The so-called “freedom convoy” is expected to make its way through the Greater Toronto Area on Thursday.
As a result, Ontario Provincial Police said on Twitter that disruptions are possible on the Queen Elizabeth Way and highways 403, 401, 427 and 400.
Convoys of truckers are making their way to Ottawa this week to protest COVID-19-related mandates.
Police said delays are possible in the GTA between Thursday and Saturday, but the organizers’ website indicates convoys will be moving through the region on Thursday.
Truckers are heading to Ottawa from east and west parts of the country, as well as from southern Ontario where routes are departing from several locations including Windsor, Sarnia, Niagara and Toronto on Thursday, according to the website.
The website indicates that the convoys will be passing through the Toronto area in the late morning hours, into the afternoon.
The Toronto convoy is scheduled to leave from Vaughan Mills at noon.
The groups are then scheduled to arrive in Kingston Thursday evening and begin heading to Ottawa on Friday, the website says.
Organizers of the protest describe the Canadian government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers to avoid quarantine as an example of political overreach resulting in economic harm, arguing the policy hurts small businesses and denies some workers the means to survive.
The United States has also imposed a vaccine mandate for truckers.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau touted on Monday as the “biggest trucker association in Canada,” has spoken out against the convoy, saying protests on public roadways are “not how disagreements with government policies should be expressed.”
Trudeau also said Monday that the vast majority of truckers in Canada are vaccinated and won’t be impacted by the cross-border vaccine mandate.
— with files from Kevin Nielsen, Rachel Gilmore and The Canadian Press