Victoria De La Ronde
Victoria De La Ronde spoke 57 times across 1 day of testimony.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Religious document, please.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
The Bible, please.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
My name is Victoria De La Ronde, and Victoria, V-I-C-T-O-R-I-A, and De La Ronde is three words, capital D-E, capital L-A, capital R-O-N-D-E.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes, I am a resident of Ottawa.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes, I am retired.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
The impact on my physical well-being was -- is quite extensive. I certainly during the experience had difficulty sleeping. I had an effect on my lungs and my throat because of the fumes and other smells, and I also have long-term effects.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
The long-term effects are loss of hearing, loss of balance, some vertigo triggered by the sound of any horn now, triggered by certain music as the music was very loud, and a physical trigger when I get a smell of gas. Both my throat and lungs start to feel infected. I had also a phantom horn blowing as an experience for a number of weeks after.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Certainly, I attribute it to the very, very loud and constant noise from the horns, from the music, from the idling trucks. Even when the horns abated for a minute or two, the trucks idled. The trucks idled all night. And so it just was an assault on my hearing. And I can certainly tell now that there is a diminished function. I was able before to listen to media, for example, at a normal level of, say, four. Now I have to turn it to six.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes. I am near to Laurier.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Well, certainly as I mentioned, it was such an experience of helplessness, especially during the event, where the horn blowing was so loud, and continuous. There was absolutely no place for me to go in my own unit, there was no place that had any less sound. I checked different rooms to see, well, maybe I can sleep on the floor here. There was no place that had a diminished sound. And if there was, it wasn't a space, like, a closet that was big enough to sleep in. There was just no escape to that. So I felt trapped and helpless during that. During the fireworks when the debris from the fireworks sprayed against my windows, I was just terrified that they would break any minute because I thought how could I do something, and what could I do at midnight, and who could come at midnight? And this is February. A broken window would have been pretty disastrous. So there was a lot of anxiety and discomfort.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Certainly, they have - - some have abated, yes, and I worked very hard for that in terms of -- on the mental wellbeing. It still -- I jump a lot when I hear a loud horn, and also when I get this smell of gas, definitely, I have a physical to that -- reaction, which is quite distressing.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes. I work very hard to be independent and safe as a person with a disability. That objective is very important to me and every success in reaching that objective is coveted. So that was gone. I was trained to walk with the traffic, to walk with the flow, to negotiate and keep myself safe on the street. Of course, there was no traffic or no flow, no indicator, or if it's idling, I wasn't sure if these big vehicles overhanging a small sidewalk, if they decided to suddenly shift or change, if they could see me, so it was terrifying. The sound was so high that I could not hear any chimes or signals that we use at the ends of the street to tell us that it's safe to cross. That was just not available, so it was -- it just was not safe in my world. Also, in terms of independence, I do everything myself. I order my groceries. I order prescriptions. And but -- and I take public transportation or private transportation to go to meetings, to go to appointments, to do my daily business. So I had everything set up for myself as an independent person, living alone in downtown Ottawa, which provided such good services. But immediately, immediately, there was no taxi, no Uber, no Para Transpo, no grocery delivery, which I depended on, no taxi even to go and get some, no prescription delivery. Some way had to be figured out how to obtain all the necessities of life. The restrictions on my ability to get food was gone -- or was there, I -- so that was the impact in terms of my mobility, so I found myself trapped.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
That is a huge, huge assist for me to have safe mobility outside and for me to remain independent. Yes. Very critical are the sounds.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
There was absolutely no ability to negotiate my environment by using sound. The sounds of the horns, the sounds of the very, very loud music, the sounds of the people, with lots of voices coming from all different places, all was disconcerting and just completely eliminated my ability to negotiate my environment independently.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes. For two reasons. One, of course, the inability to negotiate those streets safely, because of lack of assisted -- well, lack of sound was the big thing. Also, being very concerned about what was underfoot, because there was debris on the streets, and it was winter, and icy, and slippery. And then always vigilant that someone was going to approach. On an occasion, there was a person who kept jumping in front of me. I was with someone else. I could only go out if someone came with me. And this person kept jumping in front and didn't allow me to pass. So when he was confronted, finally it stopped, but then sent messages, "Well, I love you anyway", he said. So that was a bit intimidating. And so in that way I didn't feel safe for those two reasons. I didn't have all the faculties I normally use; and secondly, that someone was going to approach me and either I was going to be accidentally hurt or I would -- or my big worries that I would bump into and hurt them too. So always vigilant and concerned. Does that mean I was feeling safe? No. No, I wasn't. I just thought if I didn't have to be out I would not go out.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
