The U.S. vaccine mandate on truck drivers should end
A year has come and gone since ‘Freedom Convoy’ protesters converged on Ottawa streets, in what was initially framed as a fight against vaccine mandates for border-crossing truck drivers.
It didn’t take long for their messages to degenerate into anti-government tirades and conspiracy theories about Covid-19, of course. And it didn’t seem to matter that their federal focus was largely misplaced. Most of the public health measures they argued against were provincial or regional, and unvaccinated truck drivers were blocked by an American mandate at the Canada-U.S. border.
Protesters were more interested in expressing anarchy and anger. (As the flags proclaimed, “F*ck Trudeau”.)
No matter. Despite their protests, pandemic-related public health measures would not collapse in the face of honking horns. It’s because the varied steps contributed to a layered defence against Covid-19, requiring personal sacrifices in the name of reducing hospitalizations, saving lives, and buying us the time to develop and distribute vaccines and treatments.
Only with time would we reach the thresholds that could justify the removal of these measures, much like you would lift the bandages from a healing wound.
Thankfully, many of those thresholds have been reached, and some measures were even being eased before the protesters began their cross-Canada journeys.
Schools have reopened. Mask mandates evolved into mask recommendations. And last October Canada’s federal government removed its entry, testing, quarantine, and isolation requirements at the Canada-U.S. border.
But a U.S.-imposed vaccine mandate continues to block unvaccinated truck drivers at the 49th parallel. Against the backdrop of the broader easing of public health measures, it is time for that mandate to come to an end.
Calls to end vaccine mandate
The White House continues to stand firm, stressing that the vaccine mandate helps to protect the U.S. healthcare system from an undue burden. But the formal public health emergency in the U.S. is scheduled to end May 11. The U.S. House of Representatives has also voted to end the vaccine mandate for foreign air travelers.
Calls to end the vaccine mandate applied to truckers have come from groups as diverse as the Northern Border Caucus and industry groups including the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), which repeated its ongoing position in a letter to the U.S. ambassador.
Congressman Brian Higgins, a leader on the Congressional Northern Border Caucus, recently noted that more than 80% of Canadians and almost 70% of Americans have completed their primary series of Covid vaccine doses, too.
“The time to remove the vaccine requirement on Canadians and encourage a robust return to cross-border travel is long overdue,” he said in a statement.
The fight against Covid-19 is not over, of course. The pandemic continues to claim lives, and the World Health Organization still identifies it as a public health emergency of international concern. But even WHO’s director general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, offered words of hope in a recent speech.
“We remain hopeful that in the coming year, the world will transition to a new phase in which we reduce hospitalizations and deaths to the lowest possible level, and health systems are able to manage Covid-19 in an integrated and sustainable way,” he said.
A fair transition wouldn’t expect truckers to shoulder a greater public health burden than society as a whole.
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COVID isn’t going anywhere soon, Let’s just get back to way things where.
No more need to wear masks.A report has come out in last week(from THE UK COCHRANE MEDICAL),after a lot of tests its been proven unless you wearing a 3M M95 mask all the rest of those masks where useless against Covid.
And secondly what didn’t make any sense was mandating all these men and women to be vaccinated against CoVid,strangely the percentage of truck drivers getting CoVid it didn’t even register.
Soin other words all this mandating to these drivers was to piss them off that much more.On a system these men and women already knew how to deal with Covid, not some analyst sitting behind a computer throwing stats out there vs real world time.
As much of a disaster as this whole we are saving the world has turned into. As much as the conspiracy theories have turned out to be right. Unless we deal with what a mess it was and deal with what a waste of resources it was, there is no chance to learn from it. And like it or not, the experts did more harm than good.
I don’t know any canadian truckers beeing asked if they had their vaccine to enter in United States ,but Canada’s giving troubles to canadian drivers coming back home if not vaccinated.
Even as a tourist last year nobody at the U.S. border asked me if I had my vaccine but when i came back,custom agent was really pissed off because i haven’t filled up my ‘arrivecan’ properly. So it was a federal bullsh…. from Trudeau
Well, why not open this article with a punch in the face to the truckers that stood up for freedom…
But oh, wait, this article is published by an organization that fits right in with the “main stream media” that are all bought and paid for by the current government.
And by the way, yes, both the US and Canadian government had the vaccine mandates in place, but here is the difference; the US customs guards at the border must have not been on board with their feds, because very, very seldom did they ask for proof of vaccination. The Canadian border guards however were all over it though, they asked ALL the time, plus the simple fact that the ArriveCan app was in place made it a near impossibility to make it through the border north bound without declaring one’s medical status.
Having trucked all over Europe in my younger years, it made me think of the trips to the former DDR (East Germany).
It was the same eerie feeling, one that is hard to explain, but let me tell you, it is not a warm and fuzzy feeling….
If you are of the opinion that is what a free society is all about, ok, well, there you have it.
