Honking For Freedom, Hope For The Future
Since the Freedom Convoy, there have been many legal issues and much legal drama for those of us who helped organize or promote the Freedom Convoy. Many of us have been disappointed to learn of the unnecessary political ties that began during the Freedom Convoy and have continued for the past year, resulting in exploitation of volunteers and leaders who sacrificed to end all COVID mandates and to end the ArriveCan app.
The political loyalists had seemed to operate with nefarious intent and did not act in the best interests of Canadian truckers and those of us who did our best to end all COVID mandates. These individuals and entities have engaged in defamatory whisper campaigns for over a year to try to cover up their unethical behaviour. Unfortunately, these kinds of political operatives are not exclusive to the Freedom Convoy; they are the norm and regularly manipulate and co-opt grassroots activism and causes.
Yet, none of these wicked manipulations have been able to take away the magic of the Freedom Convoy. Despite their best efforts, they couldn't tarnish the significance of how we unified Canada and inspired 30+ countries around the world to hold similar convoys in solidarity and do so across political lines and around the fundamental human right issues of freedom, love, and compassion.
One of the most compelling stories was the role Bitcoin played in the Freedom Convoy. While we were raising what became a cumulative total of close to $25 million dollars, we dealt with censorship from GoFundMe, followed by the provincial injunction filed by Doug Ford's Provincial Conservative Government and invocation of the provincial equivalent emergency measures act, which blocked all money raised by GiveSendGo. The Trudeau liberal government took it even further than Doug Ford, and as in "Hold my beer" eventually froze all our personal and corporate banking accounts, including credit cards, credit lines, and more.
Perhaps my openness and transparency about the role of Ontario Conservative Premier Doug Ford in oppressing working-class truckers is causing some well-coordinated smear campaigns by activists, which I describe in my live streams as Big Con Canada Inc.
Nevertheless, despite the actions of deceptive politicians like Doug Ford and the authoritarian measures brought in by Trudeau extremists on the federal level, Caribou and a small team of supporters were on the ground distributing Bitcoin donations directly to truckers who had spent over three weeks in freezing winter cold trying to have their voices heard by the government. Censorship-resistant Bitcoin was the only money (except for some small cash donations) successfully distributed directly to the truckers and totaling approximately $800k+. The process of Bitcoin distribution to the truckers was stopped abruptly when Caribou was raided by 15 police officers from the OPP (Doug Ford) and RCMP (Justin Trudeau), and law enforcement confiscated his computers, cell phones, and other personal property. The remaining Bitcoin was surrendered by Keith Wilson's agent, Norm Groot, to a bankruptcy trustee and is currently held in escrow.
Now, I'm going to answer the question that you're asking right now: why am I hearing about this now for the first time?
The Freedom Convoy and its eventual demise is one of the most complex and convoluted political stories in Canadian history. It has become increasingly esoteric as independent media companies like Diverge Media have taken a deep dive into the evidence provided at the POEC (Public Order Emergency Commission) and uncovered a long list of inconsistencies. Various individuals and entities that have engaged in ongoing smear campaigns against the participants in the Freedom Convoy have done so to deflect and obfuscate from questions of accountability while claiming to support the Freedom Convoy and simultaneously working to dissolve it. I like to refer to these people as Political Convoy; more on this in an upcoming stub stack.
Although all of this may seem extremely esoteric and almost uncanny at first glance, the layout is starting to become clear regarding what went on behind the scenes without our knowledge. The amount of research and evidence is likely to grow and become available to the public over time, as independent journalists continue to uncover some of the shocking surprises following the unsettling revelations that were brought to light during the POEC commission hearings.
Was The Freedom Convoy Compromised by Greg Staley, Diverge Media
Notwithstanding the ongoing behind-the-scenes political games, corruption, cover-ups, smear campaigns, the reviews of Honking For Freedom, The Trucker Convoy That Gave Us Hope (HonkingForFreedom.com) have been extremely positive. I personally know of a number of cases where supporters of the Freedom Convoy shared Honking For Freedom with a friend or family member who previously opposed the convoy, and who have since changed their perspectives and realized the importance of our rights to free speech, free assembly, and our right to protest. In one case, I know of a strident supporter of Trudeau's Liberals who finally realized that protecting the truckers' rights to protest protects all of our rights to free assembly, and he has since changed his position on mandates and the freedom convoy to align with freedom of choice.
This was the original intent for Honking For Freedom, and hopefully, many of you here have had the chance to read the book and relive the watershed moment in Canadian history, sharing the joy and tears from the stories of how, despite the desperate situation many found themselves in with government mandates, we were able to unite and work together in the spirit of peace, love, unity, and freedom.
On Friday, May 5th, Zero Hedge published an article written by Mark Jeftovic. Mark submitted and published the transcript of our conversation from his podcast, where we discussed many issues around the Freedom Convoy and its aftermath, including its successes and missteps. Freedom Convoy's B.J.Dichter: We Live In A Belief-Based Society
We touched on the $450 million reverse class action harassment lawsuit levied against myself and many other participants in the Freedom Convoy. Most of us have been entirely abandoned and left to our own devices to defend ourselves, as the JCCF has raised $5 million in donations directly allegedly for the purpose of defending truckers. Nevertheless, neither I, nor Brigitte Belton, nor Chris Garrah, nor Nicholas St. Louis and others who were targeted with whisper campaigns over the past years received any share for legal representation.
The Freedom Convoy now lives rent-free in the minds of authoritarian Trudeau's Liberals, who invoked the Emergencies Measures Act, Canada's version of martial law, to violate the rights and freedoms of Canadians to protest. This was done two days after Doug Ford invoked the same Emergencies Measures Act on the provincial level. There seemed to be collaboration with individuals and organizations who exploited us and the Freedom Convoy for profit and political gain. They are likely to have much to answer for in the coming years.
Special thanks to so many of you who came out to support the Freedom Convoy and our efforts to remove all COVID mandates and end the ArriveCan App. Although not all our goals were achieved in February 2022, the power-drunk provincial governments of Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau were eventually forced to comply with our demands, as it turned out that our views against the mandates were of the overwhelming majority of Canadians, and their propaganda attempts to label us as a fringe minority failed spectacularly. The next several years will consist of the unmasking of the behind-the-scenes actions that will play out in court.
While the legal and political drama and reciprocal targeted smears are likely to continue for some time like a bad case of irritable bowel syndrome (Political Convoy), this is merely irrelevant noise and does not take away from a great moment in Canadian history when we all unified around peace, love, unity & freedom; inspiring millions around the world to do the same and embrace the Canadian flag as the flag of freedom and peaceful revival.
I will be speaking at the upcoming Mass Adoption event in Boston Massachusetts on Thursday May 11th. If you are in the Boston area, please join us so I can thank you in person for your kindness and support.
So well written.... you need to be in the next Administration.