At the Sept 22 public hearing, a downtown resident who lived near a Kent Street blockade shared her experience of the convoy. Excerpts from her testimony follow.
“It felt so personal that they had traveled across the country, parked in front of our houses, to assault us daily with sound, set off fireworks in our street near houses and windows, trapes around with hate symbols and make us feel afraid to leave our home after dark or at all. It was like they were holding us hostage and the different levels of government that they were trying to negotiate with didn’t care about us. It felt like no one cared what was happening. I called the police every day and asked if they were doing anything, they would respond that it was a peaceful protest to which I disagreed. I would ask every time if my complaints were being written down, each time the answer was no. I called my local councilor, my MP, MPP and no one got back to me.
I ended up dropping two of the classes I was in due to the stress and when my roommate and I had to stay at a friend’s, she got a parking ticket while the people on Kent were getting a complete free pass grid-locking the street. It goes without saying there’s an undercurrent of extremism and hate that’s rising in this country and it’s beyond concerning that these people made their plans clear and were met with absolutely no resistance”.
You can view the full testimony below.
