Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has fled the capital Ottawa for a secret location as up to 50,000 truckers have gathered to protest against the country’s vaccine mandate and Covid lockdowns. MailOnline has more.
Hundreds of truckers drove their giant rigs into the Canadian capital Ottawa on Saturday as part of a self-titled ‘Freedom Convoy’ which started as a protest against vaccine mandates required to cross the US border.
Days earlier, he had called the truckers headed for the city a “small fringe minority” before the convoy of hundreds of vehicles grew up to 45 miles long as it made its way to the capital.
The movement received an endorsement Thursday from Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who tweeted, “Canadian truckers rule” and the movement has become a cause celebre for many on the right of politics in the United States.
Flying the Canadian flag, waving banners demanding ‘Freedom’ and chanting slogans against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the truckers were joined by thousands of other protesters angered not only by COVID-19 restrictions but by broader discontent with the Government.
There was an enormous clamor as hundreds of big trucks, their engines rumbling, sounded their air horns non-stop. Estimates of the number of truckers range from 10-20,000.
Closer to Parliament, families calmly marched on a bitterly cold day, while young people chanted and older people in the crowd banged pots and pans in protest under Trudeau’s office windows.
Canadian media said the prime minister and his family had been escorted out of their home and taken to a secret location in the capital, with much of the protesters’ wrath directed at Trudeau.
“I want it all to stop – these measures are unjustified,” said one demonstrator, 31-year-old businessman Philippe Castonguay, outside the Parliament building.
He had driven seven hours from northern Quebec province to make his feelings known: “The vaccination requirements are taking us toward a new society we never voted for,” he said.
Trudeau said Friday that the truckers’ views – which he described as anti-science, anti-government and anti-society – posed a risk not only to themselves but to other Canadians as well.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.