I Support the (actual) Truckers

[9-10ths_Penguin]

No, not the group of occupiers in Ottawa that included 17 full tractor-trailers and 104 tractors without trailers at its peak, but the many, many more truckers who oppose the convoy, occupation and blockades:

But even as the vocal group of truckers, known as the “Freedom Convoy,” grabbed the world’s attention, many of Canada’s truck drivers were scrambling to distance themselves from the movement, which they view as radical and fringe.

In their view, the protesters’ actions — including shutting down cross-border trade and laying siege to the capital — have hurt rather than helped drivers in the industry, and failed to advance the labor issues most truckers care about. They point out that only a small percentage of Canadian truckers have joined the demonstrations, and the vast majority of drivers are already vaccinated, according to trucking associations and Canadian authorities.

“There is a vocal minority, which is trying to steal the headlines, but a silent majority has actually been working day and night,” said Manan Gupta, publisher of Road Today, a Canadian magazine for South Asian truckers. About a third of Canada’s roughly 180,000 tractor-trailer drivers are immigrants, according to the most recent survey, in 2016.

The protests have caused long delays at the border and forced drivers to take lengthy detours. Such disruptions are “not received well” by truckers who are not participating in the convoy, Gupta said, adding that “they are the ones keeping our supply chain intact and running.”

“These illegal blockades have had a detrimental impact on our members and customers’ businesses. These have also had a very significant negative impact upon our professional driving community,” the president of the Canadian Trucking Alliance, Stephen Laskowski, said in a statement Monday.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/16/canada-trucker-distancing-protests/

I know that the Omicronvoy represented itself as a "truckers' convoy," but I think this description is incorrect and pretty insulting to the vast majority of truckers who don't support it... especially the South Asian truckers who weren't even invited to participate in this very white protest:

According to the 2016 census, South Asians comprise 18 per cent of all Canadian truckers. In major cities such as Vancouver and Toronto, they make up more than half the industry’s work force.

And yet many drivers such as Mr. Kang have no stake in the protest in Ottawa, even though its supporters have dubbed it a “truckers’ movement.”

Jagroop Singh, the president of the Ontario Aggregate Trucking Association, said, “Nobody invited me or any South Asian truckers I know. In fact, we don’t even know who the organizers of this protest are. Nobody asked us if we agree with their demands.”

Almost one in five Canadian truckers is South Asian, but many don’t see themselves represented in the trucker convoy

So to everyone: please stop co-opting truckers to make them the mascots of this anti-mandate, anti-vax, anti-health, racist protest movement.

 

[Brickjectivity]

racist protest movement.

If its a protest in support of racism I would like to know, so that I may decry it in tandem with all the other righteous people who loath racism. The info available to me seems mixed or muffled. So they are protesting vaccines and also protesting in support of white power. I had not heard that. That is pretty stupid. Probably the most ludicrous thing to do in Canada would be to stump for racism I think.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

If its a protest in support of racism I would like to know, so that I may decry it in tandem with all the other righteous people who loath racism. The info available to me seems mixed or muffled. So they are protesting vaccines and also protesting in support of white power. I had not heard that. That is pretty stupid. Probably the most ludicrous thing to do in Canada would be to stump for racism I think.

[T]here’s an endgame, it’s called depopulation of the Caucasian race, or the Anglo-Saxon. And that’s what the goal is, is to depopulate the Anglo-Saxon race because they are the ones with the strongest bloodlines.

It’s a depopulation of race, okay, that’s what they want to do.

[Men with the first names “Ahmed” and “Mahmoud” are trying to] not only infiltrate by flooding with refugees, we’re going to infiltrate the education systems to manipulate it so there is “less procreation” which leads to “less white people — or you know, Anglo-Saxon. Let’s say Anglo-Saxon, because when I say white, all the ANTIFA guys call up the race card.

Some trucker convoy organizers have history of white nationalism, racism - National | Globalnews.ca

[Convoy co-organizer Chris] Barber also said in a subsequent TikTok that he has Confederate flags hanging on his wall at home, calling it a “piece of cloth” and telling viewers to “get over it.” The Confederate flag was used as a battle flag during the American civil war by those fighting on the side of the Confederates, who supported the continuation of slavery in the U.S.

Who is who? A guide to the major players in the trucker convoy protest - KESQ

The Canadian Anti-hate network note that [Convoy co-organizer Benjamin] Dichter, during a failed run as candidate for the People’s Party of Canada, claimed at a press conference that “Islamist entryism” is “rotting away at our society like syphilis.”

On Facebook, Dichter has been linked to several posts from the anti-Muslim conspiracy page “Crusade Against Islamisation of The World.”

Anti-Vax Convoy Leader Says He Welcomes Protesters Displaying ‘Confederate Flags’ in Ottawa

 

[Aštra’el]

As with any other occupation, truckers do not all think and behave alike. Just because you might disagree politically with certain trucker individuals or groups does not mean they are “not actual truckers”.

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

Like the OP, I support the truckers who opposed the convoy, too.

I posted these articles in another thread, but my thread didn't have much participation.

Canadian Trucking Alliance condemns trucker protests

Canadian Trucking Alliance condemns protests by unvaccinated truckers

Canadian Trucking Alliance condemns cross-country convoy protesting federal COVID-19 vaccination law

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

As with any other occupation, truckers do not all think and behave alike. Just because you might disagree politically with certain trucker individuals or groups does not mean they are “not actual truckers”.

The vast majority of the people at the protests in Ottawa, Coutts, Windsor, etc., weren't truckers in any sense of the word.

Sure - the ~150 people who drove semis to Ottawa were generally truckers (or former truckers, possibly), though I'm not sure many actual working truckers would be able to afford to take their rigs off the road for weeks at a time to go hot-tubbing with white supremacists.

 

[Brickjectivity]

That is all kinds of ****ed up.