Canadian trucker convoy Pat King
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The trucker convoy organizer is an Islamophobic, homophobic conspiracy theorist

by Lorraine Carpenter

A video surfaced of the mobile protest movement’s grand wizard Pat King espousing views that reveal the extremist core of the convoy headed for Ottawa.

A 2019 video of Canadian trucker convoy organizer Pat King reveals that the western separatist’s fantasy-world ideology predated the pandemic. A thread of videos of King espousing the Great Replacement theory — “depopulation of the caucasian race” via encroaching Arab/Muslim and LGBTQ2IA+ infiltration, somehow involving the UN — as well as climate change denial and claims that Justin Trudeau is a pedophile, can be seen below.

Canadian trucker convoy organizer Pat King, longtime conspiracy theorist

The Islamophobic, homophobic rhetoric reveals the extremist element at the core of the mobile protest movement that’s headed to Ottawa this weekend, and may arrive as soon as tonight. Though the truckers’ numbers are fewer than the “monumental” legion organizers are claiming (one count today has the total at 113), the number of Canadians who support the truckers’ opposition to vaccine mandates is far greater. Despite the more mainstream, armchair contingent of supporters, King has said that the goal of the protest is to “shut down Ottawa,” and the group’s GoFundMe campaign has raised close to $6-million, with some donations in the tens of thousands of dollars, for unknown purposes. (The GoFundMe platform will reportedly not release the funds until some clarity on the group’s intentions has been shared.)

Today NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, whose own brother in law donated money to the trucker convoy (and now wants it back), expressed concern about the movement’s extremist element and the notion that we could see Canada’s Jan. 6 this weekend.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh disturbed by extremist element of Canadian trucker convoy

As Singh noted, a number of Conservative MPs have expressed support for the Canadian trucker convoy. Today, shadow finance critic Pierre Poilievre was asked about the group’s extremist elements and how they reflect on the movement.

“You’re bound to have a number who say unnacceptable things, and they should be individually responsible for the things they say and do, but that doesn’t mean we disparage the thousands of hardworking, law-abiding and peaceful truckers who, quite frankly, have kept all of you alive the last two years by filling your grocery shelves with the food that you eat and filling your homes with the products that you rely upon.”

—Pierre Poilievre

It’s been pointed out that the 113 drivers currently participating in the trucker convoy represents only 0.0376% of the 300,000 licensed commercial truckers in Canada. According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Canadian Trucking Alliance — which “strongly disapproves” of using roads as places of protest — 90% of commercial truckers in Canada are vaccinated.

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by Lorraine Carpenter

Editor in chief
Lorraine Carpenter was born in Montreal and studied communications and journalism at Concordia. She co-founded Cult MTL in 2012 following 12 years at the now-defunct Montreal alt weekly the Mirror, where she worked in editorial as copy editor and music editor. She’s dedicated to supporting the cultural scene in Montreal.