User:Oceanflynn/sandbox/Canada convoy protests timeline

{{short description|Dynamic timeline of Canada convoy protests {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2022}} {{Use Canadian English|date=February 2022}}

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See main page article Canada convoy protests timeline This page can be deleted when the main page article is stable.

This sandbox article is a tool for finding any content that may have been directly copied from Canada convoy protest in order to retroactively attribute that content to editors. The editor of this sandbox article, has contributed 25% of the Canada convoy protest article by February 22. The "Who Wrote That" app was used to identify users' contributions including the exact time of contributions.

The following article is a broad timeline of the course of events surrounding the Canada convoy protests, (not copied)

a series of protests and blockades in Canada in early 2022. (not copied)

The protest, which was called the Freedom Convoy ({{lang-fr|Convoi de la liberté}}) by organizers (copied)

, was "first aimed at a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers" when the convoy of hundreds of vehicles, including semi-trailers, headed towards Ottawa, Ontario the nation's capital, starting on January 22. (not copied)

The protesters quickly changed their messaging to include demands that all COVID-19-related public health restrictions be lifted. (not copied)

The convoy was condemned by trucking industry and labour groups, (copied) including the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), who stated that most protesters had no connection to trucking. (copied) I believe Oceanflynn wrote some of this originally? Rewrite.

Most professional long haul truckers in Canada are vaccinated and continued to transport goods during the protests.

By January 29, when the convoy converged in what became known as the red zone in Ottawa, there were estimates of from 8,000 to 18,000 pedestrian protesters at its peak on the first weekend and hundreds of vehicles, including 18-wheelers that were parked directly on Wellington Street, in front of the Prime Minister's office.

In spite of an injunction by a judge and the invocation of three levels of states of emergency, municipal, provincial, and federal, protesters temporarily refused to end blockades and the occupation of the red zone. On February 14, Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act.

Over the weekend of February 17 to 20, a large joint-operation police presence in Ottawa arrested about 200 organizers and protesters, laid 389 charges, issued fines, removed the heavy trucks and trailers with 79 vehicles towed away, seized 36 license plates, and dismantled encampments across the city. Action was taken against thirty-six commercial vehicles by the Ministry of Transportation. By February 20, the area surrounding the Parliamentary Precinct, occupied by protesters for three weeks, was fenced off by police after it has been secured by a series of police advances pushing the crowd away from Parliament Hill. A heavy police presence remained.

All times specified or approximated given in Eastern Time, or UTC-5:00:

2020

 * May 30: The first (Alpha) wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, lasted 175 day, peaked on day 127, May 30, 2020, with 35,040 active cases, and ended 48 days after the peak with 35,040 active cases and 8,839 deaths.

