Protesters slow traffic at Nova Scotia border to protest vaccine mandates

FORT LAWRENCE, N.S. – Honking vehicle horns and waving Canadian and antiTrudeau flags several dozen protesters slowed traffic along the Trans-Canada Highway at the Nova Scotia-New Brunswick border on Jan. 23 to show their opposition to COVID-19 safety protocols.

The rolling protest began in Enfield earlier that day and made its way to Amherst where it joined up with local protesters to make the slow drive to the border where they were greeted by a large contingent of RCMP officers.

The protest was peaceful, and the border was never blocked.

“People are here today because we've all had enough of these mandates,” protester Tommy Everett said near the border. “We're here to support the truckers and what they're going through, but we also here to protest these vaccine mandates. People are losing their jobs and forced into putting something in their body they don't necessarily want to. We still live in a free country, and people should have the right to choose what they want to do with their own bodies and their own health.”

Everett said he feels for Canadian truckers, whom he feels kept the economy going throughout the pandemic by shipping products to retailers and keeping people fed. Now, he added, they are being forced to get a vaccine to cross back and forth at the border with the United States to do their jobs.

He believes Canadians are going to feel a huge pinch from this and says it's time for them to stand with the truckers.

“Everyone's tired and fed up. We're two years into this, and things aren't getting better,” Everett said. “Government keeps saying ‘give us two weeks' or ‘give us a little more', but people are giving a little more and government keeps asking. They're thinking it's never going to end.”

Robert Henri of Wentworth stood on the Fort Lawrence Road overpass near Exit 1A holding a Canadian flag in support of the protesters. He said the system Canadians are living under during the pandemic is anything but democratic.

“This isn't democracy; it's communism,” he said. “I'm here to support the people of Canada. We have to keep this communism out of our country and we have to get rid of Justin Trudeau.”

Henri said the prime minister is using the pandemic to further his agenda of restricting the rights of Canadians.

“This isn't based on science; it's based on politics and they want to separate people,” he said. “The truckers have been working for the last two years with no issues, but now that they've done their work and want to continue they're forced to be vaccinated.”

Carrie Borden of Hants County stood by the highway waving a sign to motorists as they entered the province. To her, it's time for Canadians to put the pandemic behind them and begin living normal lives again.

She feels government is standing in the way of that.

“We have to rid of all these mandates. It's about freedom of choice,” she said. “It's been very hard these last two years. My husband lost his job, and everyone has suffered enough. If you want to wear a mask, it's your choice. Same with the vaccine. Everyone should be allowed to do what they want to do.”

Karen Wheaton, who operates a paint store in Miramichi, N.B., said she's already experiencing difficulty accessing supplies and fears it's going to get worse.

She understands if people want to call her a Pandemic Karen, but she feels she has to stand up and be counted.

“Without the truckers I don't have paint, I don't have food and I don't have anything,” Wheaton said.

“People are blind if they can't understand that. There are 36,000 loads coming across the border from the U.S. every day. If you wipe that out, we get nothing. The truckers practically live in their trucks, they don't need a vaccine.”

She said the ongoing restrictions are all part of a government plan.

She says it's time for Canadians to fight back and tell the prime minister to “take a hike and leave.”