Freedom Convoy: The Greatest Reframe in Canadian History
The origins of Peace, Love, Unity & Freedom and why it was so effective.
What do I mean by a reframe? Let me explain with a bit of background and context, because the word reframe is about to become a cultural phenomenon.
Most of my life, I have worked for various companies and have owned my own small business prior to getting into trucking and buying my own rig. I've held many administrative roles, usually centred around staffing, administration, sales or creative marketing campaigns. I learned the importance of employee morale and helping staff focus on positive outcomes regardless of the daily challenges we faced. I always referred to problems as opportunities to fix something. That is a basic reframe.
The idea of a positive outlook, which I discuss on my livestreams (on Rumble, Locals, YouTube, and in podcast form on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.), is something I remember my dad teaching me as a child while backing out of the driveway on a hot spring day in his beige '76 Oldsmobile with vinyl seats. He explained why it's important to view life from a positive perspective. I suppose it was because, at that time, we had just started learning about the horrors of the Holocaust in school, and my parents wanted to balance this out by teaching me that strength, positivity, and gratitude were powerful mindsets in the face of adversity. This framing, which I developed throughout my life, would later come in handy during the Freedom Convoy.
I've been repeatedly asked by loyal supporters two questions.
How were you able to keep calm and maintain your resolve during the Freedom Convoy?
Why doesn't it bother you that you've been the target of multiple smear campaigns by the political actors (Political Convoy) and proxy organizations that sabotaged the Freedom Convoy?
The answer to both of these questions lies in learning from a young age how to compartmentalize and contextualize (reframe) my perspective. It's worth noting that the only time I appeared visually aggressive, intentionally -- looking like I was about to strangle someone -- was when activist lawyer Keith Wilson showed up in Ottawa and uploaded an ego-driven video without authorization as a "convoy lawyer," that nearly undid three weeks of work framing the Freedom Convoy, which had been focused on peace, love, and unity. His video framed the situation with desperation, despair, anxiety, and anger -- elements that I knew would damage the perception of the Freedom Convoy and give the legacy media what they needed to defame us and the Truckers. He didn't even consider or didn't care that the government and law enforcement were monitoring mood and behaviour as a primary indicator of our intentions, something that was confirmed in PEOC testimony. That's some lawyer.
My lawyer Jim Karahalios against clarifies misstatements made by Freedom Corp lawyer Keith Wilson at the POEC regarding bitcoin and finances related to freedom convoy.
From a public relations perspective, the rest of the convoy escalated into an exercise of push and pull between myself and the media team, truckers, volunteers on the ground, and select independent journalists versus the conservative political establishment proxy organizations, including JCCF, TBOF, The Lawyers, as well as other grifter politically tied organizations. Unfortunately, these elements eventually played a role in the increased numbers of arrests and charges against truckers and Freedom Convoy supporters.
I have been asked many times what made the Canadian Trucker convoy such a large and global phenomenon. Although I have answered this question at length in numerous interviews and Twitter spaces over the past year, I can narrow it down to one word: "reframe."
In my opinion, it was the greatest reframe in Canadian history.
The skills I developed in various careers and positions, usually centred around bringing employees together and getting staff on the same page, were invaluable. In addition to my experience in running various marketing campaigns, my prior involvement in the conservative party as a candidate, my extensive knowledge of Bitcoin, and my ownership of my own tractor-trailer, all positioned me uniquely as the ideal candidate to help maintain the tenor of the Canadian Trucker Convoy as positive, uplifting, and non-threatening. This approach, along with the fact that the City of Ottawa staff and Ottawa police assisted us in staging the trucks in Ottawa, minimizing disruption in the commercial sector of downtown Ottawa, showcases the power of reframing.
All of this left the government powerless against the massive group of middle-class truckers and small business owners that would have ultimately required the government to acquiesce and speak with us as respected constituents just ask we were asking. The cowardice and lack of leadership among the political class was astonishing. I have no doubt that Pierre Trudeau would have at least had the courage to accept our invitation to come outside his office and talk. However, the political party loyalists going behind our backs and submitting to the government without our knowledge, aid the government in condensing the protest, making it significantly easier for Ottawa police to raid and arrest truckers and volunteers who made the long trek to Ottawa, was shocking to learn. Unfortunately, a reframe cannot defend against this kind of deception, but a reframe it did help us make history.
What was the reframe for the most successful reframe in Canadian history?
It's simple and elegant:
Standard Frame: We were going to Ottawa to protest the government and show the world we were angry.
Reframe: We were going to Ottawa to celebrate freedom and unify the country around the values of Peace, Love, Unity & Freedom.
That's it - it was that simple.
And it worked.