2021

 * January 10: The second (Beta) wave, lasted 230 days, peaked on January 10, day 17, with 85,595 active cases. The Beta wave was the deadliest of the five waves with 13,312 deaths. There were no vaccinations available at that time.
 * April 18: Vaccination campaigns began during the third (Gamma) wave, which peaked on April 18 with 89,884 cases. Vaccination campaigns began during this wave. While the number of cases increased slightly, the number of deaths, 2,569 decreased during the Gamma wave.
 * September 26: The Delta wave reached its peak on September 26 with 51,747 cases. It was during the fourth (Delta) wave that vaccine mandates and passports began to be considered as free vaccinations were widely available across Canada. The lowest number of deaths, 2,569 occurred during the fourth wave because of the high uptake on vaccinations.
 * October: New United States Department of Homeland Security regulations, released in October 2021, were regarding cross-border travel between the Canada and the United States and were based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To prevent supply chain disruptions, the DHS allowed for a window of four monthsuntil January 22, 2022for Canadian truckers to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
 * November 19: The Public Health Agency of Canada announced upcoming adjustments to Canada's border measures. This would include the requirement for essential service providers, including truck drivers, to be fully vaccinated after January 15, 2022. The announcement clarified that unvaccinated or partially vaccinated foreign national truck drivers would be prohibited from entering Canada after that date. Unvaccinated Canadian truck drivers could enter Canada but would have to quarantine for two weeks. According to the Canadian Press and CBC, as of January 22, the mandates would impact an estimated 26,000 unvaccinated truckers of the 160,000 truck drivers who regularly cross the border in both the United States and Canada. When asked in the House of Commons to produce data linking truckers to COVID-19 infections in Canada, neither the minister of health Jean-Yves Duclos nor the chief public health officer Theresa Tam were able to do so.
 * Mid-December: Canada United posted the Memorandum of Understanding on their website and sent copies to the Governor General of Canada and the Canadian Senate. until its February 8 retraction.  One of the main organizers behind the convoy, Canada Unity (CU), acknowledged that they had planned to submit their signed "memorandum of understanding" (MoU) to the Senate of Canada and Governor General Mary Simon, described in the MoU as the "SCGGC". The MoU which was signed by James and Sandra Bauder and Martin Brodmann, was posted on the Canada Unity website in mid-December 2021 and publicly available Bauder, whose name is at the top of a CTV News' list of "major players" in the convoy, is the founder of Canada Unity. CTV cited Bauder saying that he hoped the signed MoU would convince Elections Canada to trigger an election, which is not constitutionally possible. In this pseudolegal document, CU called on the "SCGGC" to cease all vaccine mandates, reemploy all employees terminated due to vaccination status, and rescind all fines imposed for non-compliance with public health orders. If this failed, the MoU called on the "SCGGC" to dissolve the government, and name members of the CU to form a Canadian Citizens Committee (CCC), which is beyond the constitutional powers of either the Governor General or the Senate. The original MoU contained no specific mention of cross-border truckers as it had originally been drafted and delivered over a month earlier, but then was reissued for the protest.

