On our second day in Ottawa a white, soft snow blanketed the city. I left the National Gallery and began a meandering stroll through Major Hill’s Park, past Parliament Hill and along Sparks Street.
We were staying at the Lord Elgin Hotel. And the first thing I noticed upon arriving was that Elgin Street and intersecting Lauren Avenue were both closed to traffic.
For two very different reasons, it turned out.
It was easy to see why Lauren was closed.
Just down the street, at City Hall, the Mayor’s Christmas Celebration was in full swing. Ice skaters twirled around the Rink of Dreams.
A long line of people waited next to the flaming cauldron (dedicated to Canada’s 150th birthday) to take a holiday horse carriage ride.
And Mr. And Mrs. Santa were in residence.
Soon it became apparent, by the heavy police presence and the steady stream of people bearing signs and heading toward the nearby Monument to Human Rights, why Elgin was closed.
In stark contrast to the holiday festivities literally just around the corner, the crowd amassing there came for a far less festive event.
They came to demonstrate on behalf of the Palestinian people. To demand a cease fire to bloody violence half a world away.
There may have been 500 of them. Perhaps more. And they intended to march from the human rights shrine in the direction, perhaps fittingly, of Ottawa’s National War Memorial.
In the increasingly free speech-hostile political atmosphere back in Florida, the Great DeSanitizer would no doubt denounce such demonstrators as antifa anarchists intent on disrupting the flow of traffic.
And on this very day, in the D.C. swamp, politicians were burning university presidents at the stake of public opinion for hesitating to say that free speech on campus equates to antisemitism.
But as I watched the crowd there was no sense of simmering anger or imminent violence.
This was, I thought, a very Canadian demonstration.
Women brought their children. Entire families participated.
A man with a microphone led chants in almost cheerleader fashion (while reading the words off his cell phone). And many of the marchers kept glancing at their phones in distracted fashion.
And I don’t want to say that the waiting police looked bored. But their actions certainly gave no indication that violence was brewing.
Let’s just say they were patient and ready to get the whole business over with. Like they’ve been there and done that before.
And so they marched.
Just another unremarkable day in Ottawa.
Another day in Canada.
And when you think about it, the people at City Hall were there to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace.
And the marchers on Elgin Street were pleading for peace in a part of the world where the Prince was born.
And, really, what’s wrong with that?
FreeGNV 