Federal ministers added their voices to the president of the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CCA) in an attempt to calm things down on Tuesday, as hundreds of truckers from British Columbia made their way to Ottawa, where a major demonstration must take place on Friday against compulsory vaccination.
• Read also: Anti-vaccine ‘truckers’ robbed of millions of dollars raised
• Read also: The ‘freedom convoy’ sets out in British Columbia
“Since the emergence of the pandemic, the Government of Canada and the CCA have communicated on a regular basis, both with each other and with other key partners in order to identify emerging issues and reduce the disruption caused. These efforts have been essential in order to maintain truck traffic and protect Canadians from COVID-19,” they wrote.
ACC President Stephen Laskowski and the Ministers of Transport, Labor and Employment “agree that vaccination, combined with preventive public health measures, is the most effective tool to reduce the risk posed to Canadians by COVID-19 and to protect public health.”
The press release, which emphasizes the “essential” contribution of truckers to the economy and the smooth running of the country, does not mention the various convoys en route to Ottawa.
However, the truckers of the “freedom convoy” who oppose compulsory vaccination seem imperturbable, those having every intention of getting to their destination. They are asking the government to drop the measure.
- Listen to the latest news from Mario Dumont and Vincent Dessureault on QUB radio:
Since January 15, truckers have been required to show proof of vaccination when they return to the Canadian border, under penalty of having to do two weeks of quarantine at home.
Many companies have undertaken changes to their ways of doing things in order to mitigate the impact of the measure, for example by reserving domestic journeys for unvaccinated truckers in order to evade the government decree and by letting vaccinated truckers take care of the segments cross-border.
The proportion of unvaccinated truckers is estimated between 10 and 15% by the industry, while the Treasury Board states that “90% of Canadian truckers are already vaccinated”.
A movement that rolls on gold
The protest movement has enjoyed growing momentum in recent days.
A fundraiser launched on January 14, the day before the policy took effect, has raised nearly $4.5 million on the GoFundMe platform as of Tuesday, close to the $5 million goal set by Tamara Lich, its organizer.
GoFundMe, however, decided on Monday to freeze campaign funds. “Donations will be held securely until the organizer is able to provide our team with documentation relating to how the funds will be properly distributed,” the organizer confirmed. Newspaper Rachel Hollis, director of communications at GoFundMe.
If the fundraiser was able to collect so many donations, it is in particular because the convoy enjoys significant popularity on social networks.
On Facebook, the “Convoy to Ottawa 2022” group, created on January 15, already has more than 528,000 members at the time of writing these lines. The group’s wall was at nearly 10,000 posts in the past 24 hours.
The largest convoy left British Columbia on Monday, but other convoys from elsewhere in the country will also make their way to the capital.
Politicians in the know
Some elected Conservatives have publicly shown their support for the initiative, including Marilyn Gladu, Martin Shields and even Pierre Poilièvre, finance critic.
Even former chef Andrew Scheer has joined in. “Thank you truckers! Trudeau is attacking individual freedom and threatening everyone’s ability to shop for groceries because of his one-upmanship in vaccination mandates. He is the greatest threat to freedom in Canada,” he wrote on Twitter Monday.
Erin O’Toole did not denounce the demonstration or the positions taken by her deputies. He recalled Monday that vaccination remains the best way to end the pandemic.
Mme Lich, the fundraiser’s instigator, is secretary of the Maverick Party in Alberta, formerly known as Wexit. It is a conservative-leaning party that advocates almost total autonomy for Alberta from Canada.