A lot of countries around the world have recently been implementing mandatory vaccines in relation to Covid. Canada has recently mandated that all truckers from Canada and coming in from the USA needs to be vaccinated. In response to this in Canada starting on Sunday of last week, there has been a “freedom convoy” protesting the Canadian government’s recent choices. The truckers are protesting the mandatory vaccine requirement in Canada along with other mandatory health policies. The protest has been gaining steam in Canada despite the reports of it being a small fringe group by the government who is most likely trying to not give legitimacy to the protest . The protest itself has been ” loud and freewheeling but generally peaceful, and poorly organized”(New York Times), but as of now there has been no violence. The protest consist of truckers honking their horns, people with signs in front of parliament, and people clogging the roads. The truckers them selves are “noisily blocking streets” (Washington post), and they are doing this at the capital of Canada. So far, the movement has received a lot of support from various right leaning groups. In addition, the go fund me to support the movement has accumulated over 4.3 million USD, but the funds have been frozen as of right now. There has been some people who have shown up with swastica flags and confederacy flags, but they received negative reception from the other members of the protest, and the truckers said that they were not associated with the protest itself. Some of the affects of the protest so far is that some stores have been understocked in terms of groceries and that their message has been reaching farther than just Canada and the United States of America. The Truckers have announced that their view do not represent the views of all or most truckers. In fact, most of all truckers in both countries are fully vaccinated, but as in almost all issues there are two sides with opposing views. The biggest reason there is a protest in the first place is to protest the mandatory health mandates and measures that are being forced onto people and truckers alike. Also, the protest has been showing their resentment towards Trudeau ( the prime minister of Canada) and the rest of the Canadian government for their recent choices. Also let it be stated that even though the truckers are blocking some traffic they have left some lanes open so people can get through, so that they can cause enough of an inconvenience to the government but not to the people and citizens.

In terms of protesting, the movement is quite successful in stating their message and gathering support. The protest itself has been friendly and peaceful which can help whenever it comes to persuading people to join a cause. The recent protest seems to be one of the most peaceful in recent years, and in addition this protest has been very adamant on getting their message across and wanting the repeal of the mandates and nothing more or less. Naturally, people are going to have varying opinions concerning the legitimacy of this protest and whether it is necessary. However aside from the politics of the situation I do think it is of note how the protest has been very successful on almost all fronts. Thanks to its methodology and message it is promoting of protesting the government using peace and fraternity it has been able to cause waves that are quickly spreading to other parts of the world. These simple waves are causing people to observe the protest and question the policies of their own government and whether their government has been mandating the right things and doing its job as a governing body of people. Of course, there will be many differing opinions concerning the nature and meaning behind that question for various reasons concerning government. The protest itself has also raised questions about how long it will last. The trucks have been clogging the streets of the capital since Sunday, and they have stated that they are not going any where until the mandates are repealed. There has been pushback from the government, of course, they do not want the truckers there causing a disturbance for them or the public. They have issued tickets to a majority if not all of the trucks currently parked. The prime minister has had a lot of negative things to say concerning the protest, and he does not support it in the slightest sense. The Canadian government even threatened to bring in the military, but the prime minister suggested that this situation was already delicate enough and that they cannot bring in the military. The military presence in my opinion would cause higher tensions for both sides of this issue and would make the situation descend into something violent with the fault being on the government for forcefully disbanding a peaceful protest which would give rise to even more people supporting the truckers and their message. This protest is interesting for the messages it promotes and it especially interesting with how the truckers are going about promoting their message peacefully. The real interesting part is going to be how various people from around the world react to this message being promoted by the truckers, and also, whether or not Canada will repeal the mandates. This leaves us with the question about how do you feel about the protest and whether you support their message and even if you do or do not support their message do you support the way they are protesting?

Soures:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/02/freedom-convoy-alberta-blockade-vaccine-mandate-protests/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/28/canada-truckers-covid-vaccine-mandate-protest-government

https://www.foxnews.com/world/canada-trucker-freedom-protests-peaceful-joy-love-protesters

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/03/ottawa-freedom-convoy-military-intervention/

( the photo is a link to the article by the New York Times)