Front Burner - The convoy left, but tensions remain

Episode Date: March 21, 2022

In February, as a massive trucker convoy rolled into Ottawa to protest COVID-19 mandates, another convoy set up outside the tiny town of Coutts, Alta., where protesters paralyzed a major U.S.-Canada border crossing for over two weeks. A month after those blockades were finally dismantled, CBC reporter Joel Dryden travelled to Coutts to look at the lasting rifts the protests created among residents — and why, even with most mandates now lifted across Canada, some protesters are staying put.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Janie Poisson. So this past January, the same day that a massive trucker convoy rolled into Ottawa to protest COVID-19 restrictions, another convoy set up outside the tiny town of Coutts, Alberta and paralyzed a major U.S.-Canada border crossing for more than two weeks.

Most of the messages on their trucks called to end the vaccine mandate and called for freedom for all. Traffic has simply not been able to cross in either direction. Mounties and Coutts moved in overnight, acting to neutralize a small, potentially violent faction inside this larger protest. It's been a month since those blockades were finally dismantled. And to an outsider, it may seem like things have returned to normal. But inside Coutts, some say the convoy transformed the village

and created lasting rifts in a community that once felt tight-knit. Today, I'm speaking to CBC Calgary reporter Joel Dryden. He recently traveled to Coutts to hear from residents about the ongoing impact the blockades have had on their town, and why, for some, the protests never ended. Hey, Joel, it's so great to have you back on the podcast. Hey, thanks so much for having me. So I'm wondering if you could start by just describing Coots to me. I've never been there. What's this town like? Yeah, I hadn't either. It's right on the border with Montana. And it's right by a major trade route. Tens of millions of dollars go past Cootes every single day.

And it's small. There's only about 200 people who live there. And the demographic skews older. It's a lot of seniors. The village's mayor, Jim Willett, he described it as a tight-knit, big family. So what you have is you have a bunch of people who lived in their homes for a long time. They know their neighbors. They'll help each other out with snow and that kind of stuff. You're going to the store, you see, you need anything, that kind of thing. And like anywhere you go, you know, you've got a variety of beliefs.

But I did see a lot of signs for the Maverick Party. You might know that as the Wigxit Canada Party. And I met a lot of people who had pretty strong sentiments about COVID mandates. But for the most part, it's really just this sleepy place where other than travelers coming to and from, not much really happens. And most people are generally fine with that. It's a situation where these people have lived here all their lives, literally, and a lot of older folks that are not used to change. They don't like change of any kind. But to have something like this happen was just a totally shock to the system. So these blockades, they start at the border on January 29th.

And can you tell me about that? Like, who were the people there and what were they doing? So much like the nationwide convoy protests, this was a protest that began in opposition to the federal government's mandatory vaccination policy for truckers crossing the border. And that first weekend, there were estimates of roughly 500 to 600 trucks that basically just showed up at the border crossing and just parked on every lane of the highway, which made it impossible to cross the border. Edmonton driver Love Pet Singh was stuck in Montana. With no other choice, he backed up and went the long way home. I have to travel all the way to British Columbia, and then I have to enter Canada. And as I mentioned, it's a major trade route.

An estimated $44 million worth of goods goes through that crossing every day. What were the police doing at the time? Yeah, so the RCMP said that their strategy was basically to try to avoid conflict and de-escalate. And they were doing things like issuing tickets under the Traffic Safety Act. They were trying to encourage protesters to move to a nearby field. That didn't really work. And they did receive actually quite a bit of criticism for that. A lot of people felt that their response to this blockade was too light-handed, especially compared to how the RCMP has dealt with some Indigenous-led blockades in the past.

In all, RCMP took six people into custody and dismantled the camp. Land defenders, as they call themselves, have been blocking access to the site for months. Police set up their own blockade to screen anyone else wanting to go in, including Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs. And even Alberta Premier Jason Kenney was basically calling on them to step it up and do more to get these trucks out of there. If participants in this convoy cross the line and break the law, I expect police to take appropriate action.

