Kaitlin. I just read your article on the parallels between domestic violence and the convoy and I’m in tears. I’m living at a YWCA women’s shelter, finally fleeing years of holistic abuse after my ribs got broken. I fled with my 2 year old and 5 month old.

Everyone here has been so confusingly devestated by what’s going on in Ottawa and downtown Toronto. I say confusingly because most of us are non-political, and none of our physical daily lives have been interrupted.

But now it makes sense. The outright lying, the gaslighting, the intimidation. The global display of absolute control and privilege. This is a repeated lived experience, with the threat of imminent and very real danger looming.

I have diagnosed PTSD, and I didn’t think the news would get me quite like angry men screaming and footsteps coming towards me would. The convoy threw me into a frenzy of begging people to reconsider online and freaking out. Being anti big pharma and anti corrupt govt does NOT mean you have to join forces with, throw a fraternity block party of absolute privilege with, and raise literal millions for the agenda of the flipping Klan. Far right lunatics tokenizing the few POC that are with them for various reasons (Modi mostly)… it’s a deep humiliation.

We know as Canada loses it’s reputation for being peaceful and scientific, and heads towards wanting to mimic what happened in the States, our lives, the lives of every minority and marginalized group are going to become increasingly difficult. Everything you wrote makes sense. Thank you so much for writing it.

Now what?