Coast-to-Coast Human ‘Freedom Chain’ in Canada Planned for Saturday

Hundreds of people gather by TransCanada Highway 20 to show their support to truckers heading to Ottawa to protest against COVID-19 restrictions, in Levis, Quebec, on Jan. 28, 2022. Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press

Various groups across the country are organizing the formation of a human “Freedom Chain” stretching from coast to coast beginning March 5 to urge for the upholding of charter rights and freedoms in Canada.

The plan is for the Freedom Chain to reach across the entirety of the country along the Trans-Canada Highway, which spans 7,476 km, beginning in Victoria, British Columbia, and extending to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Dozens of private and public Facebook groups as well as several event notices have been created for local coordination.

“The chain is intended to promote and highlight Canadian unity and love during these turbulent times by calling for a hand-to-hand human chain from British Columbia to Newfoundland,” said a Freedom Chain group for southern Ontario.

According to a photo shared on Twitter, the Ontario Freedom Chain will kick off in at 1 p.m. EST on Saturday.

The event comes after authorities most recently dispersed protesters participating in the “Freedom Convoy 2022” that first began to oppose the vaccine mandate imposed on Jan. 15, requiring truck drivers crossing back into Canada to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 if they want to avoid a 14-day quarantine upon re-entry. With large convoys of trucks arriving in Ottawa to stage a peaceful protest, the movement expanded to a national scale, with many joining to oppose other COVID-19 restrictions.

Following weeks of protest, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared a state of emergency on Feb. 14, invoking the Emergencies Act to give the police additional powers to remove the protesters in downtown Ottawa, as well as those who blockaded several Canada-U.S. border crossings in solidarity. The protest in the national capital ended after the police enforced the emergency orders, while the blockades at the border crossings had already ended by then.

The federal vaccine mandate imposed on truck drivers remains in place.

The Freedom Chain in Canada is not the world’s first attempt at this method of protest.

On Aug. 23, 1989, roughly 2 million protesters in the Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia joined hands from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius—spanning 675 kilometres—forming a human chain that became known as “The Baltic Way” to protest against communism and to push for independence from Soviet rule.

Commemorating the 30th anniversary of the event, the people of Hong Kong held a similar demonstration on Aug. 23, 2019, in protest against the Chinese Communist Party’s tightening control over the former British colony.

Editor’s note: This article was updated on March 4 to clarify the purpose of the event.