(NewsNation Now) — Taking a cue from demonstrations that paralyzed Canada’s capital city for weeks, U.S. truckers on Wednesday plan to embark on a 2,500-mile cross-country drive toward the nation’s capital to protest coronavirus restrictions.
Organizers of the People’s Convoy say they want to “jumpstart the economy” and reopen the country. Their 11-day trek from Los Angeles will approach the Beltway around the U.S. Capital on March 5 “but will not be going into D.C. proper,” according to a statement.
Another separate truck convoy has also been planned through the online forum with the name the American Truckers Freedom Fund. Several convoys are being planned, all with different starting points, departure dates and routes. Some are scheduled to arrive in time for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on March 1.
The Pentagon on Tuesday approved the deployment of 700 unarmed National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. Of these, 400 will be members of the D.C Guard while 300 will come from other states.
The Pentagon said the troops will be used to assist with traffic control. Four hundred Guard members from the District of Columbia Guard will be joined by 300 Guard members from other states, according to the statement.
National Guard troops will not carry firearms or take part in law enforcement actions, according to the Pentagon. Instead, they will be used to help with traffic control during the demonstrations in D.C.
Brian Brase, a truck driver who is one of the organizers, said regardless of where the trucks stop, “We’re not going anywhere” until the group’s demands are met. Those demands include an end to vaccine and mask requirements.
In Canada, pandemic-related protests choked streets in the capital Ottawa for more than three weeks and blocked the busiest land crossing between Canada and the United States – the Ambassador Bridge connecting Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario – for six days.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked rarely used emergency powers to end the protests, and Canadian police restored a sense of normalcy in Ottawa over the weekend.
“We plan to stay awhile and hope they don’t escalate it the way Trudeau did with his disgusting government overreach,” Brase said from Adelanto, California, where the convoy will begin, about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Organizers bill the convoy as nonpartisan, trucker-led and supported by a wide range of ethnic minorities and religious faiths.
Economic growth in the U.S., as in other countries, was brought to a juddering halt by the imposition of lockdowns to control the spread of the coronavirus. The economy has boomed since the government pumped in trillions in relief — it grew 5.7% in 2021, the strongest since 1984, the Commerce Department reported in January.
Meanwhile, unemployment stands at 4%, close to the 3.5% rate of February 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But headwinds related to strained supply chains and inflation remain.
“It is now time to reopen the country,” the protest organizers said in a statement.
Most states are already easing restrictions. In California, where the convoy begins, universal mask requirements were lifted last week and masks for vaccinated people are required only in high-risk areas such as public transit, schools and health care settings.
But the protesters want an immediate end to the two-year-old state of emergency, which California Gov. Gavin Newsom has extended.
Nationwide, new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations due to the coronavirus have plummeted from all-time highs hit a month ago, but nearly 2,000 people per day are still dying and the number of total deaths is closing in on 1 million since the pandemic began.
