About the anti-vax truckers’ protests in Canada

• Canada PM invoked rarely-used emergency powers to crack down on protests inspired from movement against vaccine mandates

Beginning of the protest

• From January 28 onward, truckers under banner of “Freedom Convoy 2022” began driving into Ottawa.
• Another group blockaded major highway at Coutts border crossing in Canada’s Alberta province.
• Protesters in pick-ups blocked international Ambassador Bridge across Detroit river disrupting supply chains and forcing production cuts at major automobile manufacturing units in Detroit.
• Presently, number of vehicles in downtown Ottawa was down to 360 from about 4,000
• So-called tailgate party had lost some of its intensity, and other blockades along Canada’s border with the US had been lifted.
• Chief of Ottawa’s police has warned of arrests and forced evictions, and vowed to “take back every occupied space” in the “coming days”

Changing demands

• Initial demand: rollback of vaccine mandate was dismissed by critics as pointless because of small numbers of impacted group.
• Less than 10% of Canadian truckers are unvaccinated
• Public in Canada supports the government’s measures.
• Besides, US too has imposed similar vaccination mandate for border crossings.
• Soon, protests in Ottawa and Alberta started to attract many non-truckers, including those whose businesses had been destroyed by the pandemic, and others who were charged hefty fines for contravening Covid-19 shutdown rules.

Far right presence

• Some extremist elements started to show up: besides aggressive anti-vaxxers, there were members of far right groups, and Nazi sympathisers.
• There was violence, and unmasked protesters were reported to have urinated on the city’s National War Memorial and defaced other monuments.
• They flew Nazi and Confederate flags, harassed local businesses and residents, and raised derogatory slogans against Trudeau.
• Police recovered numerous firearms and a lot of ammunition from blockade sites in Alberta and Ottawa.
• Support and funds came from American rightwing groups and conservative politicians.

Echoes elsewhere

• More than 79% of Canada’s eligible population is fully vaccinated and around 42% have taken booster shots.
• An opinion poll found that over 54% of the country felt that demands of those participating in protests were wrong and undeserving of sympathy.
• And yet, protests are spreading.
• Inspired by Canadian Freedom Convoy, anti-vaccine protesters in several developed nations, including France, New Zealand, the US, Australia, and Germany, have set up their own “convoys”.