2022

 * January 9: The fifth (Omicron) wave reached a peak with the number of active cases reaching a record high of 443,676.
 * January 15: The January 15 enforcement of the vaccination requirement applies to truckers who are entering Canada at international border crossings. Since January 15, unvaccinated American cross-border truckers have been denied entry into Canada. Canadian truckers who are not fully vaccinated "have to show proof of a negative PCR test collected within 72 hours of arriving at the border"; they also "need to quarantine after arrival".
 * January 22: A reciprocal vaccination requirement for the cross-border trucking industry has been in place since January 22, when the United States enforced theirs, affecting unvaccinated American truckers returning to the United States. Unvaccinated Canadian truckers are denied entry to the United States.
 * January 22: The first convoy departed Prince Rupert, arriving in Prince George in the evening.
 * January 23: Another convoy left from Delta with supporters gathering along Highway 1, the Trans-Canada Highway.
 * January 24: A convoy drove through Regina, Saskatchewan, and was greeted by supporters. According to police in Regina, about 1,200 vehicles reached the city.
 * January 25: Another convoy passed through Kenora, Ontario, where Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) in contact with the convoy stated that 200–300 vehicles would be passing through Kenora. The convoys consisted of three main routes across Canada, which would converge for the Ottawa protest on the weekend.
 * January 26: The Ottawa Police Service expected an estimated 2,000 demonstrators in Ottawa by January 28 weekend.
 * January 26: The OPP estimated approximately 400 vehicles had entered Ontario from the Manitoba border as part of the eastbound convoy.
 * January 26: In a phone interview Jason LaFace said he was invited by Canada Unity to join them to organize much of the Ontario convoy. Laface said the convoy team was working with constitutional lawyers to get signatures to "compel the government to dissolve government." He compared mask mandates which forced him to wear a mask in grocery stores to "living in Nazi Germany". He concluded by saying Trudeau was a criminal.
 * January 27: The Kingston Police estimated approximately 300 vehicles (17 full tractor-trailers, 104 tractors without trailers, 424 passenger vehicles and six RVs) to go through Kingston.
 * January: Intelligence reports by the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (ITAC), which is part of CSIS, said that some convoy supporters "advocated civil war", had "called for violence against prime minister Justin Trudeau, and said the protest should be 'used as Canada's 'January 6'". The ITAC reports, which were seen by The Guardian, warned in late January that that "extremists" were "likely involved" and the "potential for violence remained real".
 * January 28: The province of Nova Scotia banned gatherings along highways, specifically on the Trans-Canada (Highway 104) between the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick border, in relation to protests related to the freedom convoy.
 * January 29: Canadian Trucking Alliance said many of the supporters at the protest in Ottawa had no direct connection to the trucking industry.
 * January 28: The number of vehicles in the convoy was estimated as including between 551 and 1,155 vehicles with 121–230 trucks and from 430 to 925 personal vehicles.
 * January 29: As the convoy reached Ontario, it began to expand from its original goals. Several protesters voiced opposition to perceived authoritarianism and corruption by Justin Trudeau, stating they wanted him "out of office", while others said: "This is not an anti-vaccination movement, this is a freedom movement".
 * January 29: Big rigs began to block downtown traffic near Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
 * January 29: Media reported protesters drinking and dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial, and putting protest posters and an upside-down Canadian flag on the memorial statue of cancer fundraiser Terry Fox. Images of a Canadian flag marked with a swastika were seen, as were Confederate flags. There were reports of some protesters harassing volunteers at a local soup kitchen, the Shepherds of Good Hope. Its press release said trucks were towed after blocking its ambulance drop-off zone for around half a day.
 * January 29: The Ottawa Police Service has 1,500 officers to serve the million residents of the city of Ottawa. There were only 150 officers on the streets in "three of the most affected neighbourhoods over the course of a day". OPS Chief Sloly requested an additional 1,800 officers early on, but by February 13, they had not arrived.
 * January 29: Estimates of the number of people range from 3,000 to 18,000 people. Media outlets estimated 8,000–15,000 people  The OPS estimated from 5,000 to 18,000 people.
 * January 29: CBC estimated there were 3,000 people in attendance.
 * January 30: Convoy organizers held a press conference at an undisclosed location, that open only to invited right-wing outlets. Main stream media outlets were denied access.
 * January 30: OPS launched a criminal investigation into the desecration of the National War Memorial and statue of Terry Fox. They will also be investigating "threatening/illegal/intimidating behaviour" toward police officers, workers and other private citizens.
 * January 30: OPS Chief of Police Peter Sloly said: "I think the only thing we can say for sure we're still going to be dealing with some level of traffic disruption and demonstration over the next 24 hours."
 * January 31: The House of Commons resumed on January 31, after the holiday break.
