Local convoy drives through Winnipeg, but not all truckers are on board

As a nationwide trucker convoy arrived in Ottawa to protest vaccine mandates for Canadian truckers a local convoy made its way through Winnipeg.

A crowd of people stood outside the Manitoba Legislature to show support as the convoy travelled down Broadway.

One of the supporters was Nikia Chartofylix. He said the people gathered outside were protesting more than just trucker mandates.

“The forcible vaccine, the medical passports. I can’t go to a gym or a public pool. I just lost two jobs over not getting vaccinated, and I’m not able to eat in a restaurant,” said Chartofylix.

Hundreds of semi-trucks and other vehicles drove through the city to oppose the new rules, but not all truckers are against the vaccine mandate.

Marc Toews is a truck driver out of Manitoba. He is fully vaccinated and goes to California and Arizona on a regular basis transporting products for grocery stores.

“As far as the COVID mandates go, I’m all for them,” said Toews. “I think everyone should get vaccinated, and I think that the mandates are a good thing.”

Both the Canadian Trucking Alliance and the Manitoba Trucking Association said the majority of truckers are vaccinated, and the convoy protests are ineffective and unsafe.

It is not only Canada that has a vaccine mandate. The United States also requires travellers entering at a land border to be fully vaccinated for essential and non-essential travel.

A fact Toews believes contradicts the convoy’s message.

“The idea of truckers or anybody actually trying to inflict their opinions on another country doesn’t sound like freedom at all,” said Towes.

Still, people like Rice Lander who gathered at the Legislative Building to support the protest, said mandates should not force people to get vaccinated, even for work.

“We wish to be free, we wish to choose what we like. It may be right, and it may be wrong, but that should be our decision, period,” said Lander.

Toews believes the intended message of the convoy protest is getting lost as more non-truckers join the cause, and he thinks the mandate is here to stay.

“I really don’t see anything changing at all, I think (the convoy) is a big waste of time,” he said.