Oh, Canada

 

Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash

After months of feeling doom and gloom, it is a relief, like a ray of warm sunshine, to come outside mask free and see those Green Pass signs stripped from restaurants and shops and malls and wedding halls and museums. 

And then “it” hit Canada, my place of birth, the country described as “strong and free” in the national anthem. Canadians are polite, quiet, respectful, and tolerant. They do as they are told, wait in line in a dignified manner, and end their sentences with “please” or “thank you.” They even sit at street lights until the light turns green.

I can say all of this as I am a Canadian living in the wild Middle East, a place where the word lineup is a suggestion, or more likely, an open invitation to bud in. As getting onto an Israeli bus from a crowded stop means shoving and elbowing, I would rather walk, thank you. 

Here, sitting in a car at a red light requires edging forward the millisecond before it goes green, or being honked at with fury. Yes, it can be exasperating. And so I look to those patient, honest, hard-working Canadians with great respect.

To actually witness Canadians out there protesting in sub-zero conditions means they have had enough. And it takes a lot to get a Canadian to complain, thank you. Their recent display of protest was because they had enough lies, enough rules, enough of a ruined economy, stunted childhoods, and lack of decent education. 

I was cheering the truckers on as if they were my long-lost buddies. I wept along with these burly men as I watched videos of them receiving letters filled with hearts and thanks and homemade cookies from grateful children. I saw a Canada united by hope and by a yearning for true freedom. I saw people from many races and languages and professions coming together in a hug fest. 

And then I saw that this was not being covered in the MSM, until the devious lies began. They turned these innocent people, the young and elderly alike who paraded about with flags of red maple leafs, into dangerous terrorists. They turned horn honking into the words ‘Heil Hitler.’ It was ugly and distorted and a full-out lie. 

The Canadian government would not even take the time to sit down at the table and talk with these people about the freedom they wanted. The government also refused to listen to many learned doctors and scientists who had important information about public health and keeping Canadians informed.

Instead, Trudeau passed the Emergency Act, beat up the innocent, arrested the truckers, took away their licenses, and froze their bank accounts.

What kind of freedom-loving democracy with so-called elected politicians is this? The people are supposed to be in charge of their destiny and the government is supposed to work for the electorate.

This is a scary, slippery slope and sadly, I must welcome Canada into the totalitarian Hall of Fame where Israel is already a long-standing member. You may say I am over reacting. I am simply observing and I see that life is not going back to how it was, not in Israel, not in Canada, and nowhere else in the world.

I now question everything, especially messages in the media that contain the same script. And I look for information on other platforms, finding many voices who feel the same way. I will refuse fall prey to fear as this is a tool to weaken and create chaos just as has happened over the past two years.

As one deadly chapter sputters slowly to its end, I hear a prologue for the new fear that may require our subservience. Look up at the warming air and out to the diminishing sea, for I now hear complaints and fear-mongering about climate change in the media. 

Will this soon become a woeful story about our giant carbon footprints stomping all over the place? Then perhaps those digital passports will need to return after all, in order to make this world a healthier place. 

I am grateful to see through the charade and invite others to observe this tragic parody. Think I should catch a ray of sunshine outside while I still can, please!