A convoy of big rigs has arrived in the national capital to protest vaccine mandates and Covid-19 measures. It's been dubbed the Freedom Convoy. The movement was sparked by a vaccine mandate for truckers crossing the US-Canada border, implemented by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government earlier this month. Upset with the new measure that would require unvaccinated Canadian truckers crossing the two nations' boundary to quarantine once they've returned home, a loose coalition of truckers and conservative groups began to organise the cross-country drive that began in western Canada. It picked up steam and gathered support as it drove east. Many supporters, already opposed to Mr Trudeau and his politics, have grown frustrated with pandemic measures they see as political overreach. Social media and news footage showed trucks and companion vehicles snaking along highways, cheered on by people gathered on roadsides and overpasses, often waving Canadian flags and signs disparaging Mr Trudeau. A GoFundMe campaign has raised, to date, over a whopping C$7m ($5.4m; £4m) from over 99,000 donors. We want to be free, we want to have our choice again, and we want hope - and the government has taken that away," Harold Jonker, a truck driver and trucking company owner, told the BBC. Mr Trudeau this week denounced the convoy and its supporters as a "small fringe minority". But the convoy has received some support from Conservative politicians.
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