The business section of the Toronto Star has an appropriate albeit ominous headline for Canadians today:

“Brace for impact: Our supply chain is about to take a further hit, and we’ll all feel it“

The news couldn’t come at a worse time considering that Canada is feeling the biggest increase in food inflation in the past 30 years.  Yeah, for American’s it is a bad situation, but for those north of the border it’s even worse.

The truckers north of the border are planning a major protest to draw the attention of Canadian citizens who continue to keep their head buried. #TruckersForFreedom.   What they are trying to avoid, is soon to be unavoidable.

(MSM, CANADA) – In Canada, where as much as 90% of the country’s fruits and vegetables come from the US during the winter, a vaccine mandate for truckers is slowing down food shipments. Drivers who aren’t fully vaccinated against covid-19 have to quarantine for two weeks after entering Canada. Just about half of US truckers are vaccinated, according to industry estimates.

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Perhaps the mainstream media is starting to wake up.  NBC is now reporting that cross-border auto parts and food shipments may start being disrupted as the trucker vaccine mandate begins.  Approximately 60 to 75% of all U.S. truckers are not vaccinated.  The cross-border vaccine mandate for American truckers begins January 22nd as part of the Dept of Homeland Security protocol.

In October DHS announced:

…”beginning in early January 2022, DHS will require that all inbound foreign national travelers crossing U.S. land or ferry POEs – whether for essential or non-essential reasons – be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 and provide related proof of vaccination. This approach will provide ample time for essential travelers such as truckers, students, and healthcare workers to get vaccinated.” (link)

The Canadian trucker vaccine mandate began January 15th, the U.S. mandate begins this weekend, January 22nd.  Given the scale of out of season fresh fruit and vegetable shipments from South and Central America, as well as Mexico, we can anticipate serious issues in the food supply chain.  The NBC article highlights trade with Canada, but that’s miniscule when compared to the trade we get from Mexico.

(Via NBC) – […] The U.S. mandate, announced in October, requires all essential foreign travelers, including truck drivers, who cross U.S. land borders to be fully vaccinated. Essential nonresident travelers had been able to enter the U.S. during the pandemic regardless of their vaccination status, in part so as not to disrupt trade and to give them more time to get vaccinated.

The forthcoming mandate follows one that went into effect in Canada last week that prohibits unvaccinated truckers from crossing into Canada from the U.S.

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Global News is reporting on a slow moving vaccine protest by truckers at the Manitoba, Canada-U.S border crossing.

(Global News) – […] “Truck drivers are circling MB-75 between Emerson Duty Free and the Commercial Inspection station blocking all lanes heading south to the United States and Northbound traffic coming from the USA,” Throp said.

In a video sent to Global News by Dawn Davey, trucks can be seen slowly driving on Hwy. 75 and horns are blasting. (read more)

The Canadian vaccine mandate for cross-border truck drivers began Saturday, January 15.  The U.S. vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers begins January 22nd.

The cross border vaccine mandate for truckers in/out of Canada is now in effect.  The U.S. vaccine mandate takes effect on January 22nd.

It will take a few days to see the consequences, but there will be consequences.

Keep in mind, any impact is taking place in a supply chain system that is already tenuous and unstable at best.  A small disruption that may have been minimally significant against a fully operational supply chain, is more likely to be a much bigger disruption in a supply chain that is already under a severe amount of demand side stress.  Somewhere in the range of 16,000 to 38,000 daily loads are likely to be impacted.

When questioned about this, Canadian Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic Leblanc says the trucking industry “has had adequate time to prepare for this.”  Keep in mind, the mandate was announced 45 days ago (November 30th).  According to the Canadian government, changing the structural rules for all the logistics and commerce in cross border shipping, 45 days is enough notice.  WATCH:

CANADA – […] “I think you probably won’t see that movement … that the government’s looking for,” retail expert Bruce Winder told CTV News Channel on Saturday when asked if the effort will encourage truckers to get vaccinated.

[…]  The mandate throws a “major wrench” in the Canadian and North American supply chains, he added, with grocers, food producers, the auto parts industry and building materials among the sectors expected to be most affected.

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Comrades, when we permit the government to gather private cell phone data, the government will always gather private cell phone data.  In Canada the health officials have now admitted they captured, without legislative authority, the personal cell phone data and geolocation data of 33 million Canadians.

As a result, and a little late all things considered, privacy issues are being raised about the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) buying the location data of Canadian cellphone users to monitor their activity. The agency said it wanted to analyze the movement of people during the pandemic to ensure their safety and well-being.

However, the implications of a totalitarian administrative state monitoring citizens under the guise of pandemic authority, does not make everyone feel comfy.   John Brassard, a conservative member of parliament, questions the pandemic surveillance and legal authority.  WATCH: 

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They are only secretly monitoring you for your health comrades, promise.

