Thousands join truckers protesting COVID curbs in Canada

Thousands of people opposed to vaccine mandates have rallied in cities across Canada, as the mostly peaceful but noisy protests against COVID-19 restrictions spread from the national capital.

About 5,000 people demonstrated in Ottawa, police said on Saturday, while hundreds more gathered in Toronto, Canada’s biggest city, as well as in Quebec City, Fredericton and Winnipeg.

“We’re all sick and tired of the mandates, of the intimidation, of living in one big prison,” Robert, a Toronto protester who did not give his last name, told the Reuters news agency.

“We just want to go back to normal without having to take into our veins the poison which they call vaccines.”

The “Freedom Convoy” began as a movement against a Canadian vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers but has turned into a rallying point against public health measures and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government – though it is responsible for few of the measures, most of which were put in place by provincial governments.

For eight days now, protesters have shut down Ottawa’s downtown core.

Police say the well-organised blockade has relied partly on funding from sympathizers in the United States.

On Saturday, demonstrators huddled around campfires in bone-chilling temperatures and erected portable saunas and bouncy castles for kids outside the parliament while waving Canadian flags and shouting anti-government slogans.

Their chants of “freedom” were met with cries of “go home” by a smaller group of counter-protesters fed up with the week-long occupation of the capital.

The atmosphere, however, appeared more festive – with dancing and fireworks – than a week earlier, when several protesters waved Confederate flags and Nazi symbols and clashed with locals.

Participants also roasted hotdogs and doled out baked goods under tarps, while two men on horseback traipsed through the town, one carrying a flag in support of former US President Donald Trump.

Trump has spoken out in support of the truckers against “the harsh policies of far-left lunatic Justin Trudeau who has destroyed Canada with insane COVID mandates”.