Convoy opposed to COVID-19 mandates will 'occupy' Victoria for months, says organizer

Another convoy of people opposed to COVID-19 mandates is rolling across the country, this time headed for Victoria, where participants are prepared to stay for months, according to the organizer.

James Bauder, one of the leaders of the so-called "Freedom Convoy" in Ottawa and a founder of anti-mandate group Canada Unity, says the westward convoy will bring trucks from across Canada to the B.C. capital on March 14.

"We're going to be occupying that area for two to three months," Bauder says in a video posted online Thursday. "This is a very intense, deeply rooted NDP-Liberal stronghold down there and they've had their way for too long."

The video was recorded in a parking lot in Mattawa, Ont., according to Bauder, who says the convoy was planning to leave Thunder Bay, Ont., on Monday, with stops planned in Winnipeg and Calgary.

"We've got seven semis that are right now en route with an amazing amount of supplies, 16,000 hamburgers," says Bauder, noting the convoy has been raising funds from across Canada and the United States.

"[There's] so much that we're going to be doing," he adds. "We're going to be bringing in a lot of special guest speakers and so forth."

Once in Victoria, Bauder says the group will stage "multiple rolling convoys" incorporating hundreds of vehicles from around the region.

"We've got a lot of logging trucks that are going to be coming out of the woods, we've got motorbikes, we've got horses," he says.

Anti-mandate protests have become a common weekend occurrence outside the B.C. legislature in Victoria in recent months.