Pat King
I heard a boastful laugh among the horns and shouts as I strode down Wellington towards the Rideau Centre. It was February 16th. Tensions were heating up in Ottawa as everyone prepared for the police to finally swoop in and bring the convoy occupation to an end after three long weeks. Before its end, I wished to speak with the King himself. Pat King, I mean, the most notable face among the convoy organizers. And so I followed the laugh.
Me: Pat King? Pat? Mr. King? PAT! CAN I SPEAK WITH YOU?
Pat: HEY MISS! YOU WANNA PICTURE?
Me: NO, NO: CAN I SPEAK WITH YOU? I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS THAT OTTAWANS WANT ANSWERED.
Pat: I CAN’T HEAR YA, MISS. SPEAK UP. THESE HORNS ARE BLASTIN’ TODAY, I TELL YA.
Me: I HAVE QUESTIONS! CAN I ASK YOU SOME QUESTIONS?
Pat: WELL WHY DIDN’T YA SAY SO? SURE, YEAH, I CAN GET YA SOME RATIONS. FOLLOW ME. FOLKS, FOLKS, I’LL BE BACK IN A JIFF. I JUST GOTTA SHOW THIS LADY TO THE SUPPLIES. I’LL BE A QUICK MINUTE.
____________
Pat: Right, yeah, so the rations are just over here. We got plenty for all the gals here. Just take whachya need.
Me: No, no, I said I have questions. Can I ask you some questions?
Pat: Hold on. Who’re ya with? I ain’t answering no more media questions, alright. I just spoke with the W5 lady. I don’t need no more of this nonsense. Got it?
Me: I’m not with anyone. I promise. You can look me up. My name is Sophie Minette-Gregoire. I’m an independent journalist. All I want to do here is get your side of the story, okay.
Pat: Look, okay, this is what they all tell me. They all want my side of the story—it’s hack journalism is what it is—they all want to ask me their questions like they just want to know the truth, but then they chop up my answers and make me out to be the bad guy. I did that W5 gig for my parents, you know—I just wanted to make them proud. That’s what a man does, right? But I ain’t talkin’ to any more journalists.
Me: I get it. I do. Really. This is exactly why I do what I do. I don’t think Canadian media is in a healthy place right now. I know you agree with that.
Pat: You got that right. It’s disgraceful is what it is. But look, I don’t know who the fuck you are, okay? I ain’t gonna waste my time.
Me: I don’t want to waste your time. I really don’t. This is what I propose. Just give me a chance to explain what I want to do and you can agree to a few very brief and I hope fair questions or you can walk away. I don’t want to impose. You’re a free man. So just let me explain what I propose here and I’ll put the ball in your court. Is that okay?
Pat: Yeah, sure—just give me your spiel.
Man: HONK HONK!
Me: I have three questions for you. One: what is your message for the people of Ottawa? Two: what will it take for us all to come together to find a peaceable agreement? And three: do you think that we will ever come to a peaceable agreement? Those are all the questions I really want…
Man: HOLD THE LINE!
Me: …to ask you. They’re brief, I hope you agree. And you’ll notice here that I have an audio recorder, so it’ll catch everything you say—it’s recording now; I hope that’s okay—and once I have your answers recorded, I will send them to you to verify then put them up in full. I am not in the business of chopping up people’s answers. I want to put the ball entirely in your court. Is this acceptable to you?
Pat: Yeah, I mean, I don’t see a problem with that, I suppose. But you understand, right, why I worry? We’ve been here for nearly three weeks now and we haven’t caught a break—not a single goddamn break—with the media since we got here. They’re paintin’ us to be racists and to be violent. Look around. You see that this ain’t true. We got fuckin’ bouncy castles over there, right, and hot tubs. We got them natives over there, we got a couple a them turban guys, a couple blacks, we’re just having a good ol’ peaceful time protestin’ for our freedoms, exactly as the police said we could do.
