NOTHING SAYS FREEDOM LIKE HATING THE FREE MOVEMENT OF GOODS AND PEOPLES:

For all the work that convoy organizers were putting into managing logistics, messaging, and other details, they remained at the mercy of the convoy's grass-roots actors. At ground level, the convoy was taking on a life of its own, as evidenced by the border blockades that started to take form far away from Ottawa. On the same weekend that the main convoys arrived in Ottawa, a group of truckers blocked the Canada-United States border crossing near Coutts, Alberta. It's a crossing that's responsible for $15.9 billion each year in cross-border trade--or $44 million per day. All it took was a few dozen truckers to bring it to a standstill.

Coutts was just the beginning. Other blockades developed in Surrey, British Columbia; Emerson, Manitoba; and the critical Ontario-Michigan bridge crossings at Sarnia and Windsor, among other locations. This was consistent with the original idea of simultaneous national protests, jam-ups, and slow-rolls envisioned back in December, 2021 by early convoy organizer Brigitte Belton. But neither she nor the convoy protesters had anything to do with these border blockades. They just happened.

"We'd find out about the border closures from the media," Wilson said. "If these truckers [in Ottawa] thought it was a good idea to block a border, they would have driven to the border. They wouldn't have driven across the country in winter to go to Ottawa."

"I wish we could take the credit for the blockades, but we cannot," Lich said in a February 14th Facebook video. "This movement has captured the hearts of Canadians and the entire world. We're aware that Canadians nationwide are feeling inspired by the truckers' resolve here in Ottawa and are starting their own convoy demonstrations as a means of showing support for ending mandates. We wish them well and are so heartened to see how organically this movement is spreading. We, of course, encourage all demonstrators across the country to be peaceful, just like we have been and will continue to be here in Ottawa."

But Lich didn't write that statement, even if she was the one reading it. And she later said she was uncomfortable with some aspects of the border blockades, which she viewed as fundamentally different from the situation in Ottawa. "We were trying to find a balance between being kind of supportive [of the blockades], but not being too supportive," she told me. "Because we weren't condoning illegal behaviour."

Critics of the protests claimed that the border blockades had caused significant economic damage to Canada and its workers. In fact, the volume of Canada-US cross-border trade in February 2022 actually increased over the February, 2021 numbers, as trucks simply diverted to other crossings. Nevertheless, the blockades were disruptive, and seemed to erode some of the goodwill the convoy had gained from the public and certain Conservative politicians. On February 10th, Bergen once again lauded the convoy for growing into an "international phenomenon," but this time added, "the time has come to take down the barricades, stop the disruptive action, and come together. The economy you want to see reopened is hurting."

All told, the border blockades were a mixed blessing for the truckers. Convoy organizer BJ Dichter said he thinks the blockaders were responsible for the ongoing American coverage, particularly from cable news, talk radio, and conservative digital outlets. But Lich said the blockades were "harmful in the long run." The media associated them with the Ottawa convoy organizers, despite the lack of any direct connection. And as a result, they set the stage for government officials to creates plans for bringing the Ottawa protests to an abrupt end.

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