FROLITICKS

On February 23^rd, taking its cue from demonstrations that paralyzed the downtown of Canada’s capital city of Ottawa for over three weeks, U.S. truckers embarked on a 2,500-mile (4,000-km) cross-country drive towards Washington, D.C., to protest coronavirus-related mandates and restrictions.  Having arrived in Maryland, organizers of the so-called “People’s Convoy” say they are planning to circle their armada of trucks, cars and SUVs around the Beltway on the morning of March 6^th and into the following workweek at the minimum speed limit to slow traffic and get their message out to lawmakers.  The convoy, which recently numbered about 1,000 vehicles, intends to repeat that ritual each day this week until the group’s demands are met.  Organizers have proclaimed that they are law-abiding citizens who are simply exercising their rights to protest.  Unlike in Ottawa, they don’t want to shut anything down and they’re not planning to come into downtown Washington.

However, as in the case of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” in Canada, it’s not exactly clear just what are the ultimate goals of the American protesters.  As in the Canadian case, the convoy also involves a number or representatives of fringe groups, often with far-right links and other unrelated causes.  It seems apparent that there are a number of Trump supporters still asserting that the presidential election was stolen, as well as those from the anti-vaccine movement.  As in the Canadian case, many of the signs and messages can be seen referencing far-right political views and conspiracy theories.  A list of organizations supporting the convoy include those led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a leader in the anti-vaccine movement, Gen. Michael Flynn, the former Trump administration national security adviser, and Rob McCoy, a Republican politician and Southern California evangelical pastor.  In general, the convoy participants do push for an end to government health rules requiring masks and vaccinations, a move that has already begun by governments as new COVID-19 cases have ebbed.  However, as in the case of Canada where provincial governments were responsible for implementing most public health restrictions during the pandemic, many of the mandates were implemented by individual states in varying degrees.

Given what happened in Canada, the Defence Department authorized deployment of about 700 unarmed National Guard personnel from the District of Columbia and neighbouring states to help manage the expected traffic.  Capitol Police said that plans were being drawn up to reinstall the temporary fence that was erected around the Capitol after last year’s January 6^th riots in the Capitol.  Like the Canadian protesters, the organizers claim that they just have a message that they want heard and they’re not going anywhere until it’s heard.  Unlike the Canadian truckers’ convoy, they have not also stated clearly any specific protest against the American and Canadian vaccination mandate requirements for truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border.  The Canadian protest included blockages by vehicles of the Windsor-Detroit and Coutts, Alberta, border crossings that occurred in late January and mid-February.  The negative economic impact of the blockades on trade contributed to the Canadian federal government invoking the Emergencies Act in order to pressure the protesters to remove their vehicles and reframe from further illegal activities.

In Canada, many arrests of leaders and protesters were made both in Ottawa and at the affected border crossings.  In the case of Coutts, Alberta, several guns, body armour and ammunition were seized by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).  The seizure is attributed to militia-style right-wing fringe elements.  In the case of the American truckers’ protest, it is hoped that the organizers will maintain a more peaceful stance.  In light of the decline in new COVID-19 cases and related hospitalization rates, the irony is that both protests against government public health mandates are occurring at a time when many of the restrictions are in the process of being removed.  If the American protest resembles its Canadian counterpart, one will probably see no clear plan and a hodgepodge of multiple and diverse grievances.  Many grievances will once again reflect the general malaise within a large segment of the population, often compounded by a growing mistrust of government and the authorities.  Unfortunately, as illustrated in the Canadian truckers’ protest, these grievances can lead to illegal and sometimes violent actions.