Truckers Shifting Toward U.S. Protests in Wake of Covid-Related Actions in Canada

A trio of U.S. truckers, inspired by events in Canada, is attempting to organize a cross-country convoy aimed at protesting vaccine mandates and other Covid-related restrictions on daily life.The truckers say they want to start in California around March 1 and eventually end up in Washington, D.C. They hope to pick up fellow travelers along the route and plan to stay in the nation’s capital for as long as it takes to make their point.Brian Brase of Lititz, Pennsylvania, said in a video posted to his Facebook page on Wednesday that the protest is not intended to be political but rather to make a statement about personal freedom.“This isn’t a far-right issue. This isn’t a far-left issue. This is an American issue,” he said. “Give us our personal freedoms back. Pull in the leash a little bit.”Mr. Brase, along with drivers Jeremy Johnson and Mike Landis, created a Facebook page titled “Convoy to D.C. 2022” to publicize the event. He said the page had nearly 135,000 followers before it was deleted Tuesday night for what the social media platform reportedly called violations of its terms of service and promotion of conspiracy theories.Mr. Brase said the personal profiles of Messrs. Johnson and Landis were also deleted from the platform.The truckers said they were inspired by a demonstration in Canada dubbed the “Freedom Convoy.” In recent days, hundreds of truckers have descended on Ottawa and have obstructed traffic at U.S. border crossings to protest a vaccine mandate in that country.Prime Minister Trudeau called the protestors a “small fringe minority,” but the truckers were joined along their route to Ottawa by hundreds of other vehicles and often cheered by supportive crowds gathered on highway overpasses and on the sides of the road.The Canadian Trucking Alliance issued a statement distancing itself from the protests, saying “a great number of these protestors have no connection to the trucking industry and have a separate agenda beyond a disagreement over cross border vaccine requirements.”As of January 15, Canada requires all truck drivers returning from the United States to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The requirement does not extend to the roughly 300,000 drivers on domestic routes.The Biden administration attempted to impose a vaccine mandate on U.S. truckers, but the rules were scrapped in January when the Supreme Court struck down the mandate. The American Trucking Associations was one of several business groups challenging the mandate, saying that it would have had “disastrous consequences for an already overstressed supply chain.”President Biden has called on businesses to voluntarily implement the requirements instead.The only drivers subject to vaccine mandates from the United States are non-U.S. citizens crossing the border from Mexico or Canada.Protests similar to those in Canada have popped up in other countries as well. In Australia, commercial drivers from around the country descended on Canberra, and in the Netherlands drivers rode slowly through several provinces over the weekend to protest Covid-related restrictions.Mr. Brase said Wednesday that Facebook’s removal of their page will not deter them. The group has set up shop on other social media platforms, but he cautioned that many copycat sites already have appeared on Facebook seeking donations for the convoy — none of which are legitimate.“There’s all kinds of stuff out there,” he warned. “Don’t donate money to anything, please. Do not donate money to anything at all. Do not do it. We are not asking for any money.“Don’t get scammed,” he said.

Truckers Shifting Toward U.S. Protests in Wake of Covid-Related Actions in Canada

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