I had 40 minutes sleep in 2 days, was falling asleep leaning into the propane fire, and English teacher Sammi offered to take me back to his place nearby. We got there at 4:30am and I laid on the floor and didn't get up until 8:30am when Sammi burst in, "They're kettling everyone to get arrested." We took off towards the main blockade. This starting of the video above is likely around the same time. The number of police was intimidating but their actions were not kettling and the RCMP clown couple from the night before were repeating their stupid bullshit so it was actually the least concerning of all of them - and we had the most numbers compared to the first Friday night encounter at the second bridge entrance, and third encounter Sunday morning at this same intersection, the scariest, where 4 or 5 guys volunteered to be arrested, including Sammi. Andrew and I were the last to mosey away from the main blockade back to the third intersection. At the end of the Sunday morning police land-grabbed the Huron Church Road strip between the main blockade at McDonald's to the Shell gas station and Food Basics third intersection for the fourth encounter where people had already left as Andrew and I had at 9am, though apparently later more people showed up, too late, and were assaulted and harassed by cops through the rest of Sunday. I don't know exactly how or why or in what sequence. I might care to find out for a documentary.

You may see me with a long white beard wearing a dark blue-grey jacket (most pockets) mostly, plus a red jacket (extra layer) on the last night and a black fuzzy ear-flap hat or a Santa hat, depending on the day of the week. I left the black hat at Winton's on Wed or Thu night, leaving me in my next-warmest Santa hat for the weekend when it got crazy.

The video skips some parts.

The cops first lined up along the train tracks, north of the intersection. Trucks were relocated south of the intersection. The cops line advance to the top of the intersection as the crowds swelled from 2-3 dozen at 8:30+ up to hundreds facing the cops.

At this point, I tried to make the most of my Santa hat for a Tienanmen Square Tank Man meme moment, though I have yet to see the many live streams I heard about and countless photos I know were taken. I stood on top of the icey snow bank in the middle of the road in front of a "barrier in middle of road" sign in front of the line of police and their menacing military vehicles with the "Bridge To USA" sign behind that. Cheryl gifted me a Canadian flag with arm sleeves (in my bag taken by police the next morning), which I would wear as a cape (ie. @8:14-8:17 left of center screen), but at this moment I held it like a flag with my two exposed freezing fingers making a peace sign, alternating hands, wearing my Santa hat.

It was here the RCMP clown couple from the previous night tried to intimidate me again with threats of being arrested for "mischief" which is typically a general catch-all term applied to vandalism. Apparently, I was told that because I was addressing them with a smile and asking questions they couldn't answer people watching the livestream said I made them look like fools. I asked about our fundamental human rights, our rights to protest, and our rights to protest in the streets. Also of note, some people wondered if I was in a wheelchair, as the RCMP couple asked me to come down from there, as I was king of the castle of my little iced snow bank, but I would not give it up so I compromised by sitting down on it to discuss things with them. I made them show their faces for the camera then let them mask up in the cold.

After holding their line for about an hour or more, eventually the cops inched their way forward, a foot at a time, slowly, without conflict, until they'd not only taken the intersection, but they also pushed us back to where the meridian in the center of the Huron Church Road went from curb level up to the raised fake-grass barrier down the middle that we danced on all Saturday with thousands before the numbers dropped to a couple dozen at night to be taken the next Sunday morning with twice as many vehicles and twice as many police as you see in this video. While we were dancing they came in with cement barriers as the cops held the line. (Windsor's Rally sound system will be going up to Ottawa tonight, but DJ Slice who provided the tunes at the main blockade will likely provide the sound system for Saturday's Freedom Rally.) Once the cement line was made the cops retreated behind it. These cement barriers were also laid at all intersections along Huron Church Road and manned by more cops. There was only one way in and one way out, by foot, a kilometer give or take to the Food Basics corner at Tecumseh Road. A fuck of a journey by foot, in the cold, made countless times through the week.