Right now, thousands of trucks have congregated in downtown Ottawa, Canada to protest mandatory vaccines for truckies ferrying goods between Canada and the US.
For the last two weeks, locals have endured 24/7 horn honking, traffic blockades and unruly protesters. The main highway linking Canada and the United States has closed, costing the Canadian economy $320million.
Elizabeth Payne, a journalist from the Ottawa Sun feels like things could turn violent at any moment as the protests expand. There have been reports of assault and racism. White supremacists have been seen waving the Confederate flag and the Nazi Germany Swastika symbol.
“It’s attracted a lot of people who have a cause, but then it’s also attracted people who are, you know, their cause might just be messing things up or anarchy.”
– The Ottawa Sun’s Elizabeth Payne
Now, the trucks have blocked the main
Payne says looking at the post-mortem of the protests will be interesting, given the fact that within a matter of days, $10 million was raised to fund the protests – most of which came from the US. The truck convoy’s GoFundMe donation page has since been shut down by the website, which promised to refund all donations.
Who has been putting money into this? Will we ever find out who it is? How and when will this protest end?
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