Air horns pierce the eardrums, Ottawa is occupied, the convoy has clogged traffic and shut down a major international bridge, while the federal, provincial, and city governments scramble to pass new law to curtail the widening movement. For the most part, the Anglican Church of Canada has remained quiet.

Where is the Anglican Church's episcopal voice? Why hasn't the Anglican Church of Canada's Archbishop Linda Nichols said anything either for or against the truckers and -- for the most part -- their peaceful convoy, or Bishop Andrew Asbil (XII Toronto), or Bishop Michael Oulton (XII Ontario), or Bishop Shane Parker (X Ottawa).

But the lady archbishop was quick to respond to the 2020 BLM protests in the United States sparked by the death of George Floyd.

"Centuries of anger at injustice and anti-Black racism are literally bursting into flames as people stand for political and cultural change to address these deep-seated systems that work to oppress so many members of our communities," she wrote in a joint letter along with Bishop Susan Johnson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, and Bishop Richard Bott of the United Church of Canada. "We want to affirm our commitment to ending our silence about and working towards the dismantling of anti-Black racism."

Only Geoffrey Woodcroft, the XIII Bishop of Rupert's Land, has sounded off along with his Lutheran counterpart Jason Zinko, a synodical Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.

"Over the past number of days, we have seen people from across our country exercise their right to gather and protest what they believe to be unjust laws. We fully support that right and encourage people to speak up when they believe something is unjust," the Canadian bishops penned. "Our faith demands that we call out injustice. However, our response can never be a further display of intolerance and hate at the expense of others."

Most Canadians have been taken aback that the truckers have found their collective voice. Canadians are usually not given to displays of political protest, even peaceful civil disobedience. It is not in their national psyche or character.

"To those who feel compelled to protest vaccination mandates, we support your right to do so," the Canadian bishops continued. "But please let your protest be about healthcare mandates. Do not give power or a platform to those who promote division and intolerance masquerading as 'freedom.'"

Canadians are a much different breed then their American neighbors to the south. Even though the Canadians and Americans share the same continent the neighbors to the north are more law-abiding, less violent, and on the whole a more tolerant people.

The Canadian truckers have been heard singing the Canadian national anthem "Oh, Canada" and praying The Lord's Prayer. They take pride in their red and white maple leaf flag.

Americans do not compromise. That is very evident in the culture wars being engaged in by the political left and right.

Actually, now, there are three Canadian territories as Nunavut was carved out of the Northwest Territories after Due South went off the air. Nunavut is the home of the Inuit people, who are basically the Eskimos of Canada.

Like America, Canada stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean but Canada also goes from the US border to north of the Arctic Circle in the Arctic Ocean.

Only Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Greenland, Russia, and Alaska have land holdings north of the Arctic Circle which is home to the Midnight Sun in the summer and the Northern Lights which light up the sky during the fridge Polar Night when temperatures can plunge to -50⁰ below zero on the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales.

For the most part the Freedom Convoy has been peaceful. Of course, there are always a few who join any protest or demonstration or rally, even a convoy, to create havoc and promote their own right or left wing politically-driven agenda.

Ottawa Police estimate that as many as 18,000 Freedom Convoy participants descended on the Canadian capital city driving more than 900 vehicles including about 250 big rigs, some complete with their trailers.

Of course, when that many people get together there will be isolated incidences of bad behavior which the news media likes to highlight. However, these occasions have been few and far in between with the truckers, themselves, self-policing and they are good at rooting out the "other folks."

"The truckers are amazingly well-behaved, well-organized, and it looks like well-financed," explained Monsignor Kevin Beach at Ottawa's St. Patrick's Basilica. "It's all these other folks who are joining in to vent their own disagreement with the government."

This is called a "Freedom Convoy" in keeping with the trucking aspect of the protestation. It's not called a demonstration, it's not called a protest, and it is definitely not a riot.

A convoy is a group of vehicles (usually trucks or ships) travelling together for mutual support, benefit, and protection and in this case with a common goal.

The truckers come and go, but there remains a core group which is staying for the long haul. So on any given day there may be more trucks or fewer trucks. The numbers fluctuate.

