Trucks, tractors and passenger vehicles converged on Simcoe Saturday from across Haldimand and Norfolk as participants expressed their disgust with mandates, politicians and COVID-19 restrictions.
Hundreds of vehicles came, gathering steam as they passed through as many hamlets and villages as possible and along rural roads and highways where many people came to the end of their driveways to cheer them on.
“I’m here for my kids,” said one man, who did not provide his name, as he walked around the final meeting place of the convoy routes at the old Zellers store parking lot on Highway 3. He was with his wife and four children.
“I don’t want to look back some day and feel like I should have done something. I want us to have a choice to do what we want to do.”
It was a sentiment many agreed with, saying they weren’t anti-mask or anti-vaccine but pro-choice.
“If someone wants to get vaccinated, absolutely, go for it,” said Shirley Wesselson, who drove down from Ayr with her friend Marianne McCready from Paris.
“We want to support this whole movement of freedom of choice,” added McCready, “and it’s a beautiful day.”
Wesselson said the recent convoys and protests across the country were giving people hope.
“So many people have said they’re at their wit’s end and feeling like there’s no hope and this has given them hope.”
Wesselson said, as her family’s “rabble-rouser”, she may even travel to Ottawa to join in the ongoing protest there.
As the vehicles moved from Dunnville, Tillsonburg, Langton and Cayuga toward Simcoe, they communicated through an online app called Zello, sharing locations of OPP officers, suggestions about where to take bathroom breaks and reporting about those who stood at the ends of their driveways to cheer them on.
There was some chuckling over the fact no one seemed to be able to remember the words to ‘Oh, Canada’ past the first line.
And many of those communicating put an emphasis on being carefully kind and helpful.
When a Confederate flag was spotted on a vehicle, the owner complied with a request to remove it. Along the route, some convoy participants stopped to offer to help an OPP officer whose cruiser was stuck in a ditch.
Selkirk nurse and organizer Janelle Meredith, kept the final destination a secret until Saturday morning after she was told, earlier in the week, the protesters couldn’t use the spacious parking lot of the Simcoe Fairgrounds.
“They said it’s private property,” said Meredith in a Facebook live posting on Friday.
“There’s been a little bit of issues,” she added, noting one route originally was to go through Six Nations but elected Chief Mark Hill talked with her and respectfully asked her to reconsider.
A man nearby, who did not give his name, said the truckers across the country are fighting for every Canadian and “the world is watching.”
“We need to make our own choices and not be forced to do something or not be allowed to go into a store without a mask,” said a woman, who did not provide her name. “The mandates are being lifted – if they are being lifted – because of the convoy.”
The man said “Everyone went along with the rules and did what they were asked to do and then they shut everything down anyway.”
The question was asked to the two “Did you go along and follow the rules?”
“Absolutely,” the woman said, noting she won’t show a QR code but will show her vaccination paper.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “I’ve not been masked. I’m waiting for life-changing reconstructive surgery because everything’s been locked down.”
The man showed a reporter his Canadian passport, noting that he says to “allow the bearer to pass freely without hindrance”.
“That’s an order from the Queen that we can travel across this nation or internationally, anywhere.”
@EXPSGamble