Let’s do a recap, shall we?

People partying on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

People defacing the statue of Terry Fox.

People breaking into the Shepherds of Good Hope to take food that was being prepared for poor people.

People assaulting and abusing reporters who were there to cover the protest. People assaulting and abusing homeless people.

People blocking ambulance crews, apparently leading to at least one preventable trauma patient’s death.

People urinating and defecating all over the place — urinating on the War Memorial, defecating on the property of a family displaying the Pride flag.

People threatening teenagers at fast food places because the teenagers politely asked them to wear a mask.

People parking wherever they want, and screaming at passersby, and having drinking parties around the clock.

And, of course, people displaying swastikas and Confederate flags and calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to be assassinated.

That’s just some of the stuff that went on in Ottawa this weekend. That’s based on what I have seen with my own eyes, or from uncontradicted news reports by organizations like this one.

It happened. It’s real. And it’s been condemned by everyone from a Liberal prime minister to a Progressive Conservative Ontario premier.

Oh, by the by, don’t start telling us in the media how to do our damn job. Our job is not to provide sunny ways reports about the majority of people at the protest obeying the law.

That’s not news. People are supposed to obey the law. Obeying the law and acting like a civilized human being is not news, ever.

But when someone holds up a Nazi flag near Parliament, and thousands of other people don’t do a damn thing about it? That’s news.

As for the suggestion that we are on the Trudeau government’s payroll? That’s more than laughable. That’s a lie of Nazi-like proportions, frankly. A big one.

This newspaper has relentlessly documented the failings of Justin Trudeau‘s government. And this writer, to be blunt, does more to bring about the end of the Trudeau government — in a single afternoon — than most of you would do in 10 lifetimes.

So, take some responsibility, folks. If you were there, or you supported those who were there — and if you are in any way honest — you know that this weekend looked really, really ugly to a lot of regular, unaffiliated voters. Normal people. Not just so-called Lefties.

Now, most of the protesters were not there because of vaccines. They were there to oppose Justin Trudeau‘s government. That’s fine. I oppose it, too.

But here’s the problem, Trudeau critics: The people you have now alienated are the people you needed to reach.

Since you are not going to dethrone him with some nutbar manifesto removing all elected Members of Parliament, and then creating a whackadoodle regime where we are governed by an unelected Governor General and some unelected senators. That is crazy. It is insane.

No, if you are going to remove Justin Trudeau, you needed to reach other voters, folks. You need to make those voters less enthusiastic about him. In an election.

But this weekend‘s events in Ottawa didn’t do that. This weekend‘s events did the exact opposite. This weekend’s events turned many, many normal people off.

Until someone comes up with an alternative, we live in a democracy. To win in a democracy, you need to win over the majority.

You didn’t do that, trucker fans. You did the opposite.

And, along the way, you have re-elected Justin Trudeau.

Good job.

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Anger.

Because let’s all agree that this weekend’s big trucker protest in Ottawa isn’t about anything else. It just isn’t.

Oh, sure, some claim that it’s about vaccinations. But that’s a lot of crap. The governments of Canada and the United States decided, jointly, to require truckers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

And most truckers already are. And the trucker associations support that. Big deal, suck it up. It’s a little needle. It’s not like the truckers are being asked to donate a kidney or something.

It’s not some diabolical Liberal Party conspiracy, either. Trust me: The Trudeau Liberals couldn’t organize a decent conspiracy if their lives depended on it.

No, the vaccination requirement is the product of an actual bilateral agreement between Canada and the United States. That’s it. It’s a law, basically.

A so-called vaccination mandate was therefore never what this was about. It was, and is, about anger.

Anger is upon the land. And not just with some truckers, either.

Two years ago this week, a man was admitted to Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. He had a form of pneumonia the doctors and nurses had never seen before.

And so began the upending of all of our lives. So began the biggest political, economic, cultural and personal disruption of our collective lifetimes.

All of us — including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who initially said it might be over in “weeks,” and President Donald Trump, who said it would be over by the spring — figured it would be finished with us before now. It wasn’t just Trudeau and Trump: Most of us believed we’d be back to normal by now, too.

Well, we’re not. Obviously. And that’s why so many are angry. Angry at the media, angry at governments, angry at politicians, angry at our neighbours. Angry at everything and everyone.

Someone came up with a poll this week. The poll said that only 10% of Canadians are happy. Ninety per cent aren’t. And, within that 90%, many are deeply pissed off.

It isn’t just an ideological thing, either. The anger is found on both sides of the political spectrum. Left and right.

To be sure, the convoy descending on Ottawa this weekend is mainly a conservative populist uprising.

Because they can’t help themselves, and because they are always so pathetically desperate to latch onto every whackadoodle populist movement that comes down the pike, a gaggle of Conservative politicians (and media) have hitched their proverbial wagons to the convoy. It’s their latest political pet rock.

I will wager, right here and right now, that these Tory MPs will come to profoundly regret getting cozy with kooks. I’ve been writing about the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who make up Canada’s far right for more than three decades.

Just as they did with the United We Roll protest that converged on Parliament Hill in February 2019, the far-right jerks are working overtime to insinuate themselves into this weekend’s events. They want a piece of the action.

Why? Because they see millions of dollars raised on GoFundMe. Because they see thousands of angry potential recruits. Because they see a public relations bonanza.

Not every conservative politician is playing with fire, however. Erin O’Toole isn’t. Some in his caucus may be turning a blind eye to the presence of extremists. O’Toole, to his credit, is refusing to be suckered into a meeting with them. He recalls that playing footsie with lunatics sank Andrew Scheer’s political career.

Justin Trudeau, however, is wrongly calling every trucker an extremist. That’s unfair and inaccurate. But it won’t hurt him with his base.

Will this weekend be Canada’s Jan. 6, 2021 equivalent of an assault on our seat of government? It could be. It might be.

Or will it be a peaceful and democratic protest of regular people who are just fed up? I hope so. I pray so.

Whichever way it goes, one fact is undeniable: This thing isn’t about vaccines.

It’s about anger.

— Warren Kinsella was Jean Chretien’s special assistant

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