Me: The police told you that you could protest here, blockading streets and honking your horns at all hours of the night indefinitely?
Pat: Yeah, I mean, that’s exactly what they said. They told us—we had confirmation from them—that we had the right to peacefully assemble.
Me: Do you think they understood that you were going to blockade much of the downtown core, shut down businesses, and keep people awake all night with your horns and fireworks?
Pat: Hey now, we haven’t shut down a single business down here, and we don’t honk at night. Lotta folks sleep at night and we respect that.
Me: You guys did stop honking at nights. That’s true. But you did honk all night for the first two or three days. I live down here. Don’t lie to me, Pat.
Pat: That was only three days. They’re just horns, my dear. We ain’t harmin’ anybody. And we stopped. We just needed you all to know that we were here, that we have a message, and that we weren’t leavin’ until we were heard.
Me: Fair enough. I’m not going to challenge…
Man: FUCK TRUDEAU!
Pat: But we didn’t close down no stores, okay. People keep saying that and that’s just not true. We got here, we set up shop, and you all fled into the hills like we were some back woods invaders. This is a peaceful protest. There’s no reason to be afraid of us. We didn’t close down any stores at all. You all closed them down yourselves.
Me: True, true, but can’t you see why business owners might want to close their stores? You guys are a loud and rowdy bunch, and most Ottawans don’t really see you as all too inviting. So businesses are going to be hurt by staying open.
Pat: That’s a load of scheisse! We’re down here havin’ loads of fun. Any business that stayed open is doing loads of business. We’re stimulatin’ the Ottawa economy here.
Me: I don’t really want to debate you on this. That’s not why I’m down here, but you have to see that if all the businesses stayed open, you guys would disperse a little more and businesses overall would be hurt. Can you see that?
Pat: Nah, look: you’re assuming that we’re big scary truckers, right? You think we’re beating people up. That’s nonsense. If businesses had stayed open, people woulda come down here. But no. You all got scared of a bunch of truckers…
Me: Maybe so. I do want to press you on that point a little bit. There have been quite a few people that have been attacked who live in the downtown area. I haven’t been attacked, but I know some people who have. And even so, I have been yelled at, followed, and harassed. You can’t just deny that these things happen.
Woman: HONK HONK! FUCK TRUDEAU!
Pat: Look, there are a lotta guys down here. We don’t condone any a that shit, alright? Sure, some people got a little roughed up. We don’t want that to happen to anyone. We’re out here just trying to be peaceful and get our message across. If you can find me any one of my guys that’s been beatin’ on people I will personally wring their neck…
Woman: HOLD THE LINE!
Pat: …in front of ya, you got that? I ain’t gonna tolerate that from my guys for one second. But I ain’t everywhere. That’s what the police are for. They’re supposed to keep us safe and keep you safe. There’re a lotta guys, and sure some of ‘em are gonna be bad dudes. But don’t accuse me of that shit. That’s what they’re doin’. I ain’t doing any a that, okay?
Me: Of course, of course. I didn’t mean to suggest you were. I just want to be clear that Ottawans aren’t afraid of coming down here for no reason. We all know that there are people getting harassed, at least, and sometimes assaulted. Can we at least agree on that?
Pat: Sure, yeah, if you say so. I don’t got the numbers on what some freaks are doin’. I’ll take your word for it. I just want to emphasize that besides a couple a idiots that are gonna be out at every protest—and, you know, no one ever mentions this at those Black Lives Matter protests. This is the problem. We’re unfairly tarred and insulted by the media as violent and dangerous protestors, and look, we didn’t damage a single thing or hurt anyone. The Black Lives Matter protests burned down whole cities. Make that make sense!
Me: I’m not here to talk about other protests. I just want to understand this one. But you were saying? You interrupted yourself there.
