People are severing friendships over convoy protest, with some saying it shows 'true colours'

Langley, B.C., contractor Damian Conn says he can "agree to disagree" with friends who are opposed to vaccinations or believe in conspiracy theories, and still maintain a relationship.

But when he realized he had friends who support the convoy protest in Ottawa — which is now entering its second week of demonstrations snarling the nation's capital to call for an end to vaccine mandates and other public health measures related to COVID-19 — those relationships ended.

He'd known some of those friends since high school.

"It seems like this convoy has brought out everybody's true colours with people you never would have thought had that certain close-minded train of thought," he said.

"I think I've unfriended like 100 people and that includes some family," he said. " I won't even talk to them anymore."

Over the course of the pandemic, there have been a number of stories of how disagreements over vaccination have ended friendships and relationships, and ripped families apart.

Last September, a Harris Poll survey conducted in the U.S. found that a combined 33 per cent of vaccinated respondents had in some way "cut ties or ended relationships" with at least some unvaccinated people in their lives.

But the convoy protest has added a new strain on relationships. Concerns and outrage over the participation of white nationalists, the presence of swastikas and confederate flags at the rally, and reports of harassing and intimidating behaviour by some protestors have prompted some to sever their friendships with rally supporters.

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Beverley Fehr, a University of Winnipeg psychology professor who specializes in interpersonal relationships, said research indicates that political differences are not often "make-or-break" issues in friendships. 

"But I think what the vaccine issue and now the protests are really bringing to light are issues that are highly tied to our core values," she said.

These values include the idea of not just protecting yourself, but protecting others, she added. They also include feelings about racism, safety and personal choice versus the greater good — values that you hold that are so important, that they can't be compromised.

When friends diverge in ways that really are connecting to their core values, it's very challenging to keep the friendship together, she said.

"If that's a core value for you, then it's hard to meet in the middle."