Historically, the fourth week in January is the coldest time of the year in the Ottawa Valley. I’ve been on Parliament Hill dozens of times, trying to persuade our politicians that letting other countries dump grain, SMP, or whatever into the Canadian market at prices well below their COP in any country, was only going to put the control of Canada’s food supply into the hands of other countries.
I’ve been there trying to persuade our elected officials to compensate our . . .
beef farmers for some of their multi-million-dollar losses because of Mad Cow when our farmers were getting only pennies for a cow and calves were being euthanized at home rather than paying to get them trucked to the sale barn where they would euthanize them and send the farmer a bill. At the same time, our consumers were being charged almost the same for meat at the store as they were before BSE.
This time, because I don’t run around as well as I once did, and because it was very cold, I decided to watch it on TV like I do the hockey. What amazed me the most was the millions of dollars coming into a GoFundMe account set up by one of the organizers of the Truckers Against COVID Vaccines and Passports required to truck across the US Canada border.
Where were these millions of dollars coming from? At my last count there was between six and 10 million dollars in the GoFundMe account. Being that there are about 38 million people in Canada and about three people per household, that would be about a dollar per household of a donation? Where did that money come from? I cannot believe that out of work truckers, some who went to the Ottawa soup kitchen for supper, could gather up a fraction of that amount.
As the convoy began to arrive, and as different supporters were interviewed, I noticed that other demands were being made, like “Do away with all health measures associated with COVID,” and then a demand was circulated demanding that the governor general throw out the government. Some group was hijacking the trucker’s rally. Then later in the protest, an endorsement of the protest came from the former president of the U.S. and his son. Then it was revealed by some investigative journalism that some of the organizers had ties to the storming of capitol hill in the U.S. on Jan. 6, 2021.
Who can gain the most from this protest? If this protest can delay people from getting vaccinated for another month or two, how much more money could be spent in a fourth vaccine? Estimates are about 600 million dollars. How many millions of dollars do the political parties spend trying to win an election? I wouldn’t even guess; but the last federal election in Canada cost Canadians over 500 million dollars.
I don’t know where the GoFundMe money came from or where it will eventually go. I don’t know who’s going to gain the most from the biggest truck convey party in history. I do know that it’s the taxpayer who will eventually pay.
I also know that it’s our small businesses who are losing millions every day that this COVID virus is preventing our country and the world from being almost normal again.
I do know that until this virus is controlled, the financial and mental stress on us and our families will not begin to decrease and turn around. I’m lucky enough that I was too young to ever fight or die in a war but I have talked to some very distressed doctors and nurses who have been under mental stress because of COVID fatigue that sometimes they just had to find a quiet corner and cry.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
