Protests are about the fight for freedom against tyranny, says reader

To the Editor:

The letters posted in response to the Freedom March in Kincardine have made interesting reading. But, clearly, some misunderstandings need to be addressed.

Firstly, these protests are not just local. They are happening all over the world, and the people participating are not a tiny few "disgruntled whiners." They are people who are genuinely concerned about the tyranny that is rising, not just in Kincardine, Ontario, Canada, but across the globe.

Secondly, this movement is not about the vaxxed versus the unvaxxed. It is the recognition that the freedoms our forebears fought so hard to preserve are eroding before our very eyes.

As I write this, some 50,000 truckers are headed for Ottawa. Some reports say as many as a million-and-a-half people will accompany them to Parliament Hill. And for each one who physically marches to the capital city, there are many more at home supporting them.

Prime minister Justin Trudeau called the truck convoy "a small segment of society." If they are, Mr. Prime Minister, they sure are mighty, for they have captured the attention of the international media. No, these are not small numbers and the fact that these numbers are replicated in protests being staged in other democratic countries, such as Australia, France, Britain and so on, ought to make every thinking person wake up and take notice.

Power, when bred with fear, gives birth to tyranny. What these protesters, and this writer, fear is not a disease. The human race has faced far worse than COVID-19. Those who doubt it, please grab a history book or two and re-visit the French Revolution, the American Revolution, the American Civil War, the Russian Revolution, the First and Second World Wars ... those will do, for a start. 

In all these, the trigger was capital "T" Tyranny. And, my friends, if you think that cannot happen again, and certainly not here in Canada, let me remind you that in the run-up to the Second World War, Sir Winston Churchill famously said, "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

Unfortunately, there would appear to be many in power, in our era, who have failed to learn those lessons of history.

O Canada, we stand on guard for Thee!

May Holy God help us all.

Lynda Janzen
Kincardine