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This is crazy.  The Canadian government is saying someone made a mistake when they announced they were rescinding the vaccine mandate for cross border commercial truck drivers.  As of right NOW, the January 15th deadline is in place.  All truck drivers from the U.S. or Canada will have to prove their vaccinated status in order to cross the border.

CANADA – The federal government says that unvaccinated Canadian truckers will not be exempted from the new federal vaccine mandate for truck drivers coming into effect this weekend.

In a joint statement, Canada’s transportation, health, and public safety ministers said that Canada’s initial policy requiring truckers coming into Canada to be fully vaccinated, or face PCR testing and quarantine requirements, stands.

Despite the Canada Border Services Agency telling reporters on Wednesday that unvaccinated Canadian truck drivers arriving at the border would “remain exempt” from any testing or quarantine requirements, the government now says that information, provided by a spokesperson, was incorrect.

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We have talked about this quite a bit. {Go Deep} I’m not sure how this attempted needle threading is going to work out in the longer term. The announcement has come as a surprise to the Canadian trucking industry.

Apparently fearing the economic consequences, the Canadian government has dropped the vaccination requirement for Canadian truck drivers, and instructed border officials to permit unvaccinated Canadian truckers to cross the border.

The vaccine mandate for cross border truckers was scheduled to begin in a few days, January 15th.  However, the Canadian vaccination rule for U.S. truckers will remain in place.

MONTREAL — The federal government is backing down from its vaccine mandate for Canadian truckers three days before it was set to take effect.  Ottawa announced in mid-November that truck drivers crossing into Canada would need to be fully vaccinated by this Saturday.

But on Wednesday evening Canada Border Services Agency spokeswoman Rebecca Purdy told The Canadian Press that Canadian big-riggers will not have to quarantine if they are unvaccinated or have received only one dose.

[…] The new rule will still take effect for American truckers, who will be turned away at the border unless they’ve been inoculated starting this weekend. (read more)

How the hell can Canada justify dropping the vaxx mandate for Canadian truck drivers, but not for U.S. inbound shipments?  Are they preparing for a massive amount of rig switching at the border?   Good grief, what a mess.

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I do not know how better to emphasize the points other than to be direct and brutally honest.  Sometimes you just have to call the baby ugly.  The window to prepare for the incoming crisis of our lifetime is now down to two weeks.  Hopefully, that is specific enough.

As we have discussed on these pages, the interventionist policies and regulations from the people creating the COVID response (writ large) have been fubar from the beginning. {Go Deep} When they shut down the restaurants and hospitality sector (2020 lockdowns), the advisors and bureaucrats triggered a cascading series of events inside the food supply chain {Go Deep}.

Every policy implementation since then has made matters worse {Go Deep}

Adding to the supply chain and inflation crisis, in about a week the vaccine mandate and subsequent commercial passport means 30,000 cross border truckers are about to get shut down from operating between the United States and Canada.

“70% of the 700 billion in trade between Canada and the US is moved by truck. This will have a dramatic effect on supplies and services reaching their destination and getting in the hands of those who need them. One needs to look no further than the recent UK fuel shortage, where the military had to be brought in to deliver fuel as a result of a lack of truck drivers. We are already seeing shortages, if these shortages reach critical levels on items such as fuel, food, blood, medicine or medical supplies, we will see real long-lasting damage.”

~ Mike Milliam, President of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada

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Madness, just madness.  Montreal, Quebec has reinstituted a COVID curfew as the Canadian government promotes the fear of Omicron. [Prior Media Report Here] The concept of a curfew is not only arbitrary, but also abject nonsense.  Somehow the Rona is going to be worse at 10:15pm than it was at 9:55pm?

The scenes from the police patrolling the street, and instructing people over loudspeakers to go home, are dystopian and something you might see or hear in some fictional movie.  The commonsense of government is gone completely.  What did all of those people get double vaccinated and boosted for? WATCH:

https://youtu.be/zwpMZ9a7m38?t=5

MONTREAL – […] ” “I know we’re all tired, but it’s my responsibility to protect (Quebecers),” said Legault. “(Experts) agree that, in the coming weeks, there is a risk that the number of hospitalizations will exceed our capacity, which would eventually lead us to no longer being able to treat everyone,” said Premier Francois Legault. 

He made the announcement at a Thursday evening press conference, where he was joined by Health Minister Christian Dube and Public Health Director Dr. Horacio Arruda.  People who violate the curfew are subject to fines ranging from $1,000 to $6,000. (more)

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Someone, anyone… please tell me you can see the problem here.

Canadian railway officials have a rather familiar method to segregate passengers and identify authorized vaccinated citizens who are traveling in railroad cars:

(source)

I do not know which is worse, that the railway line would put yellow stickers on people as they board railroad cars, or that someone would ask: “How should we identify vaccinated passengers?”, and an actual response would be, “Hey, I’ve got an idea“…..

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