Pat: Oh, yeah, uh… anyways, I was sayin’ I just wanna say that besides a couple a idiots, we’re just out here exercising our right to peaceful assembly, okay? That’s what the law says we’re allowed to do, so we just want that to be clear. We’re out here just to be peaceful, but also to be heard.
Me: Right. So back to my questions. We haven’t come to those yet. I’ll ask the first one again: what is your message to the people of Ottawa?
Man: HOLD THE LINE! HONK HONK!
Pat: We want our freedoms. That’s all. We just want to go on livin’ our lives, okay? You guys have been takin’ away our freedoms for too long—for two years now that’s all we hear about—case numbers and deaths and case numbers—they’re up, they’re down, they’re back up again—vaccines, masks, case numbers—mandates, mandates, mandates—and we’re sick of it. We just want to get back to our lives. We want to get back to normal, to how it was before all this. That’s what we’re fightin’ for here.
Me: I understand. But please do recognise that Ottawans are not responsible for any of that. The pandemic is outside anyone’s…
Pat: Don’t give me any of that “the mandates are provincial” bullshit. These border mandates come from Ottawa, from the Federal Government.
Me: No, no, that’s not what I’m saying. You’re right. People who try to dismiss your protest as ignorant or misinformed by citing provincial mandates are being disingenuous at best. You have my support there. But please recognise that most Ottawans aren’t the government, especially down here in Centretown and Lowertown. I understand that you are protesting the Federal Government, but the people who live around here are not the government. They’re just regular people, and they too are sick of the pandemic and of restrictions. But they’re not honking their horns to make others’ work, focus, and mental stability impossible. They’re not refusing to get vaccinated. They’re not refusing to wear masks. We know what your message is to the government. You’ve all made that pretty clear. So what message do you have for those ordinary people of Ottawa whose lives you’ve uprooted and destabilized? Do you have any sympathy for them at all? Do you want to apologize? Do you want to explain?
Pat: I feel for ya. I really do. But you guys all live in Ottawa. You gotta expect this kind of thing. That’s the price of living here, isn’t it?
Me: This simply isn’t a normal protest. You know that. No protest in Ottawa has ever blockaded whole blocks for weeks on end.
Pat: Look, I get it, but we all need to make sacrifices for our freedoms. Do you think I wanna be here? No. I wanna be at home, sittin’ on my couch, drinkin’ a beer. I don’t wanna be out here in the cold all day protestin’. But this is what a man does. We make sacrifices for other people, so they may live a better life.
Man: FUCK TRUDEAU!
Me: He’s already married! Uh, sorry, sorry. Anyway, what do you mean by that last comment? What does it mean to you to make sacrifices for other people? Is this all a man is?
Pat: Yeah, I mean, that’s exactly it. I’m out here for you and for everyone else. You think I enjoy this? I’m gonna get arrested, I’ll tell you what—I know it, you know it, Hell, even fuckin’ Trudeau knows it—he’s gonna grow a spine eventually. He ain’t gonna be puttin’ up with us for much longer. You can see the signs. The police are gearin’ up. The Emergency Act was signed the other day. The writin’s on the wall. I’m gonna be arrested. And you know how the media and the government hate me. I see it every day, all these slanders against me, riling people up. I’m not an idiot. I’m gonna be arrested. They’re gonna try to make an example out of me and put me away for a lotta years. I know that. But this is what a man does. I’m makin’ this sacrifice so y’all can go back to your comfortable little lives free from these mandates and these restrictions. And just so you don’t think I wanna be sexist, just so this doesn’t get taken out of context like everything else, there are plenty a women I know who got more balls than a lotta men out there. I just want to make that clear.
Me: Right, absolutely. So you’re talking about courage then? Is that right?
Pat: Yeah, somethin’ like that.
Me: So this is what you want to tell Ottawans: that you’re courageously protesting the government, making sacrifices for their benefit? Is that right?
