Organizers of the Coutts border blockade said Premier Jason Kenney’s claims that there are “barely 30 trucks” remaining at the blockade is “idiotic.”.Between the blockade near the Coutts border and the truckers who have been denied access to join protesters by RCMP checkpoints in and near Milk River, organizers said there are at least 450 units participating..Abe Martens, a trucker who has been at the Coutts border blockade since it started nearly two weeks ago, said there are currently more than 150 units at that blockade..Payden Mendenhall, a trucker at one of the Milk River RCMP checkpoints, said there are “easily 300” units where he is parked..Mendenhall said they expect thousands of other truckers, farmers and citizens to join the protest over the weekend..In an exclusive interview with the Western Standard on Thursday Kenney slammed protesters in Coutts for blockading Hwy. 4, saying only 30 of them are creating havoc for 60,000 other licenced drivers in the province..“Two weeks ago they had 1,000 trucks. That went down to 100. It’s now barely 30 trucks at the Coutts border crossing itself,” said Kenney..“That’s out of 60,000 licenced truckers in Alberta, operating 300,000 licenced trucks. So, while I am sympathetic with some of the messages they’re sending, like their opposition to the federal trucker vaccine mandate… I would say that all they’re doing is damage to their own cause.”.Kenney warned truckers they will face a steep price if they don’t go home..“Tens of thousands of law-abiding truckers were simply trying to make a living … now they have to put on a couple of extra hours of travel time to go through one of the three other ports of entry between Alberta and Montana. This is achieving nothing.”.Melanie Risdon is a reporter with the Western Standard.,.mrisdon@westernstandardonline.com