Yeah, I remember I actually saw this video of police hugging protesters who were leaving the blockade. That got a lot of criticism too, hey? It did, yeah. So that's what was going on at these border blockades. But what did that mean for the town? Because Coots is right there, as you've described, at the border. Yeah. You know, like I was in a motel there. I could see the border from from my window. The only real exit from town is like a kilometer and a half from the border. So they were right there.

And I should just note, the RCMP and Mayor Willett kept saying that this was a fluid situation. It wasn't always the same. But pretty often when these trucks were blocking four lanes of highway for several kilometers, people just couldn't get out of there. Like Mayor Willett

called it a parking lot. And what nobody took into consideration is that when you block that particular entrance into our village and block both lanes of the highway, you have cut us off. And at times, even when the protesters would kind of, you know, open up part of a lane, they were the ones, like the protesters were the ones, who were actually controlling who could get in and out of the town. Going out, especially early on when they said, well, we're letting people drive out, you had to drive through a real gauntlet of large vehicles, both on-road and off-road type machinery, and a lot of strangers. Some of them look very much like the ones that were in the Ottawa protests. They're bigger, burlier people, lots of beards, and it's that

stranger thing again, people that you didn't know who look intimidating. They're standing outside your car, looking in your window. Was there any way out of Cootes? Was this the only entry and exit point? Yeah, so this is how very small town this community is. There was this little dirt road that people call Patty Jo's Road because it goes through this woman's property, like her front yard. And when I say little dirt road, like I drove this road in a van and I thought I was going to get stuck in the

mud and the snow. So you can imagine, you know, in an emergency situation, you wouldn't want to have to get an ambulance or a fire truck through there. Right. I was going to ask you about this. Like, what did this mean in a practical sense for services like ambulance? Yeah, I mean, it was a real worry for the town because, you know, there are so many seniors there. And Mayor Willett said that he had to plead with the RCMP and the province and the protesters to do something about it. I had to make clear to people that we've got to keep it, you've got to keep it open so we can get an ambulance in here. If we have fire and if they can't get the fire truck out, somebody's house is going to burn down or their field is going to burn.

And it's going to be on your heads because they couldn't. Luckily, nobody ended up needing an emergency vehicle in those two weeks. But there were other slightly less serious issues like mail and courier services didn't get through for several days. And for a couple of days, the school bus didn't come either. Nobody thought about. And the first day going back on Monday, the school bus did not run. She said I'm not going through there, the driver that they had because of the intimidation thing again. But the first day or two kids got a not a snow day but a protest day. So eventually, RCMP actually made a new road through another field. But even then, they said it was, you know, less than ideal for things like emergency vehicles.

And also, you know, at certain points, there were still protesters sometimes blocking this back road too. It sounds like on top of these practical problems, there were Sounds like on top of these practical problems, there were also the emotional elements of this, right? People not feeling safe coming and leaving their own town. Yeah, yeah. One guy I spoke to named Bob Gordon, he said he was just furious at one point because, you know, he had to drive through hundreds of protesters to get home. And he said there was some guy there he didn't know. Oh yeah, halfway through the crowd. Oh, we're letting this guy through or what? Like he has the right to stop access to my home, to me?

And I also talked to Bob's wife, Shelley Woodhouse Gordon. And for her, this was really emotional on a whole other level. She was a soldier in Afghanistan, and she has PTSD. I was triggered. I was really triggered by just what was going on. Can you tell me more about that? What was the whole experience of these blockades like for Shelly? Yeah, Shelly was out of town when the protests started, and Bob actually told her, you know, when this is really kicking up, like, stay away. But she needed to get back to town to get something. And when she came back, she had to go through all these checkpoints.

