A convoy of anti-vaccine Canadian truckers and their supporters is making its way to the country’s capital, Ottawa.
The so-called “Freedom Convoy” was formed in response to a vaccine mandate requiring truckers to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus in order to cross the land border between Canada and the United States.
But during the past week, observers and experts have pointed out that some organisers of the event, as well as some of its most vocal backers, have espoused anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and racist views – and authorities have cautioned that the rally on Parliament Hill could turn violent.
“The ‘Freedom Convoy’ is nothing but a vehicle for the far-right,” according to the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, a non-profit that monitors hate groups. “They say it is about truckers … but if you look at its organizers and promoters, you’ll find Islamophobia, antisemitism, racism, and incitements to violence.”
Here is a look at what’s going on:
First, what is the vaccine mandate for truckers?
Starting on January 15, Canada has required essential service providers previously exempt from vaccination requirements, including truck drivers, to be fully vaccinated to cross the land border from the US. “Unvaccinated Canadian truck drivers entering Canada will need to meet requirements for pre-entry, arrival and Day 8 testing, as well as quarantine requirements,” it said.
The US has also imposed a similar requirement on its side of the border; as of January 22, non-citizens travelling to the US for both essential and non-essential reasons need to show proof of vaccination at land border crossings.
How many Canadian truckers are unvaccinated?
The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), a federation of provincial trucking associations, has said a “vast majority” of Canadian truckers are vaccinated – approximately 85 percent – in line with vaccination rates among the general Canadian population.
Almost 90 percent of Canadian truckers are vaccinated, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said.
The CTA has distanced itself from the convoy, saying it “does not support and strongly disapproves of any protests on public roadways, highways, and bridges”.
Supporters of the convoy gather in Toronto, Ontario, on January 27, 2022 [Carlos Osorio/Reuters]
How many people are participating in the convoy?
That is unclear. Police in Kingston, Ontario, said that as of 9:35am local time (14:35 GMT) on Friday, 17 full tractor-trailers, 104 tractors with no trailers, 424 passenger vehicles and six recreational vehicles were heading eastbound on the 401 highway. Others are believed to be arriving in Ottawa from eastern Canada.
What do organisers say the convoy is about?
The convoy is organised under the banner, “Freedom Convoy 2022”.
“On January 15th, a small team of Alberta truckers, their family members and friends, came to the decision that the Government of Canada has crossed a line with implementing Covid-19 vaccine passports and vaccine mandates,” the group said in a statement shared on Facebook.
“We are taking our fight to the doorsteps of our Federal Government and demanding that they cease all mandates against its people,” reads a GoFundMe page in support of the convoy, which has raised approximately $5.5m (over $7m Canadian) to date.
CBC News reported on Friday that at least one-third of those donations came from anonymous donors or were attributed to fake names.
⚠️ TRUCK CONVOY UPDATE ⚠️ The convoy with support vehicles is currently departing #ygk, predominantly at Gardiners Rd and Centennial Dr. View from Gardiners Rd just north of the INVISTA Centre. Please avoid. Also, be careful of pedestrians at other overpasses. pic.twitter.com/GUvnhWycMf
So the convoy is really about Canada’s COVID policies?
“This is no longer about the mandate any more,” said Jason LaFace, whom CityNews described as the convoy’s main organiser in Ontario. “This is about Canada, this is about our rights and how the government’s been manipulating the population and oppressing us all the time,” said LaFace, who is not a trucker.
While some participants do hold legitimate grievances about the Canadian government’s pandemic policies, experts have pointed out that known far-right activists that have espoused racist views are among the organisers.
Some participants also openly expressed hardline views this week. “I advocate civil war,” Jim Doerksen, a convoy supporter, told Global News in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in central Canada. “If people don’t want to stand up, we’ve got guns – we’ll stand up and we’ll bring ’em out.”
Canadian media have also reported on a widely shared video posted on social media that showed one convoy supporter saying that he would “like to see our own January 6 event” – a reference to the deadly riot at the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
Barbara Perry, a professor at Ontario Tech University and director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism, said “this protest against a mandate – a specific mandate within a specific industry – has then been laid over with anti-vax sentiment, anti-lockdown sentiment, anti-government sentiment – and then even beyond that, the far-right [is] coming into play”.
