Take Action Canada is a grassroots group focused on supporting Canadians to be informed and take action against the legal, economic, and bodily infringements they have experienced since March 2020. We spoke with founder Ryan Penn about the group’s beginnings, the situation in Canada, and his vision for the future.
How did Take Action Canada come about?
After these coronavirus shenanigans began, I started writing emails to my friends about it—right now, I’m up to episode 125. After about a year, some of us got together and said, “We keep talking, what if we did something?” So we formed a local action group and more and more people joined. We started with the premise that we would try to help people who already know what’s going on and give them tools to take action. There’s knowing and there’s doing—and then there’s doing the right things instead of the wrong things.
What sort of things have you been doing?
We started a website, printed flyers, and started going to protests. I had a sticker printer running in my basement 24/7 and we distributed stickers with various messages, much like the White Rose campaign in England.
Then we organized a bit better. We have a leaderless structure, so anyone can come forward with a new initiative. Each initiative goes through an ideation process where you define your outcomes and the steps necessary to achieve them. You look at what collateral you need, what volunteers, and resources. Then you review and create your execution plan and get together. There’s no top-down command and control where one person says this is what we’re going to do. We’re a group of volunteers so it’s important to get everyone’s buy-in.
What has been the response from people on the street?
What we’re seeing every day is more and more people waking up. People who have been coerced into getting the vaccine twice and yet still getting sick are starting to question it and saying they won’t get a third. So we’re seeing a mass awakening, and it’s happening one person at a time. When I went to the first protests downtown, there were around 500 people. Just recently there was a trucker rally down in Toronto and there were 40,000 to 50,000 people. For every person who was there, there are probably another ten people who wanted to be there.
The freedom movement in Canada has inspired so many around the world. Do you have anything you’d like to share about what’s happening there?
I would like to rally people around the world to admonish the draconian measures taken by the Trudeau government to deal with the truck drivers and other protesters seeking an end to Covid mandates. That is, to rescind the Emergency Act, to leave the truckers in peace, to bring about the end of the mandates, as well as Trudeau’s resignation and/or remove the Liberals from power. I also want to rally the freedom movements in countries around the world to bring about an end to the pandemic and promote rallies at Canadian embassies and consulates around the world. This is an SOS from Canada. We sparked a peaceful revolution around the world. Now it’s your turn to help us!
How do you see the future?
I see a mass awakening of human consciousness across the world. I believe that crises do not make people into what they are, they reveal who people are. So you’ll understand who your real friends are and who your new friends are. There are people who have connected with other people in this crisis who will be friends for life—and people will have had friends “for life” who are not truly their friends. This is the gift: of awakening and of revealing who our true friends and family are.
What keeps you motivated?
My children. I’m fighting for my children, and everyone’s children.