The Freedom Convoy is designed to be a peaceful protest, a peaceful demonstration. Not like what has been seen recently in the United States where the so-called Black Lives Matter "peaceful" protesters and demonstrators have burned government buildings, looted stores, jumped on cars and turned over police vehicles. Even the US Capitol was briefly under siege as an attempt was made to overturn a presidential election in a violent act of civil disobedience to thwart the completion of an electoral Constitutional action.

In the United States the police have responded in kind with violent force using tear gas, water cannons, and plastic bullets. Violence begets violence.

In Canada there are no flames leaping in the darkened night sky, the stores are not being broken into and looted nightly, and government buildings are not being burned to the ground. The truckers have shoveled sidewalks, chipped ice, and kept the streets clean. They are showing restraint and respect to government officials and law officers even as they are being arrested and fined.

After two weeks the McDonald's on the Canadian side of the Ambassador Bridge is still standing. It hasn't been looted, it hasn't been burned to the ground, the lights are on and Ronald is open for business.

Sure words are exchanged, but not bottles, or stones and bricks, nor fire extinguishers as in the US Capitol riot and the escalating BLM demonstrations.

The truckers are being backed up by the police and so far they are not being backed down. The international bridge has been cleared and there have been arrests but the truckers remain resolute in making their grievances heard.

But the government is playing hardball and is using sanctions to break the back of the truckers' Freedom Convoy. Some of the government's threatened response to drivers in the Freedom Convoy has been to confiscate their trucks, revoke their driver's licenses, cancel their insurance, and freeze finances. All of which would strip drivers of their ability to make a living and provide for their families.

The truckers have three concerns that they are trying to convey to their Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Their primary concerns are: (1) terminate vaccine passports and other contact tracing programs; (2) terminate vaccine mandates and; (3) stop divisive rhetoric.

The truckers pledge to stand their ground until either the COVID restrictions are lifted or Justin Trudeau resigns.

Trudeau, who has been in power since 2015, is the 23rd Canadian Prime Minister following in the footsteps of his father Pierre Trudeau who was prime Minister from 1968-1979 and again from 1980-1984. When he was born on Christmas Day in 1971, he was born the son of a sitting prime minister. He was only the second child to be born to a sitting Canadian prime minister. His younger brothers Alexandre and Michel we're also born during their father's tenure.

The younger Trudeau is the leader of the Liberal Party which is the political left-wing of Canadian politics, very similar to the Democrats in the United States.

On Valentine's Day (Feb. 14) Trudeau invoked the Canadian Emergencies Act. This gives the prime minister power to overwhelm the truckers with a show of force which could include the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the military.

The 1988 Emergencies Act "authorizes the federal government to take extraordinary temporary measures to respond to public welfare emergencies, public order emergencies, international emergencies and war emergencies." It is considered to provide "the stiffest government emergency powers of any emergency law in Canada."

It has never been enacted before but Trudeau had previously considered it as a last resort in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in seeking "special temporary measures that may not be appropriate in normal times."

When the Emergencies Act implementation was announced it received mixed reactions from various provincial premiers. Doug Ford (Ontario) is for it. But Jason Kennedy (Alberta); Scott Moe (Saskatchewan); and François Legault (Quebec) are concerned.

The Emergencies Act gives special powers to respond to emergency scenarios affecting public welfare (natural disasters, disease outbreaks -- such as COVID); public order (civil unrest -- such as the Freedom Convoy); international emergencies; or war emergencies.

The 1988 Emergencies Act replaced the 1914 War Measures Act.

"It is now clear that there are serious challenges to law enforcement's ability to effectively enforce the law," Trudeau told a news conference announcing his implementing the Emergencies Act. "It is no longer a lawful protest at a disagreement over government policy. It is now an illegal occupation. It's time for people to go home."

Truckers are a vital part of the network of essential workers, as well as healthcare workers, grocery store clerks, and delivery drivers.

However, clergy don't seem to fit in the category of essential workers. Their churches have been padlocked, they have been arrested for ministering to their flock, and have been forbidden from visiting dying parishioners in the hospital.

Trucks carry most everything at least at one point during the production phase or distribution cycle.

