Canada had some of the most draconian COVID restrictions in the world. In January 2022, Canadian truckers had enough. They banded together in a massive convoy headed for Ottawa. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded with a brutal crackdown, arresting many and, even worse, working with banks to impoverish the truckers and their supporters. And that’s where most of us thought it ended—with defeated truckers. Now, though, a Twitterer has written a post explaining that the convoy was wildly successful, news that Canada’s (and the world’s) media stifled.

I enthusiastically supported the convoy, which was a truly grassroots uprising against Canada’s COVID tyranny. If you want to relive the convoy experience, from its exciting beginnings to the huge support Canadians gave to the convoy as it traveled to Ottawa and once it arrived there, to the tyrannical crackdown that included destroying the truckers’ finances, here’s a list of the contemporaneous posts I wrote about that brave protest:

Image: The Freedom Convoy. YouTube screen grab.

• Canada has an eerie 'police state' feel lately
• Canada ignores COVID restrictions for pro-Hamas protests
• You'll stand up and cheer after seeing these Canadian trucker convoy videos
• In Canada, ‘brave’ Sir Justin runs away
• The elites' morally obscene response to the Canadian trucker convoy
• The Canadian truckers and the missing conservative politicians
• Trudeau, the media, and minor politicians attack Canada's truckers
• GoFundMe shuts down the Canadian truckers' fund
• Canada is destroying its banking system
• Did Canadian mounted police mow down or even kill an old lady?
• Ontario government tries to criminalize giving money to the striking truckers
• Trudeau is getting dangerous, but the truckers still have options
• Canada really is turning into a police state before our eyes
• Canada's new dictator condemns authoritarianism

As you can tell from the tenor of the post titles, the convoy’s ultimate outcome seemed very grim. Trudeau, by using his police state power, combined with the banks’ willingness to ally themselves with the government, had won.

However, a person on Twitter who goes by the handle CatGirl Kulak (Anarchonomicon) has written a long tweet explaining that “The Freedom Convoy was the most wildly immediately successful protest in Canadian history, maybe WORLD history.” While we have vividly imprinted in our minds’ eyes crackdowns, police with batons, and frozen bank accounts, in the immediate aftermath, “The government caved on absolutely everything within a week for the most important things, and then a month or so for the rest.”

Please read the whole thing because it’s important (and I’ll explain why at the end):

I keep encountering this misconception from people who don't follow Canadian politics...

That somehow the Trucker convoy was defeated.

The Freedom Convoy was the most wildly immediately successful protest in Canadian history, maybe WORLD history.

People remember Trudeau's… pic.twitter.com/bhF1NQYarz

— CatGirl Kulak 😻😿 (Anarchonomicon) (@FromKulak) June 7, 2023

Why is this important? It’s not just important historically insofar as it corrects the record. It’s also important because it reminds us that state media (whether the fully funded media in Canada or the ideologically aligned media in America) dictate our understanding of the world, not just by what they write, but by what they don’t write.

In this case, they convinced the world that a huge, strongly supported peaceful protest failed. If that was what actually happened, why would anyone ever protest again? Certainly, in America, that message was made clear with the government’s January 6 crackdown following that imaginary “insurrection” by unarmed, ordinary Americans who found themselves swept into the Capitol and responded by taking pictures.

The message is clear: Unless you are aligned with the left, any effort to push back peacefully against government overreach will be destroyed. You have no chance because we will break you…and nothing will change. Except that in Canada, it turns out that everything changed. As events in America sweep forward and the 2024 election looms, ignore the propaganda and remember the truth.