The "Free Convoy" blocked the Ambassador's Bridge, the busiest logistics corridor on the Canadian-U.S. border, and opposed the government's policy of compulsory vaccination. However, infectious disease experts pointed out that the time is still not ripe for the liberalization of epidemic prevention measures
Figure/IC
Wen | Cai Tingyi, a reporter from Caijing
Editor| Haozhou
On the afternoon of February 9, local time, police in Ottawa, Canada's capital, issued an ultimatum to truck drivers who had occupied the city for nearly two weeks: "Any act of blocking roads or assisting in blocking traffic may be considered a criminal offense," protesters may be arrested without a warrant, and trucks will be detained.
The Freedom Motorcade, a protest against the government's mandatory vaccinations, lasted two weeks after assembling 3,000 trucks and 15,000 protesters into Ottawa on Jan. 29. The sentiment and actions of the protests have intensified, not only triggering a further political and economic crisis in Canada, but also spreading the spillover effects of protests to other countries like wildfire, from the United States to Australia and New Zealand, from France to Finland and Belgium, and people who oppose their government's epidemic prevention policies have organized their own streets.
More seriously, the "Free Fleet" has increased the number of blockades on the ambassador bridge, the busiest traffic artery on the Border between Canada and the United States, making the supply chain that has been affected by the epidemic more vulnerable for nearly two years. Ford was forced to temporarily close two plants in Canada, and Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda suspended some of their production lines. The U.S. government said it was closely monitoring the protests and was ready to provide any assistance the Canadian government needed.
The rapidly heating protests reflect the anger and helplessness of some people in Canada and even in the global community about the two-year-long epidemic prevention measures. According to a survey by Canadian investigative agency Abacus Data, while a majority (57 percent) believe that similar protests are too provocative and unreasonable, a whopping 32 percent agree with the protests. Bruce Anderson, an analyst at the agency, noted that the ongoing protests meant that "many people are disappointed by the endless epidemic and the inconvenient epidemic measures."
The debate over anti-epidemic measures, individual freedoms and government power is once again in the global spotlight. The protests, which began with opposition to the mandatory vaccination policy, quickly attracted the support of far-right and anti-vaccine groups in Canada, becoming a political issue and a negative factor affecting the economy, some protesters carrying Nazi flags, and some extremists even said that the purpose of protest was to "overthrow the government"; former US President Trump also publicly expressed his support for these truck drivers on January 29, "We want the great Canadian truck drivers to know that we are on the same front as them from beginning to end." ”
Despite much overseas support, the protesters' demands are increasingly being questioned in Canada, with Gerald Walton, a professor at Lakehead University on Ontario, criticizing the protesters for paralyzing the city for their own selfishness; Brett Caraway, a social movement expert at the University of Toronto in Canada, pointing out that in the internet age, such protests are a manifestation of populist movements. As the protests continue for longer, more similar protests will take place around the globe.
Police law enforcement failures
On January 13, Health Canada, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Public Safety jointly issued a statement announcing that from January 15, all truck drivers entering Canada will need to show proof of complete vaccination, canadian truck drivers who have not been fully vaccinated will need to undergo multiple screenings and cooperate with quarantine after entering the country, and unvaccinated U.S. drivers will be directly denied entry.
This seemingly ordinary announcement since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic immediately triggered the anger of local truck drivers in Canada, "We feel that the government has crossed the line," truck drivers who are dissatisfied with the epidemic prevention regulations believe that it is personal freedom not to receive vaccinations, whether they should wear masks, and the government has no right to force them to cooperate, so they announced that they would leave from all over the country to the capital Ottawa for a "free motorcade" protest.
Truck drivers set off from various parts of Canada to the capital on Jan. 24, and the Canadian government and police shrugged off similar protests. However, the protests quickly garnered funding, raising $1 million (about $5 million) in less than two weeks, but fundraising platform GoFundme then returned millions of Canadian dollars in donations on the grounds that the protest turned violent, and another platform, GivenSendGo, took over and quickly raised millions of Dollars again.
Truck drivers who joined the protests began massing in the capital on Jan. 29, paralyzing the entire city. Then, truck drivers issued a statement on Feb. 2 saying they would stay in Ottawa until the Canadian federal government lifted all COVID-19-related enforcement measures. Organizers of the Freedom Team noted that when Europe had eased its epidemic measures, they demanded that the Canadian government should implement similar policies; other major players stressed through video that their rejection of the vaccine was "scientifically based."
Truck drivers gathered in downtown Ottawa continued to raise their demands by honking truck horns in the early days of the protests, creating noise that disturbed local people, and some residents even felt that their personal safety was threatened by protesters, but the police response was relatively negative. Ottawa residents ended up filing a class-action lawsuit against protesters for noisemaking, demanding $9.8 million in damages. As the protests spiraled out of control, the mayor of Ottawa declared a state of emergency for the city on February 6, but was completely unable to influence the development of the situation.
Canadians, who are much more peaceful than Americans, rarely launch fierce protests of a similar magnitude and scale, and some experts believe that this traditional perception led law enforcement to underestimate the energy and fundraising ability of the "free motorcade" at the first time, and then to struggle in the crisis of the protests not being dissolved.
Since the protests began, the police have asked two truck companies to recall truck drivers and asked them to help tow the trucks away, but both refused. Later, the police tried unsuccessfully to prevent people from supplying fuel and supplies to truck drivers.
