Truckers in Alaska’s Interior are joining in with those in Southcentral Alaska for a “Freedom Convoy” on Feb. 6 in support of Canadian and American truckers who are against forced Covid vaccines.
Organized by a group known as Interior Patriots, the convoy will end at the parking lot of the Carlson Center in Fairbanks, and will bring in truckers from Delta Junction, Healy, and surrounding areas, who will join together at the Carlson at 3 pm. The routes will be announced later. Truckers have RSVP’d from the Ice Road, sources told Must Read Alaska.
The convoy is in support of U.S. and Canadian truckers who have been staging massive truck protests along the U.S.-Canada border and in the Canadian capital of Ottawa aimed at dismantling the policies of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who decreed that all truckers crossing the border into Canada, including Canadians, must show proof of a Covid vaccination. American and Canadian trucks are now blockading the U.S. Alberta border crossing, according to Canadian press.
“With RCMP warnings unheeded, more than 100 vehicles remain lined up on a southern Alberta highway blocking access to the border and a small village for the third day in a row Monday,” the Calgary Herald reported.
“Semi-trucks, cars and farm equipment filled Highway 4 south of Lethbridge on Saturday, in support of a national convoy to Ottawa with a stated goal of repealing a federal mandate requiring unvaccinated Canadian truckers re-entering Canada from the United States to get tested for COVID-19 and to quarantine. Some participating in both protests have expanded that goal, demonstrating against health orders and the federal government as a whole,” the newspaper reported.
The premier of Alberta calls the action illegal and demanded it end, but the blockade was still in place on Monday.
Many mainstream media outlets in the U.S. have created a news blackout about the major protest. The New York Times and Washington Post all but ignored it in Monday editions, with no mention of the growing trucker protests, but Twitter users have been successful in getting the word out.
Other Alaskans have been inspired by the anti-mandate protest. On Saturday, a 2.5-mile-long truck convoy in Juneau surprised capital city residents, who are not used to having conservatives organize events in their city. Some Democrats, such as Sen. Scott Kawasaki, were triggered by the strength of the protest because they could not easily reach their favorite cafes for lunch.
“Uh…great job Juneau convoy,” Kawasaki wrote. “Stop patrons from going to lunch and spending money at local small businesses that have had a heck of a year w/tourism losses-to whine about Canada?!” he wrote on Twitter.
In Anchorage, the convoy will gather along C Street and end up at the Eagle River Lion’s Club on Sunday, where there will be pizza, music, and speakers. Anchorage Assemblywoman Jamie Allard is helping to organize the event.
