The anti-sanitary measures protests that emerged in Canada, where truckers paralyze the capital Ottawa, are spreading to several countries, including France where convoys converged on Paris on Saturday.
Initiated at the end of January by Canadian truckers who denounced the obligation to vaccinate to cross the border with the United States, the movement which was baptized “Freedom Convoy” quickly turned into a protest once morest health measures as a whole. in Canada and, for some protesters, once morest the government of Justin Trudeau.
In the federal capital Ottawa, hundreds of trucks have been blocking the streets for two weeks. After Ottawa on Sunday, a state of emergency was declared Friday across Ontario.
These protests have spread to other major Canadian cities (Toronto, Winnipeg, Quebec…) as well as to three border axes with the United States, with the objective of hitting the economy.
In particular, they blocked the Ambassador Bridge, which connects the Canadian city of Windsor to Detroit in the United States, crucial for the automotive industry as well as for American hospitals, where many Canadian nurses work. The Superior Court of Ontario ordered the lifting of this blockade on Friday.
Among the promoters of the movement are several militants of the Maverick Party – a political organization, marginal and embryonic, militant for the independence of the western provinces -, as well as Canada Unity, founded by James Bauder, which publicly supported the theses of the QAnon conspiratorial movement and called the Covid-19 “the biggest political scam in history”.
“All options are on the table” to end the convoys, Mr. Trudeau said on Friday.
Some of the thousands of opponents of the vaccine pass, whose convoys were heading for Paris, managed to reach the Champs-Élysées on Saturday, quickly triggering the intervention of the police to disperse them.
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Cars, motorhomes and vans had left several provincial towns, traveling for two or three days at reduced speed on secondary roads to reach the capital.
Two months before the presidential election, supporters of this movement, inspired by events in Canada, also claim to be “yellow vests”, the popular mobilization of 2018-2019, triggered by a rise in gasoline prices which had turned into a revolt once morest President Emmanuel Macron.
In New Zealand, anti-vaccine protesters have been camping outside Parliament since Tuesday, in a “Freedom Camp”. On Thursday, the police tried to disperse them, without success, giving rise to violent clashes. More than 120 people were arrested.
The number of protesters rose from around 250 at the start to nearly 1,500 on Friday.
Opponents of health restrictions who came in convoys from all over the Netherlands blocked the center of The Hague for several hours on Saturday.
The organizers demanded the lifting of all health restrictions in the country.
In Austria, the police announced on Thursday the ban on “freedom convoys”, citing an “unacceptable” nuisance, while several hundred vehicles had planned to converge on Friday towards the center of Vienna as well as near a large public park.
The authorities announced Thursday to prohibit access to Brussels of a convoy expected Monday in the Belgian capital, according to a call circulating on social networks which evokes a “convergence” from all over Europe.
The United States has asked Canada to use “federal powers” to lift blockades at the two countries’ border.
The White House says it was notified of the organization of a “freedom convoy” in Washington in early March and assures “to take all necessary measures to ensure that this convoy does not disrupt commerce or transport, and does not affect not the work of the federal government, law enforcement and emergency services”.
The convoys have received support from conservative US officials, from Texas Senator Ted Cruz, calling the protesters “heroes” and “patriots”, to former President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk.
