Federal Conservatives call on anti-vaccine mandate protesters to go home

After publicly supporting the anti-vaccine mandate activists protesting in Ottawa in recent weeks, interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen said Thursday it's time for the convoy and other protesters blocking two major border crossings to end their demonstrations and go home.

Bergen, who has called the convoy a "passionate, patriotic and peaceful" group of Canadians concerned about freedom at a time of COVID restrictions, said the protesters have made their point to parliamentarians and the Conservative Party will take up their fight in the House of Commons instead.

The anti-mandate protest that started in Ottawa has spread to Windsor and Coutts, Alta., disrupting the flow of goods and crippling Canada-U.S. trade.

In a message aimed at protesters, Bergen said "the time has come for you to take down the barricades, stop the disruptive action and come together.

"The economy you want to see reopened is hurting. You protested because you love your country and you want your freedoms back. That message has been heard."

Bergen said barricades and trucks should be removed for the sake of the economy and because "it's the right thing to do."

During the weeks-long protest in the nation's capital, Bergen posed for pictures with some convoy members. Citing internal emails, the Globe and Mail has reported that Bergen was previously reluctant to tell the truckers to go home, and preferred instead to make the issue Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's problem.

Other prominent Conservatives — including MP Pierre Poilievre, a candidate for the party's permanent leadership — have closely associated themselves with the convoy and its call for an end to federal COVID-19 restrictions.

Poilievre has said the convoy represents "the people who want to stand and speak for their freedoms" and "all those that our government and our media have insulted and left behind."

"Freedom, not fear," Poilievre said in a recent speech. "Truckers, not Trudeau."

Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman, the party's transport critic, was a vocal defender of the convoy's early efforts to force the federal government to abandon the vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers. She has since soured on the movement as the protests have spread to critical border crossings.

"They need to move from the blockades, that's illegal. Whether it's on a bridge, whether it's a pipeline or a highway, we can't have them blocking critical infrastructure," Lantsman told reporters. "I think we need a plan from the prime minister on how to end this."

Bergen also tabled a motion in the Commons today that calls on Prime Minister Trudeau and his cabinet to drop all federal pandemic restrictions and "transition to a post-COVID society as quickly as possible."

Bergen said Omicron infections are on the decline, Canada is among the world's most vaccinated countries and promising new therapeutics that significantly reduce the likelihood of severe disease and death are starting to roll out.