Thousands of people gathered in Vaughan, northwest of Toronto, to support the “Freedom Convoy 2022” as the convoy rolled through the city en route to Ottawa to protest the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all cross-border truck drivers.
On Thursday, at least two groups of truck drivers rolled through the Greater Toronto Area. One passed through Vaughan Mills and will continue toward Kingston later in the afternoon, while truck drivers from the Hamilton and Niagara area departed from Marshall’s Truck Stop on Kenora Ave., proceeding east toward Canada’s capital, the organizer Canada Unity, said in a statement.
Supporters for the #TruckerConvoy2022 gather in #Vaughan pic.twitter.com/RjQ19sX3f9
— Andrew Chen (@AndrewChen55) January 27, 2022
Over 10,000 trucker drivers from across the country are expected to rendezvous on Parliament Hill on Jan. 29 in a massive demonstration against the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate that took effect on Jan. 15. Under the mandate, truck drivers who have not been fully vaccinated will be required to quarantine for 14 days when they reenter Canada from the United States.
Doug Wagg, a truck driver from Mount Forest, Ontario, said he will join other truck drivers in Ottawa for “as long as it takes” to protest the vaccine mandate, which he said will have huge impacts on the livelihoods of the truck drivers.
“If you do one load out and then you come back and you’ve got to sit home for 14 days, that’s a lot of revenue lost, a lot of revenue,” Wagg said, adding that the policy will also hit the supply chain “pretty hard.”
David Riddell, a Hamilton-area truck driver with 35 years of experience in the industry, said the government’s mandate is unfair for the essential workers.
“Two years ago, the essential workers were heroes. And now two years later, we’ve all become zeros, and that’s not fair,” Riddell told The Epoch Times.
“The government overreach … has gone too far, they have gone too far. They don’t live in the real world like the rest of us, and we got to do something.”
Some supporters say the truckers’ freedom convoy has given them hope of the public health mandates finally coming to an end.
Stacey Dittman, a resident of Orangeville, Ontario, who came to Vaughan Mills to show support for the truckers said she felt “a sense of patriotism, a sense of hope” that their efforts can turn the tide and end the COVID-19 measures.
“Canadians, this is your moment. If you haven’t stood up, if you have any kind of hesitation or any kind of confusion of what’s going on … it’s time to stand up, it’s time to push back, and massive non-compliance is the only way to end this peacefully,” Dittman said.
Another resident from Etobicoke, Stephanie Brown, urged the government to allow children to have sports activities again.
“I think the spirit of Canadians have been broken for too long and it’s time we take our country back, get back to living like we used to, let our kids get back in sports and live life again,” Brown said.
From The Epoch Times
