Truck driver protests are spreading across the globe as the movement against mandated COVID-19 vaccines continues, and a co-founder of the upcoming ‘Convoy to D.C.’ demonstration says that US drivers will soon join the protests in numbers that might surprise the public.
Since the ‘Freedom Convoy’ first rolled out in Canada with a culmination in Ottawa, truckers in Leeuwarden, Netherlands; Wellington, New Zealand; and Canberra, Australia have rallied together to protest vaccine mandates. Now, a movement of US truckers who say they are just looking to protect personal freedoms for themselves and others are gearing up to roll out on a convoy of their own.
“I think you’re starting to see what will become a big global movement to end these mandates,” said Brian Brase, a co-organizer of the ‘Convoy to D.C.’ protest planned for March 1st.
“It’s a violation of your human rights to be mandated to take this vaccine. If you want it, go get it, but being mandated to get it, we’re standing up against that. We think it’s wrong,” he said to Fox News.
Although Facebook removed the original ‘Convoy to D.C.’ page last week, organizers like Brase say the movement has not lost all of its momentum, and even alluded to partnerships with trucking companies that he says will be announced on Tuesday, February 8th.
“We’re having trucker companies from all over the country calling us, drivers. The sheer volume of response… I’m going to say we’ll be just as big as Canada if not larger,” Brase said.
Since the removal of the group’s Facebook page “for repeatedly violating our policies around QAnon,” protest participants and organizers have moved on to alternative social media channels such as Telegram and even Tik Tok, even though organizers say their involvement with QAnon is “just not true.”
“Canada has inspired the entire world to stand up,” Brase continued. “We’re so proud of our Canadian brothers and sisters in the trucking industry. Across the world, I’ve had people reach out: Finland, and Switzerland, and Norway, and Germany, and the UK, Australia.”
“The truck drivers are uniting worldwide,” he said.
Brase’s hope is not unfounded – in the last week, at least 1,000 people gathered near Parliament House in Canberra, Australia to protest the vaccine mandate and related restrictions; two trucker convoys launched from either side of the island of New Zealand with intentions to converge at Wellington, the capital; and around 25 trucks, dozens of cars, and more gathered in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands echoing the same sentiments, reported the NZ Herald, NL Times, and Canberra Times.
Head to our Instagram @convoy2022nz for more info pic.twitter.com/YU5b0jnRrQ
— Convoy2022nz (@convoy2022nz) February 2, 2022
Additionally, the Brussels Times reports that European truckers are rallying on Signal to plan two separate protests among their 40,000 members. Truckers involved in this group plan to driver to their respective capitals on February 7th, while others will head to Brussels on February 14th. Aram Lemmer, business owner and organizer of an upcoming Austrian demonstration, says that he has already received a commitment from 2,500 vehicles to convoy to Vienna on February 13th.
Drivers in the UK are also planning convoys that will converge at four meeting points in England: Manchester, Exeter, Bristol and Bournemouth, reported the Scottish Daily Express.
#FreedomConvoy2022 #ConvoyNederland #Leeuwarden #FreedomConvoyNederland pic.twitter.com/ktf6LmVH0a
— Freedom Convoy Nederland (@convoyNL) January 30, 2022
“There is no mystery as to why protests are spreading: Humanity is objecting en masse to the abuse of bureaucratic tyrants who for two years have suspended the checks and balances which are intended to protect the citizenry,” said Jay Cameron, litigation director at the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms, which is representing the Canadian Freedom Convoy in court.
“People have lost their jobs and their civil liberties: their freedom of religion, speech and freedoms of movement, and their democratic representatives have been largely or entirely sidelined with respect to these arbitrary and often nonsensical decisions. And now the people are making their voices heard in peaceful but firm protest against their abusers. They are saying: ‘enough’.”