Prime Minister, family flee Canadian capital Ottawa as 75km long anti-vaccine mandate convoy arrives at his office – days after he dismissed them as a ‘small fringe minority’
OTTAWA – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family have left their home in the country’s capital, Ottawa, to an undisclosed location as up to 50,000 truckers gather to protest the country’s vaccination mandate and lockdown of COVID.
Hundreds of truckers drove their massive trucks through Canada’s capital, Ottawa, on Saturday as part of an eponymous “freedom convoy” that began as a protest against vaccination mandates required to cross the US border.
Days earlier he had described truckers heading into the city as a “small fringe minority” before the convoy of hundreds of vehicles stretched 72km towards the capital.
The movement was backed Thursday by billionaire Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who tweeted, “Canadian truckers rule,” and the movement has become a cause for many right-wingers in politics in the United States.
Displaying the Canadian flag, carrying banners calling for “freedom” and chanting anti-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the truckers were joined by thousands of other protesters, who denounced not only the COVID-19 restrictions but also a wider dissatisfaction with the government. were upset.
There was a tremendous uproar as hundreds of big trucks, roaring engines, honked their horns incessantly. Estimates of the number of truckers range from 10 to 20,000.
Closer to Parliament, families marched quietly on a bitterly cold day as young people sang and older people in the crowd banged pots and pans under the windows of Trudeau’s office in protest.
Canadian Prime Minister escorted
Canadian media said the prime minister and his family were escorted from their home and taken to an undisclosed location in the capital, with much of the protesters’ anger directed at Trudeau.
“I want all this to stop – these measures are unjustified,” said one protester, 31-year-old businessman Philippe Castonguay, outside parliament.
He had driven seven hours from the north of the province of Quebec to express his feelings: “Vaccination regulations are dragging us into a new society that we never voted for,” he said.
Trudeau said Friday that truckers’ views — which he called anti-science, anti-government and anti-society — posed a risk not just to themselves, but to other Canadians as well.
The protest began last week in western Canada, where dozens of truckers organized a convoy to travel from Vancouver to Ottawa to demonstrate against COVID-related restrictions, in particular the requirement for truckers to be vaccinate.
To date, 82% of Canadians aged five and over have been vaccinated against Covid-19. For adults, it is 90%.
Vaccine concerns have grown with an alarming increase in adverse events and deaths reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
More than 22,000 deaths have been linked to COVID-19 vaccines, more than the deaths the system has recorded for all vaccines in the past 30 years.
Vaccine skeptics say the deaths are much higher than those reported in the VAERS system, arguing that the mandates no longer have any public health benefit because vaccines fail to prevent infection and transmission.
• RosGwen24 News/ additional reporting by Daily Mail
