It started off with hundreds of B.C. truckers taking to the road Sunday, heading to Ottawa in an organized protest against the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers.
Almost from the start, it became a magnet for extremists and fringe groups – not just sincere anti-vaxxers, but a jumble of conspiracy nuts, Western separatists, far right-wingers, and worse.
The editorial board of the Toronto Star posted a very thoughtful response to what had originally started as a legitimate – and perhaps, “wrongheaded,” protest against new federal regulations over vaccine mandates for cross-border workers.
The biggest takeaway by The Star? ‘The closer the “freedom convoy” of truckers opposed to new rules around vaccine mandates gets to Ottawa, the less it has to do with truckers or even with those rules.’
The Associated Press is reporting that Canadian police are preparing for “parallel groups” that intelligence suggests will also turn up to the protest. Ottawa police Chief Peter Sloly said Wednesday officers had been in been in contact with protest leaders whom he said have been cooperative and shared their plans.
But it is the veiled and sometimes not so veiled threats that have law enforcement officials concerned. Extremist groups have taken to social media to encourage followers to descend on the capital destroy property and threaten elected officials, which has been denounced by the organizers.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance and the Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) have both come out against the convoy, saying that 90 percent of cross-border truckers are vaccinated.
“The Government of Canada and the United States have now made being vaccinated a requirement to cross the border. This regulation is not changing so, as an industry, we must adapt and comply with this mandate,” said OTA president Stephen Laskowski, reports CBC Canada. “The only way to cross the border, in a commercial truck or any other vehicle, is to get vaccinated.”
Here is something really scary to think about – Consider the bizarre “Memorandum of Understanding” that some of the truckers’ leaders have put forward, proposing that the “People of Canada” join with the Senate and the Governor General to usurp the powers of the government and ditch vaccine mandates.
As the AP notes, one online video includes a man expressing hope the rally will turn into the Canadian equivalent of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former president Donald Trump.
