Food heading to the United States by truck became snared in a protest against COVID-19 public health measures last weekend at the international border crossing near Coutts, Alta.
The blockade began as a slow roll protest down the highway leading to the border community of Coutts Jan. 29 but shifted to a lockdown of the international crossing by the end of the day.
Coutts mayor Jim Willet said he didn’t see livestock liners caught in the blockade but did see plenty of refrigeration trailers.
He was critical of the decision by truckers to block the border..
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“I see stock trailers go by here all the time. I see loads of hay going north, and they can’t have thought this through to understand the impact on the little guy, on their neighbours, on the ranchers and farmers,” said Willet.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
The Canadian Meat Council said in a statement Jan. 31 that more than 150 loads of beef were stuck at the border waiting to get into the United States.
“Our members are going to have to slow down production if this keeps up,” the organization said.
The blockade by those advocating for a lifting of pandemic restrictions brings into sharp focus the lines between those for and against health mandates in the country.
That the issue is uniting both the governing Alberta United Conservative Party and NDP official opposition in denouncing the move that has shut down traffic crossing the province’s only 24-hour border crossing. Glen Motz, the Conservative MP for the region, has also criticized the blockage.
This comes as the call for people to stand up against pandemic restrictions begins to look like a standoff with law enforcement.
Willet said he would have no problem with the protest if it didn’t include the blockade, but residents of his community now feel stuck in the village of 250 people.
Willet said he was told by the organizers of the blockade that the mostly older residents of the community could come and go from their community and their access wouldn’t be impeded.
“The story I’ve been telling everybody is take your grandparents, and they have been living in a quiet little town where they know everybody and now, you’re asking them to go get groceries and to do that, they have to drive up to this imposing wall of machinery and ask permission to go through it and they get led through. They have to talk to strangers and see a crowd of people that they don’t know — some of them fairly imposing,” Willet said. However, the issues at play are larger and boil down to allowing the country to continue to be a free one, said Tara Walter, owner of B&D Walter Trucking.
“It’s representation of commerce and freedom and small business,” said Walter in support of the action.
“Small businesses are going bankrupt. We support fully our employees going on the national convoy. But not just that, the freedoms and liberties we used to have and regaining our life back from the last two years with all these mandates and changes.”
She said those affected by the blockade, specifically in the agricultural sector, shouldn’t see the protest as a personal attack against them.
What has had more of an impact on international trade is the vaccination mandate requirements on both sides of the border, Walter added.
“People just want to make a difference,” she said about the protest at the border, adding she has been getting messages of support for her company’s stance on the issue.
“People just want to be heard. People don ‘t know what to do with themselves with how everything is. There is no end to this, and they are tired of not living and they just want to live in peace and have freedom again.”
However, the federal Conservative MP for the constituency that includes Coutts, Glen Motz, said it’s time to end the blockade.
Motz initially expressed support on social media for truckers taking part in the protest, but says the blockade can’t be justified nor does it have any organizational connection with the larger Ottawa convoy.
“I have not and do not support the blocking of the border,” said Motz, adding that in his discussions with organizers of the Ottawa rally, they have told him the Coutts protest organizers have “nothing to do with them. They don’t support any of this blockade of the border.”
The UCP MLA for the constituency, Grant Hunter, has also come under fire for his initial support of protesters at the border.
When asked about the MLA’s social media posts on the protests, economy minister Doug Schweitzer responded: “This is going to be an issue our caucus needs to talk about. I’m disappointed Grant Hunter made the decision to go there and participate in that illegal blockade.”
The former provincial justice minister said blockades such as those at Coutts “is exactly why we brought in place the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act here in Alberta — to make sure law enforcement have the exact tools available to them to deal with law enforcement.”
That legislation gives police and prosecutors additional power to levy fines against individuals and companies taking part in offences that impede commerce.
For its part, the Alberta opposition NDP is also calling for an end of the blockade in addition to the removal of Hunter from the UCP caucus.
“There is unity in some extent already. Both ourselves and Premier Kenney have referred to this as an illegal blockade,” said NDP MLA David Shepherd. “Both of us have noted this needs to stop.”
However, despite those calls, or in spite of them, protesters continued to block the international border crossing at The Western Producer’s press deadline Jan. 31.
