Paris and Brussels to ban ‘Freedom Convoy’ inspired by Canadian protest

Not long afterward, the mayor of Brussels, where several groups planned to converge on Feb. 14, announced that a procession modeled on Canada’s so-called “Freedom Convoy” would not be allowed in.

Since late January, the Canadian convoy has led to a rush of online organizing, particularly in Europe where a range of anti-vaccine, anti-lockdown, far-right and conspiratorial groups have begun to rally under the “Freedom Convoy” banner.

A “European Freedom Convoy” flier posted to Twitter on Jan. 31 called on local groups to “block” each European capital, then make their way en masse to Brussels, the headquarters of the European Union and de facto European capital.

One Facebook group for the European convoy has nearly 50,000 members and directs them to join events in cities across Europe.

On Telegram, a messaging app popular with far-right groups, convoy channels boast tens of thousands of members, and there are smaller channels for more than two dozen European countries.

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