Canadian truckers and their supporters who oppose the government’s vaccination mandate have begun to arrive in Ottawa, the nation’s capital, for a protest outside of Parliament on Saturday. Calling themselves the “Freedom Rally” or “Freedom Convoy,” the truckers are traveling from the western, eastern and southern ends of the country to Ottawa, with the police estimating that 1,000 to 2,000 people will converge there on Saturday. The loosely organized convoys, one of which departed British Columbia last Sunday, has raised more than 7 million Canadian dollars in GoFundMe donations en route. Of that, 1 million Canadian dollars was released by GoFundMe so far, after the organizer submitted “a clear distribution plan for funds being used to cover fuel costs of participants,” the company said in an email. Most Canadian truckers are vaccinated, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a news conference on Wednesday, citing a close to 90 percent vaccination rate among them and calling the protesters a “small fringe minority.”

Source: thestar January 29, 2022 01:33 UTC