Come on folks, let’s acknowledge the fact that the whole mandate was completely unnecessary.
I salute those that stood up, I respect them for keeping the event peaceful and speaking up for the vast majority, not a fringe minority!
Fred de Boer, president of Mainland Floral Distributors Ltd, Trans Flora Ltd, Premier Truck Body Ltd and Adesso Services Ltd
So the media ridiculed a lab leak, now it is widely accepted. Available therapeutic remedies were available, Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine and others, which they had to ban in-order for Emergency Use authorization to be granted to an untested, gene altering treatment. The WHO had to change the definition of vaccine and pandemic to make it acceptable. Untold numbers are dying and having life altering effects from the ‘vaccine’. Brave doctors and others are sacrificing their careers to raise the alarm and the ability to report is being hampered or altered. Censorship is of a level which I would expect from a totalitarian regime.
A driver with my company had a supposed stroke, he was cleared to drive. In conversation he regretted taking the ‘vaccine’, as he was now investigating the side effects. Recently he drove into a snow-bank with a loaded trailer, thankfully no one was injured, again cleared to drive. What do you think the next event will be?
As a fellow driver said, ‘they can put a gun to my head but I’m not taking it’. Same for me. It’s all about control.
Wake up.
Our people haven’t had any issues with Northbound travel into Canada as of late. The ‘arrivecan’ thingy has more or less fallen by the wayside.
What we do have right now is the reverse – the Americans are asking for VAX info. If you haven’t been vaxxed then you can’t enter the U.S. – a complete reversal to what we saw 10 months ago.
There is a driver who was answering ‘yes’ to the question and entering the States, until he was asked specifically if he was vaxxed for Covid – to which he thought he better answer properly. He was refused entry to the U.S.
I don’t know if all these events are crossing specific or random or depends on the mood of the day.
Its a real sad to think that just a year prior, “Our Drivers” were being haled as heroes from both the US and Canadians because they were the brave souls putting their lives at risk to support the very fragile supply chain that had already been put at risk because of the shortage of drivers. You have to remember that no none knew how bad this was going to be at that time. All this to make sure that all of us had what we needed to thwart off the effects of a massive threat to our society with and our economy and the risk of inflation. (Look at us now)
Here we are three years later only now to look back at what could have been called a very successful outcome considering the effects felt around the world, to one event that could have been avoided if someone from our Government would have shown up to listen to the concerns of the few to Placate the concerns of many that felt the same way.
It is sad indeed, that an organization that represents this Transportation industry that we all participate in day in and day out, would take the stance to center out the very small amount of players that were at the demonstration to cause chaos. Why would this organization choose not take the stance to calm the emotions and concerns of those that really believed as Canadians, we still have a voice in this country.
This is not the time to stoke the embers that still exist but unite our people to help get us back on our feet again. My point is not to take sides but to express the fact that we do have the right to disagree.
We as Canadians have the ability to be friendly even though we can disagree. I don’t believe that the Media or any governing body should have the right to manipulate this and cause the majority to think differently.
This is still a democracy so far as I understand it. I believe we should learn from the things that were not handled the best way and learn from our past rather than dwell on it. its time to move forward and look to a brighter future that we can all participate in.
My comments are I’m a Canadian commercial truck driver crossing into the US regularly. When covid hit and everything locked down immediately I was able to cross the border no problem for a whole year. Then the vaccines started to emerge then January 2022 I had to b vaccinated in order to cross into the US cause I might spread the virus. I spend 24 hrs a day in my truck by myself there’s no socializing I’m doing a job. But more importantly how was it ok to cross when everything was locked down but it’s not ok to cross now when everything is opened up no masks no social distancing where I’m sitting that’s discrimination in very sense of the word. I’ve had omicron and covid so I have the natural antibodies which are way better than the vaccine. Also how is that at the southern border illegals are flocking across no problem they’re not tested no vaccines no mandates of any kind but I can’t cross unvaccininated. I heard Biden say at the beginning of covid if a person had it u could cross because of the natural antibodies. Would someone like to explain to me why I’m being discriminated against. I should be able to bring a lawsuit against the Biden Administration correct.
Huge double standard. Unvaccinated Americans can enter Canada but unvaccinated Canadians cannot enter America.
It is totally unfair to allow unvaccinated US citizens into Canada but deny unvaccinated Canadian citizens into the US. This is wrong for two democratic and lawful countries.
None of the measures taken by governments were necessary nor did they save lives.
Common sense and reasonable precautions by individuals who may have been exposed to the virus or were symptomatic was and is all that was/is required.
It’s a mild/strong flu, Irving more. The vast majority affected are seniors with multiple comorbidities, and far too many of the reported covid deaths were due to other causes.
It is long last time to return to normal.
You start the article ridiculing the truckers for protesting vaccine mandates, but then cite that public health measure as neccessary for the purpose of “buying us the time to develop and distribute vaccines and treatments”. Does not make sense.