Pat: Well yeah, but not if you put it like that! I ain’t got a stick up my ass about it. I ain’t that much of a prick. I just wanna tell people that we all need to stand up for our freedoms. I’m just one of the first to actually stand up. I want to inspire others, you know. And I have.
Me: Great, great. That makes perfect sense. And that leads me to my second question. A lot of Ottawans don’t think that you’re fighting for their freedom. I hope you understand that. They think that you’re fighting some made up conspiracy, that you’re racist, that you’re…
Pat: Hey now…
Me: …anti-government…
Pat: …wait! That’s not…
Me: …anti-democratic…
Pat: …that’s not true!
Me: …you name it. Hold on. Hold on. Let me finish.
Pat: I have never said a single racist thing. I have never made a single derogatory comment against anybody, alright?
Me: Let me finish. I wasn’t accusing you of being a racist. But a lot of the people of Ottawa think you’re a racist, and we can go through that if you want, but what I want to ask you here is that given that this is what they think, they don’t think that you’re fighting for them. You can see that, can’t you? So how do you propose that you can ever come to a peaceable agreement with the people of Ottawa? Do you think it’s possible?
Pat: Well not until they stop believing all these slanders against me. Not until they take off the blinders and start paying attention to the truth.
Me: You think that Ottawans have been misled?
Pat: Of fuckin’ course I do, missy. Anybody with a brain can see that you’ve all been lied to.
Me: Suppose that’s true…
Pat: It sure as Hell is…
Me: Well, I mean, Hell isn’t that sure, is it? Sorry, sorry, that was a joke. I don’t want to talk about that.
Pat: Heh heh, you got balls, girl. I like you. You’re good.
Me: I don’t need you to like me. I just want to understand your position so I can help you and I and all Ottawans to come to terms with your protest and resolve our animosities. I’m trying to stay neutral here. So anyway: suppose Ottawans have been misled. What do you plan to do about that? What does your courage amount to?
Pat: Look, okay, we’re out here every day to try to get the government to lift the mandates, okay? That’s all we’re really doing here. I don’t really give two shits about whether the people of Ottawa like me or agree with me at all.
Me: But you surely know at this point that the government hasn’t listened to you. You said yourself that you’re going to be arrested and this protest is going to be cleared out. Didn’t you say that?
Pat: Yeah, I mean, but you’re the one with the voice recorder.
Me: Sure, but do you—you know, I’m actually surprised that you’re not livestreaming this. I’ve seen a lot of your livestreams, and you seem to always have your camera on.
Pat: I livestream a lot, but look, you’re not important. Or at least I didn’t think you were. I thought you just wanted supplies, okay? Do you want me to open up the stream?
Me: No, no, I was just expressing my surprise. But you’re also right. I’m not important. Trust me. Only like five people are going to read my record of our conversation.
Pat: You’re so confident! Look, miss, I didn’t mean any offense. Don’t read in to what I say. It’s just words. It’s just verbage.
Me: I’m not offended. You’re right. All I’m saying here is that there’s not a great deal of importance to our conversation. The more important conversation is bigger than us. Don’t you agree? This is what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the bigger conversation. So I want to return to the point here. Suppose Ottawans have been lied to—and I know that you don’t care what they think about you—but if the government doesn’t budge and if they arrest you and tow away all these trucks, then your sacrifice is for naught, isn’t it?
Man: HOLD THE LINE! FUCK TRUDEAU!
Pat: Not at all. Not at all. Look around Canada. Look around the globe. We’ve inspired a movement here. That’s what this is about. You all might not see it yet, but it’s comin’ I tell ya. It’s comin’, and you best be ready.
Me: So there are people who haven’t been lied to. Is that what you’re saying? And those people see your courage and your sacrifice, understand your message, and agree with it?
Pat: You got it.
Me: And these people are going to carry on the fight?
Pat: Exactly.
Me: So let me see if I understand you alright. You’re saying that through your courage, you’ve inspired other people to take up the mantle of your cause, and that these people, in carrying on your cause, will presumably do the same thing as you and inspire others through their courage. Is that right?
