THE BLUE BRAND:

One glaring difference, though, is how relaxed many of the police officers seemed and how relatively few of them were initially there. Officers leaning on their cars, hands in pockets, chatting up protesters. Others mostly watched the crowds from a distance, avoiding any confrontation. Some even publicly expressed their support for the truckers' cause, like the officer who was captured on video telling a protester, "I support you guys 100 percent."

The protesters, for their part, returned the favor by strapping Canadian "thin blue line" flags to their trucks. The chumminess between the right-wing protesters and the police was palpable -- and a stark contrast to the kind of police presence that Canadians had witnessed at protests that were associated with left-wing movements, especially if they were predominantly Black, brown, or Indigenous.

John Bigger, who's now retired after 45 years of truck driving, had been at the trucker protests for nearly a week when I spoke to him, and he told me he planned to stay as long as was necessary. Wearing a big jacket, bomber hat, and a walrus mustache, he looked more prepared for the frigid temperatures than for any potential tension with law enforcement. "The police have been very good to us," he told me. "I know they're on our side."

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