Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN/AP) - Crowds gathered in Ontario, Canada on Thursday, cheering, waving flags and hoisting signs as parts of a convoy of truckers headed for Ottawa to protest the Canadian government's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border drivers.
The convoy of truckers, known as the "Freedom Convoy", 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 going back-and-forth between countries beginning Jan. 22.
"Canada finally decided to wake up, and what I mean by that is they started a trucker convoy that happened in British Columbia, and they are rolling through Canada," said Marcella Picone from the group Families are Essential on Thursday. "They are going to be landing at the steps of Ottawa this Saturday, Jan. 29, where they are sitting in Parliament, and they're sitting in their cities until the Prime Minister eliminate mandates.
"Two years in, I think the American people, I think the Canadian citizens - we want our freedoms back. We want our right to mobility. We want the right to choose what medical treatment is best for us, and we don't need any more vaccine passports, we don't need testing at the border, and we just want to get back to a pre-pandemic way of living."
It is expected that this convoy of truckers heading to Ottawa this weekend are going to set a Guinness World Record for the largest convoy ever. There are expected to be 3-4 different convoys that will merge together at the steps of Parliment Hill, which includes thousands of trucks and drivers.
"They're coming from everywhere. They're even coming from the Buffalo area, the bridges are full," said Toronto Sun columnist Joe Warmington on Thursday. "There's so many people coming from the East coast and from Ontario that if they were able to, in essence, shut Ottawa down with trucks and supporters everywhere and you can't move in the city and it's like that for a while, I think that'll be noteworthy and historical. It has to be something that people will remember."
Once the truckers make it to Ottawa, many will be willing to wait thing out until either the Canadian government lifts the mandates in place, or Justin Trudeau's government is defeated.
"Remember, he's a minority government," Warmington explained. "For an American audience, it's like a British system: He doesn't have a majority government. He has to be propped up by other parties. He has a pretty good solid handle on that, but if the grocery stores stay or become to a point; we've seen the shelves where they're empty shelves and things like that. If that gets to a point where people can't feed their families, all bets are off for any leader."
"70% of the essential trucks that go into Canada are coming in from down south. So if Canada just eliminated, 10,000-15,000 truckers off the road, how is that going to impact the bottom line of these Canadian citizens?," Picone said. "So again, it's all of us coming together saying enough is enough. We don't need any mandates. We want our country back, and let's move forward."
Meanwhile, support of the truckers from both Canada and the United States has been tremendous over the last week or so.
"You have people that are bringing them food, you have people that are opening up their homes so that they can take warm showers, you have small businesses that are defying the restrictions so that they can feed these truckers along the way. You have thousands of Canadians that as these convoys are making their way through to Ottawa are standing at the overpass of these bridges and on the on and off ramp. It is just monumental the amount of support that the Canadian citizens are giving not only to truckers, but everybody that has been impacted," Picone explained.
In addition, a Go Fund Me page was set up for the convoy across Canada when it all started. As of Wednesday night, the amount of money donated to the truckers and their efforts totaled more than $6 million.
While Canadians have shown their support of the truckers throughout the week along the streets and on highway bridges, there is more planned for the weekend when the truckers arrive to Ottawa.
Plans are being made this Saturday for people from both the U.S. and Canada to meet at the bases of the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. There will be a number of guest speakers on hand for the gathering, with it all culminating with everyone eventually making their way to the middle of the bridge to meet up in a sign of solidarity.
"Both of the events start at 1 p.m. EST at the base of the bridge with the guest speaker, and then right around 1:45-2 p.m. EST, the Americans walk up their side, the Canadians are going to walk up on their side and we're going to meet at the center to show our support and stand united with the truckers that made that convoy from British Columbia to Ottawa," Picone said of the event.
While efforts are being made locally to show support of the truckers to made the journey to try and end the country's mandates, all eyes will be glued on Ottawa this weekend with the attention being on the amount of drivers to show up and make their voices heard.
"Is this thing going to be one weekend, where it's loud and it's over on Monday and everything's back to normal? If it is, then Trudeau wins," Warmington said. "If this thing lingers and people are really angry, who knows?
"There's a lot of ifs here, and I think everybody is sort of playing the numbers to see which way it's going to go. No one knows, because remember, the logistics are huge. They're not like anything you've ever seen before."
For anyone interested in getting more information on Saturday's event at the Rainbow Bridge, you can send an email to ccnys@usa.com.