TORONTO, ON — Crowds cheered, waved flags, and hoisted signs in Ontario as parts of a convoy of truckers headed for Ottawa to protest the Canadian government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border drivers.
A large crowd gathered outside a mall north of Toronto to cheer a group of local truckers preparing to join.
The convoy of truckers set to descend on Canada’s capital has prompted police to prepare for the possibility of violence and politicians to warn against escalating rhetoric linked to the demonstration.
The truckers are protesting a new requirement that truckers entering Canada be fully immunized as of Jan. 15.
The United States imposed the same requirement on truckers entering that country beginning Jan. 22.
Jason Ickert, who is President of West Seneca-based Sonwil Logistics and Transportation, says: "We believe that the impact will be as much as 30 percent of the drivers that are currently crossing between the United States to Canada could be taken out of the market. Twenty percent of that is Canadian carriers; 10 percent of that would be, you know, the U.S."
Ickert said his Sonwil firm, which covers the continental United States and Canada, recently hired some new drivers to help make up a nationwide shortage of truckers.
But he added: "There are some truck drivers who have said, 'Hey, you know what? I'm going to take the retirement, it's my time, rather than deal with that.' "
Ickert says they have sought out vaccinated drivers who are voluntarily willing to cross.