Truck drivers recently arrived in Canada’s capital Ottawa for this weekend’s protests against vaccine mandates.
The Freedom Convoy has been traveling all week, leaving from Vancouver and heading for Ottawa, to protest the federal government’s vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers, which took effect on Jan. 15.
According to the Canadian Trucking Alliance, approximately 15% of truckers in the country are not fully vaccinated, which is about 16,000 drivers.
Benjamin Dichter, spokesman for the Freedom Convoy 2022, told the Toronto Sun, “It’s 70 km long”. “”I have seen footage from an airplane. It’s impressive,” he added.
Guinness World Records report that the longest convoy recorded took place in Egypt in 2020, around 5 miles long.
The Toronto Sun had estimated 50,000 trucks in participation, which would allow the convoy to be 10 times larger than the record if it stays intact.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the protesters are a “small fringe minority who are on the way to Ottawa who are holding unacceptable views”. “What we are hearing from some people associated with this convoy is completely unacceptable,” he added.
On Friday, Trudeau told the Canadian Press on Friday he was worried about the protest turning violent. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that protesters have expressed “flagrant extremism,” including calls to overthrow the government.
The CBC said Saturday that Trudeau and his family have left downtown Ottawa due to security concerns, but his office did not confirm the report.
According to Reuters, the “main convoys are scheduled to arrive around noon, but already on Friday vehicles blocked the roads in front of parliament and on Saturday morning there were dozens of trucks gathered”.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance reportedly opposes the demonstrations and said this is “not how disagreement with government policies should be expressed”.
An extreme cold warning has been issued by Canada’s Meteorological Service for Saturday, with wind chill near minus 35 Celsius, or minus 31 Fahrenheit.
