One year ago, protests shut down downtown Ottawa
This weekend, a convoy set up space south of Dugald, about 20 km east of Winnipeg, where hundreds of people from all over the country are expected to meet at “Camp Hope.”
Many people in the Manitoba convoy say they were in the so-called freedom convoy in early 2022, which clogged up downtown Ottawa and blocked border crossings to protest COVID-19 mandates.
The convoy in Manitoba was set up just one day after the final report of the Emergency Act inquiry was presented to the House of Commons. The report said that the federal government met the requirements to use the act last year. The organizers of this event say it is not the same as the blockade in Ottawa, which ended a year ago.
“Camp Hope’s goal is not to bring down the government.” “We’re not here to stop traffic,” Walter Hiebert, who owns Camp Hope, told CBC on Saturday. “The convoy has nothing to do with Camp Hope.” That was going against the rules; this is what we have. Bringing people and groups back together and creating peace.”
Hiebert owns the 50-acre property. He said he was pepper-sprayed twice during the blockade in Ottawa. He said that the purpose of the event was to “bring hope” to those who are suffering, since suicide has affected many families, including his own. “God put it on my heart to build Camp Hope,” he said. “There are so many lost souls right now.”
In an email to CBC, the Manitoba RCMP said they know about the Dugald convoy and are working with Winnipeg police to make sure everyone is safe and get ready for a possible increase in the number of vehicles on nearby highways.
Hiebert said that the group has been “constantly in touch” with the police, who come to the camp a few times a day.
“We want to keep the cops safe.” The police are here to keep us safe. “We want to work with them to try to get Canada back on track.”
Peace, love, unity: Organize
James Bauder, who started the group Canada Unity and helped plan the protest in Ottawa last year, announced in January that there would be a “Freedom Convoy 2.0” in Winnipeg.
In a later Facebook post, Bauder said that he was canceling the event for “security reasons” that he did not explain. Hiebert said that one of Camp Hope’s goals is to bring people from all over the country to the center of the continent. This was the point of the event.
He told CBC Saturday, “We are here to bring people back together, to peace, love, and unity.”
Hundreds of people are expected to show up, and while CBC was there, a steady stream of people, including families with children, were entering the camp. Plans for the day included speeches, musical performances, and workshops.
Hiebert said that the camp has rules to stop people from using drugs and alcohol, and so far there have been no problems.
He said, “We want to do this in peace.” “Everyone is looking at you.”
The province thought that the Emergency Act went too far
On Friday, Paul Rouleau, who is in charge of the investigation into the Emergency Act, said that “a failure in policing and federalism” made it possible for the very high threshold that was needed to use the Emergency Act last winter to be met.
He criticized the police and the Ontario government for how they handled the situation. He said that in times of crisis, leaders of all levels of government must “rise above politics and work together for the common good.”
“Unfortunately, this didn’t always happen in January and February of 2022,” he wrote.
Since the law was made in 1988, this was the first time it had been used.
At a press conference on Friday, Manitoba Minister of Justice Kelvin Goertzen said that the province thought using the act was “overreach.”
“Our position with the federal government is still that Manitoba didn’t need the Emergency Act’s powers,” he said.
In early 2022, a protest site was set up in downtown Winnipeg in response to the federal government’s decision to require truckers crossing into the United States to get vaccinated. However, the site quickly grew to include a wide range of groups unhappy with COVID-19’s health restrictions.
The protest and a blockade in Emerson, about 110 km south of Winnipeg on the Canada/U.S. border, were both taken down in the end. Goertzen said that the work of the Manitoba RCMP and the Winnipeg police was responsible for this.
Protests are part of a democratic society, but Goertzen said the province would not put up with any more blockades.
“People have the right to protest, but they don’t have the right to make things hard for other people.” Hiebert’s only response to the final report of the Emergency Act investigation was that he was “pray[ing] for government.”
Coalitions form and fight against convoys
This week, nearly two dozen community and church groups, unions, and other organizations in Winnipeg came together to form a new coalition. They are worried about the Dugald convoy, but no counter-protests are planned for this weekend.
At an event on Thursday at Broadway Disciples United Church, Community Solidarity Manitoba was started to address social and racial inequalities as well as gaps in healthcare for Manitobans.
They asked the province and the city of Winnipeg to make sure that everyone in Manitoba is healthy and safe and to stop the Dugald convoy from spreading hate symbols and words, as they said had happened during protests in Winnipeg last year.
“Targeted harassment is not part of the right to gather,” said Diwa Marcelino, a spokesperson for the coalition.
At the end of the event, a man who wasn’t part of the coalition held up a picture of a swastika and told people to “do some really good journalism” about what the symbol meant outside of Nazi Germany. He wouldn’t tell the church minister his name, so the minister asked him to leave.
Hiebert said that the weekend convoy’s message is one of love and peace. He said that the only flags that can be flown are the Canadian flag and the Camp Hope flag, and that people are following the rules.
“We are here to make everyone feel welcome.” They will be asked to leave if they don’t follow the rules at Camp Hope.
We expect Camp Hope to end on Tuesday. Hiebert said that their goal is not to fight the government but to bring people together.
“Together, we can stand.” “We shouldn’t fight,” he said.
“We want to save our country.”