(lively rock music)
(heart beats)
(horns blare)
- [Jordan] Three weeks ago, north of the border
a new kind of protest emerged.
- [Reporter] The trucker convoy has arrived in Ottawa.
- [Reporter] This city and the downtown core
remains gridlocked.
Some residents here say that they really can take no more.
- [Jordan] So I traveled to Ottawa
expecting to find some Canada nice.
But their messaging was a bit more coarse.
These trucks shut down businesses and made roads impassable.
Can I go around here?
How do I,
how do I get around?
But how long were the protesters planning
to paralyze Canada's eighth best city?
David, how long have you been here?
- I've been here since day one.
- Holding down the fort?
- Pretty much. I'm not going anywhere.
- I'm coming in from New York.
I go by Brooklyn's Kindest on the CB.
- There you go.
- We're able to say here up to two years.
- [Jordan] You're committed to being here for two years.
- Yeah.
'Cause two years is nothing-
- How are you gonna keep up the energy
to be here for two years?
- Oh, that's not a problem. People will bring it.
- Stimulants?
- No, the people will bring it.
I smoke a lotta weed.
Yeah. - Okay.
- Right? - Yeah.
- But that's just to calm me down, to keep me centered.
- Are you worried at all with weed, paranoia,
that that might creep in? - No.
- No. - No.
- No.
Do you think the government is coming for you?
- Oh yeah, constantly.
They do, like, night little tactics.
They try to, like, they move around, they move in,
they add more.
- Are you paranoid?
- No.
- Sure.
What kind of stuff do you haul?
- I haul everything.
In 2020, I hauled from food to building supplies
to medical supplies.
- Do you have my end table
that I ordered from Wayfair like three weeks ago?
- It's probably either sitting in Montreal or Toronto
or on the border. - Are you kidding me?
It would really look great in my apartment.
So what exactly was the point
of interrupting the supply chain?
So what is this all about?
- You know what?
- Sorry.
What is this all a-boot?
- This is about our freedoms.
- Could you be any more generic?
- You know, if you are vaccinated,
you get to do certain things.
If you're not vaccinated, you don't.
I don't think people should be divided.
We should all be together, united.
- We're setting up, essentially, a truck barrier
to keep everybody together so they can be united.
- Yes.
Yes, exactly. - Gotcha.
Yeah, we might as well lock them in.
Sort of like a parent who locks the door and says,
"You guys are in here until the water runs out,
"you become friends or democracy crumbles."
- Yes.
- And if you're not vaccinated,
you're literally a second class citizen in this country.
I can't go to the restaurant.
I can't go play hockey.
I can't go watch the Ottawa Senators.
- We don't live in Germany. We don't live in Nazi Germany.
Those days are over.
Show me your papers don't happen anymore.
That's a freedom that everyone should have.
- Is the Germany comparison a stretch here in Canada?
- No.
- Are you afraid of cultural appropriation?
- Probably.
- American cultural appropriation,
'cause we use the German excuse all the time.
Oddly enough,
that wasn't the only thing Canadians were appropriating.
- Yeah, I hate to use that slogan,
but make North America great again.
- Make North American great again,
and I don't mean to use that guy's word, but it's true.
- To be honest, it wasn't even his.
He stole it from another guy
before him. - Awesome!
- I see the Q Army on your hat.
Isn't Q the American thing, trying to find JFK, Jr.?
- [Man] Exactly, exactly. - Yes.
What Q shit is going down here?
- [Man] Q? No, Q is more a US thing.
- Oh, so this is like a Yankees hat?
- [Man] Ah, exactly.
- [Jordan] Okay, the Q thing might just be a fashion choice,
but they're definitely reading the same internet
as many Americans.
- And it's more than just the vaccine passport and stuff.
- What else?
- The Agenda 2030 is a good start.
- What's Agenda 2030?
- It's where the world's heading towards one government.
They wanna sterilize us
that only certain people can have kids.
- Really? You're afraid the government will sterilize you?
- Probably not me, but down the line, yeah.
- But in two weeks in the cab of a truck,
pissing in a Mountain Dew can
can't be too good for the sperm production.
- Probably sterile already,
(laughs) so what's the difference?
- [Jordan] So Margaret Atwood audiobooks
are apparently a thing with Canadian truckers.
And while shutting down a city
seems to have many obvious down sides.
Hey, excuse me.
Excuse me, sir. Hey.
Hi. Yeah.
Have you seen a Prius around here?
Some see an opportunity coming from literal gridlock.
- The truckers are bringing in customers,
they're bringing in tourists from Montreal,
from all across Canada.
Everybody wants to check this out.
- This is essentially a tourist boom
for Ottawa right now. - Yeah.
- You could feel the tourism in the air, right?
You could smell it.
It smells like amphetamines and drifter blood.
- Definitely.
- [Jordan] The flood of 18-wheeler driving tourists
and their Canadian AF outfits
created legitimate tension with residents of the city.
- Go home! Get a job! - And be peaceful.
- [Resident] No one wants you here!
- [Jordan] The downtown was shut
and there was palpable anger directed at local media.
- [Protester] CTV News has lied. They're still lying, guys.
They're still lying.
- [Jordan] And even at "The Daily Show."
(crowd jeers) (crowd shouting overlaps)
- [Man] Lack of nuance is tyranny.
- [Heckler] Boo!
- We're getting booed over here.
We've been walking around here.
There seems to be a real distrust of media here.
- Oh, for sure.
- It's a lot of cameras up in your face,
cameras on cameras on...
And while Canadian authorities
have finally enacted emergency measures
to try to clear the convoy,
so far the trucks are still there.
And a well-funded, never ending street party
infused with misinformation and nationalism
feels remarkably possible in our own land of the free.
Where does this movement go from here?
- I believe it's going to be worldwide.
- It's gonna come to America?
- [Protester] Yes, definitely.
- You think this is inspiring the dickheads in America?
- Pardon me?
- This is inspiring the dickheads in America?
- It's inspiring.
- [Both] People.
- People of America to join together
to stand for freedom.
- [Jordan] Okay.
If they do come to America,
then maybe I'll finally get my (beep) end table.
(triumphant music)
(upbeat music)