Wheat and flour for Communion hosts are carried by trucks. Cotton for vestments are carried by trucks. Bottles for sacramental wine are carried by trucks. Lumber for pews are carried by trucks.

In return the rolls of Communion hosts are delivered by trucks, the completed vestments are delivered by trucks, the bottled sacramental wine is delivered by trucks and the finished pews are delivered by trucks.

Tanker trucks carry liquid chocolate to the plant in Hershey, Pennsylvania and the resulting Kisses are also carried by dry van to the stores.

Milk from Louisiana is carried by tanker truck to Wisconsin where it's processed into cheese and then the cheese is delivered to Publix in Florida, H-E-B in Texas, Food Lion in Georgia, or Kroger in Louisiana in a refrigerated truck.

For the Canadian driver the problem comes not in crossing the US border but trying to get back again into Canada. On January 15, the COVID vaccine exemption for Canadian truckers expired making it mandatory that all truckers who cross the Canadian-American border must be fully vaccinated.

It now means they must show proof of a negative COVID test and then be
quarantined, meaning they cannot work, upon returning back to Canada until their time in quarantine has expired. This regulation also affects American truckers entering into Canada.

The United States then implemented a similar regulation on January 22 impacting Canadian and American truck drivers entering the United States.

If a trucker is sidelined by being quarantined, he or she (and, yes, there are lady drivers) do not have a pay check. Truckers usually have an income only when the wheels of their truck are rolling. They are usually paid per loaded mile.

In all there are about 325,000 commercial truck drivers in Canada. Of that number 120,000 are licensed to cross the international border. Another 40,000 international drivers are American.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance says that approximately 85% of the Canadian drivers are vaccinated. It's estimated that as many as 16,000 Canadian drivers without "vaccine passports" would not be able to cross into the United States and back again with another 10,000 American drivers being similarly impacted.

Father Anthony Hannan, a Canadian priest, is urging clergy to join in the Freedom Convoy.

"Please rise to the occasion," he urged fellow clergy. "If you're in the city of Ottawa, please reach out to me. We need some priests represented down on Parliament Hill and in this movement."

The priest does not see the convoy as a "Convoy of Resistance" but rather a "Convoy of Freedom."

"The bishops missed a golden opportunity to be leaders and defenders of fundamental human freedoms when the government overreach began by ordering the closing of schools and businesses and other lockdowns and various mandates," the priest continued.

Even the former Papal Nuncio to the United States Archbishop Carlo Viganò wrote a letter of support to the Freedom Convoy truckers.

"Your protest, dear Canadian truck driver friends, joins a worldwide chorus that wants to oppose the establishment of the New World Order on the rubble of nation states," Archbishop Viganò wrote. "Demonstrate for your rights, Canadian friends: but may these rights not be limited to a simple claim to the freedom to enter supermarkets or not to be vaccinated: may it also be a proud and courageous claim to your sacrosanct right to be free men. But your demonstration should be one of true freedom, reminding you that it is the Truth -- that is, Our Lord Jesus Christ -- who alone can guarantee you freedom: the truth will make you free."

Bishop Joseph Strickland (IV Tyler), the fiery Catholic bishop from Texas, tweeted: "The Freedom Convoy is deeply rooted in the basic values that have built the world we take for granted. We must be free to make choices for our own lives. God has given us a tremendous freedom as He created us in His image. We MUST respect individual freedom."

Billy Graham's "Rapid Response Team" is on the ground in Calgary. They walk through the crowd in their red jackets and yellow vests, praying with the convoy members and offer them the peace of Christ.

Other ministries, too, have showed up using this unique opportunity to preach the Gospel to those who have little opportunity to hear it.

Many times, truckers are on the road on Sunday, heading for their Monday drop, and are unable to participate in local church worship.

Even if they have the time and could find a church their extra-large vehicle would not fit in church parking lot. Although some larger truck stops do have some sort of a non-denominational chapel and chaplain, the spiritual need remains great.

"Churches what are you doing? Are you praying for the protection, safety and peaceful protest in Ottawa?" asks Charlena Jean moderator of the Freedom Convoy Prayer Group. "I hope so. Let's agree in prayer for God's blessing, protection and that His Will be done here on earth as it is in heaven."

Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline