Victoria De La Ronde, left, and Zexi Li, the first witnesses to appear at the Public Order Emergency Commission, react as audio of truck horns from the protest is played during their testimony, in Ottawa, Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
The Emergencies Act inquiry continues today in Ottawa and its likely that we'll continue to hear from more of the people affected by the unlawful invasion by the so-called Freedom Convoy of our Canadian capital city earlier this year. As the weeks drag on may eventually find out if it was necessary to invoke the Act although in the end we probably won't have a clear answer.
This isn't a trial, we're reminded, yet there will be the court of public opinion. It's indisputible that the raucous, belligerent gang in Ottawa was there illegally, and that other protests across the country seriously disrupted international trade (Windsor) and were potentially lethal (Coutts, Alberta.) While I roll my eyes a bit at the earnest civil liberties folk it is important that we have voices such as theirs to uphold the rule of law when it comes to those rights and liberties and we need checks and balances in a democracy.
I'm glad we're hearing first from those who were seriously impacted by the Ottawa protest, including those who were traumatized by the incessant noise of truck horns. In fact, the first evidence was a recording of that cacophony, followed by the testimony of a woman who lived at "ground zero." According to a City News report:
The first witness, a legally blind resident of downtown Ottawa, flinched as a recording of the horns resounded in the conference room for the benefit of the commissioner, lawyers, protest convoy organizers and members of the public.
The witness, Victoria De La Ronde, told the commission the protest that arrived in Ottawa in late January was an "assault on my hearing," which she relied on to navigate the city independently. “I found myself trapped,” said De La Ronde, who was left feeling hopeless and unable to leave her home.
She became emotional as she told the commission she eventually begged a friend to pick her up and help her leave the convoy zone. A few days later, she and her friend both contracted COVID-19.
Someone else has tweeted that an acquaintance fled his downtown apartment because of the chaos and eventually took his own life while living in a hotel at the farther reaches of the city. This is anecdotal but its not hard to imagine the desperation of thousands of residents of Ottawa's core.
More and more we'e being made aware of the intrusion of noise as a form of pollution which assaults body, mind, and spirit. Some of it would be considered minor, such as the infernal and omnipresent leafblowers, while construction noise and the incursion of industrial buildings alongside residential neighbourhoods are more significant.
Why don't we care more about the effects of unwanted sound, I wonder? The expression "I can't hear myself think" comes to mind. We're told that birds are having to sing louder in urban environments because of the din and I figure humans need to hear birds and other creatures in order to be balanced and whole.
When we look to our Judeo/Christian tradition we discover that Hagar, Moses, Elijah, Jesus, and Paul all spent time in the wilderness, voluntarily and involuntarily, where they heard and encountered God. There is a long Christian tradition of seeking silence and solitude for spiritual renewal and "kiltering." Surely we still need this, regardless of any religious leanings or lack thereof. At the very least it should be a human right for a visually impaired person or anyone else to go about daily activities without this kind of assault.
In the end we'll be told that police and civic leaders in Ottawa failed to fulfill their duties and that invoking the Emergencies Act was an overreach and should be implemented more judiciously in the future.
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