The Canadian “Trucker” Protest Is Spreading. It Could Mean Real Chaos Here, Too.

Photo by Nick Iwanyshyn/AP

After Canada imposed a vaccination requirement in mid-January on truckers who cross the US/Canada border, a group of protestors using truck convoys began to demonstrate in the Canadian capital of Ottawa. While this was seen initially as a protest limited to Canada, where streets in the capital were blocked for ten days, the protesters have since moved on the Ambassador Bridge, the main artery connecting Windsor, Ontario to Detroit. 

That blockade, now in its fourth day, hindered the flow of vital goods between Canada and the United States. Each day, around $300 million worth of automotive parts, agricultural goods, steel and other raw materials cross the bridge, according to Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association in Toronto. The protest is now causing parts shortages for U.S. and other automakers, who warn they may have to undergo temporary layoffs and plant shutdowns very soon. 

That turned the local protest into an international concern, drawing the attention of the Biden Administration which has urged Trudeau’s government to use its federal powers to end the blockade. The White House added that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg have now spoken with their Canadian counterparts to urge them to step in and resolve the standoff, which will begin to impact the economic recovery in the region and nationally.

The protest effort is led by a minority of Canadian truckers, far-right agitators, and various citizens. According to reporting by The Guardian, the “freedom convoy” was the brainchild of a conspiracy spreader named James Bauder, who has supported QAnon and called Covid-19 “the biggest political scam in history.” His organization, known as Canada Unity, asserts that vaccine mandates are illegal under Canada’s constitution, the Nuremberg Code and other international conventions. In Ottawa, that far-right extremism was on full display with neo-Nazi signs, Confederate flags, and QAnon stickers slapped on telephone poles around the area occupied by protestors.

While the protest had begun as an objection to the government’s trucker vaccine mandate, the organizers have since expanded their aims to seek the end of all coronavirus restrictions. Tom Marazzo, a former Canadian military servicemember and now spokesman for the group behind the first convoy, is demanding a meeting with Prime Minister Trudeau. But the group’s anti-government, conspiratorial claims about public health measures that are, they claim, “not scientifically, or medically, based” make that meeting unlikely, as the blockades and street closures amount to political extortion by fringe elements. 

Unsurprisingly, the protest has become a darling of right-wing media, including here in the U.S. with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson repeatedly beating the drum for the blockade and calling it “the single most successful human rights protest in a generation.” It is now spawning copycat efforts in Europe and the U.S., where the Department of Homeland Security is warning of a possible protest beginning in California and ending in D.C. with the express intention of disrupting the Super Bowl this coming Sunday in Los Ángeles.

The movement is fueled in part by misinformation, by the sudden proliferation of groups on platforms like Facebook, and by organizers from outside the trucking industry and from donors outside of Canada, leading analysts to conclude that the movement is largely “astroturfed” rather than a grassroots campaign. CNN reported that many of the images being shared across social media, including by powerful influencers such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk, aren’t even from the protests at all. Musk tweeted an image to his 73 million followers of a long line of trucks with the caption, “Taking a break from politics. Here’s a nice photo of trucks.” But the image was actually from a 2018 convoy demonstration in support of Canada’s oil and gas industry—an ironic error given that Tesla makes electric vehicles.

The idea that this is a trucker protest with broad appeal among long-haulers is misplaced. Ninety percent of Canadian truckers are already vaccinated, and both the Canadian Trucking Alliance and the Teamsters oppose the protests. In a statement entitled “The Real Enemy for Truckers is Covid-19,” Teamsters Canada, which represents over 55,000 drivers, denounced the “so-called ‘freedom convoy’ and the ‘despicable acts of hate’ lead by the political Right and shamefully encouraged by elected conservative politicians.”