Vehicles Crawl Through Kelowna in Support of Anti-Mandate Trucker Convoy

Drivers lined up and honked horns in Kelowna, British Columbia, on Saturday, January 29, to show support for a convoy of truckers protesting outside parliament in Ottawa against COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border travel.

The main convoy set off from British Columbia on Sunday, January 23, and arrived in Ottawa on Friday ahead of a two-day protest scheduled in the city for Saturday and Sunday. As increasing numbers of vehicles tried to reach Ottawa’s downtown area on Saturday, police began directing traffic away and asked that people do not travel to the center of the city.

While the main demonstration got underway on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, other, smaller convoys rallied in other Canadian towns and cities, including Kelowna, Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg, and Calgary.

This footage, taken on Saturday afternoon, shows vehicles travelling through downtown Kelowna.

Hundreds of people in Kelowna had also gathered to rally in support of the large trucker convoy protest in Ottawa, Global News reported. A ‘mini convoy’ of big rigs and other vehicles travelled from Vernon to the US border near Osoyoos, the report said.

As of January 15, Canada has required truck drivers to be fully vaccinated or face a two-week quarantine period when crossing back into Canada from the US.

On January 22, the US Department of Homeland Security began requiring “non-US individuals” to be fully vaccinated and provide proof of vaccination when entering the country through land ports and ferry terminals at both the US-Mexico and US-Canada borders. Credit: @dirtyoneohone via Storyful