North Bay Nugget e-edition

Anniversary tribute to the Freedom Convoy

GREG ESTABROOKS

Close to one hundred staged a vehicle procession from Northgate Shopping Centre to the waterfrontmichelle Lashbrook and many others braved the cold on Saturday to celebrate the first anniversary of the Freedom Convoy.

An event that had many supporters, and detractors, as it rolled into Ottawa a year ago.

Lashbook was in Ottawa during much of the week that the demonstration took place. She felt it was imperative to join the others on Saturday to mark the anniversary.“i think what we did in Ottawa was impactful, not just in Canada but around the world,” Lashbrook said. “There has been so much trauma over the last several years. This (anniversary) is something to celebrate as we made an impact back then. We are still here, and we are not backing down,” remarked Lashbrook. Lashbrook said that while some restrictions have been rolled back, she does not believe anyone should let their guard down.

“This is not over yet,” she said. “We still must talk about this, talk about what happened.”lashbrook says Canadians were stripped of their civil rights.

She tells the story of a man she interviewed while in Ottawa. This man, according to Lashbrook, worked at the Parliament building.

She told The Nugget reporter that this man received one shot, had a reaction, and his doctor forbade him from getting a second shot until he saw a specialist.

Lashbrook said the man told her he would have to wait a year for that appointment. In the interim, Lashbrook says, he got let go from his job because he did not get the second shot.

“So, here’s a man, who worked at Parliament, he had been working there his whole life, getting ready to retire, now he has a neurological reaction, they are forcing him out and he cannot collect EI (Employment Insurance). It was just ridiculous,” says Lashbrook.

Lashbrook to those in government, the media and social media who labelled the convoy a ‘fringe’ group.

“I’m going to say there were about 300 of us in North Bay standing up on a regular basis,” Lashbrook said. “The convoy happens and there are 6,000 people that stood up in North Bay. That made me cry as we thought we were all alone, we were fighting, and a lot of us getting charged (by police) multiple times.”lashbrook said she was charged with violating the “Reopening Ontario Act” on two occasions. She says she got several court summonses and was fined twice.

“I think they (the government) has changed in a minor way,” she said. “If we had not done what we did last year we would be in a way different society now. We would have these vaccine passports everywhere."

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2023-01-31T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-01-31T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://eeditionnugget.pressreader.com/article/281492165458164

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