Police in Ontario’s Durham region confirmed they are investigating the conduct of a female officer who publicly expressed support for a trucker convoy protesting a Wuhan coronavirus vaccine mandate.
Constable Erin Howard released a video this week in support of the estimated hundreds of truckers who are part of a convoy headed to Canada’s capital Ottawa from across the country to protest vaccine mandates enacted for travel across the border from the United States to Canada.
“I wanted to give a shout out to all the truckers. I think what you guys are doing is incredible. You’re fighting for our rights and freedoms, and, right now, it feels like we’re a little bit at war and those rights and freedoms are at stake,” said in the video posted to the social media platform Twitter on Monday.
Durham Regional Police Service (DRPS) confirmed that it was investigating the actions of constable Howard, stating, “We were made aware today of a video circulating on social media from one of our uniformed members regarding the Freedom Rally,” broadcaster CBC reports.
“The views expressed in that video do not reflect the views and opinions of DRPS. We are currently looking into this matter,” the DRPS added.
Howard is also a member of the “Police on Guard” group, which is critical of vaccine mandates and lockdown restrictions and is said to have joined the group in May of last year.
The group states that it is opposed to the emergency measures used by the government during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic stating, “We believe that these measures are not only in conflict with our Charter Oath but also place active duty police officers in an untenable position when directed by politicians and senior management to enforce these emergency measures.”
The Canadian trucker convoy, dubbed the “Freedom convoy” has raised over 4.4 million Canadian dollars (£2.58 million/$3.48 million USD) as of Tuesday and is said to already involved hundreds of participants planning on arriving in Ottawa on Saturday.
The vaccine mandate came into force for cross border travel into Canada on January 15th and affects as many as 26,000 truckers. The United States enacted the same policy to enter the country from Canada just days later on January 22nd.
The protest also comes as Canada is facing supply chain disruptions across the country. Alberta conservative Premier Jason Kenney called for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to end the vaccine mandate for truckers saying, “Nobody wants to see empty shelves and higher prices. We need some common sense here. Ottawa should drop the vax mandate for truckers now.”
Others, such as federal Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leader Erin O’Toole have been more hesitant on the issue, with Mr O’Toole avoiding questions about the Freedom Convoy on Monday.
Despite the money raised for the convoy, a new poll released by Nanos Research on Monday suggested that a majority of Canadians not only agree with vaccine mandates but 60 per cent support or somewhat support the idea of having unvaccinated people fined by the government.
The poll comes after Quebec Premier Francois Legault announced he would be implementing a significant tax on the unvaccinated, which he termed as a “health contribution.”
Other polls have shown some Canadians to be even more radical in their views toward the unvaccinated, backing mandatory vaccines for children as young as five and around a quarter of Canadians supporting prison time for the unvaccinated.