Despite the tightening police grip in Ottawa and a considerable snowfall blowing over Quebec, thousands of opponents of health measures converged on Parliament Hill on Saturday in the Quebec capital to express their frustration. bowl with a lot of stuffed animals and signs.
A concert of horns perceptible to lower town began to sound at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning. In the streets that weave to Parliament Hill, a slew of vehicles—pick-ups galore, a few Mercedes and Cadillacs here and there—joined the din. In this singular convoy, the maple leaf floated alongside the flag of the Patriots, the fleur-de-lysé rubbed shoulders with the star-spangled banner of Uncle Sam.
The Quebec police and the organizers of the demonstration have agreed to embark on the same carousel as two weeks ago for this “Woodstock of freedom”. A dozen trucks are authorized to bivouac on the edge of Parliament, but out of the question to let them camp in front of the seat of power, where access is restricted to pedestrians.
At the end of the day, the authorities reported four arrests, including two under the criminal code without specifying the nature of the offenses, while congratulating “the majority of the demonstrators [qui] respect and honor their agreement to demonstrate peacefully. »
A few hours later, from the top of the stage erected in front of the Parliament, the organizer Bernard “Rambo” Gauthier in turn welcomed the cooperation of the demonstrators who came to hear him.
“What I am most proud of is that we have been demonstrating peacefully for two weekends, and not nearly, underlined the Nord-Côtier. We shut the mouth to our detractors […] despite the media planting us and getting into us. I hope the government will hear what we mean. »
Before him spread out a crowd as colorful as the flags under which they rallied. The strollers were numerous, the gray heads too, all united in an exasperation which very often goes beyond the precise outline of the sanitary measures to move towards the “system”.
Mistrust
After a life of low-wage work, Sylvie Gagnon, 62, is discouraged to see the government “disgusted with the little guys” who risk losing their jobs as truck drivers if they don’t get the vaccination passport. His mistrust of vaccines splashes all institutions. Media, power, pharmaceuticals: all eat at the millionaires’ trough, according to Ms. Gagnon, to which people like her have never been entitled.
Its vote, in the last federal ballot, went to the Free Party of Canada, which preaches direct democracy and demands the immediate suspension of “experimental Covid-19 injection.” »
André Gosselin opted for the CAQ four years ago. ” Never again ! now swears the Beauceron. Government flip-flops and public health approximations have eroded its already thin trust in COVID vaccines. For him, it is not up to the community to pay for the negligence of governments to relieve the health system.
His spouse, Nathalie Marcoux, is a nurse. “The pandemic exists”, she rules from the outset. However, she does not accept that she can no longer visit her in-laws in their CHSLD because of her vaccination status. “We are caregivers, it doesn’t make sense. »
Wrapped in a wolf’s skin, the Gaspésien Daniel Leblanc, 48, believes that the measures cause more harm than good today. Her daughter, in college, is experiencing depression; his son, a hockey player, has lost all motivation. He hasn’t spoken to his sister for two months because of her reluctance towards the vaccine.
“I have always voted for the PQ, I thought maybe going with the solidarity this fall”, explains the father who says camp on the left.
Soft toys and mascot
The weekend gathering puts on a family face without sparing stuffed animals or mascots. The “teddy bears” are popular: on the lampposts that surround the Tourny fountain, on the fences that protect the gardens of the Parliament and in the hands of almost all the children present, the stuffed animals appear with their big eyes, a symbol childish in the middle of the many “Fuck Legault”.
Some protesters put on Paw Patrol or Frozen costumes to amuse the youngest. On one side, child stars hand out the handshakes. On the other, police officers patrol, ready to intervene in the event of an overflow. The scene has surreal overtones: Disney meets the riot police in the shadow of the Parliament, next to imposing tractors from Beauce parked on Grande-Allée. All under snowflakes and in a generalized faith in theories gleaned from the Internet.
The organizers plan a second day of demonstration, Sunday, and order the participants to return home at the stroke of 5 p.m. Bernard “Rambo” Gauthier took his hat off “to the warriors who were in Ottawa” during his speech on Saturday, but the outcome of his rally promises to be different.
“Over there, it’s a siege. Here, it is a peaceful demonstration, underlined the organizer. I hope that we will have a return of favor from the government. »