A variety of US groups are organising convoys of trucks and other vehicles for this weekend and early next month, emulating the protests against COVID-19 mandates that have roiled Canada in recent days and disrupted North American supply lines.
An organisation dubbed “Convoy to Save America” said on its website that two separate vehicle convoys will converge this weekend at the Peace Bridge, a US-Canadian border crossing in Buffalo, New York.
One of the convoys will leave New York City on Friday and the second from Mount Juliet, Tennessee, on Saturday.
Pennie Fay, one of the group’s founders, told Reuters that the convoys will consist of sports utility vehicles and minivans filled with supplies such as water, food, petrol cards and blankets for Canadian truck drivers who arrive on the US side.
“This weekend is about the Canadians, about supporting them,” said Fay, who is leaving from Nashville, “while at the same time bringing attention to the fact that we want the mandates gone. Remove them from state to state. We want a free country”.
In Canada, the trucker protest is entering its third week.
Beginning as a protest over a vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border drivers, its scope has expanded to include a more generalised opposition to government rules set up to control the spread of the virus over the past two years.
A variety of US groups are organising on social media platforms such as Telegram, TikTok and Facebook, aiming to tap into frustration that appears to be growing among people in the US over COVID-19 mandates.
In some cases, logistics for possible large convoys across the country are part of those discussions.
One of the efforts, dubbed “The People’s Convoy,” which has 64,000 followers on Facebook, is planning a rally in Coachella Valley in Indio, California, on March 4.
Truck drivers will then convoy from California and other parts of the country to Washington DC to show their disapproval over mandates.
“It’s happening whether you like it or not, it’s going to happen,” Brian Brase, one of the group’s organisers, said in a recent TikTok post.
“It’s not a right issue. It’s not a left issue. It’s not an anti-vax thing. It’s about the constitution and our rights as Americans.”
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