Yellow Vest convoy to Ottawa organizer sets the record straight (Guest: Glen Carritt)

Canada Action has officially canceled their convoy to Ottawa but the mission to bring Alberta's concerns to Justin Trudeau's doorstep, is far from over.

According to a Canada Action press release “unfortunately, we have come to the decision that it is no longer viable to proceed with our planned convoy. We cannot confidently mitigate the unexpected challenges associated with this event. As such, we will be issuing full refunds to all of our donors.”

But, the Yellow Vest convoy is still going ahead.

They have truckers willing to participate, they’re raising cash to get them there, and a lot of people are involved.

These two convoys - both scheduled to leave the same day - were often painted as duelling convoys from competing movements. Canada Action and Rally for Resources have both been explicitly anti-Yellow Vest convoy from the beginning, disassociating themselves from the other movement.

According to the Calgary Herald, Cody Battershill from Canada Action said “if they are yellow vest, we will not be doing anything with them and I’ve made that clear to them” and “For us, yellow vest is from France — we are Canadian, we are focused on Canadian families… In France, they were rioting and that’s not Canadian, either.”

The Yellow Vest movement is portrayed as controversial, but that’s what happens with an organic movement that doesn't have a manifesto defining the motives and goals of the people behind it. The lack of defined goals and motives leaves a vacuum where one’s enemies can fill in the blanks.

I’ve been one of the few people to wade into the Yellow Vest protests and convoys to directly ask attendees for their opinions at events across the province, and have found them to be diverse, colourful and frustrated and while there maybe be fringe elements attaching themselves to the movement, that shouldn’t taint the whole group.

Last week Bernard Hancock joined me on the show to talk about oil and gas issues. He doesn’t like the Yellow Vests and told me why. Fair enough.

So this week, I’m joined by the main organizer of the Yellow Vest convoy to Ottawa. Glen Carritt is a small businessman from central Alberta who’s just trying to make it in a bad economy, and he’s here to answer some tough questions about the allegations of racism, xenophobia and hatred levelled against him.