WINNIPEG, Manitoba (LifeSiteNews) – Canadian trucking companies are reporting driver shortages as a direct result of a federal government COVID jab mandate for all haulers crossing the border.
Robert Penner, who is the president and CEO of Winnipeg-based Bison Transport, one of Canada’s largest trucking firms, said his company alone has already lost nearly 10 percent of its cross-border drivers due to the trucker jab mandate, which went into effect on January 15.
Penner noted “without question” the COVID jab mandate for truckers has created “challenges for our industry,” noting that it will “drive up costs on all goods originating from or destined to the United States,” as reported in the Globe & Mail.
Mark Millian, the president of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada, had warned the federal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of possible shortages of goods moving across the border before the mandate took place.
“We already have a fractured supply chain,” Millian said, as reported in the Globe & Mail, noting that if the supply chain is damaged, “we’re going to see a shortage” of the supplies Canadians need for their “own health and safety.”
Late last week, the Trudeau government reinstated a requirement that all truckers crossing the border be “fully vaccinated” against COVID-19 by January 15.
The mandate came as a surprise to many as only a day earlier, multiple media reports surfaced saying the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said un-jabbed truck drivers would be allowed to enter Canada from the United States.
The federal government claimed that the CBSA message was “provided in error,” and that it would indeed be going ahead with the jab mandate, which forces all truckers crossing into Canada to show proof of vaccination upon arrival using the ArriveCan app.
Canadian truckers coming from the United States who are not jabbed will still be allowed to enter the country, however, they will be forced to do a COVID test and then quarantine for up to two weeks. Un-jabbed American truckers will be denied entry.
The jab mandate for truckers was first announced on November 19, 2021, by the federal government.
After this announcement, trade associations from Canada and the U.S. began warning that the vaccine mandate could harshly impact an already stressed food and goods supply chain, which has seen massive disruptions due to the COVID crisis.
According to the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), it is estimated that the mandate will impact up to 30,000, or around 30 percent of Canadian truck drivers and about 16,000 American truck drivers who enter Canada regularly.
The U.S. will implement a trucker jab mandate of its own starting on January 22.
Truckers fight back against ‘unconstitutional’ vaccine mandates
Truckers in Canada are fighting back against the jab mandates.
Starting next week, a nationwide “Freedom Convoy” to protest the trucker COVID jab mandates will begin a “slow roll” protest to Ottawa.
According to the “Freedom Convoy 2022” Go Fund Me page, the group says truckers are “taking our fight to the doorsteps of our Federal Government and demanding that they cease all mandates against its people.”
The group says that truckers from the Vancouver area will begin a large “slow roll” convoy on January 23, moving eastward and making their way to Ottawa by January 28.
Ahead of the “Freedom Convoy” some truckers in the Canadian province of Manitoba just a few days ago staged a slow-rolling protest against COVID jab mandates along at the Canada/U.S border in Emerson. The protest has led to major delays in the area.
Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) MP for Southern Manitoba Ted Falk was onsite at the protest to show his support for un-jabbed truckers.
Falk blasted the COVID jab mandates for truckers, saying “Trudeau has arbitrarily villainized these brave men and women are a threat.”
“I’m here to support these truckers and protesting against Justin Trudeau’s vaccine mandates because we know they’re not ethical, we know they’re not constitutional, we know that these mandates are wrong and that’s the message these truckers are trying to communicate,” Falk said.
According to a growing body of data, vaccine mandates and passports are a failed strategy for tackling COVID.
Additionally, regardless of the Trudeau government’s ongoing persecution of the vaccine-free, COVID jab trials have never produced evidence that the injections stop infection or prevent transmission. They do not even claim to reduce hospitalization, but the measurement of success is in preventing severe symptoms of COVID-19 disease. Moreover, there is strong evidence that the “vaccinated” are just as likely to carry and transmit the virus as the unvaccinated.