A trucker support convoy is scheduled for Saturday in the Lower Mainland to show support for those in Ottawa’s national convoy opposing vaccine mandates.

Chilliwack trucker Stacey Midgely said he would have taken part in the Ottawa event but just arrived back on Thursday from Florida with a load.

Unvaccinated, he said he can’t continue to do long-haul trucking.

“I crossed the border for the last time last night [Thursday],” Midgely said.

The area convoy is intended to show support for the convoy that started from the West Coast and headed to Ottawa to demand an end to vaccine mandates.

The Chilliwack man said every trucker should refuse to work until Canada does away with COVID mandates so they and the public are free.

“We [truckers] have the power to shut down this entire country right now,” he commented.

He said people don’t have to agree with those taking part in the convoy but they are fighting for everyone’s rights.

“It’s about everybody’s freedom, all mandates for everybody, even those who are against us,” he said.

Midgely said convoys are to protest the direction the country is headed and that politicians have forgotten that they work for the public and have kept taking away people’s rights with the various mandates.

“It doesn’t matter if you’ve been vaccinated or unvaccinated, if we don’t stand up now for the rights of all Canadians, our country will be gone,” Midgely said.

The local convoy will travel from a parking lot in North Langley at 2ooth Street and 91A Avenue, starting at 10 a.m., Jan. 29. The plan is to travel through to the Grandview Highway area and through Vancouver’s downtown before heading along Highway 1 through to the Lickman Road truck stop in Chilliwack.

The poster for the convoy calls on supporters to go to the overpasses along the route, including Willingdon, and ones in Surrey and Langley. He said anyone can take part in the convoy.

Midgely noted that the national and local convoys are just the beginning. There’s more rallies or convoys planned in the weeks to come, as well as convoys in other countries as the world enters the third year of the pandemic.

“You can only poke a bear so long,” he said.

On Friday, he spoke to Black Press Media while taking part in a small convoy in Chilliwack as it converged on city hall.

“We had to serve the mayor today with some papers,” he said.

He called the papers “notice of liability” for mandates that have impacted businesses, public freedoms, and public access. Midgely said mayors in other communities and others in positions of power will also be served.

“If we stand together as one nation, under God. This is God’s country, and our country and not the politicians’ country,” he said.

The federal mandate for truckers “was just the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he said. Ottawa is requiring full vaccination for truckers to cross the border. The United States also requires truckers entering the country to be vaccinated.

.

• READ MORE: National truck convoy reaches Ottawa

• READ MORE: Ottawa making preparations for weekend convoy

.