Joshua Mainil and Kent LaCoste, employees of Jerry Mainil Construction, show the signage affixed to this company truck, which left Friday morning to join the national convoy of trucks that will be driving across Canada to Ottawa, to take part in a protest rally there on Parliament Hill on Tuesday, Feb. 19. Their truck will also be joined by Terry Benning's truck, being driven by Doug Brownridge of Arcola, and they were scheduled to meet up with the convoy in Virden, Man., for a three-day trek across Canada to the nation's capital.
The truck convoy first left from Red Deer, Alta., on Thursday morning, and the two Weyburn trucks joined the convoy at Virden, Man. The convoy made its way to Kenora, Ont., on Friday, then to Thunder Bay on Saturday and Sault Ste. Marie on Sunday, before completing the long trek on Monday to Arnprior, about a two-hour drive from Ottawa.
The plan had originally been to make Sault Ste. Marie by Saturday, but as Josh Mainil noted, they had a big group and it was slow-moving.
He text-messaged on Sunday afternoon, “An unreal amount of support the whole way. Supporters are coming out at every town with signs and flags. Only one group of Antifa outside of Winnipeg, about eight of them wearing ski masks, yelling and shaking their fists at us. Unreal support though, definitely already made the trip worth our while.”
Rally organizers had warned all those taking part that Antifa had plans to meet the convoy in Arnprior, from where part of the convoy of trucks drove in to the nation’s capital on Tuesday and today. (Antifa refers to militant “anti-fascist” left-wing activists who are at times violent in their protests.)
“We have to make a stand and let the country know, we’re good stewards of the land. We need some action, we need our pipelines built. It’s frustrating sitting here in Western Canada when oil is down as it is. We don’t feel the federal government is listening to us,” said Dale Mainil.
His son Josh, who helped drive the rig to Ontario with LaCoste, added that their voices are not being heard by the country or by the government, so “we have to take the fight to them, to Parliament Hill.”
The aim of the convoy is to pass the message to the Liberal government that the oil industry in Canada needs help, particularly western oil producers as they need pipelines built to move their crude petroleum to be shipped to foreign markets. Dale Mainil, Calvin Tracey and Benning will be flying out to Ottawa to meet up with their drivers and to take part in the rally protest on Tuesday.
