A best-selling book about the Freedom Convoy, a protest that resulted in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoking the Emergencies Act, is not being carried by Indigo bookstores. .The Freedom Convoy: The Inside Story of Three Weeks that Shook the World by True North journalist Andrew Lawton is a mixture of interviews with convoy organizers and coverage of the three-week trucker protests in downtown Ottawa in February.."I'm humbled by how much support there has been for my book," Lawton told the Western Standard. ."I'm disappointed that a company I grew up buying books from doesn't think their customers are interested in something that is clearly resonating with people." .The book's publishing house, Sutherland House Books, said it approached Indigo to carry the book before its launch, but was told the company was not interested in carrying it and would only offer a digital copy on its website. .Before its official release, The Freedom Convoy was climbing the bestsellers lists and hit second place on Amazon's top-sellers list for a non-fiction book. ."I'm not sure why Indigo won't put our Freedom Convoy book in its stores," said Kenneth Whyte, publishing executive and founder of Sutherland House. ."It's a number one bestseller in The Globe and the Toronto Star and it's been the bestselling Canadian book on Amazon.ca for most of the last month. It seems crazy that they wouldn't want to make it available to customers in their stores." .Whyte — calling the book "a first-rate work of reportage, whether or not you agree with the truckers" — said he hopes it's a mistake on Indigo's part and not a "deliberate choice." ."People fortunately have alternatives," said Whyte pointing to Amazon or the Southerland House Books website. .Madeleine Löwenborg-Frick, director of corporate communications with Indigo, told the Western Standard "the distinction between store and online is not spearate for us." ."A customer can order a book online and pick it up in any one of our stores across the country, therefore any book is available 'in-store' within a very short period of time," said Löwenborg-Frick.."We believe that access to books fuels discussion and can bring about change. We are committed to representing the diversity of Canada in the books and products we sell, feature, and promote. By selling online, we are actually making the book more readily available to everyone.".Without referencing the specific book in question, Löwenborg-Frick said the company sells 15 million titles and "cannot carry all books in store at all times..."
