Crazy Dave
It wasn’t Dave that was crazy. It was 99% of society that was.
Three years ago I had no idea who “Crazy Dave” was. I was closely following the events of the lockdowns and the recently announced closures of outdoor rinks, snowmobile trails and toboggan hills. But I was not an active protester yet.
A month before I finally started publicly writing to politicians and newspapers to try and bring attention to this subject, I was at a gathering with friends in January 2021.
This was an illegal gathering of course (as all gatherings at the time were) but I distinctly remember going home that evening pissed off. I was upset because at this particular gathering when the subject of the ongoing public protests arose, the sentiment was negative towards these people. I was the only one who thought it was important for people to push back.
One friend said, “yeah we all hate these restrictions but look at crazy Dave in Verner with his protests…” They were of course talking about Dave Lewington, who at the time was one of the only people publicly fighting back against ice rink and snowmobile trail closures.
In January 2021, Dave organized protests at the local outdoor rink and was frequently warned by the OPP that attendees would be arrested. For simply standing beside an outdoor rink…
So Dave did the protests by himself, risking his arrest…
In a short clip of a video that would be viewed by thousands at the time, Dave defies the police and attends an outdoor rink in a hilarious skit with the help of his daughter Livy.
Although I was already against all restrictions I had no idea who Dave was.
I was relatively new to the area having only relocated to West Nipissing in 2018. So I wasn’t aware that Dave operated the largest cattle farm around or that he was one of the smartest guys I would ever come to meet later on.
That days events woke me up to the how warped society had become. Here I was with a group of people clearly breaking the insane rules because we had the luxury of having properties that were not in the public’s eye. But people were regularly getting charged for having friends over. Kids were out of school. Businesses were failing. And these people thought Dave was crazy because he was taking his daughter to the outdoor rink…
It wasn’t Dave that was crazy. It was 99% of society that was. 99% of society with their heads in the sand. Accepting creepingly insane rules while calling the ones who actually had the courage to speak the truth as “crazy”.
I think that day’s events gave me the anger I needed to finally try and make a difference.
I started getting more active and a month later I got to finally speak to “Crazy Dave” on the phone. Since that day, Dave and I barely go a single day without exchanging texts, ideas or information.
This pandemic has helped me meet so many intelligent people whom society may have branded as crazy to me a few years prior. And before being awake, I may have ignored them. Like Crazy Dan Arcand (AKA Dan Freeman). Or Crazy Corrin Smith who started the roadside protests in my small town. Or all the crazy people that wanted to see their loved ones in nursing homes. Or all the crazy people I have met who are still fighting to go back to work because they didn’t take some experimental product three years ago (a product 90% of society doesn’t want anymore either).
I am so grateful that I know all these crazy amazing people.
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How Far We Went: The complete historical account of how far Canada went during the COVID-19 era is now available on Amazon.
Isn't that the case. What makes us crazy? Being in the 1%. That's it. Right or wrong.
One of the most astounding things happened last week. Francis Collins, made a stunning statement addressing these exact failures.
For full context consider he was the Director of the National Institute of Health from Obama through nearly two years of covid, he was the top doctor in charge of public health policy in the United States, he was the architect of the covid response, who oversees NIH's 48 billion dollar budget and happens to have been Anthony Fauci's boss during covid. He said:
"If you’re a public health person and you’re trying to make a decision, you have this very narrow view of what the right decision is, and that is something that will save a life. Doesn’t matter what else happens. So you attach infinite value to stopping the disease and saving a life. You attach zero value to whether this actually totally disrupts people’s lives, ruins the economy, and has many kids kept out of school in a way that they never recover from.”
I happen to think he is being sincere. He is also doing one of the hardest things we can do as humans: admit when we are wrong and acknowledge how it hurt others.
The fact is we're still stuck up here in Canada. We cannot move on and our institutions cannot regain our trust and until they do same. This includes acknowledging the incredible harm our policies foisted on people. The cost of these policies was not evenly distributed.
Thank you my crazy friend.
I so happy that I discovered your Substack and your recent book, How Far We Went. Your book joins that stack of books (real paper books) that I'm reading and collecting. I'm keeping the receipts. No one who participated in the ruination of our society should be allowed to forget. We need a reckoning.