Occupation ‘stole my mum from me’

The Public Order Emergency Commission received 9,500 written submissions from the public about the impact of the Freedom Convoy protests last winter. They included protesters, residents in Ottawa, and residents living near protests that took place in other areas of the country. Commission lawyer Jeffrey Leon read some of the statements on Wednesday, including one from a woman who couldn’t visit her mother before she died due to road closures caused by the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa. Here is a transcript of the woman’s statement.

On my route to work and back, not only was I delayed, I also felt intimidated by the vehicles with flags of various kinds, driving aggressively to and from their camp.

The most drastic impact that the illegal occupation had on my life was that I was unable to visit my mother on the last weekend she was alive. My mother was grieving for the loss of her son. And after my brother’s death in 2019, her quality of life changed radically. While my sister, an essential worker, and her husband were primary caregivers, I tried to visit my mother every weekend.

You are probably aware that those of us who live in the Ottawa-gatineau region experience our communities as more unified than separated. For me to take two trips to Orleans on a weekend was not at all unusual until the convoy. On both the Saturday and the Sunday of the last weekend in January, I tried to get across the bridge from Wakefield to Orleans to see my mum. I was not successful either day. The police had closed the route. While I had just seen her on the Tuesday prior to that, I felt she was slipping away and I was concerned. So these people have taken something from me that I can never get back. My mum was a dedicated educator. She was my role model.

The illegal occupation of Ottawa stole my mum from me, stole from me the last moments of my mother’s life. I am grateful that the federal government stepped in to end it when local and provincial authorities could not.