American media personalities have jumped onto the convoy story. Here’s what that could mean for Canada

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This article was published 27/01/2022 (1065 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are times when Canadians can get more than a little chuffed about an event in this country making waves south of the border.

But what if that story is helping fuel an American media narrative aimed at sowing fear and backlash against U.S. President Joe Biden?

Enter the “Freedom Rally” convoy that’s been making its way to Ottawa this week.

The convoy has received substantial air time from U.S. right-wing outlets and big-name American political commentators on social media all week.

It started last weekend as a protest against a new COVID-19 policy for truckers. As of Jan. 15, the federal government required Canadian truckers to be fully vaccinated if they want to avoid a 14-day quarantine when they cross the border from the United States.

The convoy is criticized for being incoherent, having ties to the far right, making calls to dissolve the federal government and courting some who threaten violence.

Some American media experts say the story fits a perfect mould for an audience in the United States that has been fed an anti-vaccine narrative for months by outlets such as Fox News looking to make Biden look bad and, in turn, Donald Trump look good.

In short: vaccines, restrictions and Biden — bad. Trump and “freedom” — good.

In Canada, meanwhile, some journalism experts say all the international attention could provide fuel for the movement behind the convoy, which some have pegged as anti-science and potentially dangerous.

The website of Fox News’ Sean Hannity blasted out a story this week with the headline “TRUCK YEAH: Canada Forms Freedom Convoy of 10K Trucks to Protest Vax Mandates, ‘Overreach is Over.’”

The convoy, by official measurements, is a fraction of that 10,000-trucks figure that’s been floating around online (some have even suggested the number is as high as 50,000). Officials in Ottawa pegged it as being between 1,000 and 2,000 vehicles as of Friday.

Police in Kingston, Ont., said Friday that the convoy leaving that city had 17 full tractor-trailers, 104 tractors without trailers, 424 passenger vehicles and six RVs. Another large convoy is expected to arrive from Western Canada by Saturday.

American podcaster Joe Rogan commented on the convoy, saying Canada was a “country in revolt” on a recent show. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, declared that “Canadian truckers rule” on Twitter. Right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro has been posting articles on his Facebook page all week about the convoy.

“Canadian truckers are rightfully demonstrating against authoritarian vaccine mandates,” Shapiro said Tuesday.

On Thursday, English comedian and social commentator Russell Brand released a video decrying the media for ignoring the story — despite it being the one of the top stories for most outlets in Canada for days.

“Truckers, who were previously regarded as heroes when they were delivering vital goods and working during the lockdown, are now villains as they protest vaccine mandates,” he said in a YouTube video.

Fox News “is naturally going to pick this up,” said American University communications professor Jane Hall, who was a contributor to the channel for years, but has criticized it since departing about nine years ago. The story is visual, it’s dramatic and it fuels a narrative about how vaccine rules are a government violation of personal freedom, she said.

“The attention will beget more people and the coverage will beget more attention,” said Hall. “How widespread this opposition is, and how representative this group is, is very likely to get lost in the drama.”

(Indeed, while truckers aren’t a monolithic group, the Canadian Trucking Alliance has denounced the protest, stressing that almost 90 per cent of Canadian truckers have already been vaccinated. Still, the group says about 16,000 could be sidelined due to the vaccine mandate here and the corresponding one for truckers in the United States.)

The attention could also result in more cash for the convoy, which has garnered $7.5 million through a GoFundMe page as of Friday evening and had seen thousands of supporters lining the roadways across the country this week as the rigs drove by.

For Sean Holman, a journalism professor at the University of Victoria, the coverage and amplification means more “accelerant” for Canadians resistant to public health measures.

“The more coverage this convoy gets, the more it normalizes those views and the more other people with those views will feel comfortable speaking out,” he said.

“This sort of is the story of the social media and post-truth era.”

Kieran Leavitt is an Edmonton-based political reporter for the Toronto Star. Follow him on Twitter: @kieranleavitt