The biggest frustration was dealing with nefarious political actors who lacked knowledge and experience in this area of communication. There were a few people I spoke with frequently who seemed to understand my general strategy of peace, positivity and patience, one of whom was Dr. Jordan Peterson, who seemed to understand what I was aiming for in our many conversations during Freedom Convoy.
Jordan Peterson Podcast | What the Truckers Do and Do Not Want Original Link
Marketing is an interesting field given how much of it is based on psychology and understanding human behaviour. Yet, the political class, all of whom were latched onto the Freedom Convoy like parasites, failed to understand human motivation, or as I'm increasingly beginning to believe, they don't care. Their psychopathy was manifested in various attacks, whisper campaigns, and defamatory statements, even by our former lawyer who I believe was malicious and deceptive on the record during the POEC.
My lawyer Jim Karahalios expands on how political activists were conducting their own negotiations behind the backs of truckers and protestors.
Now, I'm going to address that itch or that feeling you have in the back of your chest telling you to say the following:
"It sounds like BJ is bitter."
Well, yes, no and sort of but not for the reasons you might think.
As I mentioned in conversations in the past, my ability to compartmentalize is weapons-grade, and my ability to reframe anything in a positive light is perhaps at an expert level. I don't care that people I trusted sold us out, lied to me and to the truckers, all for the sake of party politics. I have pity for those who are so shallow and empty. However, I am extremely angry about what Political Convoy (political party activist) and everyone who exploited you for donations did to the always ambiguous truckers they always reference but never seem to actually care about. $5 million dollars was raised on the backs of us truckers, and most of us have not seen a penny, while a handful have been pressured to plea-bargain. Now, Political Convoy has come back for an additional $300k+ through their sister organization, The Democracy Fund, founded by Ezra Levant. Between these deceptive political fundraising games and Chrystia Freeland and Trudeau passing retroactive legislation during the Emergencies Measures Act targeting Freedom Convoy donors, I am worried about the ability for charities and individuals to illicit legal and moral crowdfunding donations in Canada in the future.
Tamara and I talked about money at length during the convoy when I was trying to warn her about properly handling money so that it would not get seized, and we could ensure it was distributed to the truckers. Political money needs an experienced investment banker and a legal team familiar with SWIFT, AML laws, and other regulations around large transactions. It appears now, as a result of Chad Eros' extensive emails and Diverge Media's investigation into the convoy, that Tamara was keeping a lot to herself and was not entirely honest. I don't know the motivations for this, but I'm confident we will uncover this in the near future.
Perhaps this is part of the reason for the extensive smear campaigns? Perhaps it's the fact that despite my political framework and value system, I refuse to engage in political team play at all costs and refuse to participate in selling all of you a lie. I could not sell a lie to the millions of people who supported and donated to the peaceful cause to revive Canada and become a free country.
There was only one thing I was hyper-focused on selling everyone: the greatest reframe in Canadian history -- a convoy to Ottawa to celebrate Peace, Love, Unity, & Freedom.
And it worked.
A special and important note on reframing: Author, Cartoonist, YouTuber, & Political Pundit, Scott Adams, has just released his new book, "Reframe Your Brain," which was the inspiration for this article. The idea of reframing or recontextualizing is not new; however, the ease with which Adams contextualizes and explains this skill in a simple and concise manner so that anyone lacking experience in this domain can immediately understand is new. I am halfway through the book, and already, I strongly recommend it.
If you read Reframe Your Brain by Scott Adams, it will give you greater insight into Honking For Freedom, The Trucker Convoy That Gave Us Hope, and how the The Canadian Trucker Convoy; Freedom Convoy became the most peaceful, most successful, and most positive protest party in Canadian history.
Order Now!
Reframe Your Brain by Scott Adams - CLICK HERE
Honking For Freedom, The Trucker Convoy That Gave Us Hope By Benjamin J. Dichter - CLICK HERE
The convoy was a godsend to those who felt they did not have a voice. As someone who lived under the Draconian lockdown curfew of Quebec, my mother battled stage 4 cancer and as her sole caregiver could not be out past 8 PM in order to “stop the virus”. Funny but I don’t think the virus sleeps when we sleep… BJ and the convoy’s impact was pivotal for showing the world how the political class got a little too drunk on power. The convoy was a victory for freedom. The lockdowns and curfew ended in Québec. Although time was limited as my mom sadly passed May 2022, I want to thank BJ for ending the needless isolation, pain families suffered when the Convoy became the real opposition in Canadian politics. Thank you BJ for educating us but allowing me to be close to my mother in her final moments as I can take to my grave I was there in the final moments even after the political elites tried to separate me from her in the name of “stopping the spread”.