“What started as a convoy of truckers protesting Covid-19 mandates has snowballed into a blockade in the Canadian capital and the obstruction of a US-Canadian border crossing,” CNN reported on Monday, January 31, 2022.
But that’s not the half of it. Their behavior has been unruly and obnoxious, to the say the least.
- They defaced and danced on Ottawa’s war memorial
- They raided a soup kitchen, demanding free food
- They flew racist flags and used racial slurs
- They parked in an ambulance zone
- They assaulted a homeless man
While it’s unclear whether the “Freedom Convoy” truckers are Canadians, Americans, or both — I can’t read the license plates in the photo, but how many Canadian trucks have Confederate decals? — they’re protesting (among other things) “a recent vaccine mandate requiring truckers entering Canada to be fully vaccinated or face testing and quarantine requirements,” which also suggests some are Americans, because if you don’t drive a truck from the U.S. side of the border, you’re not affected by that.
Plus, they’re behaving like some Americans.
Read stories here and here.
Related story: Ottawa police are getting so many complaints of “hate incidents” by the protesters that it’s setting up a hotline to handle them (story here).
Update (2/5/22): Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and two Republican attorney generals “pledged to investigate” GoFundMe’s removal of a fundraising page for the truckers and accused the platform of “fraud,” The Hill reported (story here). The point DeSantis et al. apparently are making is the donors are entitled to refunds of undistributed donations, but GoFundMe has said it plans to do that, so what’s their beef?
Related story (2/5/22): Ottawa residents trapped in their homes and harassed by blaring truck horns have filed a $9.8 million class-action lawsuit against the truckers (story here; read the legal complaint here).
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