(Ottawa) The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CAA) condemns the planned demonstrations by truckers who oppose mandatory vaccinations to cross the Canada-US border.
Posted at 2:40 p.m.
Updated at 7:01 p.m.
The body, which represents various provincial associations, issued a statement saying it “strongly disapproves” of protests on public roads, highways and bridges.
“The ACA believes that such actions – especially those that harm public safety – are not the way disagreements with government policies should be expressed. “, said the press release.
The “vast majority” of members of the Canadian trucking industry are vaccinated, the Alliance said, noting that the immunization rate among truckers is comparable to that seen in the general public.
According to ACA President Stephen Laskowski, truckers “must adapt and respect” the vaccination measures put in place in Canada and the United States.
“This regulation is not changing, so as an industry we must adapt and comply with this obligation,” Laskowski said in the statement. The only way to cross the border, in a commercial truck or any other vehicle, is to get vaccinated. »
Opponents of the measure, however, remained unmoved.
“We are not backing down and we are going to Ottawa,” an organizer of these protests from Medicine Hat, Alta., Tamara Lich, said in a Facebook video.
The organizers describe the vaccination obligation as an example of political abuse resulting in economic damage. They claim that this vaccination obligation harms small businesses and deprives some workers of the means of survival.
A website run by organizers announces that convoys of protesters are to hit the road in British Columbia on Sunday. They will be joined by other truckers in the other provinces, as far as Ottawa where a large demonstration is planned for January 29.
The group raised more than $2.6 million which will be used to pay for fuel, food and accommodation for all participants, according to the GoFundMe website.
According to the Canadian Trucking Alliance and the American Trucking Association, up to 26,000 of the 160,000 drivers who regularly cross the Canada-US border would likely be affected by this vaccination requirement.
Some 30,000 trucks cross the border every day, carrying nearly $850 million worth of goods, according to 2020 figures from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
The federal government announced in November that all Canadian truckers wishing to cross the border had to be vaccinated if they did not want to be placed in quarantine for a period of 15 days. The measure came into effect on January 15.
Mandatory vaccinations came into effect despite an earlier statement from the Canada Border Services Agency that said unvaccinated and partially immunized truckers crossing Canada from the United States would remain exempt from the announced vaccination requirement for approximately two months. before its entry into force.
The federal government backtracked again the following afternoon, saying that the information released the day before had been sent “in error”.
This article was produced with the financial support of the Facebook and The Canadian Press News Fellowships.