United We Roll group returns to protest on Parliament Hill
Fewer supporters arrive for second day of rally as convoy winds down, heads west
The United We Roll convoy returned to Parliament Hill for a second day of protest Wednesday, a little less united, in number at least, than on Tuesday.
Fewer than 100 people showed up for the final day before reversing their trucks and steering their convoy back west. Those who were there, though, were just as committed as when the convoy set out from Red Deer, Alta., last Thursday to deliver its so-called pro-industry, anti-globalism message to Prime Minister Trudeau and his Liberal government.
Pat Mavtie said she was the first to arrive, at 8 a.m., three hours before the “official” start, to make sure she got her message out to passing rush-hour commuters, a message she made quite clear by wearing it around her neck on a large poster board, which read: “Hey Trudeau, if SNC-Lavalin was in Alberta, would u build us a pipeline?”
The 62-year-old Edson, Alta. resident has worked at jobs in the natural resource sector (oil, coal-mining and timber) since she was 15. “There was always a job in Alberta in those three sectors,” she said. But last Christmas she was laid off. “It was devastating. I was looking forward to possible retirement by 65, but I concede that’s not going to happen now.”
She said she sees the same fate for many others in Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C., as the downturn in the oil and gas sector, for which she blames Trudeau, has impacted all of Western Canada. “That’s why I’m here,” she said. Like many protesters on the Hill, she said she believes the Liberals’ policies on matters such as immigration and the carbon tax are tearing the country apart. “All this talk in the world right now about global warming I think is the biggest farce that we have going.”
She said scientists have determined that Alberta, for example, was once “a tropical province.”
Indeed, numerous examples of the fossil record in Saskatchewan and Alberta support the claim they were once far warmer and wetter than they are now.
“I believe our world goes in cycles and it has nothing to do with the CO2 that’s coming from oil and gas. But somebody out there has made us a target, and if we connect the dots and look worldwide we may find out that Mr. (George) Soros and his clan have something to do with it. They’re filling their pockets on the backs of Canadian people, and that is not right.”
Hungarian-American billionaire and liberal philanthropist George Soros has frequently been the target of online right-wing conspiracy theorists whose accusations of him being a “puppet master” of the globalist movement have become very much a part of the mainstream conversation.
A one-time Cape Bretoner, Michael Hurley arrived with the convoy from Spruce Grove, Alta., outside Edmonton. An iron worker and former oil rigger who has been out of work since October, he has been involved with the yellow-vest movement in Edmonton since December. He agrees with Mavtie about the Liberal carbon tax.
“Do you believe paid scientists, or the people who’ve debunked them?” he asked. “From the beginning of time, they’ve had ice ages and they’ve had warm periods. Natural life cycles. But I’m not a scientist. And natural resources are what made this country great.”
Hurley by and large said he agrees with all the issues raised by the movement: He’s opposed to foreign oil being used in Canada, media bailouts, and the UN Global Compact for Migration. “We are not against legally vetted migration, but what (Trudeau) is doing with this open-border policy … and the UN should have no business in our country or our politics. Our government should be listening to the people and it should be voted on. We should have veto power because we voted them in, and they’re not listening to everyday Canadians.”
Niki Markowski came from her home near Lake Huron to show her support for Alberta and the oil pipeline, and brought with her a sign that read: “Ontario: Yours to Recover” (the opposite side read “Take the Wynne out of Ontario,” from an earlier protest). “You stand up for us and we’ll stand up for you,” she said. “And together we can unite.”
She added: “Canada is a house, so we should not be letting anybody into our house that doesn’t think the same as us. And if anybody wants to join our house of Canada, we need peace, love joy, happiness, giggles and smiles.
“When honour killings are happening and people think it’s a custody battle, like, come on, guys. Look at how they think.”
According to the Department of Justice, “at least a dozen” such incidents took place in the 10-year period between 1999 and 2009.
Ottawa resident Domenic Shelley has been coming to the Hill weekly for 10 weeks now and is part of a Facebook and YouTube group called Facts VS Feelings.
“Justin Trudeau and globalism have to go,” he insisted. His overriding concern is Canada’s treatment of its veterans. He said that they’re expected to live on a paltry pension.
“Why all the blood in Normandy? Why all the blood in Beaumont Hamel? Why all the blood in battlefields around the world? What was all that blood for? Was it for Canada or for globalism?”
But Shelley doesn’t single out Trudeau or the Liberals for Canada’s ailments.
“I’m 55 years old, and my governments have betrayed us my whole lifetime,” he said. “Mulroney and Chrétien and Harper and Trudeau are the same bird, beating us down and dividing us.
He added: “But the money is the system,and the pipeline is the thing that keeps the economy going. It pays for homelessness and immigration. It pays for veterans.”
He, too, said he believes climate change is the result of a planetary cycle. “There’s nothing we can do about it, brother. In 200 years we’ll be under 200 feet of ice again. No amount of money’s going to change that. The carbon tax is a total scam, a slush fund.”
He is not opposed to immigration.
“I love every bit of culture in Canada. It’s a melting pot, it’s a beautiful thing, and we’re being divided by globalism,” he said. “Canada is the promised land, the last frontier of the promised land, and you can’t have the UN telling us how to run our country.”