OTTAWA - Many truckers arrived in Ottawa and surrounding areas as a part of the Freedom Convoy this past weekend.
The movement that was originally planned to urge the federal government to drop their vaccination mandates for cross-border, essential workers like truck drivers quickly grew into a larger protest against all COVID-related public health regulations.
The convoy left Western Canada on Jan. 24 and was picking up participants and gaining support while going east.
Carievale resident Ken Hilton, a driver with Fast Trucking, along with his neighbour Riley Carpenter and his sister Tierra joined the procession in Brandon, Man., on Jan. 24.
He made it to Ottawa with a Fast Trucking semi Saturday late afternoon and said the whole experience has been "pretty awesome."
"The downtown core is packed with vehicles and semis. The police have a lot of streets blocked off with heavy equipment. And there is, I don't know, thousands of trucks at the city right now, you can't even get in here," said Hilton in an interview with the Mercury on Sunday.
He said the estimates he heard were about 1,200 semis and 6,000 passenger vehicles from Western Canada partaking in protests in Ottawa as of Sunday. Monday morning Hilton also added that he was hearing reports that thousands of trucks were blocked outside the city and locked down in Quebec, and only a very small per cent made it to downtown.
"Everybody is cheering and peacefully protesting, people have given speeches," Hilton said, describing what's been happening around him.
As of Monday morning, police haven't reported any physical violence at the ongoing rally in Ottawa.
Hilton said that Sunday morning there was a ceremony at the War Memorial to show respect for the memorial and the fallen soldiers, for which truckers bought a lot of flowers to place them at the site, which was spray-painted during the rally.
"There are people here that are trying to make us fail. But hopefully, we can send a good message," Hilton said.
At the time of the interview, Hilton's truck was parked on Slater Street, a few blocks from Parliament Hill in downtown Ottawa. However, on Saturday he and other protesters got trapped further away from downtown, where the vehicles stayed until Sunday morning. Protesters walked to the parliament in the evening to join the demonstrations.
"This morning, the police were kind of slacking and they opened up a gap. And a bunch of us lined up and pushed through the gap. They couldn't stop us all. They eventually got it back off again, but 100 of us this morning made it closer to downtown," Hilton said. "There's still lots of room down here, but the city and the police have it all blocked off. It's hard to move."
When Hilton first heard of a potential convoy heading to Ottawa, he thought of joining right away, but while the anti-mandate message was something he wanted to stand for, it still wasn't an easy decision as he would have to leave family behind. He wrote a draft of a message to his boss, Dennis Day, the owner of Fast Trucking, but then he took two more days to think it through before he actually sent it.
"We were on a rig move, and I was sitting there waiting to get loaded and thought, I'm gonna send it to him. And I sent it to him. And he's like, 'Oh, you want to go?' I was like, 'Yeah, that'd be great,'" Hilton recalled.
"It's just been too overwhelming with all the overreach that our government has. And I don't like sending my kids to school wearing masks. It'd sure be nice if they could grow up in the country that we grew up in," Hilton said, explaining his motivation to join the movement.
"And I didn't want to get the vaccine. I'm not going to say that I was forced, because no one forced me to, but I chose to take it to continue my job. And I don't feel that was right. We have the freedom of choice in this country. People fought for our freedom. The government shouldn't be able to decide what we do with our bodies," Hilton added.
"I thought it was a very good thought. So I told him if he wanted to go, he could go ahead and we'd supply him with everything to stay there for a month or two months, we'll pay him to stay there until something happens, something changes," Day said.
"He's there for himself and for everybody that works with Fast Trucking and for Fast Trucking," Day noted.
Day added he wanted to see someone from his company joining the convoy to deliver the message to the government, but it wasn't something he could ask for, as people would have to leave their families. So he was glad to support Hilton in his decision.
"It's two years of these mandates, telling people to get a vaccine when it isn't proven. And a lot of us got the vaccine because we had to get the vaccine to live our life or even to work," Day said. "We are supposed to be a free country. We've got the vaccine, and you're still getting COVID. I'm one of them. I'm double vaccinated, and I still got COVID three weeks ago.
"And the other big reason why (I supported Hilton's decision to join the convoy) is we're already short in supplies in Canada, whether it's food or groceries, or parts … We're already short truck drivers in Canada, in the U.S., and if we lose more ... How come for two … years truckers were essential, and they could go back and forth. And now two years later, they want to change it. That's not right either," Day said.
Day picked up Hilton's expenses, but Hilton said that they will be filling up the forms needed to reclaim the money raised through the GoFundMe campaign to cover the convoy fuel costs.
Just like many other protesters, Hilton said he plans on staying for as long as it's needed for the government to hear their concerns.
"I feel like most of the people are planning on staying here as long as they can. Obviously, everybody can't stay forever. But hopefully, we can stay long enough for the government to realize there's something going on in this country, and they need to address it," Hilton said. "I'd like to probably stay two weeks or more, but we'll see what happens. It'd be nice to go home early obviously, I have family and work to go back to, but I got a go-ahead and stay as long as it takes from the boss," Hilton said.
While they were driving to Ottawa, there were a lot of people supporting the convoy along its route.
"A big thanks to all the supporters along the highway there. In every town we went through, there were people on both sides, from the west side of town all the way to the east side of town. Every major intersection or set of lights all the way along the No. 1 Highway, down Highway 17. There are so many people at all the overpasses. It's just unbelievable to see all the support … People offering food and windshield washer fluid and money, just everything," Hilton shared.
Hilton also gave a shout-out to Prairie Boys Spray Foam, whose employee is partaking in the convoy alongside him.
