As the Truckers for Freedom Convoy closes in on Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called the movement and its supporters a “small fringe minority” with “unacceptable views.”
Trudeau made the comments on Wednesday at a press conference.
“The small fringe minority of people who are on their way to Ottawa are holding unacceptable views that they’re expressing, do not represent the views of Canadians who have been there for each other who know that following the science and stepping up to protect each other is the best way to continue to ensure our freedoms, rights, and values as a country,” Trudeau told reporters.
Trudeau’s comments come amidst a legacy media campaign painting the hundreds of thousands of truckers and their supporters as racists and extremists.
A number of recent mainstream media articles have cherry-picked bad actors unrepresentative of the convoy’s peaceful protest, claiming that the movement is made up of “white nationalists,” the “far-right” and “domestic terrorists.”
Leaders of the convoy have worked hard to distance themselves from such figures, stating that those with extremist views would not be welcome to join them in Ottawa.
Trudeau has also used similar language in the past. In a recently resurfaced interview with a Quebec talk show in September, the prime minister called millions of unvaccinated Canadians “racists and misogynists.”
“They are extremists who don’t believe in science, they’re often misogynists, also often racists. It’s a small group that muscles in, and we have to make a choice in terms of leaders, in terms of the country. Do we tolerate these people?” said Trudeau.
The convoy began in response to the federal Liberal government’s vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers but has since grown to oppose COVID restrictions across Canada.
Under the new rules, unvaccinated truck drivers who were once considered essential workers will be turned around at the Canada-US border. US President Joe Biden has implemented a similar mandate.
Since the mandate has gone into effect, Canadian trucking companies have reported a shortage of drivers willing to go on the road.
Bison Transport, one of Canada’s largest trucking companies, reports it has lost nearly 10% of its employees due to the federal government’s decision.
Prior to the mandate, trucking groups warned that it could lead to a shortage of goods across Canada and worsen the country’s already strained supply chain.
HD Editor’s Note: Canadians ‘Long Long Fuse’ Just Burned Out
Theo Fleury, a Canadian Hockey player and two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, in an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingram, called the Freedom Convoy “one of the biggest revolutions” in Canada.
“What’s happening Laura is right now in Canada we have one of the biggest revolutions happening,” he described. “Right now there are 50,000 truckers and about 1.4 million people headed to the parliament in Ottawa and they’re going to stay there until Trudeau resigns or they give us back all of our freedoms and rights.”
“What we’re seeing in the country right now, with these truckers, honestly, it has ignited the whole entire country of Canada,” Fleury said. “In Canada, we’re considered really nice and all these things but the thing about Canadians is eventually our fuse, our long long fuse, burns out and that’s where we are in the country.”
Toronto Sun reported that the Freedom Convoy is likely the world’s longest convoy. Guinness World Records, states the longest convoy was 7.5km long with 480 trucks, which occurred in Egypt in 2020. In comparison, the Canadian Freedom Convoy is over 70km long, with 50,000 trucks said to be participating from the West, East, and US, according to one of the convoys spokespeople.
To put it into perspective, if 1.4 million people are heading to the Canadian Parlament with the Truckers convoy, and Canada’s population is 38 million, that means that nearly 4% of Canada’s population is set to physically take part in the protest. That number also does not consider those who strongly support the protest but are not planning to be in attendance. How then could this massive demonstration and its supporters be labeled by the Prime Minister of the country to be a “small fringe minority.”
Canadian Journalist Candice Malcolm, of True North, called Trudeau and the government-funded media in Canada “deranged” for their attempts to “diminish and discredit this incredible movement.”
Malcolm went on to insist that the movement is simply “too big to ignore,” adding that, as the Liberals attempt to paint the convoy supporters as “domestic terrorists,” Social Media posts and videos are telling a very different story.
“Social media shows a side of the protest that the Liberals don’t want you to see: it is a positive, family-friendly, hopeful, courageous, inspiring, legitimate and peaceful protest against government overreach,” she insisted.
Pastor Aaron Rock from Windsor Ontario, in a podcast on Thursday, slammed the media for “manipulating” Canada’s population into staying silent.
“Anybody who is pro-liberty, pro-freedom, pro-Christian, pro-Bible, or anything of these things historically would have been considered pretty normal, is now an extremist or a radical right-wing freak,” the Pastor asserted. “This is manipulation of the highest order.”
“This is why people largely don’t—or at least shouldn’t—trust the media anymore,” he explained. “Whenever they present something there is always this ideological spin on it. When you see it enough [you think] ‘aha, I can see their tactics.’ I know exactly what they’re doing and I am not going to be doopped by it and I am not going to stop speaking the truth just because they’re putting pressure on me to keep my mouth shut.”
We are in a fight “against statism, tyranny, and godlessness in our nation,” he continued, “The convoy I think is going to have a significant influence on the narrative.” Rock added, however, that we should not become “discouraged” if “less comes out of it than we would hope.” Our faith should not be hitched on it, but we should “get behind [the convoy] and support it,” he urged.