Pat: I don’t doubt that for one second.
Me: Great. Good. So how do you think your courage inspires others? You tell me that you’re not worried about those people in Ottawa who have been misled, so does this mean that to be inspired by your courage, you can’t have been misled?
Pat: Well, no, you gotta be able to see what we’re doin’ here. Obviously if you don’t see what we’re doin’, you can’t see the truth. If you don’t hear our message, you don’t hear our message. This is why we have to be so loud.
Me: So you do care about what Ottawans think!
Pat: I do not care. I don’t care one bit.
Me: No, I get that. But what I mean is that you’re using them, aren’t you? You’re trying to piss them off. You’re trying to rile them up. You’re trolling them, aren’t you?
Pat: I hadn’t thought of it that way, but yeah, I guess. We need to be loud and cause a disturbance so that people hear our message.
Me: And you think that by pissing people off in this way that you’ll find your audience?
Pat: Whachya mean “my audience”?
Man: FUCK TRUDEAU!
Me: Think about it this way: how is a person going to talk about you when they’re pissed? Do you think they’re going to engage with you sincerely and without bias, or do you think they’re going to tell people about how angry and violent you are?
Pat: I don’t give two shits about what they say. I just want to get my message out. I want to fight for my freedoms and for everybody’s freedoms.
Me: But do you think a pissed off person is really going to get your message out for you? Do you think that someone who says that you’re angry and violent is going to provide good reason for someone else to join your cause?
Pat: Well, no, but what does this have to do with anything?
Me: Maybe I’m being unclear. Maybe I’m focusing on the question in the wrong way. Forgive me. What I mean to suggest is that if we look at the polling, the vast majority of Canadians are against your protest. The people who are in favour of it are overwhelmingly PPC voters. Even the majority of Conservatives are against your protest. A supermajority even supports using the military to clear you guys out. You’ve not made many friends here. And I know that you don’t care about whether people like you, but you do see the problem, don’t you? The people who support your protest, who you’ve inspired, were people who already agreed with your message. Barring, perhaps, some oddly large proportion of Green Party supporters, you’ve not gotten your message out there.
Pat: This is why our protest is so important. We need to be loud, we need to hold our ground, hold the line, so that we can show people why we’re here. That’s all.
Me: Of course, but when the majority of the country thinks that you are little more than insolent criminals, do you really think that your message is getting out?
Pat: It is. But look, whether it is or not isn’t important. What’s important is that we’re out here making the sacrifice for our freedoms.
Me: But that’s just it. That’s what I’m trying to ask about. Do you think sacrificing just to sacrifice is good? Or do you think that courage needs to have some prospect of success?
Woman: FUCK TRUDEAU! HONK HONK!
Pat: I don’t see what you mean.
Me: Let me give you an example. Do you think that fighting a bear with your bare hands is courageous?
Pat: Fuck yeah I do! You gotta have balls to fuck with a bear!
Me: But do you think that you could win against a bear?
Pat: You’d be damn lucky if you did! Look, if you’re askin’ whether I think it’s smart to fight a bear then I’ll just tell ya: anyone who wants to fight a bear is a fuckin’ idiot, okay? There’s a chance that you win, sure—bears have soft parts too—but they’ll fuck you up. And do you think that I’m fightin’ a bear here? Is that what you’re insinuatin’?
Me: Well, I don’t know. Do you think you’re fighting a bear? What do you think you’re doing in this protest?
Pat: I’m not that stupid. We’re out here to get our message out, not just to get ourselves locked up.
Me: Good, good. So you think that you have some reasonable chance of success. Is that right?
Pat: We’ve already succeeded. We’ve already won.
Me: Have you? What do you mean?
Pat: I already said. Keep up, missy. We’ve inspired a global movement. People everywhere are starting to stand up for their freedom.