First, the official RCMP ones. When we were coming back, we were stopped three times by the RCMP to show our identification and all sorts like those kinds of what we were going to do. Very much like in Afghanistan, you're stopped, your questions, you're like, what's your purpose here and blah, blah, blah. So that was a trigger in itself. But then she went around the back way and she says she was still stopped by protesters. And that when we got to the last, what do you call it? Checkpoint. There was trucks there wanting to block that way. And it was surreal for me because this is Coots. Coots is a bunch of older people and down-to-earth people that and they were

participating and that blew me away these are people who are holding a tiny community full of old people hostage to make a point you can really hear that that frustration that You can really hear that frustration, that disbelief, that emotion in her voice there. And what about after Shelly got home? What did she think about what was going on in town? How some of her neighbors were responding to the protest? I'm sure everyone had lots of thoughts about what was happening right outside their doors. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And I think especially as somebody who had served in a war zone with the Canadian military, she found a lot of this really hard to relate to. And I started seeing the upside down Canadian flag.

And it just broke my heart because I don't know if people understand what that means. It means distress. It means the country is in trouble. Wearing a mask does not mean you're in trouble. And I guess part of me was just like, do they even understand what true lack of freedom really means? You know, like, Afghan people truly had a lack of freedom. If they protested, they'd get shot. I'm going to go. Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. own household income. That's not a typo, 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together.

To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. So, Joel, what about the people who did support the convoy and the blockades? Because it sounds like a lot of them certainly did support the convoy and the blockades? Because it sounds like a lot of them certainly did support it. For sure. Yeah. I mean, the mayor told me it was about a 50-50 split. I was knocking on some doors and I spoke to this man named Russell Maudsley. He had a completely different conception of how the protests rolled out compared to Bob and Shelly. He said that the convoy protesters were really respectful. He said that he had no issue getting to and from and getting through the blockades. I had zero problem whatsoever with anybody.

Everybody was polite. I was never blocked from leaving town except by the police. The convoy always let people through. They never blocked people from going through there. That was a myth. Were there people in the town who were like part of the protests, who were involved in the protests? Yeah, for sure. I mean, there's this one guy who comes to mind right away. His name was for sure i mean there's this one guy who comes to mind right away his name was um keith dangerfield and he he owns the only cafe and restaurant in the town and he's a local preacher he's very anti-mandate um he doesn't believe in a lot of the science around covid our rights and freedoms

have been crumpled all over because of something that's called COVID. So, you know, this was a really exciting thing for him. He was really excited that this convoy had come to town. And, you know, he organized a bunch of volunteers at his cafe. He let them stay at his bed and breakfast. When the convoy came, we were making sandwiches. We made about, I think we made about 500 or 600 bags uh with sandwiches and and snacks and vegetables and fruits in them and uh i think we had about 25 volunteers that came and so this really became a spot where a lot of these protesters gathered for the duration of this blockade.

What did people say the vibe was like in the town during the time of the protest of blockades? I was in Ottawa covering the convoy there, and it was a tense vibe up near Parliament Hill where all the trucks were. There was a smell of gas. There was constant honking late into the night or early in the morning. Fireworks kept people up. I saw some really intense verbal altercations or interactions between protesters and residents, between protesters and the police. How do you think this compared? Yeah, I mean, there was definitely some of that going on. There were some altercations between protesters and police and that sort of thing. But as you mentioned, the Ottawa protests were pretty famous for the late night horn honking in the fireworks.

And the mayor said that compared to that, the Coots convoy seemed pretty tame. said that compared to that the the coots convoy seemed pretty tame you know like he said a lot of the people who participated in this protest were pretty religious uh generally speaking they didn't drink uh and mostly it was quiet after 9 00 p.m even on their social media still you will see people who quote from the Bible from Scripture and, and got to keep your eye on what God wants us to do here. And Mayor Willett said convoy supporters would gather at the restaurant in town. It's called Smuggler's Saloon. At any time that I walked in there, there were people sitting around at the tables, drinking coffee, talking, eating.

They had all kinds of food because everybody donates food for these things. On certain times, I know that on Sunday evening, they had a church service in there. But I should just mention, and the mayor talked about this too, that the gatherings at Smugglers weren't just quiet families. There was this big controversy after this infamous Calgary street preacher, Artur Palosky, did a speech there. It was a 20-minute speech. I'm standing in front of you. How come?

