Fact Check: Old image of truckers’ convoy passed off as recent protest against Covid-19 mandates in Canada
India Today
The India Today Anti-Fake news War Room found that a photo doing the rounds on social media had nothing to do with the recent truckers’ protests in Canada. It is an image from the rally held by truckers in 2019 in support of the oil and gas industry in Canada.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday, February 14, invoked the Emergencies Act to bring an end to truckers-led protests against mandatory Covid-19 vaccination. Amid this, a photo of a long nose-to-tail queue of trucks lined up on a highway has gone viral with the claim that this was the "Freedom Convoy" of truckers who travelled to Canada’s capital to protest the vaccine mandates.
Several Facebook users shared the photo with a long caption that blamed the mainstream media for not giving enough coverage to this protest.
The caption read, “Huge shoutout to mainstream media for downplaying the convoy. Huge shoutout to the towns and cities that shut their traffic cameras off when the convoy went through. Huge shoutout to Justin Trudeau for hiding in his bedroom just before the convoy gets to Ottawa. Huge shoutout to Facebook for deleting the original convoy page. Huge shoutout to GoFundMe for trying to tie up the money that's for the truckers and their support. You've all shown how important this convoy really is.”
India Today Anti-Fake news War Room (AFWA) found that the viral photo had nothing to do with the recent truckers’ protests. The photo, in fact, shows a rally held by truckers in 2019 in support of the oil and gas industry in Canada.
We reverse-searched the image and found it in a CTV News report from February 14, 2019, titled, “Truck convoy heads to Ottawa to protest lack of pipeline progress”.
The caption of the photo read, “A convoy of at least 100 trucks is driving from Alberta to Parliament Hill to draw attention to what it says is Ottawa’s lack of support for the energy sector.” As per the report, in 2019, Canadian truckers drove to Ottawa, and the convoy was called "United We Roll". The truckers protested the Canadian government's energy policies.
Courtesy - CTV News
