The Argus Talks: Truck Convoys and Empty Shelves

Sunday, January 23rd, 2022, a convoy of trucks left British Columbia to protest the vaccine mandate at the Parliament buildings in Ottawa. Following a Facebook call-to-action posted by Tamara Lich, the Freedom Convoy 2022 quickly spread throughout both Canada and the United States. The protest was set for January 29th, 2022, but it has been ongoing since truckers arrived with no intention to stop until demands are met. On the Go Fund Me page’s description, the desire for choice comes across most predominantly: 

“To our fellow Canadians, the time for political overreach is over. Our current government is implementing rules and mandates that are destroying the foundation of our businesses, industries and livelihoods. Canadians have been integral to the fabric of humanity in many ways that have shaped the planet.

We are a peaceful country that has helped protect nations across the globe from tyrannical governments who oppressed their people, and now it seems it is happening here. We are taking our fight to the doorsteps of our Federal Government and demanding that they cease all mandates against its people. Small businesses are being destroyed, homes are being destroyed, and people are being mistreated and denied fundamental necessities to survive. It's our duty as Canadians to put an end to these mandates.  It is imperative that this happens because if we don't our country will no longer be the country we have come to love. 

We are doing this for our future generations and to regain our lives back. We are asking for donations to help with the costs of fuel first, and hopefully food and lodgings to help ease the pressures of this arduous task.”

So far, the page has raised an overwhelming $5,787,180, with numbers growing every time the page is refreshed. 

[UPDATE: The GoFundMe page has since been removed by GoFundMe.]

Canada’s new vaccine mandate forces all truckers to become fully vaccinated or else they will not be permitted to cross the border. This, of course, is a crucial part of their job. Canada’s Transport Minister, Omar Alghabra, told the CBC, “our plan is to defeat COVID and end the pandemic as quickly as possible. What we're doing right now is for the protection of truck drivers but also for the protection of our supply chains and our economy.” This has not deterred the convoy. 

Based on statistical evidence, this convoy does appear to be advocating for people’s personal freedoms rather than individuals’ threatened jobs. A whopping 80-85% of truckers are already vaccinated, which largely mirrors the rate of vaccination amongst the general public. The notion for freedom, then, is that individuals should be permitted to choose their own medical care without their decision threatening their income or ability to work. This mandate has been especially frustrating for truckers because they primarily work alone without any close contact with anyone, yet also have to regularly cross the border.

Many Canadians have been standing in solidarity with the Freedom Convoy by sharing support on social media, including Andrew Scheer, former Conservative leader, who posted: “Thank you Truckers! Trudeau is attacking personal liberty and threatening everyone's ability to get groceries because of his overreach on vaccine mandates.” With so many trucks involved, it’s no wonder the convoy is garnering support. In fact, it recently broke the world record for being the longest truck convoy ever, measuring at 70 km long (almost 10x that of the previous record, held by Egypt). 

With all this attraction, there have also been extremist actions, posts, and words spread in the name of the Freedom Convoy. Speaking on Facebook, organizer Tamara Lich said: “If you see participants along the way that are misbehaving, acting aggressively in any way or inciting any type of violence or hatred, please take down the truck number and their licence plate number so that we can forward that to the police.” Hopefully, this will separate the protest from the extremists, since some in favour of the vaccine mandate are already seeking to villainize the group. 

As many have seen, extremists have taken a lot of disgusting action. Witnesses have seen Nazi flags being flown, a Terry Fox statue defaced, and racist sentiment being expressed. This week, it was reported that a homeless shelter volunteer was called a racist slur for not giving meals to truckers, and one client was allegedly assaulted by protesters. Behaviour such as this often receives the most media attention and extremists become the face of the movement. While it is vital to recognize that this is not meant to be what the Freedom Convoy represents, audiences are noticing a difference in the government response to white versus Indigenous protestors. 

In November of 2021, just a few months ago, the Indigenous Wet'suwet'en people of British Columbia formed a blockade to prevent a pipeline. The protest was entirely peaceful the the land rights of the tribe were legitimately being broken by Coastal GasLink. In response, the RCMP promptly arrested 14 people. Indigenous rights protests are not new, and time and time again they have been met with arrests made by the Canadian government. Regardless of whether the Freedom Convoy has the right intentions, one cannot ignore the stark contrast between the treatment of white and non-white protestors. 

The convoy protestors have also upset two other groups: truckers that are still working and Ottawa residents. For the people of Ottawa, businesses have closed, roads are blocked, noise is constant, and snow removal has been a challenge. As for truckers that are not part of the Freedom Convoy, there is a plea to not lump the entirety of truckers under one category. Dennis Levesque, a truck driver of eight years, told CTV: “We're an industry that struggles with how we're represented in media and the perception of truck drivers to begin with. I think something like this just reinforces the stereotypes that exist for truck drivers. It's not going to do anything to help us move the industry forward in a better direction.” For Levesque, he specifically urges that people stop comparing the vaccine mandate to Nazi Germany since no Canadian has struggled as severely as holocaust victims. 

Ultimately, it is vital not to clump people together. Extremists do not represent the Freedom Convoy, the Freedom Convoy does not represent all truckers, and all truckers do not represent all Canadians. When we see protests such as these, we are able to recognize flaws in our government's response. It is important to recognize the extreme value that truckers have in our economy and that there are many who are still out on the roads away from their families working hard, long hours to ensure that people get their clothing, groceries, and pretty much everything else. So if the constant bad news of extremism has got you down, take comfort that extremists get the most attention while representing a very small portion of the groups they belong to, and hopefully, justice will come.