 * February 2: Ottawa's police chief, Peter Sloly, described a "significant element" of American involvement in the organization and funding of the convoys. Many of the anonymous donors participating in the protest's GoFundMe campaign claimed to be from the United States, and many used false names.
 * February 3: Ottawa mayor Jim Watson submitted a request for help for additional resources to the Minister of Public Safety, Marco Mendicino.
 * February 4: Following a phone call with Mayor Watson, Mendicino said, "The convoy in Ottawa has caused significant disruption to local residents – including vandalism, harassment, expressions of hate and violence and ongoing obstruction of many essential services. The community is entitled to expect that the law is upheld and enforced by police, and that public safety is maintained." During a CBC television interview, Mendicino said, "We put the question of vaccines and vaccine mandates on the ballot ... in the (2021) election and we're simply carrying out the promise that we made with the support of the vast majority of Canadians." He said that "government would not back down on the issue".
 * February 5: According to the Daily Hive, protesters barbecued food, played hockey, and set up bouncy castles for their children to play in.
 * February 5: Global News reported that there were about 1,000 vehicles and 5,000 people in attendance.
 * February 6: Mayor Watson Watson said that "demonstrators outnumbered police and controlled the situation."
 * February 6: Mayor Watson declared a state of emergency in response to the "unprecedented 10-day occupation". In his statement he said, that this "reflects the serious danger and threat to the safety and security of residents posed by the ongoing demonstrations and highlights the need for support from other jurisdictions and levels of government."
 * February 6 Sunday Day 10 The "Freedom Convoy 2022 Fund Raiser" Facebook group was started on Facebook.
 * February 7: An Ottawa judge, Justice Hugh McLean, granted a ten-day interim injunction to "silence the honking horns" as requested by lawyer Paul Champ on behalf of his client, Zexi Li, in their proposed class-action lawsuit filed at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
 * In their February 7: statement, Teamsters Canadarepresenting more than 55,000 professional drivers, including approximately 15,000 long-haul truck drivers, of which 90% are vaccinated, said that the so-called “freedom convoy” are "delegitimiz[ing] the real concerns of most truck drivers today". The statement said that the convoy and "the despicable display of hate lead by the political Right and shamefully encouraged by elected conservative politicians does not reflect the values of Teamsters Canada."
 * February 7: Monday, Day 11 Facebook parent Meta Platforms said it had removed one convoy protest-associated Facebook group for promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory. Meta also "removed dozens" of "spammer" and "scammer" "groups, pages and accounts" that claimed ties to the truck convoy protest.
 * February 7: Self-declared spokesperson Tom Marazzo said at "emergency press conference" that he was proposing that a "core group of organizers and their supporters could sit at a table “with the Conservatives, and the NDP, and the Bloc as a coalition."
 * February 8: ITAC report raised concerns that the "online rhetoric" was "violent", and that there were "ideological extremists" who were "physically present" at "some gatherings".
 * February 8: Canada Unity retracted their MoU that had "underpinned its fight against COVID-19 measures".
 * February 10: The Chief Medical Officer of Health of Ontario, Dr. Kieran Moore, said that there was a "remarkable improvement" in "all of key metrics" in the province that will lead to a review of all COVID-19 "public health measures" which includes "mask mandates and proof of vaccination."
 * February 10: As a third border blockade began in Manitoba, the Conservatives reversed their position supporting the border blockades. Bergen called for the blockades to disperse, "for the sake of the economy", but vowed to continue pushing the governing Liberals to release a clear plan for ending COVID-19 restrictions.
 * February 10: OPS announced on Twitter that there was a “concerted effort” to flood 911 with "excessive calls to jam up Ottawa's emergency call system. The OPS reported that the these nuisance callsmany of which came from the United Stateswere part of a efforts that were "ongoing throughout this demonstration" to swat-and-dox OPS "organizations and logistics." The prank calls "endanger lives". These calls were tracked and police will "charge anyone deliberately interfering with emergencies.” OPS Chief Sloly said the 911 calls were considered to be "linked to the ongoing protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates."
 * February 11: In a misappropriation of Orange Shirt Day, that was condemned by Indigenous leaders, the protest convoy declared February 11 an "orange shirt day" and called for student walkouts to end COVID-19 restrictions in schools.
 * February 11: In a virtual meeting, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Joe Biden discussed ending the blockades at the border.
 * February 12: Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos alongside Dr. Tam, said that the worst of the fifth (Omincron) wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was behind us, most new cases were community-driven, and cross-border restrictions were less effective. Duclos announced an update on health restrictions in the following week.
