Freedom Convoy goes global, as crackdown looms in Ottawa, Ricky Schroder blesses US convoy to DC

While Canada attempts to crack down on the truckers protesting COVID-19 mandates in the country, citizens of other nations from the U.S. to Belgium are preparing to start their own "Freedom Convoys" to take a stand against their countries' mandates.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford issued a state of emergency declaration on Friday, threatening fines up to $100,000 in Canadian currency and up to a year in jail. "We are now two weeks into the siege of the City of Ottawa," Ford said. "I call it a siege because that is what it is. It's an illegal occupation." 

"This is no longer a protest," Ford continued. With a protest, "you peacefully make your point and you go back home, and I know that the vast majority of people did that. They came, they peacefully demonstrated, they made their point, and they left. And I want to say to those people, you have been heard, Canada has heard you."

Ontario's attorney general also asked the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to halt Freedom Convoy 2022's access to funds collected via the Christian crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo. The court granted the request on Friday. 

GiveSendGo responded to the ruling on Twitter, saying: "Know this! Canada has absolutely ZERO jurisdiction over how we manage our funds here at GiveSendGo. All funds for EVERY campaign on GiveSendGo flow directly to the recipients of those campaigns, not least of which is The Freedom Convoy campaign."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday blamed Americans for the ongoing Freedom Convoy in his country.

"This morning, I had a direct call with President Biden to talk about our shared challenges at the border," Trudeau said during a press conference. "I updated him on the situation, particularly in Windsor. We discussed the American, and indeed global, influences on the protest. We talked about the U.S.-based flooding of the 911 phone lines in Ottawa, the presence of U.S. citizens in the blockades, and the impact of foreign money to fund this illegal activity."

"President Biden and I both agreed that for the security of people and the economy, these blockades cannot continue," he went on. "So make no mistake: The border cannot, and will not stay closed."

In the U.S., the Department of Homeland Security sent an alert this week to law enforcement warning of a freedom convoy that "will potentially begin in California as early as mid-February and arrive in Washington, DC, as late as mid-March, potentially impacting the Super Bowl LVI scheduled for 13 February and the State of the Union Address scheduled for 1 March."

Former "Silver Spoons" actor Ricky Schroder and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) both supported the idea of an American "Freedom Convoy" in protest of the COVID vaccine mandates.

"I think we see what we're facing here," Schroder said in an Instagram video. "It's an evil that is trying to be forced upon our children, upon us. God bless the Canadian truckers and the Canadian cowboys up there on the border.

"I heard a great potential event's gonna happen for us with our truckers. [They're] gonna maybe start mobilizing and doing what we need to do, which is shut down D.C., shut down Sacramento, shut down Albany, shut down these states and this capital until we root out this evil that was almost perpetrated on us. We were so asleep."

Paul told The Daily Signal on Thursday: "I'm all for it. Civil disobedience is a time-honored tradition in our country, from slavery to civil rights, to you name it. Peaceful protest, clog things up, make people think about the mandates."

The Department of Homeland Security said the possible protest from California to the nation's capital was "aspirational" and "could severely disrupt transportation, federal government, and law enforcement operations through gridlock and potential counterprotests," according to Yahoo News.

In Paris, thousands of police will be deployed throughout and around the city this weekend to prevent trucker protesters from entering, The Guardian reported. Motorists are converging on the French capital despite an order not to enter the city.

Law enforcement officials in Brussels have also banned a "Freedom Convoy" from entering the Belgian capital, which was expected to arrive on Monday, according to U.S. News and World Report.

"The Federal Police will control motorised vehicles on the main roads to Brussels that come to demonstrate in Belgium," announced a statement from the Brussels region. "The Region and the City of Brussels will issue decrees banning demonstrations with trucks on their territory."

In New Zealand, an estimated 1,500 protestors against COVID restrictions continued rallying outside Parliament a day after 120 demonstrators were arrested by police, Breitbart reported.