The remainder of a trucker convoy headed to Canada’s capital to protest crossborder vaccine mandates is rolling in Saturday morning.
Thousands of people, including those in trucks, are expected to attend a rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa as part of a “freedom convoy” that began in Vancouver on Sunday and has since driven eastward to oppose the federal government’s vaccine mandate instituted earlier this month, which requires truckers coming from the United States to show proof of vaccination. Photos shared on social media show lines of trucks parked at the capital ahead of the demonstration.
GOFUNDME FREEZES $4.7 MILLION IN FUNDS FOR PROTEST OF CANADA’S VACCINE MANDATE
On Friday, one of the “Freedom Convoy 2022” spokespeople, B.J. Dichter, reminded attendees to “remain peaceful no matter the cost” and to be respectful of law enforcement.
“We cannot achieve our goals if there are threats or acts of violence. This movement is a peaceful protest and we do not condone any acts of violence, etc,” he wrote on a GoFundMe page dedicated to raising funds for the convoy. “We already know there will be activists working at the behest of global authoritarians and think tanks to sabotage our movement. Because of this, we must have a zero-tolerance approach to aggressive behaviour and violence.”
Dichter also told protesters not to enter any government buildings or property “under any circumstances.”
BREAKING: Truckers have parked on Wellington St. in front of Parliament Hill FOR THE NIGHT. #TruckersForFreedom2022 #FreedomConvoyCanada #OttawaConvoy pic.twitter.com/7E9oaQ4xjb
— ??Checkpoint News – #TruckersForFreedom? (@check_pointnews) January 28, 2022
Ottawa officers, police, and other national security forces will be present at the demonstration to deal with any threats, Canada’s Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told CBC News.
Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau said this week that the convoy represented a “small fringe minority” of those who “do not represent the views of Canadians,” according to Reuters.
As of Saturday morning, the GoFundMe campaign to support the truckers convoy for the “costs of fuel first, and hopefully food and lodgings” has raised more than $7.8 million. Earlier this week, GoFundMe froze the funds, saying that they would be released once the group submitted a plan to disperse the money.
It’s not immediately clear whether the group has been able to access the funds at this point.
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Some 20% of the 160,000 U.S.-Canadian cross-border truckers could be taken off the roads due to noncompliance with vaccine mandates in both countries, the Canadian Trucking Alliance estimates.