 * February 12: Plans for the creation of the new Integrated Command Centre (ICC) were in place. The ICC was created to help Ottawa Police Services (OPS) coordinate with Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and RCMP when the anticipated reinforcements would arrive.
 * February 12: As an estimated 4,000 protesters converged on Parliament Hill, the extra reinforcements requested by Chief Sloly a week earlier had not yet arrived.
 * February 13: Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency in Ontario as protesters continued to occupy the Ambassador Bridge. Ford referred to the situation in downtown Ottawa as a "siege". By February 12, police had cleared trucks from the bridge, with busloads of police, some with heavy weapons, and an armoured vehicle. Protesters returned on foot.
 * February 13: Protesters were completely cleared from the Ambassador Bridge blockade at approximately 8 a.m, although the border was not immediately opened. The bridge re-opened Sunday evening with 25 to 30 people arrested and 12 small vehicles seized. There was a substantial police presence and Jersey barriers were installed to keep the three-mile long access road to the bridge open. On February 16, police intercepted a convoy of six or seven trucks 250 km away from Windsor — heading towards the city after leaving Ottawa.
 * February 14: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act. The Act gave banks and the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) temporary "powers to monitor transactions and potentially freeze accounts" in order to prevent key figures in the protest from accessing funds to continue the illegal demonstration.
 * February 15: During the fifth wave there were 134, 098 active cases which was more than three times higher than at any other peak number in the previous waves. While most cases were milder, there were 6,584 deaths recorded by mid-February. Canada's total death count of 35,679 over the 753 days of the pandemic is lower than many advanced economy nations.
 * February 17–20: A large-numbered joint-operation police presence in Ottawa began making arrests of organizers, protesters, the removal of parked vehicles and dismantling of blockades from Ottawa streets. By February 20, the downtown of Ottawa had been secured by police, with the area in front of Parliament cleared of protesters and concrete barricades and fencing blocking off the area.
 * February 18: Six investigators from the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) are investigating an incident on Friday, at about 5:14 p.m. on Rideau Street and Mackenzie Avenue involving a Toronto Police Service officer in the mounted police unit and a 49-year-old woman, who "has a reported serious injury". There is a now-debunked but widely-spread online rumour that a woman had been trampled by a horse and killed. The family of the woman said that "she is alive and is recovering from a broken clavicle." This was also confirmed by paramedics.
 * February 19: On "Saturday, at about 7:18 p.m. Vancouver Police Department officers discharged Anti-Riot Weapon Enfields (less-lethal firearms) at individuals in the area of Sparks Street and Bank Street". The incident is under investigation by the SIU "investigators and two forensic investigators."
 * February 19: In response to an OPS plea on Twitter for protesters to "stop calling critical emergency and operational phone lines" as a means of protest, anti-vaccine, and anti-mandate Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, Ontario Independent MPP Randy Hillier, who has been with the protesters on site since late January, urged protesters through his Twitter account to "keep calling".  In the Ontario area that Hillier represents in parliament, 90% of his constituents are vaccinated.
 * February 19: A statement by the "RCMP, banking sector and federal government" clarified that the Emergencies Act "account-freezing powers...do not affect donors" to the Freedom Convoy protest. The RCMP said that they, did not "provide a list of donors to financial institutions". A Conservative MP who represents the Chilliwack—Hope riding, made a widely circulated but "unsubstantiated" claim on February 20, that the bank account of one of his constituents, who had donated $50 to the Freedom Convoy, had been frozen because of the Emergencies Act.
 * February 19: During a series of police advances the crowd was pushed away from Parliament Hill.
 * February 20: The area surrounding the Parliamentary Precinct, occupied by protesters for three weeks, was cleared of all protesters and fenced off by police. A heavy police presence remained.
 * February 20: The Canadian Department of Finance said the 206 corporate and personal bank accounts had been frozen under the Emergencies Act affecting CA$7.48-million. This also affected CA$1.2-million in cryptocurrency assets.  Chrystia Freeland serves as minister of finance and  deputy prime minister of Canada.
 * February 21: The House of Commons voted to confirm the Emergencies Act, with 185 for and 151 opposing the motion.

Official statements
{{reflist|group="Official_statements"

{{COVID-19 pandemic {{COVID-19 pandemic in Canada {{Portal bar|Medicine|Canada|Ontario|Viruses|COVID-19

[[Category:2020s in Ottawa [[Category:2022 in Canada [[Category:2022 protests [[Category:COVID-19 pandemic in Canada [[Category:Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on politics [[Category:January 2022 events in Canada [[Category:Ongoing protests [[Category:Protests in Canada [[Category:Protests over responses to the COVID-19 pandemic [[Category:QAnon [[Category:Canadian far-right political movements [[Category:Trucking subculture [[Category:Justin Trudeau controversies [[Category:Occupations (protest) [[Category:Canada–United States trade relations [[Category:Road transport in Canada