Evangelist Franklin Graham announced on Twitter that the Billy Graham Evangelical Association was ministering to the so-called “Freedom Truckers” who have blocked several sections of Ottawa, Canada, to protest life-saving vaccine mandates.
Our @BGEAC Rapid Response Team chaplains are in downtown Ottawa to minister to residents and people there for the Freedom Convoy. Continue to pray for the men and women who are standing strong for FREEDOM. pic.twitter.com/k4Bu7AGp89
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) February 12, 2022
Graham failed to mention that the Freedom Truckers have been waving Nazi flags, reports The Guardian:
Since they have arrived in Ottawa, the extreme elements of the protest have been visible: neo-Nazi and Confederate flags were seen flying, QAnon logos were emblazoned on trucks and signs and stickers were pasted to telephone poles around the occupied area bear Trudeau’s face, reading: “Wanted for crimes against humanity.”
The New York Times noted some of the notable right wing extremists who are part of the “Freedom Truckers” movement:
One organizer, Tamara Lich, was a senior member of a splinter party that has advocated secession for Western provinces, until resigning her position last week. B.J. Dichter, who was listed on the convoy’s official fund-raiser alongside Ms. Lich, has said that “political Islam” is “rotting away at our society like syphilis.”
Pat King, who is listed as an official contact for a regional group involved in the protest and has been a prominent champion of the protests online, has called Covid a “man-made bioweapon” and claimed that international financiers seek to “depopulate the Anglo-Saxon race.” He has said of lockdowns, “The only way that this is going to be solved is with bullets.”
This influence — and the inspiration and financial aid from some within the American far right — is hardly hidden at the protests. Pro-Trump and QAnon signs are frequently visible, as are figures like Romana Didulo, a Canadian QAnon activist who has called for military executions of doctors who vaccinate children.
(Sources: The Guardian, Franklin Graham/Twitter, The New York Times)