As a trucker convoy protesting vaccine mandates, among other things, makes its way through the Greater Toronto Area today, Ontario Provincial Police are warning motorists that major delays are possible.
Over the weekend, a group of truckers embarked on a cross-country journey from British Columbia to Ottawa’s Parliament Hill.
There are at least two groups, one heading straight for the nation’s capital and the other from Windsor, according to reports.
On Thursday morning police closed the on-ramp from Keele Street to westbound Highway 401 amid concerns about the safety of several hundred people that had gathered on an embankment and a highway overpass to show support for the truckers. There was also a large crowd of demonstrators observed at a planned meeting point in Vaughan Mills, many of whom were holding signage that was critical of lockdowns and other public health measures.
The protest was initially organized in response to a new rule prohibiting unvaccinated truckers from crossing the border without quarantining.
But numerous individuals participating in the demonstration have since expressed that it is also about various other policies that they say infringe on their freedoms.
So far a number of political leaders have decried elements of the protest, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who has suggested that there are “small fringe minority of people who are on their way to Ottawa who are holding unacceptable views” when it comes to public health restrictions. He has said that those individuals “do not represent the views of Canadians.”
The Canadian Trucking Alliance has also made it clear that it has nothing to do with the protest.
Meanwhile, a Maru Public Opinion released on Thursday showed that only 28 per cent of respondents support allowing unvaccinated truckers to cross the border freely. About two-third of respondents said that unvaccinated truckers should either be prohibited from crossing the border (36 per cent) or required to produce proof of a negative COVID-19 test completed in the previous 72 hours (36 per cent).
Source_ The Canadian Press
