Justin Trudeau never met with the organisers of the Freedom Convoy.   When the truckers wouldn’t go away, he invoked Emergency Powers had their personnel bank accounts frozen and then the police began arrests.   The truck drivers weren’t doing anything wrong beyond honking their horns, refusing to wear masks, singing, dancing,  all outside the Canadian Parliament for what apparently was a long time – nearly three weeks.   Of course, when men stop driving their trucks goods stop being delivered, services are disrupted.

They didn’t smash any windows.  Though the police are now smashing the windows of their big rigs and dragging them away to jail.

One of the first to be arrested was a key organiser, little Tamara Lich.  She was the woman who set-up the GoFundMe account that famously raised US$10 million for the cause, to only have GoFundMe infamously decide it was going to give the money to legitimate charities before deciding it better instead refund everyone.

At that point Justin Trudeau could have agreed to sit down with Tamara Lich and explain the process for unwinding the vaccine mandates.  She might have told the truckers they had effectively made their point and could now go home.

But he didn’t.  He is more interest in power than truth.

Justin Trudeau has made a virtue of maligning the truckers cause, which is the freedom to refuse or to choose a Covid treatment; that it is a decision that should be made in consultation with an individual’s own doctor, and the best treatment and/or prevention is likely to vary with an individual’s age and health.

On Monday, Trudeau became the first prime minister to invoke the Emergencies Act.

Tamara Lich and the truckers prepared to be arrested, but not to leave.

They seemed to be mostly at peace with the inevitable consequences of their choices.  In a social media video, Tamara Lich explained that she was not afraid of arrest and imprisonment and that she wanted everyone to know that. That she is not afraid and the cause a worthy one.

It is the case that for some weeks the truckers have been drawing inspiration from Canadian Pastor Artur Pawlowski who is already in prison. As far as I can tell this is mostly for not going along with Covid mandates including wearing a mask and not letting his Church be run in accordance with government covid mandates.

There is commentary about how he was spreading misinformation. I’m guessing that he has been explaining that there are alternatives to lockdowns and vaccination.

It was always the case that the governments of Canada and Australia could have facilitated access to Ivermectin, which can be used as a prophylaxis against Covid with antibiotics and zinc (the triple therapy). The lockdowns and mandated vaccinations were never the only option.

It is to the credit of Australian researchers at Monash University that Ivermectin was recognised very early as a potentially effective treatment against the Sars-CoV-2 virus. That was laboratory research back in early 2020. To our national shame, the researchers have been starved of resources and the discovery ignored.

Back a year ago, one of the few doctors in Australia brave enough to use the drug to treat patients and save lives was Dr Mark Hobart.  He was reported to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). Thankfully, AHPRA advised that there had been no infringement.  Doctors were within their rights to prescribes ivermectin off-label for Covid, that it is possible to prescribe registered medicines outside of their approved indications at their own discretion.

Then the TGA banned doctors from prescribing it, and Mark Hobart’s clinic was raided by police.

Just as the peer-reviewed studies were coming in that showed how effective Ivermectin was as both a treatment and prophylaxis against Covid.

There is no avoiding the reality that the Canadian and Australian government’s approach to the management of this pandemic has been unscientific.  More than anything else it seems to have been designed to instil fear.

Rather than empowering doctors to sift through the available information as it is published, the Australian government has tried to force us all to be vaccinated.

Anyone who has refused has been ostracised, and many have been forced to close their businesses.

The peer reviewed literature now includes many articles that explain how and why Ivermectin has a real role to play in both the treatment and as a prophylaxis against Covid.  For example, the conclusions from a review of Ivermectin trials published in the American Journal of Therapeutics (volume 28, pages 434 – 460) is that given the evidence of efficacy, safety, low cost, and current death rates, Ivermectin is likely to have a positive impact on health and economic outcomes of the pandemic across many countries.  The same review article explains that Ivermectin is not a new and experimental drug with an unknown safety profile. It is a WHO ‘Essential Medicine’ already used successfully to treat other diseases and very safe at correct doses.  The review article also states: ‘Ivermectin is likely to be an equitable, acceptable, and feasible global intervention against COVID-19. Health professionals should strongly consider its use, in both treatment and prophylaxis.

The truckers in Ottawa lead by the tenacious Tamara Lich broke so many rules, they setup bouncy castles for their children in the main street, they sang and danced – refusing always to wear a mask.  They showed they were not afraid – not of Covid and not of the Justin Trudeau.   They bared horns and waved Canadian flags on the ends of hockey sticks, as they chant ‘freedom!’

Many of them are now in jail, but there is pride in what they achieved, what they showed.  That we don’t have to be afraid.

Tamara Lich was arrested on a cold street corner, but she didn’t flinch and she did not resist and she was not afraid.