Because our God is bigger than their God. speech. And it was just when protesters were about to pack up and vacate the site. And locally, you know, if you live in Alberta, you know who this guy is. He's known for preaching pretty extremist anti-LGBT views, also anti-vax views. And after encouraging these protesters to not leave, after they had already agreed that they would, they stayed. And so he actually ended up being charged under Alberta's Critical Infrastructure Defense Act. And the prosecution alleges that he was inciting violence for some of what he said in that speech. There is a price attached to freedom. How do you think the second war ended?

Millions had to die. How do you think the first war ended? Millions had to die. And that's the price that we have to be willing to pay if our children are going to have a free and democratic society. And if this is our Alamo, so be it. So I guess as we've seen in convoy protests elsewhere, you've got a range of beliefs, a range of people who are there. And as you maybe alluded to, there were some alleged extremist elements in these Coutts protests.

In particular, I want to talk about something that happened on February 14th that suggested that things potentially could have gotten really violent here. And what happened that day? Yeah, I mean, it was kind of, it all kind of seemed to happen at once. You know, residents kind of described watching this unfold out their front windows. But police came in, they seized guns, they seized body armor, they arrested 13 people. Four of them were later charged with conspiring to murder RCMP officers. Police took names and collected information. The Canadian Anti-Hate Network says one set of body armor seized by police displays the logo of a group suspected of promoting hate and violence.

And at least two of the four have been linked to a white supremacist militia group called Diagonal. Yeah, I remember I was in Ottawa when news of this broke and that Paul sort of hung over the protests in Ottawa. There was a lot of concern that maybe there were people like that in that protest too. certain that maybe there were people like that in that protest too. What did people who supported the convoy you spoke to think after these arrests happened? Yeah, I think it was for a lot of these protesters who for the longest time just

considered this to be a peaceful protest, they were equally shocked. You know, I spoke to a protester whose name is Daniel Yetzeshin, and he said that it was really kind of a sense of disbelief. Honestly, when everyone saw that, everyone was shocked. And we're like, there's no way that these guns could have been anything to do with our group, with our protest. And Dan said the same thing that I also heard from other supporters of this protest that they actually suspected that these guns were planted, that this wasn't real, that there was no way that these guns could have come from members of their own protest. And I feel that a

lot of it was definitely a ploy to label us as people who are violent and to make the public try and think that we're violent and that we're not the peaceful protesters that we are. RCMP says that's absolutely not true. To conduct a search warrant, they have to account for every item that they take from a site and it'll all be proved in court. Did you hear from Shelley, the Afghan vet? Like, what does she think about these arrests? Yeah, you know, I think for Shelley, it felt sort of like confirmation, you know, that she was right to be afraid about what was going on in her town. And I knew even before they said that there was a cache of weapons, that there was

people that were fanatical in that group that would do something like that. So the day after those arrests on February 15th, the blockade, it finally dissolves. The RCMP, again, they asked people to leave and they actually they did peacefully. And has that been the end of it? Like what's happened since then? Since then, there is actually still a protest camp going on about 20 kilometers away. It's just the next town over in Milk River. And while I was down near the border, I checked it out.

And it was sort of right when I arrived, it started blizzarding. So people had moved into their tents to keep warm by fires. They were keeping themselves occupied by washing pots and pans and that sort of thing. And that protester, Daniel, that I just mentioned, he's still there and he doesn't have plans to leave. We're giving people hope. A lot of people got really down on themselves and, you know, losing hope with COVID and with the way the government's been. And now they're seeing that, you know, there's people that are willing to stand up against it. So we've had a few people come down and they said, you know, this was something they needed. It was good for their soul to come and to visit with all these people and hug and have social interaction.

Huh. Why is he still out there and people like him? Because pretty much every province has either dropped virtually all their mandates or they've set a date to do that in the next several weeks. I mean, at least outside of places like long-term care homes. But we're still seeing these anti-mandate protests across the country. Why? It's a good question. And it's a question,? Why? It's a good question. It's a question.

