It may be only a few hundred demonstrators occupying Ottawa’s streets to protest government overreach, but their message has aroused passions around the world.
Eleven days into an unruly occupation against coronavirus restrictions that has paralyzed Canada’s capital, the protests have become a rallying cry for powerful far-right and anti-vaccine groups around the world that have made the cause their own. The demonstration in Ottawa started in January as a loosely organized convoy of truck drivers and protesters rumbling across the country to oppose the mandatory vaccination of truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border. It soon attracted the support of other Canadians exhausted by nearly two years of pandemic restrictions. Some were clearly on the fringe, wearing Nazi symbols and desecrating public monuments. But many described themselves as ordinary Canadians driven to take to the streets by desperation. “They keep doing the same thing, and it’s not working,” said Nicole Vandelaar, a 31-year-old hairdresser protesting in the capital. “They have to do something else. No more lockdowns. Let us live our lives.” On Sunday, after a weekend of boisterous demonstrations, the authorities in Ottawa declared a state of emergency and said the police were overwhelmed. “We continue to employ all available officers, there are no days off,” the Ottawa police chief, Peter Sloly, said Monday. “This is not sustainable.” The message at the heart of the protests — that government has been overreaching for too long — has resonated far away across Canada’s borders. Donors have contributed millions of dollars in online campaigns with hashtags, images and messages of support spreading widely across social media platforms. The protest has also sparked discussion of similar demonstrations in the United States. American truckers are in the planning stages of launching their own convoy, from California to Washington, said Brian Brase, a trucker involved in organizing the effort. Photos of the Canadian truckers appeared on anti-vaccine groups on Facebook and other social networks about two weeks ago. Since then, prominent far-right figures in numerous countries, including the United States, Australia and Germany, have praised the protests, spreading the images and arguments even more widely. The hashtag used by the truckers, #FreedomConvoy, has spread quickly across social media. On Facebook, the hashtag has been shared over 1.2 million times since Jan.24, according to CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned analytics tool. Another Facebook group dedicated to following and supporting the truckers has attracted nearly 700,000 followers. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, said it removed several groups associated with the convoy for violating their rules around inauthentic behavior. One group had sent people to external sites to buy merchandise. Another group had violated Facebook’s rules by sharing content tied to the banned QAnon conspiracy movement. The company said it was still reviewing other groups formed in connection to the truckers’ protest. On the messaging app Telegram, several far-right figures, including Dan Bongino, Michael Flynn and Ben Shapiro, have promoted the protest and shared links to fund-raising sites that have collected millions of dollars.
