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The "US Freedom Convoy" only made it to Nevada, which led to all protesters joining the "People's Convoy." The convoy had less attention than the Canadian protest since more states and the CDC began dialing back COVID guidelines. In the US, two convoys began their trek across the US at the end of February.
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The Canadian Trucking Alliance also said the vast majority of truckers were already vaccinated, and Trudeau has said almost 90% of truck drivers in the country are vaccinated, according to Global News. "The only way to cross the border, in a commercial truck or any other vehicle, is to get vaccinated." This regulation is not changing, so as an industry, we must adapt and comply with this mandate," CTA President Stephen Laskowski said. "The government of Canada and the United States have now made being vaccinated a requirement to cross the border. 22, the Canadian Trucking Alliance came out against the protest, saying that interfering with public safety isn't the way to demonstrate disagreement with government policies. They have since demanded that the Canadian government stop the vaccine passport, contact tracing programs, vaccine mandates and divisive rhetoric. Protesters departed from Prince Rupert, British Columbia, on the west coast of Canada, with a plan to travel across the country to Ottawa.
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According to Sky News, the group's founder is a "supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory" and has called for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to be "put on trial for treason over his COVID policies." Drivers of commercial vehicles who didn't show proof of vaccination would be barred from entry.Ī group called Canada Unity protested the requirement and raised funds on the crowdfunding site GoFundMe for a cross-country convoy in mid-January. In October, the Canadian and US governments established a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for truckers crossing the border between the two countries. Here's what you need to know about these trucker protests. They've been joined by other people who are also opposed to vaccine requirements. A vast majority of Canadian truck drivers have already been vaccinated, leaving a small but vocal minority of a few hundred truckers behind this convoy. To date, more than 900,000 people in the US have died of COVID-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.īoth Canada and the US agreed to vaccination requirements in October for truckers going back and forth across the border. It also inspired similar protests against pandemic restrictions in other countries around the world, including New Zealand, Australia and France.ĬOVID-19 vaccines are safe and highly effective at preventing hospitalization and death, and public health measures like masking and social distancing have helped slow the spread of the virus.
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Like the US counterpart, the Canadian protest didn't accomplish its goal of stopping vaccine requirements in the country, but it put stress on supply lines between Canada and the US. Their presence in Ottawa led to disturbances, including truck horns blaring night and day, and alleged property damage and hate crimes. The US convoy took inspiration from the Canadian truckers that called themselves the "Freedom Convoy." Demonstrators across Canada set out in late January to protest the country's vaccine requirements.
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The organizers demanded the end of the pandemic state of emergency and the end of vaccine mandates, and for elected and unelected officials to be held accountable for the origin and response to the pandemic. Organizers of the trucker convoy spoke with some members of Congress during their time protesting, while also sharing misinformation and making references to conspiracy theories such as QAnon, the fringe right-wing theory that posits former President Donald Trump was fighting a secret cabal of Satanic pedophiles. On Sunday, leaders of the protest, referred to as the "People's Convoy," said they were beginning to pack things up from their staging point at Hagerstown, Maryland, according to a report from The Daily Beast Monday. Then, as the Canadian protest came to an end, the US version began, but it too now appears to be over.ĭemonstrators in semi-trucks and other vehicles drove around Interstate 495 - better known as the Capital Beltway that surrounds the Washington, DC, metro area - as part of their protest, with occasional ventures into the heart of the US capital. Canadian law enforcement eventually cleared out demonstrators, bringing the city and the rest of the country back to normal. For weeks in February, Canadian truckers occupied Ottawa, the country's capital, and blockaded major international crossings in a protest against COVID-19 vaccine requirements.
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