Canadian anti-COVID mandate truckers “will desist from the blowing of horns” out of respect for the “men and women in blue who are doing such a superb job protecting us.”
QUICK FACTS:
- Protesters camped out in the Canadian capital outnumber the police and control the situation, the city’s mayor said on Sunday, according to Reuters.
- Convoy organizers said they would refrain from using their horns on Sunday morning for four hours “as a gesture of goodwill.”
- “Out of respect for the Lord’s Day, for members of our military who have sacrificed and who continue to sacrifice so much for our freedom, for the men and women in blue who are doing such a superb job protecting us … members of our convoy will desist from the blowing of horns,” the group said in a statement.
- A senior member of the Liberal government said the ease with which the convoy shut down the area around the parliament and the seeming impotence of police was a “national humiliation,” Reuters notes.
FUNDING THE FREEDOM CONVOY:
- Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo opened a campaign Friday for the Freedom Convoy truckers demonstrating in Ottawa, Canada, raising more than $2 million by Saturday night, The Washington Examiner notes.
- The new campaign opened after GoFundMe canceled the truckers’ first fundraiser, which had raised around C$10 million ($8 million USD).
BACKGROUND:
- On Saturday, thousands of people demonstrated in Canadian cities, including the financial hub Toronto, as the protests against vaccine mandates spread from Ottawa, Reuters notes.
- The “Freedom Convoy” began as a movement against a Canadian vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers turning into a rallying point against overbearing public health measures and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government.
