How Lobbyists Failed Truckers
Canadian Trucking Alliance didn't object to forced vaccination. It merely - and ineffectually - questioned the timing.
Part 1: The Canadian Trucking Alliance: Who does it represent? Part 2: The Manitoba Trucking Association: Who's actually a member? Part 3: How Lobbyists Failed Truckers Part 4: Repeated Requests for More Time Ignored
When journalists reported that the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) had condemned the Freedom Convoy, they failed to mention something rather important: that same organization had been shouting from the rooftops that there was a problem.
In early October 2021 (3.5 months before the convoy began), a CTA press release explained that Canada’s trucking industry was already short 20,000 commercial drivers, and that these drivers are “one of the oldest workforces” in the country. When faced with onerous new rules, they might retire instead. The press release ended by declaring that “Governments and the supply chain must continue to work together.”
Two weeks later, a subsequent CTA press release implored the Canadian and US governments to “work with the industry” to “reexamine…timelines for cross border truck drivers.” Having been closed for 19 long months, the Canadian-US land border was about to reopen. But truckers - essential workers who’d continued to cross the border - would be regarded as bio-hazards unless they were fully vaccinated.
The CTA declared that “the fight against the spread of COVID-19 in trucking” had been “a resounding success” partly because “highly isolated” drivers don’t have much contact with others during their work day. Despite that resounding success, the CTA totally caved on forced vaccination. Its press release made no mention of longstanding ethical principles such as:
everyone’s right to make a non-coerced, fully informed decision prior to receiving any medical treatment
everyone’s right to keep their personal medical information private
Instead, this industry lobby group said it fully understood that vaccine mandates were imminent. All it asked for was input into when those mandates took effect. January 2022 was too soon, it insisted. If thousands of truckers exited the industry, billions of dollars in trade might be disrupted.
We now know the Canadian Trucking Alliance failed to accomplish its eminently modest goal. Canada’s cross border vaccination mandate went into effect as planned, on January 15th. Eight days later, British Columbia truckers revved their engines, draped their rigs in Canadian flags, and began their Freedom Convoy journey.
