Some Reflections on Canada’s Trucker Protests

Canada has just gone through its own version of the insurrection that took place in Washington, DC. on January 6, 2021. Unlike the one-day invasion of the U.S. Capitol building, the Canadian protests were extended over 23 days, in multiple locations, and may not be over. The Protest label is truly not correct; the more appropriate label is an Occupation. Here are a few personal reflections.

Why did these protests take place?

The U.S. protest was intended to overturn the November 2020 election. Canada’s protests were initially directed at the country’s vaccine policies, specifically the vaccine and masking mandates.

The motivation of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” was a piece of federal regulation that requires unvaccinated Canadian truckers to isolate for fourteen days upon returning to Canada from the United States. Unvaccinated foreign truckers, however, are not allowed into the country. Despite 90 percent of Canadian truckers being vaccinated, the support of the Teamsters union and the Canadian Trucking Alliance, this policy energized a vocal minority on the Right.

The Freedom Convoy organizers, such as Pat King, Tamara Lich, and BJ Lichter, have a history of associating with hate groups and expressing racist and anti-immigrant sentiments. This could explain why the Freedom Convoy was silent on labor issues facing immigrant truckers who now make up over one-third of truckers in Canada.

The Convoy organizers promoted a selfish, libertarian mindset where “individual freedom” includes the freedom to ignore how one’s decisions impact others. The freedom that matters to the Convoy’s organizers is the market’s “freedom” to operate without interference from both unions and government regulations that cover workers’ health and safety.

The occupiers even proposed changing the structure of the Canadian government. “What is driving this movement is a very small, organized group that is driven by an ideology to overthrow the government through whatever means they may wish to use,” stated Marco Mendicino, Canada’s public safety minister.

Support for the Occupation

Multiple polls have shown that most Canadians opposed the protests and support both vaccination mandates and various restrictions intended to limit the spread of the virus. The polling figures suggest it was Fox News’ cheerleading for the protests that was out of touch with the views of a significant majority of the Canadian public.

In an Angus Reid Institute survey, conducted from February 11 to 13, 69% of respondents said they opposed the protesters themselves -- their approach and behaviour -- versus just 27% who said they were supportive of the protesters. Sixty-four percent of respondents said they opposed the protesters' demand to end all pandemic restrictions, versus 33% who said they were supportive.

In a Leger survey conducted from February 4 to 6 in collaboration with The Canadian Press news agency, 62% of respondents said they opposed the protests' message of no vaccine mandates and fewer public health measures versus 32% who supported that message. Sixty-five percent of respondents agreed with the following statement: "The convoy is a small minority of Canadians who are selfishly thinking only about themselves and not the thousands of Canadians who are suffering through delayed surgeries and postponed treatments because of the ongoing pandemic."

In the survey conducted by Maru Public Opinion from February 9 to 10, sixty-four percent agreed with the statement that "Canada's democracy is being threatened by a group of protesters and they must be stopped immediately." Sixty-four percent also supported using the Canadian military in a support role to protesters' trucks.

During their three-week occupation, much about the protests alienated Canadians. The incessant honking, the harassment of citizens, the fumes from the trucks, the unwillingness of the protestors to wear masks in restaurants and retail stores were intimidating and offensive to Ottawa residents. At a border blockade in Alberta, the police seized a large cache of weapons and charged four protesters with conspiring to murder police officers. The border blockades cost people compensation and companies lost millions of dollars in revenue.

The protestors also ignored the impact of the pandemic on health care, retail and manufacturing workers who were obliged to work in enclosed environments with other workers the past two years. They conveniently ignored that 36,000 Canadians have died from Covid.

The Organization of the Occupation

Since the tractor-trailer units entered the core of Canada’s capital over three weeks ago, they arranged themselves in a structured manner, parking in evenly spaced rows. Their drivers stayed warm and were fed by a team of volunteers.

In hotel rooms high above the cluster of trucks on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill, were the war rooms behind the operation. From them, a team of self-appointed leaders, some with military and right-wing organizing backgrounds, orchestrated a disciplined and highly coordinated occupation.

They spent the weeks huddling in conference rooms and streaming their own news conferences on social media platforms from hotel lobbies. It is a crew that included former law enforcement officers, military veterans and conservative organizers, a collaboration that helped to maintain the demonstration against vaccine mandates into a force that destabilized the city. The prolonged failure of city and provincial police puzzled and upset Canadians.

On the ground, the organizers established a sophisticated infrastructure that included oversight of each occupied street by a so-called road captain, with sections divided and overseen by block captains who operate below them. The captains checked in on the drivers in their cabs, delivering things like hot breakfasts.

Drivers occupied strategic sites across Canada, including border crossings at Surrey, B.C. / Blaine, Washington, Coutts, Alberta / Sweet Grass, Montana, Emerson, Manitoba / Pembina, North Dakota, and the Ambassador Bridge, which links Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit. As a result, automakers ran plants at reduced capacity due to delays created by the protests. Canadian law enforcement officials reclaimed and reopened the bridge on Feb. 13. Protests were also conducted in Toronto, Quebec City and other locations.

Show Me the Money

Leaked data said to be from the GiveSendGo crowdfunding platform, posted to a now-defunct web page by anonymous hackers, lists records of more than 92,000 donations totaling more than $8 million. A review of the data shows that some $4.3 million came from Canada, while an additional $3.6 million originated in the United States, though the United States accounted for the most individual donations. Ms. Lich, one of the organizers, played a leading role in organizing the GoFundMe campaign before the site was shut down after receiving police reports of violence and other unlawful activity.

The Resolution of the Protests

The Ottawa police and the Ontario Provincial Police were unable to stop the occupation. As a result, Prime Minister Trudeau invoked the Emergency Act. This act suspends civil liberties to resolve a major emergency by providing the federal government with broad powers. This controversial action has received pushback from various groups. This observer is of the view that strong action was needed to resolve what had become an untenable situation.

The Canadian government has cracked down on the flow of funds, has frozen $3.8 million in donations from Canadian citizens, arrested 196 people and towed dozens of trucks in Ottawa’s downtown core. Is this a short term or permanent solution to these protests? Since the Emergency Act can only be used for a limited amount of time, in very specific situations, we will all have to see if this group or another group of protestors return to fight the battle another day. Hopefully the invocation of the Emergency Act, the swift and effective police operations on the streets of Ottawa, the legal and financial actions taken, and the support of the majority of Canadians, will serve as a strong deterrent to other groups who are contemplating future occupations.

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