With the roads closed and buses diverted, I walked about two miles home each night and returned on foot each morning. That gave me some escape from the noise and a chance to assess the blockage.
The images that caught the world’s most attention came from the weekends when thousands of people poured in to protest. Many of those people, probably most of them, seemed more interested in participating in an unruly, out-of-control street party than making a political statement.
During weekday mornings it was a much more disjointed scene. Uncleared snow made many roads and sidewalks treacherous. A pungent mixture of diesel exhaust and spilled fuel filled the air. The demonstrators were not early risers, making the streets seem like a deserted, chaotic parking lot for often rickety trucks.
However, on the morning of the 11th day of the blockade, I noticed an unusual flurry of activity. It was along Kent Street, normally a busy route between the Trans-Canada Highway and bridges to Quebec. Much of Kent is filled with blocks of flats, large and small, ranging from luxury apartments to social housing.
Ahead, a man kicked jerry cans, folding chairs and other small items the protesters had left behind to block the road. In a roaring voice, presumably to wake up late risers, he told the protesters that they were more than welcome and it was time to go.
He was eventually surrounded by a small group of protesters who were angry at his street-cleaning methods and his forceful use of obscenities to underline the message that he should get out of town. A woman quickly picked up a phone and started answering.
After he walked them off, the man and I spoke. He told me he was a federal official who, like most of his neighbors, had been driven to distraction and exhaustion by the noise, pollution, intimidation, and general disruption of the protests. (He gave me his name, but months later it’s unclear in my notes that he agreed to be identified.) Beside us, a semi-trailer roared to life, its poorly maintained engine temporarily obscuring the sun with a malodorous black cloud. smoke.