Convoys from across HN converge on Simcoe
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Trucks, tractors and passenger vehicles converged on Simcoe Saturday from across Haldimand and Norfolk as participants expressed their frustration with mandates and COVID-19 restrictions.
Hundreds of vehicles gathered steam as they passed through many hamlets and villages along rural roads and highways where many people came to the end of their driveways to cheer them on.
“I’m here for my kids,” said one man, who did not provide his name, as he walked around the final meeting place at the old Zellers store parking lot on Highway 3. He was with his wife and four children.
“I don’t want to look back some day and feel like I should have done something. I want us to have a choice to do what we want to do.”
It was a sentiment shared by many who said they weren’t anti-mask or anti-vaccine but wanted the choice.
“If someone wants to get vaccinated, absolutely, go for it,” said Shirley Wesselson, who drove from Ayr along with her friend Marianne McCready from Paris.
“We want to support this whole movement of freedom of choice,” added McCready, “and it’s a beautiful day.”
Wesselson said the recent convoys and protests across the country were giving people hope.
“So many people have said they’re at their wit’s end and feeling like there’s no hope and this has given them hope.”
Wesselson, who described herself as a “rabble-rouser,” said she may even travel to Ottawa to join in the ongoing protest there.
As the vehicles moved from Dunnville, Tillsonburg, Langton and Cayuga toward Simcoe, they communicated through an online app called Zello, sharing locations of OPP officers, suggestions about where to take bathroom breaks and reporting about those who stood at the ends of their driveways to cheer them on.
There was some chuckling over the fact no one seemed to be able to remember the words to ‘Oh, Canada’ past the first line.
And many of those communicating put an emphasis on being carefully kind and helpful.
When a Confederate flag was spotted on a vehicle, the owner complied with a request to remove it.
Along the route, some convoy participants stopped to offer to help an OPP officer whose cruiser was stuck in a ditch.
Organizer Janelle Meredith, a nurse from Selkirk, kept the final Simcoe destination a secret until Saturday morning. Earlier in the week, she was told the protesters couldn’t use the Simcoe fairgrounds parking lot because it’s private property, Meredith said in a Facebook live posting.
“There’s been a little bit of issues.”
She noted that, originally, one route was to go through Six Nations of the Grand River but elected Chief Mark Hill asked her to reconsider.
On Sunday, Meredith called Saturday’s event a “dress rehearsal,” saying it serves as a warning to politicians.
“We are not backing down and we’ve all had enough of their mandates,” she said.
“We’re talking about the next one.”
A rally held the previous weekend drew several hundred people to Wellington Park in Simcoe.
Meredith said she thinks about 2,000 people participated in Saturday’s convoys. For most of the protest, the parking lot looked like as if 500 to 700 people were milling about.
While one truck brought a stage-like tractor bed and someone else set up aluminum bleachers, there were no speeches.
“I was a little nervous to have the media attack us,” said Meredith. “The (municipal) councillors have called us a hate group, but it brought a lot of different people together and everyone was able to have their own opinions.”
A man, who did not give his name, said truckers from across the country are fighting for all Canadians.
“The world is watching,” he said.
SGamble@postmedia.com
@EXPSGamble
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