Canadian Citizens have endured one of the most oppressive lockdowns and attacks on their basic rights to date, but before Saturday, January 15, 2022, Canadian truck drivers were granted a Federal exemption from forced inoculations. Prior to the date, truckers were able to cross the border into the United States and then return without having to show proof of vaccination. Back in March of 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau even tweeted out "While many of us are working from home there are others who aren't able to do that – like truck drivers who are working day and night to make sure our shelves are stocked. So when you can, please #ThankATrucker for everything their doing and help them in anyway you can." However, Trudeau more than most, has used the plandemic as a power grab and subjected the people of Canada to some of the most restrictive, freedom crushing measures in the world. The newest encroachment on freedom comes in the form of this new mandate. So much for thanking the truckers for everything they did the last twenty-two months.
As of the fifteenth, Canadian truck drivers are now mandated to either be vaccinated or face a 14-day quarantine every time they return to Canada from the US. American truck drivers who are not vaccinated won't be able to come across at all. The new mandate is expected to affect at least 26,000 truckers. With up to 90% of routes going across the border, this would make it impossible for these drivers to keep and do their jobs if they had to face such a punishment every time they returned. According to the Canadian Trucker's Alliance, unvaccinated workers make up around 15%. The Canadian Government claims this will not effect supply chain issues in Canada and the United States but there has already been clear supply chain issues across all of North America. Additionally, Canada has had a shortage of truck drivers since last summer. They were short 20,000-25,000 truckers then and this is just going to make it worse. In the latest Canadian Consumer price index that was released this week, food as a whole was up 2.2% with eggs being up 6.3%, meat being up 4.2%, butter was up 6.3%, and bacon increasing by 12.3%.
After hearing of the changes, Truckers were rightfully irate. They had been declared "essential workers" and done their jobs throughout the entire pandemic. This included making drop-offs and having to stay in their trucks for hours without being able to exit it even to use the bathroom while the product was unloaded. Some of them even had to urinate in cups because they couldn't leave the truck. A group of the angry long-haul truck drivers decided to join up in protest and starting on Sunday, January 23 in Prince Rupert which is in West British Columbia they would start a freedom rally. The trip would see a huge convoy of truckers cover a 2,443 mile journey from West BC all the way to Parliament Hill in the Capital City of Ottawa. As they have gotten closer to their destination more and more trucks have joined the convoy. A spokesman for the Freedom Convoy, Benjamin Dichter, claimed the convoy of trucks is 43 miles long and said "I've have seen footage from an airplane. It's impressive." There have been reports of as many as 100,000 trucks in the convoy.
Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, tried his best to downplay the protest, claiming "The small fringe minority of people who are on their way to Ottawa who are holding unacceptable views that they are expressing do not represent the views of Canadians who have been there for each other, who know that following the science and stepping up to protect each other is the best way to continue to ensure our freedoms, our rights, our values, as a country." The doublespeak and tyrannical comments are just a further propaganda effort from the Prime Minister. Trudeau has been one of the most aggressive world leaders when it comes to pushing the vaccine mandates. When confronted about how goods sitting around for two weeks while the unvaccinated drivers were quarantined would cause further disruptions which would lead to even more food and other supply shortages, the Canadian leader rejected it. He dismissively said, "The best way to prevent further disruptions to our supply chains is by making sure that people don't fall sick, by making sure that people are vaccinated".
The Premier of Alberta, Jason Kenney, was asked by a reporter during a press conference what he thought about the Freedom Convoy and the response of Canadian politicians. Kenney wasted no time saying "One thing that really concerns me is the divisive comments of Justin Trudeau where he characterized all the thousands of people involved in this as...he said we should not tolerate them. He said that they are holding unacceptable views that don't represent the views of Canadians. Well, whether he agrees with them or not, they are Canadians and they are entitled to hold their views about Covid Policy. They are entitled to express them safely and lawfully. This is the same Prime Minister who famously said about Canadian Citizens convicted of terrorism that 'a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian'. Well if he is willing to defend convicted terrorist as Canadians, why is he condemning thousands of people who feel strongly about a Covid Policy in the Country? The Prime Minister's job is to unite Canadians, not divide them. I think his divisive approach to this makes the situation a whole lot worse as does his quarantine policy on cross-border truckers which is forcing up food prices and making life even more difficult."
