© Bill Roth/Anchorage Daily News via AP
Hundreds of truckers and personal vehicles staged at Cabela's in South Anchorage before driving to Eagle River on Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022, to support Canadian truck drivers opposed to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Hundreds of truckers and personal vehicles staged at Cabela's in South Anchorage before driving to Eagle River on Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022, to support Canadian truck drivers opposed to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
More than 100 truck drivers on Sunday drove the 10 miles (16 kilometres) from Anchorage to Eagle River to support truckers in Canada who have been protesting vaccine mandates in Ottawa, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
Truck drivers and other service providers since Jan. 15 can only enter Canada if they are fully vaccinated. A week later, the U.S. required vaccinations from essential non-resident travelers.
"We have to have the shot stamps on our medical cards in order to go out of state, and we don't want them," said Jeremy Speldrich, a truck driver with GMG General, Inc. of Anchorage. "Mandates should be our choice, whether you want the shots or not."
Another protest convoy took trucks from Eagle River north to the Wasilla area. Similar events were held Sunday in Fairbanks and late last month in Juneau.
The form of protest against the restrictions imposed by the fight against Covid-19, in the manner seen in recent days in Canada, has reached New Zealand. Truck drivers surrounded parliament, throwing traffic in the capital into a tailspin, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern refusing to meet the protesters.
As has already happened in Canada in recent weeks, as part of the protests against the anti-Covid restrictions imposed by the government, truck drivers have taken their heavy vehicles heading towards parliament, honking their horns.The convoy, consisting of campers, as well as numerous trucks, covered with writings with the tone "coercion is not consent", crossed the city shouting "give us back our freedom", then pausing, with the engines running, in the square in front of the national parliament, in Wellington.
About a thousand people attended the improvised rallies on the ground by the participants in the protest.Jacinda Ardern, the country's prime minister, refused to receive them, reporting as a refusal the fact that most New Zealand citizens have demonstrated their support for the government's vaccination program.
"96% of New Zealanders have been vaccinated," the premier told Radio New Zealand.