Indian-origin Sikh truckers protest against Canada’s vaccine mandates

The protest is against the government’s ruling that Canadian truck drivers crossing the border into the US must be fully vaccinated. 

Thousands of Indian-origin Sikh truckers along with their trucks staged a road blockade in downtown Ottawa to protest against the government’s vaccine mandates required to cross the Canada-US border, an IANS/Reuters report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says.

The protest is against the government’s ruling that Canadian truck drivers crossing the border into the US must be fully vaccinated. 

The Sikhs protest is part of a self-titled ‘Freedom Convoy 2022’ has now burgeoned into something much bigger after being joined by thousands of other protesters. It is now directed against the government’s overall restrictive measures during the Covid pandemic.

Gathered around the Parliament Hill, the demonstrator waved flags, banners and chanted slogans against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,

On Sunday, January 30, demonstration leaders vowed to stay in the Canadian capital “as long as it takes” for the government to withdraw vaccine mandates.

The Canadian Prime Minister is himself under self-isolation who after one of his children tested positive for the coronavirus.

The protesters’ growing numbers has prompted police to prepare for the possibility of violence. As of now, no injuries or deaths have been reported.

An advisory has been sent out warning Parliament members to leave their houses in case of demonstrations outside their homes and not to post anything on social media about the demonstration 

Following security concerns, Trudeau and his family have left their downtown Ottawa home.  

Meanwhile, Ottawa’s mayor said the city’s residents were “prisoners in their own homes” as the Freedom Convoy trucker protests continued.

 Sikhs represent a major share of truckers in US and Canada, with around 150,000 and 200,000 personnel commanding as much as 40 per cent of the enterprise. 

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