The Mainstream Media has been working extra hard to downplay and demonize the protest while doing everything in their power to not cover what is actually happening. Despite countless videos of the convoy and those who are supporting them being available on youtube, FB, twitter and everywhere else, there has been next to no coverage from the dying legacy media. What little coverage they do offer has been carefully edited shots where they try to say the protest is not a big deal.
The Washington Post Opinion section prominently featured an article on January 28 which called the Protest "toxic" and claimed the Canadian Government must "confront it head on". The far-left journalist, David Moscrop, did his best to claim that the protest was all about hate groups who wanted to have another "January 6 riot". He insisted that this movement "shares an affinity with Trumpist toxic authoritarian politics" and that the "rage-soaked anti-government types can't be reasoned with". Moscrop went on to claim the convoy is just a fringe group who is "an unfortunate minority in which a further minority of insidious extremists lurk" whose cause is "premised upon a misunderstanding of Government and absurd demands". He went on to plead that the answer is to double down on "commitments to anti-hate resistance, pandemic support, vaccine mandates and a media policy of refusing to platform, humanize, or, God forbid, glorify the convoy and its members". This guy is a clear far-left progressive but a lot of what he is saying is being repeated by many other journalists and media outlets. The calls for censorship and dehumanization while insisting that the people standing up for freedom are the ones who are "attacking it" are not new.
But something that Trudeau, Moscrop, and the Fake News Media weren't counting on started happening as the convoy continued toward Ottawa. More and more, Canadians sick of what has happened over the last two years started coming out of their homes, grabbing their flags, enduring the cold and sometimes freezing weather, and lining the roads and overpasses in nearly every town along the route. What started as a group of upset truckers had grown into a watershed moment where Citizens were openly standing up and telling Trudeau and the Canadian government that they have had enough. They were now demanding their freedom be restored. Others who couldn't join in on the sides of roads started donating to a gofundme page set up for the truckers. To date they have had over 100,000 donations for a total of $8,546,340 and that number is growing by the minute.
On January 27 and as the convoy was headed right to him, Prime Minister Trudeau claimed he might have come into contact with Covid. This is the same Justin Trudeau who is fully vaccinated, received his booster shot three weeks ago, wears a mask in all public settings, and tested negative. Despite all that, he claims he needs to isolate himself for the following five days. You were to believe it was about caution and not because he didn't want to deal with the protest. As truckers started to roll in Friday night and hundreds of protesters made their way into the city of Ottawa. Prime Minister Trudeau tucked tail. According to the CBC, he grabbed up his family, left the City, and fled to a "secret location".
Trudeau trying to run sparked thousands of twitter comments labeling him a coward but this didn't stop the convoy or the movement born on the backs of it. Tens of thousands of truckers made their way into Ottawa on Saturday and they were greeted by thousands of fed up Canadians who covered Parliament Hill as they waved their flags, chanted what they thought of Trudeau and his mandates, and demanded change.
Officials are hoping that the protests only last the weekend but many truckers claim they are prepared to stay in Ottawa until the mandates are dropped and are prepared to stay for weeks. With the gofundme money pouring in they might just have the funding to do it. There are no signs that the truckers or the Canadian Citizens who have been emboldened by this protest are going to stand down anytime soon. Don't be surprised if the RCMP or other Canadian federal law enforcement attempt something to try and disband the protest. As of now, there are no reports of any violence and the leaders of the protests have called for peaceful demonstration.
One tucker at the protests was asked by Rebel News why are you here today? He answered, "I'm here to stop all mandates and have Justin Trudeau put all his stuff in the back of my bin... We're not going until it's done. I'm on lunch. I could be on lunch a long, long time."
Written by guest writer Chris Turner
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD8qPi6gusw https://www.gofundme.com/f/taking-back-our-freedom-convoy-2022
https://twitter.com/i/status/1487124816188657665
https://twitter.com/i/status/1487560793088479237
https://t.co/lCvDj9D7aF
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/28/canada-must-confront-toxic-protest-freedom-convoy/ https://news.yahoo.com/freedom-convoy-why-canadian-truckers-155027616.html