Organization attributes
Freedom Convoy 2022 (French: Convoi de la Liberté) is an ongoing protest conducted by truck drivers in Canada against COVID-19 vaccine requirements to re-enter the country by land introduced by the Government of Canada on January 15, 2022. Composed of several routes traversing all of the Canadian provinces, the truck convoys converged on Ottawa on January 29, 2022, with a rally at Parliament Hill. The protest continued into February.
When the United States Department of Homeland Security, guided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced in October 2021 that all non-U.S. travelers entering the United States be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, cross-border truckers were given extra time—until January 22, 2022—to help them meet this requirement without disrupting supply chains.The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) estimates that 85% of the 120,000 Canadian truck drivers are already vaccinated against COVID-19,and that these mandates would potentially impact 26,000 of the 160,000 drivers in both the United States and Canada who regularly cross the border.Prior to January 15, 2022, truck drivers and other essential workers had been temporarily exempt from the two-week quarantine for unvaccinated travellers crossing Canada's borders. The exemption's abolition has been criticized by some politicians and truckers for having the potential to exacerbate the supply chain disruptions already experienced in Canada.
The convoy has been condemned by trucking industry groups. On January 27, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that almost 90% of Canadians were vaccinated, as were many truckers in Canada, and that a "small fringe minority of people" in the coo do not "represent the views of Canadians." A January 29 CTA statement cautioned the public that a "great number of protestors" with no connection to the trucking industry "have a separate agenda beyond a disagreement over cross border vaccine requirements."
