Photo :webshot.

January 28,2022

Andrew Campbell 

On the Trans-Canada Highway west of Winnipeg, demonstrators against COVID-19 restrictions and supporters of Canadian truck drivers demonstrated against the COVID-19 vaccine mandate and cheered on a convoy of trucks. A convoy of truckers opposing COVID-19 vaccine regulations traveled across southern Ontario on January 27, causing traffic delays and eliciting both criticism and applause. Hundreds of people gathered in London, a city in southwestern Ontario, at a truck stop and on a Highway 401 overpass to watch the convoy arrive from Windsor and Sarnia, the region's two US border crossing points.

Canada began requiring all truckers traveling from the United States to be completely vaccinated against the coronavirus in January. Those who have not been vaccinated, estimated to be less than 15% of the country's drivers, must be quarantined for 14 days. COVID has been linked to 2.93 million cases in Canada, with 32,600 fatalities as a result of the virus.

On Facebook, the convoy has over 275,000 supporters, with around 40,000 on the encrypted messaging app Telegram. An American for-profit crowdfunding platform GoFundMe had previously announced that it had received C$5.5 million from 70,000 donations.

Truckers are already subjected to plenty of government safety regulations, ranging from health checks to electronic monitoring of their activities. That's why some experts say it's absurd for some drivers to assert that a COVID-19 vaccination added to the vast list of job requirements has put their freedoms in jeopardy. The convoy was rejected by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a small fringe group with objectionable opinions that does not represent the majority of Canadians.