Even Daniel said it's a good question. And I actually called Daniel a couple of days ago to ask him about that. But the big thing that we're going against, it's not provincial mandates, it's the federal mandates. That's kind of what we've been after for the whole time, right? We want Canada unified. We're all Canadians here. I'm not just an Albertan. We're all Canadians and we're all

fighting for everyone's equality here. We're fighting against medical discrimination. That's still, unfortunately, that's still a thing, you know? Coming back to the town of Coutts now, Joel, it's been a month since the blockades ended. Like, what's the vibe in the town now? Yeah. When I was there, I wanted to get a sense of this, so I knocked on some doors. A lot of people on both sides of this didn't want to talk on record. There's a lot of hard feelings still in the community, and they don't want to further upset neighbors. A lot of them don't trust mass news media. Some people don't think that there's a

problem at all. They think that things were always fine through the protests. But I did hear from others like Mayor Willett, and he feels a lot differently. He feels that the town is a lot more divided now. And what happened here was the polarization that has happened on so many things lately where suddenly people decide they have to have a side if you're not with me you're against me and that kind of thing and now i put some real real strings i think on some friendships and he told me that that there are people who because of what happened, and because they have sensed a shift in the community, they're considering moving away. And actually, some of those people are Bob and Shelly, the Afghanistan vet.

And now we're in a predicament. We're in a community where a lot of people disagree with us. And I don't know what will happen. It's hard to, we put a, we put a lot of money into our and work into our community, our home. And you will see how it pans. And, you know, I actually went to this village council meeting where residents were kind of getting a debrief on on what went down during the protests and bob and shelley both spoke and and they were really emotional about it like shelley was talking about how they actually moved here from this other town in alberta uh bonnieville because there's a

military base there and they and they wanted to move away from that i came to coutts because i wanted to find a safe place to be where I wasn't reminded every day of the military. I left my children in Bonneville because of the planes and the war and the military there. I come here and there's a war. There's a friggin' war. And Bob said something similar. I could lose my wallet on the street and someone would bring it back to me.

That's true. You know, and also my neighbors are blocking access to my home. I wonder what that's like for Mayor Willett to be in this small town, 200 people, everyone knows each other. And now he's got to try to lead this community that's much more divided than than it was before yeah it's it's definitely on his mind a lot these days and uh when i asked him about that he he kind of joked about it and and brushed it off a bit i've got a big pillow and i cover my head but you know he's he's dealt with a lot here. Like during the protests, some of the supporters of the convoy got mad at him because he was speaking

to media. He was saying things like, don't block village access. He was saying that he's in support of protests but only so long as they remain legal. And he actually got some anonymous phone calls and cars would stop in front of his house

and take photos and videos of him. And he actually ended up getting a death threat. And RCP said, you know, sent a message that said, quote, RIP, you're effing done. You will hang high, tall tree, knock, knock. What? Wow. Geez. what did he say about that you know he his goal has as he says has been to to be measured through this whole thing so he didn't want to talk about it he was worried about antagonizing people more but it's it's it's clear that he's feeling the stress of all this like at the uh council meeting that i went to he got emotional at one point um he was telling a story about how a resident came up to him asked him whether things were safe in coots again and he tried to reassure this person but then as he was talking at this meeting he got

choked up suddenly and he had to kind of stop himself a couple times to keep from from crying i never thought that when i was when i moved here that i'd be scared to stand in my front window and there was a time during that two weeks when i made sure the drinks were cold and i didn't stand on the window so Absolutely. Absolutely. I love this. And, you know, Mayor Willett said to me that, you know, time heals all wounds. But, you know, given the divisions in this community, it might take a lot of time.

Joel, thank you so much for coming back on the show and bringing us this story. Thank you. Thanks so much for having me. All right, that's all for today. I'm Jamie Poisson. Talk to you tomorrow. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.