BOOK REVIEW: The True Story of the Freedom Convoy: A chronicle of what really happened in Ottawa and beyond

After my copy of this book arrived, I began reading immediately and I found it so riveting that I read the book in one day. Candace Malcolm, in her introduction, gave an insightful, personal account of the turning point in her own life when she abandoned her support of lock-downs. In her own words:

“But two weeks didn’t flatten the curve. Instead the curve spiked. The public health experts’ strategy had failed. And rather than reflect and change course, while respecting and revisiting the principles of a free society, these experts doubled and tripled down on their borrowed approach from Communist China – including forced quarantines, forced lockdowns [sic], police intervention, government coercion and other measures that, in sane times, we would describe as totalitarian.”

page 12-13

Malcolm also described a series of mean-spirited and spirit-breaking events that she witnessed as a pregnant mom of a young child:

• The local play ground cordoned of with police tape in winter
• Workmen loading up the picnic tables in Chorley Park (Don Valley, Toronto) so residents out walking had no place to sit down and rest
• Canadian health experts and politicians supporting large, public US protests and riots which they deemed a worthy and acceptable risk for Covid exposure while shutting down our churches, schools, cancelling weddings and funerals.

Particularly poignant and to the point for me was a familiar quote from C. S. Lewis that Malcolm used to describe our situation brilliantly.

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

C. S. Lewis

The Freedom Convoy is well-written and fast-moving. It constantly reminded me of events I remember from a year ago. It’s clear the authors from the news agency, True North, were on the ground for the duration of the protest in Ottawa and were giving first-hand accounts of what they saw and what people said.

It’s an easy read and gave me many insights into the truckers, their supporters, and the response of politicians.

I give this book Five Stars.