- Elon Musk and Donald Trump praised Canadian truckers protesting the cross-border vaccine mandate.
- The Freedom Convoy is on its third day of protesting in Ottawa and says they're in it for "the long haul."
- Canadian police have launched "several criminal investigations" into incidents that occurred during the protests.
Thousands of truckers gathered in Canada's capital over the weekend to protest cross-border vaccine mandates.
Canada's vaccine mandate for truckers went into effect on January 15. The new rules require US truckers to present proof of vaccination in order to cross the border, while Canadian truckers without a vaccine passport are required to quarantine and take a COVID-19 test when they reenter from the US. The US imposed a similar mandate on January 22.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former US president Donald Trump expressed support for the trucker's initiative which brought Ottawa to a standstill over the weekend as trucks blocked major roads and demonstrators flooded the streets.
On Saturday, Musk posted a photo of the long line of truckers headed into the capital on Twitter. The tweet came a day after he posted "Canadian truckers rule," and "If you scare people enough, they will demand removal of freedom. This is the path to tyranny."
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 30, 2022
Musk told Time Magazine in December that he and his eligible children are vaccinated, but he is opposed to vaccine mandates.
On Saturday, Trump gave a shout-out to the truckers during his rally in Conroe, Texas.
"We want those great Canadian truckers to know that we are with them all the way," Trump said. He criticized US President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for truckers and added that the Canadian protestors are "doing more to defend American freedom than our own leaders by far."
Truckers began arriving on Friday after nearly a week of slow-rolling in convoys across Canada. The group that organized the protest, Freedom Convoy, wrote on its GoFundMe page that it believes the government is "implementing rules and mandates that are destroying the foundation of our businesses, industries, and livelihoods."
On Saturday and Sunday the protesters filled the streets, carrying signs like "Make Canada great again," and "God keep our land glorious and free." Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was moved to a secret location on Saturday over security concerns due to the protest, Insider's Kelsey Vlamis reported. Days before the protesters reached the capital, Trudeau called the truckers a "small fringe minority," saying that about 90% of Canadian truckers are vaccinated.
On Monday, The Washington Post reported that police in Canada had opened "several criminal investigations" into incidents that occurred during the protests in Ottawa, including the desecration of the city's War Memorial, the appearance of Nazi propaganda, and "threatening" behavior toward police, city workers, and reporters.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson criticized the protest, saying it made residents "feel they're prisoners in their own homes." The demonstrators say they intend to stay in the capital past the weekend and that their aim is to "create chaos" and a "logistics nightmare" for the government.
"Right now, yeah, it's really cold, but we hang in there, the days are going to get longer and we take this block party and put it into overdrive," B. J. Dichter, one of the organizers of the Freedom Convoy, said at a press conference." We're in this one for the long haul. We don't have a time limit."
BBC News said it has received multiple reports that US truckers may be planning similar demonstration that would bring truckers from California into Washington D.C.