What the Canadian truck driver protested was 

From January 22nd, 2022 -to February 13th, 2022  in Ottawa, Canada, there was a protest that originally started with truck drivers protesting against vaccine mandates. According to npr.org, It quickly progressed causing both the United States and Canada to lose millions of dollars. Protesters wanted to slow down the economy to make federal officials remove and or change the pandemic restrictions. 

This protest had influenced other similar protests in places like Toronto, Quebec City, Calgary, and California.

 Protesters blocked the Ambassador bridge (A bridge that connects Michigan, Detroit, The U.S., and Canada) for almost a week. Officials were able to reopen the bridge which usually carries 300 million dollars worth of goods a day that was offset and impacted both the United States and Canada in big ways. 

In Ottawa, Canada During the first 11 days of the protest truck horns blasted for up to 16 hours a day, Residents say they were being harassed on the streets. Protesters blocked several U.S.- Canada border crossings and affection industries, on both sides of the border. 

A GoFundMe called “freedom convoy” raised around 10 million Canadian dollars for the protest, after the company found out about the GoFundMe it was shut down and they refunded all the money to donors, Protesters then switched to GiveSendGo which raised over 8 million dollars, which was then hacked and shut down. 8 million of the dollars were raised by wealthy Canadians. 

Here’s how people near this protest and further away felt about this whole situation and what they have said and are saying: The police said that they were blocking the roads so only people that live, work, and had appointments could go to Ottawa, 47 protesters were arrested, Justin Trudeau the Prime Minister said: “The protests are no longer peaceful when a group of people had a bag of weapons.”          

According to CNN.com, Rand Paul is a Republican senator that was encouraging this protest and said things like “I’m all for it” and “clog up the cities”. He wishes that they would protest in the U.S. like in Los Angeles during the super bowl, and for protests to happen during the month of February in Washington. 

Ottawa City Mayor Jim Watson has described this protest as unbearable.

This protest finally came to an end after many weeks. Police put an end to this by using pepper spray, towing vehicles, and arresting many protesters. In the United States, smaller protests for similar protests  have come to  

By: Makda and Mia