Hundreds of truckers set off from B.C. for Ottawa in 'Freedom Rally' against federal vaccine mandate

Hundreds of truckers set off from British Columbia to Ottawa on Sunday to protest a federal vaccine mandate despite the urging of the country's largest trucking union to comply.

The protest has been dubbed the "Freedom Rally" against the federal mandate for cross-border truckers, which went into effect on Jan. 15. 

Canadian truck drivers now need to be fully vaccinated if they want to avoid a two-week quarantine and pre-arrival molecular test for COVID-19 before crossing into Canada.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance and the American Trucking Associations say up to 26,000 of the 160,000 drivers who make regular trips across the Canada-U.S. border are likely to be sidelined as a result of the vaccine mandate.

It sparked a movement online to protest the mandate, with a GoFundMe raising money for the trucking rally raising over $2.5M as of Sunday.

"The goal is we're going to get [to Ottawa] by next Friday, the 29th, and demand these mandates get stopped," said rally attendee Candace Hill on Sunday.

Hill was speaking from Delta, B.C., where supporters and truckers had gathered before setting off on their cross-country trip.

The protesters were supported by anti-vaccine-mandate protesters throughout the province, including in Kamloops in B.C.'s Interior.

Candice Camille, a photographer who attended the Kamloops rally, said she was pleasantly surprised by the turnout there.

"For me, the mandates need to change to fit our society's lifestyle and people's freedoms," she said. 

"[The mandates should also] give the people the protection and the support on the other side, the people who feel like they need that protection and support."

Trade associations on both sides of the border have said the restriction would put additional strain on supply chains amid the latest COVID-19 surge and severe worker shortages.

But the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), a federation of the country's trucking unions, put out a statement on Saturday strongly disapproving of the protest.

The statement says that the CTA's members should choose to hold an organized protest on Parliament Hill instead of disrupting public roadways and border crossings for over a week.