The Sunday after the - - that the vehicles came in and occupied so close to where I lived, the relentless noise was just so unbearable and I was so exhausted from it. And I called and begged a friend, "Could you just please -- I know you have to walk in and get me out, can you just please come and get me out?" And she did, and two days later, I had -- we both had COVID. There was so many people on the street, walking toward us, saying we don't have to wear those masks. There was just people around. Did I get it from them? I don't know, you know, but it meant that I was completely, completely stuck. I couldn't leave my home. I couldn't ask anybody to come and help. I couldn't go and stay with somebody else. I couldn't do anything. I had to be there to isolate for at least those 10 days. So once again, there was no place to go, no place to hide, it just went on and on.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
When the trucks and other vehicles came into my area on the Friday evening, it was very loud. And on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I could sense, I could sense the excitement and the electricity in the air. And at the beginning, I thought I am so happy to be in a country where there is freedom of expression, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, but then that sentiment started to crumble as the loudness was all night and all that weekend. That's why I begged my friend, "Can you just come and take me out for a short time even so I don't have to hear this?" And the sounds continued constantly, until -- well, at night. And they may have been somewhat diminished because there was -- were crescendos all during the day, and toward the evening in particular, and then all night. When the injunction was put in place, then it abated a bit between 11 o'clock at night, and then 7 o'clock, I could hear activity out on the street. I could hear a huge megaphone starting to advise, it seemed to me, a rolling thunder of horn-blowing starting at 7:30 in the morning, and then the loud, loud music would, which you could hear every word of the music they were -- the songs that were being sung. So your question in terms of how loud it was, how continuous it was. It was continuous. There was an abatement of horn blowing in such a crescendo between those hours, 11:00 at night and 7:00 in the morning. But the idling continued under my window, just with these huge vehicles, the sound of the idling echoing down in the canyon of our buildings all night. So there was no respite from an assault on hearing. I tried to wear earplugs, but they kept falling out, and then I worried if I wore an earplug I wouldn’t be able to hear the smoke alarm, I wouldn’t be able to hear if somebody was pounding on my door to evacuate because there was something -- a fire or an explosion outside our door. So I was caught in between. And of course, I slept with a mask on because of the -- because trying to abate the smell of the diesel and the other smells that were coming up and in through the vents.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes. Close would be Laurier and Kent.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
For myself --
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
-- it was beyond a lawnmower.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes, that does accord this sounds over always present in my building, in my unit. Except, there's some sounds there -- not there, that were even louder and more unnerving. When you hear this, and it's 24 hours it is just -- it’s damaging. It's damaging to the nerves, it's damaging to my health and well-being, so it’s -- it’s shocking. So it does accord, but there was more. There were times when it was more than this.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
You know, I think you've done a very good job. Thank you very much.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Good morning.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
I was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, but grew up in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, and you ask women their ages so ---
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
They can do the math.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
No, no.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
That's right, yes.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
1983.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
M'hm.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
I was a member of good standing with the Ontario bar and the New York bar of -- but recently, I resigned my membership from the Ontario bar.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
I'm still active as the non -- a retired member of the New York bar, but I'm still licensed.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
It was more, like, 25 years. I'm just -- just let me recorrect that. It was from 1990, September 1990 to April 2011.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
That's correct.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
No.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
It could, yes.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
No, I was working on the policy side of the picture. I was not a just lawyer with the Government of Canada. I was an executive.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
I had a phone call from the Commission, Commission solicitor asking my permission to, first of all, have a conversation about my experience and then asking my permission if my name could be put forward as a potential witness in this.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Thank you. You too.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Thirty years.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
I've observed other protests in Downtown Ottawa, but closer to Parliament Hill. They did not come to where I was living. Never.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
I was concerned because there was the smell, and I was informed as well about gas spills on the street, that there was open bonfires, that they were roasting food out a few metres from my building, so there was such a potential for a fire, a huge fire, and an explosion. So I was concerned that if I could actually get those earplugs to work then I wouldn't hear if my smoke alarm went off or if people were pounding on my door to say "evacuate, evacuate".
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
It was very strong in my apartment. It permeated drapes, blinds, bedding, carpet. It had a -- the whole unit had a dull, gaseous odour about it.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Yes, yes. I got -- eventually worked toward getting them cleaned, all of them.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Anytime I heard a honk of a horn, and particularly of a large vehicle horn, I could feel it sort of ripple through my body, and I would feel that my nerves were still frayed.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Very much like that. That -- I kept hearing them, like phantom horns, I kept hearing them in my head. I also had phantom smells too.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
They're not, they're not there.
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Victoria De La Ronde (Ottawa residents)
Thank you, Commissioner.