An open letter to my member of parliament from a peaceable supporter of the truckers' protest

To Alex Ruff, House of Commons, Ottawa

Dear Alex,

I am a fully vaccinated resident of Georgian Bluffs. Some of my neighbours are not. Nevertheless, in the proud tradition of rural Ontario, we respect one another in spite of our differences.

A number of people from this area attended the Ottawa protest. All of them seem to have had an experience totally at odds with what was portrayed in the media. They spoke of an atmosphere of joyful excitement,  whereas the media present nothing but tales of intimidation, misogyny, racism, and hate.

Although our Prime Minister chose not to see for himself, he has concluded that, because a handful of attendees misbehaved, he can dismiss the entire protest out of hand in the most contemptuous terms.

Here is a suggestion that I hope you can bring up in parliament; point out to the PM that there were many thousands of entirely peaceful and law-abiding protesters in attendance, and he has no excuse whatsoever not to engage in dialogue with them. If he is at all interested in bringing Canadians together instead of further stoking division, he should do so.

Overall, Canada has done relatively well in pandemic management and we have a high level of vaccine uptake. Case numbers are once again in decline. Peer nations like UK and Denmark have eliminated all pandemic mandates. 

This is not the time for the PM to show us he's "the boss." 

This should be a time for healing and moving forward as a united country.

Justin's power trip is taking us in the opposite direction.

Respectfully,

Dieter Neumann

Georgian Bluffs, ON