{"id":79603,"date":"2022-01-31T07:13:50","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T12:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=79603"},"modified":"2022-01-31T20:14:16","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T01:14:16","slug":"pan-canadian-freedom-convoy-joined-by-thousands-at-parliament-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/pan-canadian-freedom-convoy-joined-by-thousands-at-parliament-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"Pan-Canadian “Freedom Convoy” joined by thousands at Parliament Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 70-kilometre convoy of trucks from across Canada arrived in Ottawa over the weekend, bringing thousands of protestors to Parliament Hill.<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201c<\/span>Freedom Convoy<\/span><\/a>\u201d began pouring into the country\u2019s capital on Friday with the intention to gridlock the downtown core in a demonstration opposing vaccine mandates. According to the <\/span>organization\u2019s website<\/span><\/a>, the majority of vehicles arrived at Parliament Hill around noon on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

A <\/span>GoFundMe<\/span><\/a> was started on Jan. 14 to raise funds for the drivers\u2019 fuel expenses, with a goal of raising nine-million dollars. So far, the page has raised over $8.7 million dollars, from over 108,000 donors.<\/span><\/p>\n

The movement began stirring in November when the federal government announced new restrictions, warranting truckers crossing the Canada-US border to be fully vaccinated or face a 14-day quarantine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A

Trucks shut down several major streets in the downtown core on Saturday, according to Ottawa Police. Photo by Meara Belanger.<\/p><\/div>\n

Jason LaFace<\/span><\/a>, who is the main organizer for the Ontario convoy, told the media last week that, \u201cit's not just about mandates anymore.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt's about everything that the government has done to people,\u201d says LaFace.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, the convoy\u2019s main organizers have been accused of using the movement as a way to promote \u201cfringe\u201d or \u201cextremist\u201d points-of-view.<\/span><\/p>\n

LaFace has been accused of <\/span>making racist remarks<\/span><\/a> against the Black community, as well as an association with white-supremicist group Soldiers of Odin.<\/span><\/p>\n

The convoy\u2019s Alberta organizer, Pat King, has also been linked to the Soldiers of Odin, and <\/span>has been accused of<\/span><\/a> racist, Islamophobic, and xenophobic behaviour. Several of the convoy\u2019s sponsors, such as local publication <\/span>The Capital Voice<\/span><\/i><\/a> and organization <\/span>Canada Unity<\/span><\/a>, have also been linked to far-right movements.<\/span><\/p>\n

James Bauder, <\/span>president of Canada Unity<\/span><\/a> and the main organizer of the Freedom Convoy, <\/span>has been pitching the idea<\/span><\/a> for a \u201ccoast-to-coast Canada Unity drive\u201d since as early as 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe vision our Unity Drive sweeping across Canada and all over the world as we deliver from one town to another a message of hope,\u201d says Bauder. \u201cWe want to arrive in Ottawa, parliament building[s] and tell Trudeau that diversity is not what this country is all about.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The organization has publicly condemned acts of racism <\/span>via their Instagram<\/span><\/a> after a flurry of media coverage brought them under fire.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to the arrival of the truckers, the <\/span>Ottawa Police<\/span><\/a> and the <\/span>City of Ottawa<\/span><\/a> issued statements warning residents to avoid the downtown core. According to Ottawa Police, the situation <\/span>warranted the <\/span><\/a>assistance<\/span><\/a> of the RCMP, as well as police forces from Durham, York, and Toronto.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A

Many protestors brandished signs with messages directly targeting Prime Minister Trudeau. Photo by Meara Belanger.<\/p><\/div>\n

In a statement to the media on Friday, Chief Peter Sloly told residents that this event would be, \u201cunique, fluid, risky, and significant.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPublic safety is paramount in all such demonstrations and will be in this demonstration,\u201d says Sloly.<\/span><\/p>\n

The police issued follow-up statements throughout the weekend. As of <\/span>Sunday afternoon<\/span><\/a>, there have been no arrests or injuries reported in relation to the demonstrations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ottawa Police are continuing to warn residents to avoid downtown, calling it a \u201chigh-risk situation.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ottawa Police have also said they will continue to update the public, and they will release more information concerning the number of demonstrators \u201cat the end of the demonstrations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Freedom Convoy organizers have said they plan on blockading Ottawa until \u201call mandates\u201d have been lifted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to the CHUO story below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 70-kilometre convoy of trucks from across Canada arrived in Ottawa over the weekend, bringing thousands of protestors to Parliament Hill. The \u201cFreedom Convoy\u201d began pouring into the country\u2019s capital on Friday with the intention to gridlock the downtown core in a demonstration opposing vaccine mandates. According to the organization\u2019s website, the majority of vehicles…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":79607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[218,225,2602],"tags":[12257,12262,12256,6568,12254,12265,12266,12260,12259,1177,10713,8076,12258,563,12261,12263,12264,12255,281,9616],"radio":[1290],"origine":[267,269,1571],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79603"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79603"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=79603"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=79603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}