The man who has taken the lead for the Yellow Vest Movement protests in Estevan played a key role in the truck convoy that was held Thursday in Regina.
Jay Riedel was approached by Bethune’s Brenda Stettner, an organizer of the Regina convoy, after Riedel was involved with the organization of a similar event in Estevan in December that attracted 427 vehicles and spanned about 15 kilometres.
The Regina convoy was held while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was holding a town hall in the Queen City. The convoy started at Sask. Polytechnic and worked its way to the University of Regina, where it circled the campus. It wasn’t as long as the Estevan convoy, but Riedel was still pleased with the turnout.
“I didn’t expect that many people, as it was on a Thursday and people are working and trying to get up there in time,” said Riedel.
The convoy started at 5:30 p.m., he said, and about 100 trucks participated. It spanned about five or six kilometres.
Many trucks were honking their horns, and protesters were cheering their support.
Riedel noted that Stettner approached him about the organization of a convoy in late December, after the success of the Estevan rally.
“She asked me a few questions on how to go about things, and get stuff in Regina going,” said Riedel. “I gave her some advice on how things were here, and then we kept in contact the whole time since.”
They didn’t know that the prime minister was coming to Regina until a couple of days before.
Riedel wasn’t able to attend the town hall on Thursday due to his commitment with the truck convoy, but he’s confident the prime minister and others in the building would have heard the protest.
But they did sit out front with a lot of protesters once the convoy slowed down.
“I saw a couple of posts on social media that they could hear the horns outside,” said Riedel.
Riedel expects the local Yellow Vest Movement protests will continue each Saturday in front of city hall. They haven’t had as many participants as the first two protests in December, but they still attract 20-30 people.
“Every weekend, it seems like there’s a few different people who aren’t working who show up,” said Riedel.
He also suggested getting a group of people together during road bans, and doing a protest with people in Regina and Saskatoon, possibly at the office of Regina-Wascana Member of Parliament Ralph Goodale, the lone Liberal MP from Saskatchewan.
