Canadian flags emblazoned with “f— Trudeau” have filled the country’s capital. Signs reading “enough is enough” and “freedom of choice” have been affixed to the gates around parliament, which has become a makeshift camp ground with large boxes of toothpaste packets, toilet paper and other essential supplies.
Similar blockades have sprung up in Toronto, Edmonton and beyond.
Truckers have also strategically targeted Canada’s main border crossings with the US, threatening chaos for both countries’ supply chains.
A large convoy has effectively blocked the country’s largest trade artery, the Ambassador Bridge, which connects to Detroit, and Alberta’s Coutts crossing, which connects to Montana.
The protests have also become a touchstone globally for a broad tent of protests encompassing everything from coronavirus restrictions to anti-establishment causes.
Similar gridlocks have formed outside New Zealand’s parliament, while American truckers have floated plans for a copycat convoy to travel from California to Washington DC.
Protesters try to shed Nazi tag
Justin Trudeau, who appeared in public on Monday night for the first time in days after contracting Covid-19, has dismissed the convoy as a fringe group of “a few people shouting and waving swastikas”.
Mr Trudeau and his family were earlier whisked out of Ottawa as the convoy started rolling into the city over security concerns.
While far-right activists have at times joined the protests, displaying Confederate flags and Nazi symbols, some of the convoy’s organizers have disavowed their involvement.
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