Three years ago, the last time a large group of truckers rolled into Ottawa, I found myself on Parliament Hill locked in a standoff.

I had traveled to the capital from Edmonton a week earlier for a youth climate justice convergence. The morning after it ended, I joined a demonstration against the United We Roll Yellow Vest Convoy, at one of the same intersections currently being occupied by the Freedom Convoy.

Their trucks had signs that read “No Migration, No U.N.” and “Open Borders Breed Chaos.” We carried hand banners that read “No One Is Illegal.”

After being shoved by a white man in his 50s into the grille guard of a semi-trailer, I ended up on one side of a police barricade, face-to-face with another man from Red Deer who was wearing a “Make Canada Great Again” hat.