CNN’s Daniel Dale Says Trucker Protests Not a ‘Foreign Operation’: ‘Canada Has a Far Right of its Own’

Fact-checker Daniel Dale told CNN’s viewers on Friday that widespread trucker protests in Canada are likely organic, and cannot be wholly blamed on the American right.

Canada has seen its capital city Ottawa overtaken by trucks and people protesting the country’s Covid vaccine mandates.

Other trucks are blocking bridges between the U.S. and Canada in multiple locations.

While some have blamed a Trumpian element in Canada on the so-called “Freedom Convoy” that has snarled traffic in Ottawa and elsewhere, Dale joined CNN Newsroom Friday to offer a different take.

The CNN fact-checker told host Ana Cabrera that his native country has its own conservative movement.

Cabrera asked, “Daniel, how much support is coming from the U.S. to these protests?”

“I don’t want to make it sound like these protests are a foreign operation,” Dale said. “Canada has a far right of its own. Canada has other citizens unhappy with Covid restrictions, and with Prime Minister [Justin Trudeau].”

Dale noted that there are many Canadians who are not participating in the protests who would simply like to see Trudeau resign. He added:

So, the U.S. didn’t invent these protests. But with that said, it is just remarkable as a Canadian myself to see just how much attention this Canada story is getting from right-wing U.S. media. I personally spent four years as a U.S. correspondent for a Canadian newspaper. I can tell you almost nothing that happened in Canada ever made right-wing news like Fox in this country.

Dale also observed that the protests have been “a nightly fixture on Fox News,” and some American conservatives have seized on them in an attempt to spark similar protests in the U.S.

He concluded that while American support is contributing to Canada’s protests, it is not solely to blame for them — and that they are not broadly popular in the country.

“Fox is also depicting them as a revolution, a popular uprising,” Dale said. “Canadian polling has consistently shown that a majority, sometimes around two-thirds of respondents in Canada, disapprove or oppose of the protests.”

Watch above, via CNN.