We reported on Feb. 5 about an incident at a Freedom Convoy protest in Winnepeg, Canada where an SUV hit four people protesting vaccine mandates. The protesters were not blocking the road like BLM people, cars were flowing through the area where they were holding up signs and protesting.
Three of the people hit suffered minor injuries and were treated at the scene but one required more attention and was taken to the hospital, treated, and released according to the police.
The car sped away after hitting the people, blowing through red lights, until the police caught the man later and arrested him after a struggle.
The police have now identified the man as David Alexander Zegarac, 42, and they’ve charged him with four counts of assault with a weapon, two counts of dangerous operation of a conveyance causing bodily harm, two counts of failure to stop after an accident knowing that the driver was reckless, two counts of failing to stop at the scene of an accident and one count of dangerous operation of a conveyance.
Police spokesperson Constable Rob Carver said he could not comment on motivation for the alleged attack yet, but he said, “The driver had blurted out statements that made police think it wasn’t about pandemic-related mandates.”
“Some comments were made by the accused that tends to suggest this was not specifically about the [vaccine] mandates,” Carver said. “He wasn’t for or against any of the general views that are floating around this country.”
What could those statements be? That will be interesting to find out as more is revealed in this case.
However, most of the media is leaving out the interesting background of David Zegarac. He’s a punk rock musician who was in The Brat Attack, The Dead Peasants Revolt, the Black Mask Brigade, and Class War Kids. If those names sound suggestive of political leanings, you would be right.
Pieces in local media link him to anarchist and activist activities.
Together, Doyle and Zegarac formed the Applecart Collective for budding activists and anarchists. They lifted the name from a now-defunct collective and radical newspaper in Winnipeg.
They plan to organize band shows, distribute progressive literature, produce a zine, show films, host workshops, and maybe even start a lending library.
And since there’s no such thing as hierearchy in anarchism, people can be involved any way they want—from contributing to the zine, to pursuing more radical activism.
“We’re definitely gearing up for an overhaul of the whole system,” says Zegarac, on the line from a tour stop in Cambridge, Ontario. “But we know that it might not happen in our lifetimes, so in the meantime we’re fighting against social injustice. We’re trying to get kids and youth involved in politics and doing activism work. Music has become secondary to the initial need to get the message out.”
As far as rock music goes, Winnipeg may still be best known as the original home of the Guess Who, but Zegarac says that that band’s “Share the Land” credo is still being voiced in metropolitan Manitoba. “There’s a huge activist scene in Winnipeg right now,” he says. “We have the Mondragon, which is like a huge anarchist bookstore/coffeeshop/restaurant, with, like, the A-Zone upstairs, with G-7 Records and a whole bunch of different activist groups based out of there.”
Here’s a sample of his lyrics which make clear what his politics were.
In addition to the politics, there’s a picture that may say it all.
When you’re wearing a mask by yourself in your car, you’re pretty far gone.
The police statements don’t indicate that they know this information yet, but then again, they wouldn’t necessarily put what they know out in public until they have more evidence. But when they’re thinking about motives, all of this may be a good direction in which to look.