The demonstrations began in late January after the United States and Canada imposed a new rule requiring cross-border truck drivers to be fully vaccinated to enter their respective countries.

Since then, the protests have grown into a broader condemnation of pandemic-related measures and the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was recently reelected.

[...]

Protesters in semi-trucks and other vehicles began descending on Ottawa on Jan. 28. They include those who oppose vaccines, vaccine mandates and other coronavirus restrictions; anti-government activists; conspiracy theorists; and far-right extremists.

[...]

Demonstrators also set up a blockade to disrupt the flow of goods through two crossings along the U.S.-Canada border Tuesday — the Coutts border crossing linking Alberta to Montana, and the Ambassador Bridge linking Ontario to Detroit.

The effort to launch an American “freedom convoy”, inspired by the Canadian truckers who have shut down parts of Ottawa for several weeks initially to protest vaccine mandates, is taking shape in a somewhat haphazard fashion.

[...]

The motivation of the US convoys appears as fragmented as its organization. Coltrin has said his group’s protest will be about everything from the cross-border vaccine mandates for truckers, to rising inflation, to their erroneous belief that electoral fraud cost Donald Trump his re-election. “Remember we are not only up against the government, but a $200tn big pharma industry and all its investors,” he said. Coltrin has repeatedly shared anti-vaccine misinformation on Facebook, including from the QAnon influencer Praying Medic.

On Monday, D.C. police blocked all eastbound offramps on the freeway, including 14th Street SW, the 12th Street Expressway, the 3rd Street Tunnel, South Capitol Street and the ramp to northbound D.C. Route 295.

That meant that many drivers who were driving with the trucks — and those caught up in the convoy — could not easily exit the freeway.

[...]

The protesters, separated intermittently by the congested traffic, waved flags and blew their horns as they drove. When asked why they had come to protest, one unidentified couple with Montana license plates answered “freedom.”

[...]

The convoy, which is inspired by similar efforts in Canada, are protesting COVID-19 mandates, although most restrictions have already lifted, along with various other issues.

Amid the cacophony of conspiracies, claims, and controversies emanating from Canada’s Freedom Convoy in February, one issue was decidedly muted: energy. While energy issues had been the driving force behind previous right-wing protests in Canada, it was barely visible during the weeks-long occupation of the nation’s capital.

[...]

If on the surface the links between energy and the anti-lockdown politics of the Freedom Convoy seemed scant, below the surface they were extensive. The organization, tactics, networks, and funding for the Convoy didn’t spring from nowhere. In fact, they were nurtured and cultivated through past protests and campaigns centred on energy issues. In the wake of the Convoy and the attention on its organizers, we have learned that many of these organizers became radicalized and honed their strategies and tactics via the contentious energy politics and protests in western Canada. Indeed, Freedom Convoy organizers and advocates like Tamara Lich, Pat King, James Bauder, Glen Carritt, and Mark Friesen all cut their teeth in the anti-carbon tax and anti-immigration activism of the Yellow Vests movement that grew in 2018 and the closely aligned United We Roll convoy that would lead a pro-oil truck cavalcade to Ottawa in February of 2019.

In fact, it may be more helpful to view the Yellow Vests, United We Roll, and the Freedom Convoy as a continuous and evolving right-wing movement rather than separate or unique events.