“They call themselves the ‘Freedom Convoy’ so I think that says something about the breadth of the concerns that are brought under the umbrella,” Perry told Al Jazeera. “That is also language of anti-staters. It’s also the language of the far right … It really is part of this broader trend of a convergence of the Far Right with conspiracy theorists and other kinds of grievances.”
Who are the far-right leaders involved?
The organisers listed on the GoFundMe page are Tamara Lich and BJ Dichter.
The Canadian Anti-Hate Network reported that Lich was “an organizer for Yellow Vests Canada, a regional coordinator for the separatist Western Exit or ‘Wexit’ movement in Alberta, and now as the secretary for the Maverick Party – another separatist movement and fringe political party”.
Lich has posted “conspiracies about the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ operating in Canada”, the network said, while it pointed out that Dichter also has made Islamophobic comments. In 2019, at a national convention for the far-right People’s Party of Canada (PPC), Dichter said, “Despite what our corporate media and political leaders want to admit, Islamist entryism and the adaptation of political Islam is rotting away at our society like syphilis.”
Patrick King, listed as a contact for the North Alberta group participating in the convoy, has regularly espoused anti-Semitic views on social media. “He’s publicly distorted established facts about the Holocaust … then invoked the antisemitic conspiracy theory that the Jewish people are secretly in control of world governance, media, and finances”, the Canadian Anti-Hate Network said.
King said last month, “The only way that this is going to be solved is with bullets.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this week that “the small fringe minority of people who are on the way to Ottawa, or who are holding unacceptable views that they are expressing, do not represent the views of Canadians.”
“We know the way through this pandemic is by getting everyone vaccinated – and the overwhelming majority, close to 90 percent of Canadians, have done exactly that,” Trudeau told reporters.
Jagmeet Singh, leader of the New Democratic Party, said he was concerned “by the dangerous rhetoric” in the convoy. “I am concerned by extremist elements that are spreading misinformation and attempting to turn the convoy into a Canadian version of the terrorist attacks on the US Capitol,” he wrote on Twitter.
But Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole has said he plans to meet with the leaders of the convoy, while denouncing “anybody promoting violence” within the group. “The thousands of people coming here in the next few days – the trucker convoy – is a symbol of the fatigue in our country right now,” O’Toole told reporters in Ottawa on Thursday.
Just saw a truck outside my doctor’s office in Ottawa, as the convoy starts arriving in town. It had two flags stuck into the back of its truck-bed. One was an upside down Canadian flag. The other, a Confederate flag.
Members of the convoy began arriving in Ottawa on Friday, in advance of a protest on Parliament Hill on Saturday. Organisers, seeking to distance themselves from more extreme participants, have insisted the event will remain peaceful.
Another group associated with the convoy, Canada Unity, has written a “memorandum of understanding” it plans to present to the Senate and governor general, demanding an end to vaccine mandates and other pandemic restrictions.
Police in the capital said they were focused on ensuring a safe environment, but were aware of “inappropriate and threatening language on social media related to this event” and warned of consequences for anyone “engaging in criminal conduct, violence and/or activities promoting hate”.
In a letter to Canadian legislators on Thursday, the sergeant-at-arms in charge of security in the House of Commons said there were reports that demonstrators were trying to “dox” politicians with homes in the Ottawa area. He told them to “go somewhere safe” should a protest form outside their homes or offices, CTV News reported.
Canadian journalists reporting on the convoy also have received death threats, and been spat on and verbally and physically harassed, the Canadian Association of Journalists said. A CBC/Radio-Canada van was also vandalised.
We welcome peaceful demonstrations. That said, public safety is paramount – there will be consequences for persons engaging in criminal conduct, violence and/or activities promoting hate. (2/2)
OTTAWA – Inflation finally hit the Bank of Canada’s two per cent target in August after a tumultuous battle with skyrocketing price growth, raising the odds of larger interest rate cuts in the coming months.
