U.S. conservative gures cheer on trucker protest

By David Bauder

border crossings, in Alberta and Manitoba.

The judge’s decision came after a 4 ½-hour court hearing at which the city of Windsor and lawyers for auto parts makers argued that the blockade was causing undue economic harm for the city and region.

Supporters of the protesters, some of them truckers, argued that an order to disband would disrupt their right to peacefully protest vaccine mandates that hinder their ability to earn a living.

The ruling came in a day of fast-moving developments as federal, provincial and local o cials worked simultaneously on di erent fronts to try to break the stando with the so-called Freedom Convoy, whose members have been cheered on by the right in the U.S., including Fox News personalities, Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

“This unlawful activity has to end and it will end,” Trudeau warned just hours earlier. “We heard you. It’s time to go home now.”

The Associated Press

NEW YORK » Several conservative media figures in the U.S. have taken up the cause of Canadian truckers who have occupied parts of Ottawa and blocked border crossings to protest COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates.

Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity cheered the truckers on while showing four live reports from Ottawa this week. Tucker Carlson’s online store is selling “I (heart) Tucker” T-shirts edited to say “I (heart) Truckers.”

“Send our solidarity, love and support to all of the brave people who are there,” Hannity told Fox reporter Sara Carter, who was with the protesters in Ottawa, on his show Thursday. “Don’t give up.”

The Canadian protesters are protesting vaccine mandates for truckers and other COVID-19 restrictions and are railing against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, though many of the country’s infection measures are already rapidly being lifted as the omicron surge levels o . The five-day blockade has disrupted the flow of goods between the U.S. and Canada and forced the auto industry on both sides to roll back production.

In a bulletin to local and state law enforcement officers, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned that it has received reports of similar protests being planned in the U.S. The agency said the protests could begin in Southern California as early as this weekend and potentially spread to Washington around the State of the Union address in March.

Between Jan. 18 through Thursday, Fox News Channel had devoted 10 hours and 8 minutes of airtime to the story, according to the liberal watchdog Media Matters for America, which is a frequent network critic.

A senior Canadian government official said Friday that the Fox coverage has “fanned the flames and contributed to misinformation” about the protests in Canada.