Tim Abray, a former government spokesman for the government, criticized the current standoff as entirely due to the incompetence of the Ottawa city government and police. He told Caijing reporters that when the protest began to be planned, various warning signs showed that the protest would be different from the past, and there might even be violent clashes, but the police and municipal government officials optimistically welcomed the protesters with a red carpet, believing that the "free motorcade" would leave after expressing their demands. After the protesters occupied the city center, "the police chief went so far as to say that there might be no law enforcement means to solve this problem, and surrendered without trying... He abandoned us. ”
Taking matters even further out of control is the protests, which stretched from Feb. 7 to the Ambassador's Bridge, which connects Windsor, Canada, and Detroit, the "Motor City" of the United States, as the most important logistics corridor between the two countries. Protesters called on supporters to drive campervans, pickup trucks and family RVs to block the bridge. On the bridge, Mike Cook, who took part in the protest with his white pickup truck, told Canadian television Station City TV that he wanted his daughter to enjoy the freedoms she once had, and that he had no plans to leave the protest scene at the moment; however, if the police ended up pointing a gun at him and asking him to leave, of course he would do so, but he hoped that he would not see an "ugly ending" in the end.
According to estimates, the value of goods transported daily through the Ambassador Bridge is $300 million, especially auto parts. Business groups point out that the protests are already having an impact on the automotive supply chain. Transportation Canada tried to direct traffic from the Ambassador Bridge to the Bluewater Bridge in Ontario, but protest groups further blocked the highway to the Bluewater Bridge, making it difficult to pass, and it still took a long four hours to cross the bridge on the afternoon of Feb. 9.
In addition to the Ambassador Bridge, protesters also blocked the bridge connecting Couts, Canada, and Montana, canada; on Feb. 10, they blocked the bridge connecting North Dakoka and Manitoba, Canada.
Truck driver Neil McNeil, who spent five hours delivering food from the entire truck into Canada on Feb. 9, felt helpless about the protests and called on protesters to stop blocking traffic, "Stop, you guys embarrass us (truck drivers)... I can understand your outrage at the demand for compulsory vaccinations, shared by all people in North America, even around the world, but it has nothing to do with government... Stop, your actions are not helpful to everyone. ”
Bill Blair, Canada's Emergency Preparedness Minister, unhappy with the protests against traffic disruptions, criticized that "what they're doing is basically putting their feet on the throats of all Canadians ... We cannot allow [such protests] to continue. ”
The police are ineffective or even absent in law enforcement, which has aroused controversy from all walks of life. Ottawa police noted that more than 80 cases of violations have been investigated and more than 20 arrested, although canadians generally believe that police enforcement is too peaceful. In a statement, Canada's Aborigines protested that if they had been involved in the Coutts blockade protests at the border, they would have been arrested and prosecuted long ago, but the truck drivers' blocking protests were not only allowed to continue, but even violent acts, while the police sat idly by.
Temitope Oriola, a scholar of police law enforcement at the University of Alberta, pointed out to Caijing that the judicial system and the police always have calculations when enforcing the law, considering the social and economic status of protesters, and the risks that different levels of law enforcement may bring to the police.
Compared with the gentle approach of the Canadian police, the French police have shown no mercy to the truck drivers' convoy protests, announcing that from February 11 to 14, truck rallies in paris will be classified as illegal, some drivers have traveled to Paris from different cities in France, and the French police have not only stepped up patrols at the main intersection leading to Paris, but also announced that any obstruction of traffic may be exchanged for two years of detention or a fine of 4500 euros, and face the risk of revocation of licenses.
U.S. truck drivers plan to launch similar protests, all the way from California to Washington, where the Department of Homeland Security has warned that the protests could affect the Super Bowl in Los Angeles on Feb. 13.
Canadian police still have no specific plan to end the protests, and Drew Dilkens, the mayor of Windsor, who is in charge of ambassador bridge traffic, told the media that if the protesters do not leave in time, the police will take action to tow the vehicles that have blocked the road. The U.S. government has repeatedly called on the Canadian federal government to take measures as soon as possible to end the protests that block important trade routes between the two countries.
The time to relax has not yet come
According to the Canadian government, as of February 9, the cumulative number of covid-19 infections in Canada was 3.149 million, and the number of deaths reached 35,000; by the end of January, the number of people who received one dose of the new crown vaccine accounted for 84.02% of the total population, the proportion of the population who completed two doses of vaccination reached 78.69%, and the proportion of people who received the booster injection reached 40.51% of the total population.
In response to the growing protests that have even shifted the focus to his personal, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stressed that after two years of frustration on everyone, "we are all frustrated by coercive measures, the need to sacrifice what we like but can't do... Everyone was tired. Governments have always focused on following the best scientific research and the best public health advice to keep as many people as possible safe. In fact, these policies have also played a role. He stressed, "The current epidemic prevention requirements are to avoid more coercive measures in the future." ”
According to the Canadian Health Department's assessment, the COVID-19 epidemic in Canada is still at high risk, and people should be vaccinated, self-assessed for possible exposure to the virus, and always comply with the epidemic prevention recommendations and restrictions in their areas of residence.
Although countries are gradually optimistic about the control of the epidemic, Aubree Gordon, an infectious disease scientist at the University of Michigan in the United States, pointed out to the Caijing reporter that the time is still not ripe to relax epidemic prevention measures, "we are still in the pandemic", social distancing, wearing masks and screening is still very critical, although the symptoms caused by Ami Kerong are relatively mild, but in the case of a shortage of hospital personnel and individuals may face severe diseases, the spread of the virus may still have serious effects.
She stressed that in the future, further relaxation of epidemic prevention measures needs to establish a collective immunity in the global community through vaccination and infection, although individual immunization cannot avoid infection, but it can greatly reduce the symptoms after infection and avoid excessive infection rates. Not to be taken lightly, "in the future, it is entirely possible that variants that are both contagious and cause severe illness may occur." ”