Me: I understood that. But do you think this movement will be successful? Is this movement all that’s needed to come to a peaceable agreement with Ottawans or Canadians more generally?
Man: HOLD THE LINE!
Pat: Look, success for us isn’t convincing Canadians to agree with us. It’s only getting the government to stop restricting our freedoms. That’s it.
Me: Of course, yes, but we live in a democracy, or close enough to one, and so preventing the government from restricting your freedoms requires that you get at least a large minority of people to agree with you.
Pat: That’s not our job here. We have only one goal. If we need to come back to Ottawa, we will. You can count on that.
Me: That’s fair. It’s important to have clear and achievable goals. I think my concern is this: your protest isn’t being done in a vacuum. Every political action we take affects the political landscape. Future governments, future police departments, are going to start getting wise to what you’re doing. Protest like this isn’t always going to be possible. Your movement will run out of gas.
Man: HOLD THE LINE! FUCK TRUDEAU!
Pat: That’ll never happen. We will continue to get out our message, expand our movement, and be one step ahead of those governments that are trying to restrict our freedoms.
Me: I don’t doubt that, but I don’t think you understand what I’m trying to ask. I think I’m just not being clear enough. Let me try to explain.
Pat: Go ahead.
Me: You accept that the majority of people are being lied to, right? And you accept that you’re pissing off Ottawans? Do you think there is a connection between pissing off Ottawans and others being lied to? And if this trend continues, do you think that there will be fewer people who could possibly hear your message? Because Ottawans and everyone else your movement is going to inconvenience are talking about you, and they’re not happy…
Woman: O CANADA! OUR HOME AND NATIVE LAND…
Me: …You say that they’re lying, and that may be true, but if you aren’t out there setting the record straight yourself, there will just be fewer and fewer people who are open to your protest. This doesn’t bode well for your chances of success, my friend! So surely this isn’t what you’re arguing, is it? Or do you think I’ve gone wrong somewhere?
Woman: TRUE… uh… TRUE PATRIOT LOVE…
Pat: Yeah, sure, but like I said: I don’t care what people think about me.
Man: PAT KING, BUDDY! Thank fuck for you, man! Thank fuck!
Woman: IN ALL OUR SONS COMMAND…
Me: Sorry, but I just don’t understand what your goal is then. What do you mean by getting your message out if you don’t care that people understand, respect, or endorse it?
Pat: There’s your mistake. You think that we’re tryin’ to convince people. That’s not it. We’re trying to get our message out. That’s it.
Me: But what does it mean to get your message out that doesn’t involve convincing people?
Pat: We’re inspirin’ people, not convincin’ ‘em.
Me: And what do you think is the difference between inspiring and convincing?
Pat: You can convince a person all you want, but that ain’t gonna make them get off their couch and do somethin’. All we’re doin’ here is takin’ those folks who already think that their freedoms are getting’ trampled on and showin’ ‘em that we can do somethin’ about it. We’re showin’ ‘em that we can stand up to the government and all them city types, and even if it’s bad for us, by inspirin’ the rest of the guys who haven’t come out here yet, we’ll keep the movement alive.
Me: So let me see if I understand you. You think that there are already a large number of people who agree with you who are complacent about acting to defend their freedoms. Is that correct?
Pat: Yeah, you got it.
Me: Interesting. And what do you think is involved in defending your freedoms? I know you have said in some of your livestreams that “the only way this ends is with bullets.” Surely you don’t mean your bullets, right?
Pat: No, no, this is a peaceful protest. You guys always want to talk to me about that. But you never listen. You all keep focusing on the verbage. But it’s just verbage. That’s it. We’re stayin’ here until they shoot us. That’s all I said. I ain’t trying to provoke no violence.
Me: I just want to be clear on this: you completely disavow any and all violence associated with your movement. Is that correct?
Pat: Damned right!
