OTTAWA, ONTARIO — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is meeting with opposition leaders Thursday night to discuss the protests in Ottawa over COVID-19 rules.
Earlier in the day, interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen reversed her party’s position on the protests, telling hundreds of truckers and their supporters to pack up and go home.
News of the late-night meeting came as another large caravan of truckers rolled into the Canadian capital, ready to offer reinforcements and support.
Thursday marks the 14th day of demonstrations over COVID-19 restrictions.
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Trudeau has become public enemy No. 1 among protesters, and his outright refusal to meet with or hear out the truckers has only fueled the growing resentment toward him.
“It’s not even about the vaccine anymore — this is about fighting for our freedom,” protester Juliana Mayes told the Washington Examiner. “Everybody has come together as a community. Our war [veterans] didn’t fight so we would be a communist country. This protest is about honoring them, and Justin Trudeau can kiss my ass.”
The last part of Mayes’s comment generated loud applause and cheers from a group that had gathered near Parliament Hill.
Another protester, Ronnie Class, told the Washington Examiner that he believes the cavalry of supporters coming from different Canadian and U.S. cities in the next couple of days shows that support for the truckers isn’t waning despite threats of arrest.
“We’re not leaving,” he said.
On Thursday morning, supporters of the cause took their message to Ottawa’s busiest airport, slowly circling the arrival and departure lanes and honking their horns.
About 70 trucks were making the rounds “in an attempt to disrupt operations,” the Ottawa International Airport Authority said in a statement.
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As the demonstrations across Canada show no signs of slowing down, U.S. officials have urged their Canadian counterparts to use federal powers to put an end to the protest.
President Joe Biden is “being regularly briefed” on the protests, a White House official told CNN.
The protests, which began in Ottawa, have spread across Canada. Supporters blocked traffic from crossing the Ambassador Bridge, one of the busiest stretches of road between the United States and Canada. The bridge connects Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit and accounts for a quarter of all trade between the two countries.
