'Freedom Convoy' protest voted news story of the year
The massive convoy of demonstrators that rolled into Ottawa this past winter loudly heralded a new era in Canadian politics, with blaring horns and the rumble of hundreds of idling engines.
The weeks-long "Freedom Convoy" protests in Ottawa and the kindred demonstrations that appeared at provincial legislatures and international border crossings aimed to force governments to end COVID-19 public health restrictions and vaccine mandates.
The protest was by far the top choice for The Canadian Press news story of the year, as voted by editors in newsrooms across the country.
The protest began with two truck drivers who felt angry and frightened about a proposed vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers. They connected on TikTok and began gathering support for a cross-country convoy to Ottawa.
The cause quickly evolved to include growing discontent with COVID-19 vaccine mandates at large, other public-health restrictions and general animosity toward Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government.
It ended as a countrywide movement that attracted many people who suffered financial losses during the pandemic, but also more radical figures who threatened violence, displayed symbols of hatred and aimed to overthrow the elected government.
"It was so polarizing," S.R. Slobodian, an editor at the Globe and Mail in Toronto, wrote in the survey response.
Slobodian called the protest a "microcosm of all the tensions and frustrations of those who saw public good in certain pandemic measures and others who saw obstacles."
The protest laid bare the unrest associated with COVID-19 restrictions that had percolated since the 2021 federal election, when Trudeau announced he would institute a vaccine mandate for domestic and international travel and for government and Crown-agency employees.
"After two years living under a pandemic and its rules, Canadians were fed up," wrote Dawn Walton, the managing editor of CTV Calgary.
"The Freedom Convoy protests capitalized on that sentiment, drawing an unprecedented groundswell of support. But what was perhaps originally meant to send a message instead resulted in social and economic chaos."
It also exposed problems with Canada's police services and how different levels of government work together, wrote Carson Jerema, comment editor at the National Post.
The protesters used big-rig trucks to blockade streets around the parliamentary precinct and set up camps complete with barbecues and open fires. On Wellington Street, directly in front of Parliament Hill, the protest became a party that lasted three weeks, and the number of demonstrators and revellers would swell each weekend.
Images of people in an inflatable hot tub and bouncy castle were juxtaposed against images of flags with expletives aimed at the prime minister.
Downtown Ottawa residents, meanwhile, told city councillors and journalists they felt their neighbourhoods had been taken hostage and had descended into lawlessness. The ceaseless sound of honking horns and loudspeakers and the smell of diesel fumes became a constant concern.
Similar protests travelled to the small town of Coutts, Alta., and Windsor, Ont., to block two of the most critical border crossings in the country. Together, they blocked hundreds of millions of dollars in trade per day.
After RCMP moved in to make arrests in Coutts and found a cache of weapons, the protest disbanded. Meanwhile, police moved in to remove protesters from the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor.
David Hughes, CTV's general manager for digital and W5, described the protest as a "fundamental change" in the way political protest is carried out in Canada and "a message to politicians of all stripes that some Canadians are now ready to embrace and encourage economic pain on their fellow citizens and the threat of potential violence to force political change."
The economic and social impact of the protesters were so great, Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14 for the first time since it replaced the War Measures Act in 1988.
The move granted extraordinary powers to police and governments to limit the protesters' right to assembly and freeze their bank accounts in the hopes of clearing the demonstrations and preventing protesters from returning.
Less than a week later, police from across the country launched a massive operation to dislodge the protest from the streets of Ottawa, ending in hundreds of arrests.
Forty-one per cent of 104 survey respondents chose the "Freedom Convoy" as story of the year. Strain on the public health-care system was the second choice at 20 per cent.
Now that health restrictions have ended across the country, Canadians are settling into a new phase of the pandemic. But though the trucks are gone from Ottawa's parliamentary precinct, the cracks in national unity remain.
"The movement will have lasting reverberations," wrote Rob Roberts, editor-in-chief of the National Post.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 19, 2022.
IN DEPTH
Jagmeet Singh pulls NDP out of deal with Trudeau Liberals, takes aim at Poilievre Conservatives
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has pulled his party out of the supply-and-confidence agreement that had been helping keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's minority Liberals in power.
'Not the result we wanted': Trudeau responds after surprise Conservative byelection win in Liberal stronghold
Conservative candidate Don Stewart winning the closely-watched Toronto-St. Paul's federal byelection, and delivering a stunning upset to Justin Trudeau's candidate Leslie Church in the long-time Liberal riding, has sent political shockwaves through both parties.
'We will go with the majority': Liberals slammed by opposition over proposal to delay next election
The federal Liberal government learned Friday it might have to retreat on a proposal within its electoral reform legislation to delay the next vote by one week, after all opposition parties came out to say they can't support it.
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½
BREAKING Israeli military says it has carried out a 'targeted strike' in Beirut
The Israeli military said it carried out a 'targeted strike' in the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday.
Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.
The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.
An Ontario man says it is 'unfair' to pay a $1,500 insurance surcharge because his four-year-old SUV is at a higher risk of being stolen.
Cognitive decline reduced by MIND diet, especially for women and Black people, study finds
Following the MIND diet for 10 years produced a small but significant decrease in the risk of developing thinking, concentration and memory problems, a new study found.
The Montreal couple from Mexico and their three children facing deportation have received a temporary residence permit.
20-year-old, co-conspirator charged in $230M cryptocurrency theft following FBI raid of Miami mansion
A 20-year-old man and his co-conspirator have been charged with conspiracy to steal and launder over US$230 million in cryptocurrency, and federal authorities said the arrests are connected to an FBI raid of a mansion in Miami.
Federal firearm buyback program has cost $67M, still not collecting guns after 4 years
The federal firearm buyback program has cost taxpayers nearly $67.2 million since it was announced in 2020, but it still hasn't collected a single gun.
Lawyers say former Harrods boss Al Fayed was a 'monster' who abused women and girls
Lawyers representing dozens of women who say they were raped and sexually abused by Mohamed Al Fayed, the former boss of the famous London department store Harrods, said the case was akin to the crimes of sex offenders Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein.
Local Spotlight
They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.
A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.
It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.
A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.
David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.
Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.