Me: So then what are you inspiring others to do? What does it mean to you to defend your freedoms?
Pat: It’s what we’re doin’ here now. It’s peacefully protestin’. This isn’t the first time we led a convoy to Ottawa, remember. We know what we’re doin’ and we’ll keep doin’ it until our freedoms are upheld.
Me: But surely the police are going to get smart and stop you from leading any more convoys. You’ve completely paralyzed this city. And I know, I know, you haven’t paralyzed it—Ottawans are free to keep their businesses open, free to come downtown, et cetera. I know. But as far as the police are concerned, as far as Ottawans are concerned, as far as the government is concerned, you’ve worn out your welcome. Do you think that you’ll be able to lead a convoy again? And if not, what do you do?
Pat: No, I mean, I doubt we’ll be back here in this way. But that just means we gotta man up and step up. If we need to get more serious, we’ll get more serious. I don’t know what we’ll do next, but we’ll keep fightin, I’ll tell you what. Unless our freedoms are respected, we’re gonna keep comin’, I promise you. So you better watch out.
Man: FUCK TRUDEAU!!
Me: I think you need to moderate your language a bit. Don’t you? This is the kind of thing that has people worried about you inciting violence. And when people associated with your protest are caught amassing firearms in a conspiracy to murder police officers, your language looks suspicious, don’t you think?
Pat: I ain’t inciting nothin’, okay? Like I said, that’s them guys. I did fuck all. I don’t know them. I don’t support violence. And I ain’t tellin’ ‘em to do nothin’.
Me: The concern people have is that your rhetoric is radicalizing. You’re committed to your cause, and you aren’t concerned about coming to peaceable terms with those who disagree with you, and you’re open about escalating your protest where need be. People reasonably infer that the end point of that escalation is violence, don’t they? Isn’t that the natural conclusion?
Pat: No, no, it’s not. This is a peaceful protest. We’re following the law here. We’re not radicalizing nobody. We’re inspiring people to get off their asses and peacefully protest. That’s all.
Me: But what happens when peaceful protest doesn’t work? What happens when you can’t peacefully protest any longer?
Pat: We’ll get there when we get there. I don’t know. We’re a peaceful protest.
Me: But will you always be peaceful?
Pat: What kind of question is that? I don’t know what other folks are gonna do, missy. I’m just here to get the message out. And I’m gonna do that peacefully. Got that?
Me: I understand. I think I just worry that you’ve not left yourself any room to come to a peaceable agreement with Ottawans or with the government or the police. And if peace is not possible, what else is there?
Pat: I don’t know what you’re trying to say, but I ain’t likin’ that tone. I’m not doin’ nothin’ wrong here. I ain’t callin’ for violence. I ain’t doin’ nothin’.
Me: But maybe that’s the problem. You’re not doing anything. You’re not protesting. You’re not talking to Ottawans or to the government. You’re talking through them. And that’s not calling for peace. That’s making peace impossible.
Pat: What bullshit is that! I’ve said again and again that I’m here peacefully protesting, as is my right. And here you’re accusing me of inciting violence? You’re no different than the media. You’re nothing.
Me: I didn’t say that! I didn’t say that you’re intending to incite violence. I’m just saying that this might be an unintended consequence of your protest, that you might accidentally incite violence.
Pat: I ain’t stupid, missy. But look, I have a lotta shit to do today. We’re preparin’ here for the police to come, and we need to hold them off. ‘Cause we ain’t goin’ nowhere, okay? We need to get our message out. We need to show everyone that our freedoms are not being respected. And everyone needs to get off their asses and get down here.
Me: I’m sorry. I really don’t mean to malign you. I don’t know what will come of the future, but I’m worried. That’s all. I’m just worried.
Pat: Well it’s time to man up, girl. No use bein’ scared. If you don’t like it, do somethin’.
Me: I’m trying. I’m trying.
Man: FUCK TRUDEAU!
Me: Keep safe!