but something that needs to be governed by the health authorities and the Government.

This is what the protestors were there for, they had big signs displaying their grievances.

Many White, Pakistani, Indian and South East Asian people including some women & children didn’t just get in their trucks in unison, and decide to head on down to protest in favour of white supremacy and white nationalism, but according to Erica, that’s exactly why they were there. It just makes no sense at all.

A few protestor interviews

But don’t take my word for it, let’s see what the actual protestors had to say for themselves:

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Conclusion

After following the Canadian Truckers Protest from its inception in January, I have had a balanced view of all evidence presented by Mainstream Government Funded Media like CBC, alternative Right Wing networks like Rebel News, independent Journalists, and many videos uploaded by Residents, by-standers and protestors.

It’s clear to see that the article presented by Erica was biased, slanted, factually incorrect and completely useless for outsiders to Canada like me, being from England.

The article didn’t prove any of the claims made by her and painted the protestor’s needs and motives in a completely unfair, negative and outright malicious way.

Given that Vogue is mostly owned by the Donald Newhouse and Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr. family, it’s no wonder that the article is biased. Pushing a false narrative about Canada falls in line with Erica’s Corporate duties, as talking about the Canadian Government in ANY negative light is a big no-no. But what would you think? Let us know in the comments below.

If you enjoyed this article, disagreed with it or simply want to carry on the conversation, please comment below and share your thoughts. Thanks for reading.

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