Canada’s annual inflation rate fell from 2.5 per cent in July to reach the lowest level since February 2021.
The slowdown can be attributed in part to lower gasoline prices, Statistics Canada said Tuesday in its consumer price index report.
Clothing and footwear prices also decreased on a month-over-month basis. It marked the first decline in the month of August since 1971 as retailers offered larger discounts to entice shoppers amid slowing demand.
CIBC senior economist Andrew Grantham says the latest data suggests inflation is no longer threatening and the Bank of Canada should focus on stimulating the economy again.
“I’m already worried that the economy is a little weaker than it really needed to be to get inflation down to two per cent,” Grantham said.
The marked slowdown in price growth last month was steeper than the 2.1 per cent annual increase forecasters were expecting ahead of Tuesday’s release and will likely spark speculation of a larger interest rate cut next month from the Bank of Canada.
Grantham noted that excluding mortgage interest costs — which have been driven up by high interest rates — the annual inflation rate was only 1.2 per cent last month.
The Bank of Canada’s preferred core measures of inflation, which strip out volatility in prices, also edged down in August.
Benjamin Reitzes, managing director of Canadian rates and macro strategist at BMO, said Tuesday’s figures “tilt the scales” slightly in favour of more aggressive cuts, though he noted the Bank of Canada will have one more inflation reading before its October rate announcement.
“If we get another big downside surprise, calls for a 50 basis-point cut will only grow louder,” wrote Reitzes in a client note.
Governor Tiff Macklem recently signalled that the central bank is ready to increase the size of its interest rate cuts, if inflation or the economy slow by more than expected.
“With inflation getting closer to the target, we need to increasingly guard against the risk that the economy is too weak and inflation falls too much,” Macklem said after announcing a rate cut on Sept. 4.
The Canadian economy has slowed significantly under the weight of high interest rates, leading to a declining real gross domestic product on a per person basis.
The unemployment rate has also been steadily climbing for the last year and a half, reaching 6.6 per cent in August.
Macklem has emphasized that the inflation target is symmetrical — meaning the Bank of Canada is just as concerned with inflation falling below target as it is with it rising above the benchmark.
The central began rapidly hiking interest rates in March 2022 in response to runaway inflation, which peaked at a whopping 8.1 per cent that summer.
The Bank of Canada increased its key lending rate to five per cent and held it at that level until June 2024, when it delivered its first rate cut in four years.
A combination of recovered global supply chains and high interest rates have helped cool price growth in Canada and around the world.
CIBC is forecasting the central bank will cut its key rate by two percentage points between now and the middle of next year.
The Bank of Canada’s key rate currently stands at 4.25 per cent.
The U.S. Federal Reserve is also expected on Wednesday to deliver its first interest rate cut in four years.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
TORONTO – Police say a man is dead after an industrial accident at Ontario Place.
Toronto police say officers responded shortly after 9:30 a.m. Tuesday to reports that a person was injured by construction equipment at the waterfront
Police say he died at the scene.
Ontario Place is set to be redeveloped under a controversial provincial plan that includes a new privately owned spa and a relocated Ontario Science Centre.
Police say the Ministry of Labour has been notified.
The ministry investigates all workplace deaths.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
HALIFAX – Police investigating the 2022 disappearance of a Halifax teen have charged two men following the discovery of human remains.
Halifax Regional Police say 26-year-old Treyton Alexander Marsman was arrested Monday and later charged with second-degree murder in the death of 16-year-old Devon Sinclair Marsman.
Police say a 20-year-old man who was a youth at the time of the crime has been charged with being an accessory after the fact and obstructing justice.
Investigators did not say where or when the remains were found, but they confirmed the province’s medical examiner has been called in to identify the remains.
As well, police did not indicate the relationship between Treyton Marsman and the victim, but they said the accused had also been charged with causing an indignity to human remains and obstructing justice.
Devon Marsman was last seen on Feb. 24, 2022 and he was reported missing from the Spryfield area of Halifax the following month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
Supporters of the convoy gather in Toronto, Ontario, on January 27, 2022 [Carlos Osorio/Reuters]
