In the middle of the trucks and campfires of truckers opposed to sanitary measures in Ottawa, a football field and improvised children’s games. Hundreds of protesters have occupied the Canadian capital for two weeks, and many have come with their children to show them “history in motion”.
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In the street in front of the Canadian Parliament, a young mother strolls, her 9-month-old daughter in the baby carrier and a sign: “Just an ordinary mother showing her daughters how to stand up to bullies”.
“I am a mother on a mission, truckers have given me hope,” says Katherine Welk, doubly vaccinated.
This 32-year-old mother has “enough” with sanitary measures: “My eldest starts school in September and I don’t want her to be forced to wear a mask,” she said.
The one who had never mobilized like this before said she explained to her 4-year-old daughter that the demonstration was “a big party to celebrate freedom”. It’s already her second day on the streets of Ottawa and she plans to return on Friday.
For 14 days, hundreds of drivers and demonstrators have occupied Ottawa, Canada’s federal capital, trying to force the government to abandon health measures to fight COVID-19.
Joel Lemay / QMI Agency
The movement came from truckers who, furious at being forced to get vaccinated to be able to cross the border with the United States, came from the west of the country, sometimes driving for days to reach Ottawa and paralyze the center.
Since then, the movement has attracted many supporters, and their demands have extended to anti-COVID rules as a whole, including the wearing of masks and the vaccination passport essential to access certain public places.
“I want them to live this part of the story, to see all the good that is happening and to understand why their father is here”, confides about his children Dan, 36, employed in the building that supports truckers and prefers not to disclose its full name.
The red-bearded father, whose clothes resemble those of a lumberjack, came accompanied by his wife and two children, under 10 years old.
“My wife educates them” about the movement, he explains, assuring that the two young people “understand what is happening”.
It is not uncommon for the children of the demonstrators to sneak among the adults to be able to observe the improvised scene on a truck, in front of the Canadian Parliament, where speakers follow one another to speak or play music.
On Tuesday, the police indicated that “about 25% of heavy vehicles (were) used to house families with children”.
The Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa said in a statement Wednesday that it had received “continuing calls” about “concerns relating to the welfare of children” at the Ottawa protest.
Little Lily, who plays in the snow, nevertheless supports her mother’s fight. “I really don’t like masks,” she says, Canadian flag on her shoulders as if to imitate the older ones.
“Today, I made them miss a day of school,” regrets her mother Laurence Martin, a 36-year-old substitute teacher, who came with her two young daughters whom she is raising alone.
But school or not, this Quebecer with long brown hair claims to be “there for them”, because Lily and her sister, she says, “suffered a lot” during confinement.
Reference-www.tvanouvelles.ca