This is not a "peaceful" "protest" to lift the "vaccine mandates" for the "truckers". This is an attempt to overthrow a democratically elected government by people with extreme far-right ideologies.

Fact 1: The main "organizers" of the so-called protest: https://mrsbrittanybested.com/2022/02/03/rotten-to-the-core/. If you want to still defend their ideologies by touting "freedom of speech", then I guess you are "free" to do so. You can also watch Pat King's "speeches": https://streamable.com/8jjmns.

Fact 2: This was in no way "peaceful". They have honked their truck and train horns constantly causing serious trauma to the residents of downtown Ottawa, they have verbally abused and threatened people for wearing masks in the downtown core, tried to light a residential building on fire, drove around an uttered threats in front of children's schools. In other areas of Canada, guns and ammunitions were found in the protest in Alberta, trucks rammed through RCMP blockades in BC, and at least one lady went to a school to actually verbally abuse a POC teenager. https://www.castanet.net/news/Penticton/359896/Protesters-sh.... If all these are "peaceful", then fine, it is.

Fact 3: We all are in a global pandemic. Vaccines have so far proved to be an effective tool against the virus. By "effective", I don't mean a 100% success against the virus, but the chance that hospital capacity would be overwhelmed with only dealing with Covid-19 greatly reduces with vaccine. The majority of the people in Canada (90%) actually chose to get vaccinated. We can only imagine what would happen to the healthcare system if that 90% shared the 10%'s personal feeling about "my body my choice". Most of the Canadian provinces were already on their way to lift restrictions, so one can only wonder what was the point of this "protest".

Fact 4: The Ottawa Police, The Ontario Provincial government have all failed to act on this. When it came to border measures in Windsor, ON and Coutts, AB, the protests were cleared. Why this was not possible in Ottawa, one can only imagine. Maybe because billions of trades being lost, shift workers in auto industries losing their paychecks in provinces with a conservative govt where elections are due this year are actually causes for concern rather than the capital? If the capital city of a country is under siege (yes, it is), and the police and the provincial government does not seem to give a damn, what would you expect the PM to do? In fact, the Ottawa police chief actually resigned today.

I get that many people do not like Trudeau. The Canadian healthcare system was already under stress pre-pandemic. There was federal election not even a year back. If this was such a "righteous" movement and sentiment held by the general public in a democracy, then they wouldn't have elected the same leader again. Protests that at least have an iota of "right cause" such as BLM (Black lives do actually matter, even if you disagree with the way the protest was carried out), indigenous rights for their land, Indian farmer's protests etc. can be supported, and there is less gray area in those protests regarding what the "right" thing is. If you want to agree with a far-right white supremacist rage-fuelled "protest" that was 50% funded by foreign money against working public health measures enacted by a democratically elected government, then I have no words. Maybe this is how a country should be run.