The so-called “Freedom Convoy” of large trucks travelling to Parliament Hill for a rally on Saturday is not going through our region. But a group in Cochrane is planning what it calls a “Slow Roll” in support.
Former Cochrane resident Chantal Fortier is helping organize it from Sturgeon Falls.
“All it’s about is freedom – the freedom to choose,” she says emphatically.
The foundation of the convoy is truckers objecting to being told they have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to go back and forth across the Canada-U.S. border. Fortier says, however, that it’s about not being told how to run our lives, and our businesses.
“They’ve had it. They want to say “Hey, I opened up my doors here. I want to build up the way I choose to operate my business, not the way I’m told to do so.”
Saturday morning at the Petro Canada, the hope is to get a small convoy rolling slowly down Highway 11.
“If not, that’s fine. We don’t have to have that,” Fortier notes. “We just need the community to be able to support each other in our difficult times.”
The event begins at 11:30am and is scheduled to last about 90 minutes.