Thousands of people opposed to vaccine mandates have rallied in cities across Canada, as the mostly peaceful but noisy protests against COVID-19 restrictions spread from the national capital.
About 5,000 people demonstrated in Ottawa, police said on Saturday, while hundreds more gathered in Toronto, Canada’s biggest city, as well as in Quebec City, Fredericton and Winnipeg.
“We’re all sick and tired of the mandates, of the intimidation, of living in one big prison,” Robert, a Toronto protester who did not give his last name, told the Reuters news agency.
“We just want to go back to normal without having to take into our veins the poison which they call vaccines.”
The “Freedom Convoy” began as a movement against a Canadian vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers but has turned into a rallying point against public health measures and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government – though it is responsible for few of the measures, most of which were put in place by provincial governments.
For eight days now, protesters have shut down Ottawa’s downtown core.
Police say the well-organised blockade has relied partly on funding from sympathizers in the United States.
On Saturday, demonstrators huddled around campfires in bone-chilling temperatures and erected portable saunas and bouncy castles for kids outside the parliament while waving Canadian flags and shouting anti-government slogans.
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Their chants of “freedom” were met with cries of “go home” by a smaller group of counter-protesters fed up with the week-long occupation of the capital.
The atmosphere, however, appeared more festive – with dancing and fireworks – than a week earlier, when several protesters waved Confederate flags and Nazi symbols and clashed with locals.
‘Threat to democracy, madness’
Participants also roasted hotdogs and doled out baked goods under tarps, while two men on horseback traipsed through the town, one carrying a flag in support of former US President Donald Trump.
Trump has spoken out in support of the truckers against “the harsh policies of far-left lunatic Justin Trudeau who has destroyed Canada with insane COVID mandates”.
Two protesters on horseback ride with flags as truckers and supporters continue to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, February 5, 2022 [Lars Hagberg/ Reuters]Demonstrators stage a counter-protest at city hall as truckers and supporters continue to protest against the COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, February 5, 2022 [Blair Gable/ Reuters]
Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi, reporting from the site of the blockade, said those who joined Saturday’s protest “are raising a range of issues”.
“The protest organizers who are from the extreme right wing of Canadian politics are demanding the overthrow of the government,” he said. “But there are also anti-vaxxers, religious fundamentalists, and those raising topics of concern for those on the right and the left – like the power of pharmaceutical companies, or the civil liberties implications of mandates. And there were those who simply had enough of the pandemic restrictions.”
With the blockade entering its second week, Canadian authorities on Saturday again urged the protesters to “go home”.
“The protesters in Ottawa have made their point. The entire country heard their point,” said Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, calling on protesters to “go home and engage elected officials”.
At an emergency meeting late on Saturday, Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly also called for “an additional surge of resources” to bring an end to what he called a “siege” of the city.
“This is a threat to democracy, this is a nationwide insurrection, this is madness,” he said.
But Trudeau, who has said the protesters represent only a “fringe minority”, earlier this week ruled out the use of troops against the truckers in the capital. Meanwhile, protest coordinator Jim Torma told the AFP news agency that the protesters would not back down.
“They’re not going to hide us,” Torma said. “We’re going to be in [politicians’] faces as long as it takes” to force an end to public health restrictions.
‘Challenging’
But Al Jazeera’s Rattansi said the Canadian authorities, as well as protest organizers, were facing “challenging” times ahead.
“The polls do show a majority of Canadians are fed up with the handling of the pandemic by both federal and provincial authorities. But they also show overwhelming support for mandates and public health measures designed to ease the strain on the healthcare system,” he said. “So, it is difficult to see how all of this will end.”
Demonstrators gather for a protest against mandates related to COVID-19 vaccines and restrictions in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on February 5, 2022 [Geoff Robins/ AFP]
Meanwhile, police forces in other Canadian cities said they have learned lessons from Ottawa’s predicament and have developed strategies designed to protect key infrastructure, such as vital traffic corridors and hospitals, and also prevent possible violence.
In Toronto, police set up roadblocks throughout downtown, preventing any protesters in trucks or cars from getting close to the provincial legislature, which is located near five major hospitals.
Still, several hundred protesters gathered on the south side of the Ontario legislature, chanting “liberte” over reggae blaring from loudspeakers, and sporting signs that stated, “Freedom”.
Demonstrators also gathered in Quebec City, Fredericton and Winnipeg, with rallies also planned for Regina, Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria and the US border crossing in Coutts, Alta.
The Freedom Convoy started on Canada’s Pacific coast in late January and picked up supporters along the long trek to the capital – as well as millions of dollars in an online fundraiser that GoFundMe cancelled late on Friday after receiving reports of “violence and unlawful activity”.
The group had raised about 10.1m Canadian dollars ($8m).
The website initially said it would give refunds for any requests made by February 19 and would give remaining funds to verified charities, but on Saturday, GoFundMe said it would refund all donations automatically.
Ottawa residents, meanwhile, have had enough of the chaos the protests have brought to their streets and launched a class-action lawsuit seeking 10m Canadian dollars ($8m) from organizers.
“The truckers have been terrorizing us for seven, eight days now,” university student Saffron Binder told AFP. “The occupation must end.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
Two protesters on horseback ride with flags as truckers and supporters continue to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, February 5, 2022 [Lars Hagberg/ Reuters]
Demonstrators stage a counter-protest at city hall as truckers and supporters continue to protest against the COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, February 5, 2022 [Blair Gable/ Reuters]
Demonstrators gather for a protest against mandates related to COVID-19 vaccines and restrictions in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on February 5, 2022 [Geoff Robins/ AFP]
