Tucker Carlson has slammed the response to truckers protesting against vaccine mandates by Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and other officials, with the Fox News host claiming the demonstrators are being treated like terrorists.
Trudeau has accused the truckers of 'blockading' Canada's democracy after they paralyzed Ottawa's business district for over a week by blocking the roads.
And members of the Freedom Convoy protest have been arrested and charged with hate crimes, while Go Fund Me cut off funding for the protest organizers after determining that their efforts violated their terms of service.
Carlson has since hit out at this response, saying that the Canadian truckers are being treated like a 'terror group'.
Tucker Carlson has slammed the response to truckers protesting against vaccine mandates by Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and other officials, with the Fox News host claiming the demonstrators are being treated like terrorists
Scenes at the Parliament Hill in Downtown Ottawa, where truckers are protesting against the Covid mandates on Monday
Police officers attempt to seize fuel that was being distributed to truckers at the Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Sunday
Trudeau has accused the truckers of 'blockading' Canada's democracy after they paralyzed Ottawa's business district for over a week by blocking the roads
'This is a peaceful, political protest. No one has shown any evidence to the contrary. It's not a drug trafficking or human trafficking operation. It's not Al Qaeda,' Carlson said on Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight.
'These are Canadian citizens who drive trucks for a living, but they're being treated like a terror group.'
The truckers themselves have strongly denied that they have ties to ultra-right-wing groups, insisting they are just 'ordinary truckers'.
Carlson added: 'GoFundMe announced it would redirect the $10 million raised by supporters of the truckers to charities of its choice, presumably BLM, which it has supported since the very beginning. In other words, GoFundMe planned to steal that money.'
But GoFundMe have said that all donations made to the Freedom Convoy fundraiser would be refunded automatically.
They had previously outlined a plan to distribute the funds to verified charities selected by the Freedom Convoy organizers - not selected by GoFundMe as Carlson claimed - but the organisation later decided to refund all donations to 'simplify' the process.
Carlson has since hit out at this response, saying that the Canadian truckers are being treated like a 'terror group'
A protester affixes a flag to the top of a truck, parked beside another with a sign calling for the jailing of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, outside Parliament Hill, in Ottawa on Monday
The truckers are protesting rules that say that any unvaccinated drivers have to quarantine for two weeks after crossing the US/Canada border in either direction.
Originally, both countries allowed an exemption for truckers to ease the supply chain crisis that has developed since covid hit, but Canada ended that exemption on January 15 and the United States followed suit a week later.
The convoy, which organizers claimed stretched up to 45 miles long, set out from Prince Rupert, on the Pacific coast of British Columbia, on January 22 and arrived in the nation's capital last week.
Since then, Canadian authorities have taken an increasingly hard line, arresting seven people and opening 60 criminal investigations.
They also seized fuel and supplies for 1,000 vehicles Sunday and Ottawa mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency.
On Monday, Watson pleaded for almost 2,000 extra police officers to help quell the demonstrations.
'Individuals are trying to blockade our economy, our democracy, and our fellow citizens' daily lives,' Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in an emergency debate in Parliament, while the protest continued outside. 'It has to stop.'
Trudeau said everyone is tired of COVID-19 but this is not the way. He said the restrictions won't last forever and noted that Canada has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. 'Canadians trust science,' Trudeau said.
'A few people shouting and waving swastikas does not define who Canadians are.'
A man drinks water from a jerry can near Parliament Hill as demonstrators continue to protest the vaccine mandates implemented by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on February 7 in Ottowa
Scenes at the Parliament Hill in Downtown Ottawa, where truckers are protesting against the Covid mandates on Monday
Carlson slammed Trudeau for his response and said: 'Consider what's happening right now in Canada. Thousands of truck drivers have descended on Ottawa, the capital city, to protest the tyranny of Justin Trudeau's government.
Justin Trudeau does not like truck drivers. He thinks they're revolting. Justin Trudeau likes private equity barons and tech moguls, the only people who give him money.'
Carlson added: 'Trudeau is not in Ottawa right now. In fact, he and his family fled when the truck drivers arrived and they've been in hiding ever since. So when the revolution he has been calling for finally arrived, Justin Trudeau wasn't there to see it. He ran away in terror, kind of sad.'
Protests have occurred across Canada. A truck-convoy protest near the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest border crossing between Canada and the U.S., caused long traffic backups along the span from the Detroit side of the Detroit River.
