Bearing a load of produce bound for Sobeys, Nihal Singh pulled up to a border checkpoint in northern Montana late last month only to find the path blocked by big-riggers on the other side.
Semi trucks and protesters barred the way in Coutts, Alta., as they demonstrated against vaccine mandates, holding up Singh for nearly two days, one of hundreds of drivers stopped by the blockade.
After more than 24 hours, he and a group of other South Asian Canadian truckers approached authorities to find out when they could pass.
“That’s when another guy, he came out of his truck and he was, like, being racist. He was saying, ‘Go back to your truck, go back to India,”’ recalled Singh, a 28-year-old driver from Edmonton.
5:55 Canada must work on ‘healing’ from pandemic, convoy unrest, says Trudeau
Canada must work on ‘healing’ from pandemic, convoy unrest, says Trudeau
Disturbed, he and his co-driver set out for another crossing — an option unavailable to some, since oversize loads can only move through certain checkpoints — on a route that added more than 500 kilometres to their trip. The delay meant they missed their next load, costing them a week of work — nearly $6,000 between the two of them.
Singh is now mulling an exit from the long-haul industry. Frustration and disgust at the recent blockades and encampment in Ottawa may be the final straw atop concerns ranging from wages to road safety, social isolation and exhausting working conditions.
“I’ve been having really bad experiences in the last few months,” he said.
If Singh and others are driven away, they’ll be leaving a field already desperately short of labour.
The trucker job vacancy rate hit a historic high of nearly 23,000 in the third quarter of 2021, according to figures from Statistics Canada. Young drivers, women and retirement-age workers have left the sector in droves over the past two years, with some 55,000 job vacancies projected for 2023, says Trucking HR Canada.
1:57 Canadian trucking industry short at least 18,000 drivers, could lead to even more supply chain issues
Canadian trucking industry short at least 18,000 drivers, could lead to even more supply chain issues – Nov 19, 2021
Demand for drivers soared during the pandemic as a spike in online shopping led to a corresponding climb in deliveries. Meanwhile, the number of workers entering the industry has been dropping for years due to a confluence of factors including stagnant wages, shifting labour patterns and prohibitive insurance policies that make it difficult for new drivers to earn a living.
South Asian Canadians make up a major axle in the sector, comprising 16 per cent of truckers in 2021 compared with just two per cent 25 years earlier, according to Statistics Canada data. In cities such as Toronto and Vancouver, they account for more than half of drivers.
They also belong to a community with a high vaccination rate, in contrast to the anger over vaccine mandates for border crossing expressed by a small slice of the industry.
Statistics Canada noted last year that a larger proportion of South Asian Canadians reported a willingness to receive the vaccine than the wider population. Brampton, Ont., which has a high concentration of residents with recent roots in India and Pakistan, boasts a vaccination rate of 92.5 per cent among people five and older.
The self-described “freedom convoy” was fuelled from the start by participants with a grab bag of grievances _ many unconnected to pandemic measures for truck drivers. Its co-opting by actors ranging from Confederate flag wavers to Donald Trump Jr. has led some to reconsider their place in the field.
Alberta-based trucker Lovepreet Singh, who missed a week of work due to the Coutts blockade, says the anti-vaccine mandate movement carries no resonance for him, and that concerns like labour conditions and wage theft are much more central but attract little attention.
“They don’t even want to listen our opinion… ‘Go back to your country,’ and stuff like that,” Lovepreet recalled of comments he faced near Coutts and online.
Kulpreet Singh, founder of the South Asian Mental Health Alliance, launched a GoFundMe campaign for truckers to help a community he says feels disempowered by alt-right voices linked to the demonstrations.
“Definitely when you don’t see yourself represented in a movement that is purporting to speak for you, that can be discouraging and disempowering. So whereas there have been some members of the South Asian community that have aligned with the conflict, they’re very few and far between,” Kulpreet said.
Monty Chrysler, who retired last year as head of training at Ontario-based International Truckload Services, said the association of even a few hundred truckers with the blockades could have “a big effect” on recruitment.
In the wake of swastikas and other hateful symbols brandished on the streets of Ottawa — suddenly calm after a police crackdown over the weekend — others may feel emboldened to verbally abuse South Asian Canadians behind the wheel.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
