My father and I went on a trip from our home to Halifax to get my brother and bring him home for Christmas. In order to get there we had to use the 102 highway. This is a very common thing. Once we got to Truro, however, things changed. Suddenly the right lane was blocked off with a police car at every exit. Then we learned that First Nations people had blocked off the right lane on both sides of the highway in order to protest Bill C 45 (Which has already been passed by the way). Their method of protest was to essentially stop traffic and hand out literature about their cause. We had to sit in traffic for 30 minutes because of this (to be fair, it would have gone faster if people didn’t try to merge simultaniously at the last minute). The main concern the first nations people seemed to have was environmental in nature. However, they may have failed to realize how much unused fuel was now going out into the air at that point from all the cars waiting and idling in traffic at that one place. The carbon footprint around the Truro area has certainly become bigger because of this. There were many ways they could have gotten their point across without blocking the main artery (for out-of-towners) into the city of Halifax. The honks of support they thought they heard were most likely honks of rage from people who were now late for countless things.
The rest of our trip was successful and uneventful. We took a different route home at that point on the way back as we could see that it was still blocked off (though this time we could actually bail out onto an exit in time.
One thing you have to give them credit for is their determination to get their point across (They were there all day). However, it is rather unfortunate that by using this particular method of protest, the First Nations people may have alienated and certainly annoyed people who may have otherwise felt some sort of sympathy for them had they used another method of protest.. There is no point in discussing the alternative methods they could have used at this point as they chose the method of stalling traffic. This was certainly a day that tested the patience of many.