And in Alaska, more than 100 truck drivers rallied in support of their counterparts in Canada by driving the 10 miles from Anchorage to Eagle River, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
Many members of the GOP have made comments supporting the demonstrations, including former President Donald Trump, who called Trudeau a 'far left lunatic' who has 'destroyed Canada with insane COVID mandates.'
Protesters have said they will not leave until all vaccine mandates and COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. They also called for the removal of Trudeau's government, though it is responsible for few of the restrictive measures, most of which were put in place by provincial governments.
Prominent Republicans including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton complained after crowdfunding site GoFundMe said it would refund the vast majority of the millions of dollars raised by demonstrators.
Scenes at the Parliament Hill in Downtown Ottawa as the night falls, where truckers are protesting against the Covid mandates on Sunday
The site said it cut off funding for protest organizers after determining that their efforts violated the site's terms of service by engaging in unlawful activity. Ontario Provincial Premier Doug Ford has called the protest an occupation.
In response, Paxton tweeted: 'Patriotic Texans donated to Canadian truckers' worthy cause.' Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said on Fox News that 'government doesn't have the right to force you to comply to their arbitrary mandates.'
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino shot back: 'It is certainly not the concern of the Texas attorney general as to how we in Canada go about our daily lives in accordance with the rule of law.'
'We need to be vigilant about potential foreign interference... Whatever statements may have been made by some foreign official are neither here nor there. We're Canadian. We have our own set of laws. We will follow them,' Mendicino said.
In a letter to Trudeau and the public safety minister, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said 'what was initially described as a peaceful protest has now turned into a siege of our downtown area' with 400 to 500 trucks.
He asked for 1,800 additional police officers. That would nearly double the existing resources of the entire Ottawa Police Service, which has 2,100 police and civilian members.
Dominic LeBlanc, the minister of intergovernmental affairs, blamed the GOP interference for inciting disorderly conduct and helping to fund entities that are not respecting Canadian law. Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said Paxton was wrong for commenting on it.
Bruce Heyman, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada, said groups in the U.S. need to stop funding and interfering in the domestic affairs of America's neighbor.
On the street in front of Parliament Hill were thousands of signs ranging from 'no more mandates' and 'freedom of choice' to 'truck you Trudeau' and some compared vaccine mandates to fascism.
Trudeau has called the protesters a 'fringe,' but he faces calls by the opposition Conservative party to extend an 'olive branch' to them. Some Conservative lawmakers, including one running to lead the party, have met and posted for pictures with them.
A trucker fist bumping a supporter during the protest at Queens Park to support the truckers and denounce the government policy of mandatory vaccination in Toronto, Canada
A trucker receives a drawing from a supporter on February 5, 2022 in Ottawa, Canada
Embattled Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly called the demonstration an 'unprecedented protest never seen in Canada' and acknowledged that authorities failed to plan for it to last more than three days.
Steve Bell, the city's deputy police chief, said a person from Ohio was arrested in connection with a threat against Ottawa police headquarters.
Meanwhile, Ottawa police were investigating a fire at an apartment building that was apparently set by protesters. Matias Munoz said residents of the building south of Parliament Hill were already at their wits' end Saturday night as the noise of the protest blared through their homes for the ninth night in a row.
When he came downstairs Sunday morning, Munoz said the carpet and floor were charred, and there were blackened fire-starter bricks strewn across the lobby.
Surveillance video showed two men light a package of the bricks in the lobby and tape or tie the front door handles together before leaving through a side door before dawn. The video also showed a different man entering the building and putting the fire out a short while later, Munoz said.
'Somebody trying to do something as insidious as taping the door shut so people can't leave if there's a fire in the main lobby - it's terror, is what it is,? Munoz said.
Ottawa police declined to release details, citing the ongoing investigation.
In other developments, Ontario Superior Court Justice Hugh McLean granted a 10-day injunction to prevent truckers parked on city streets in downtown Ottawa from honking their horns incessantly.
Protest organizer Tamara Lich said Monday that activists were willing to engage with the government to find a way out of the crisis, but insisted that pandemic restrictions be eased.
'What we're trying to do right now is reaching out to all of the federal parties so that we can arrange a sit down,' Lich said during a meeting streamed on YouTube.
'So that we can start these talks and see how we can move forward, have their mandates and the restrictions lifted, restore Canadians rights and freedoms and go home.'
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