Several truck drivers from around Colorado’s Front Range and other truckers passing through Monument’s Pilot truck stop expressed support Wednesday for the truckers protesting vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions in Canada.

Wednesday marked the 12th day of ongoing protests in the capital city of Ottawa, where 400 trucks stay parked in the middle of downtown streets while three points along the U.S.-Canadian border were clogged with protesters, disrupting traffic and potentially creating trade disruptions, according to a report by The New York Times.

“I definitely agree with it,” said Jacob Meece, a trucker originally from Massachusetts. “I think mandates would be extremely disruptive to the industry and the economy as a whole out here. I would say 90% of these drivers out here don’t want to get one.”

But truckers like Ervin Ruiz, a local driver who takes loads up and down the Front Range, said he was vaccinated but believes the drivers in Canada should have the right to protest. He also emphasized that while American drivers don’t have federal vaccination mandates, those who enter Canada would need to be vaccinated.

“We had to be in accordance with the law on the other side of the border,” Ruiz said.

Dustin Lowe, also a local driver, supported the protests.

“I think its great they’ve got the time to stand up and put their words out there and try to speak for everybody else,” Lowe said.

Despite the disruptions of the protests within the city of Ottawa, where residents’ lives have been upended, in his eyes, mandates were more disruptive.

“I hope it will make a statement that these mandates are bull—-,” Lowe said. “They’re putting out businesses, they’re just shutting companies down to make people get this shot.”

Lowe also voiced pride in the fact that the protests were making people consider blue collar workers.

“Let ’em blow,” Lowe said, referencing the truckers’ horns that sounded in Ottawa. “Finally got something loud enough they can hear. They need to pay attention to the little guy; we’re the ones that make the world go round.”

Don Blair, a trucker headed from Arizona to Michigan via Denver, also showed support for workers like himself and those in Canada.

“The drivers in Canada, they’re gonna push it,” Blair said. “And people here might learn there’s two things you can’t live without — truckers and farmers. If you don’t like the truckers, then don’t buy anything, because we touched it.”

Blair said he caught and recovered from COVID-19 once during the pandemic but wasn’t in favor of masking.

“The government is getting out of hand everywhere,” Blair said. “Let them sit there and shut it down. Let everything blow up then maybe it will get fixed.”

But Blair recognized the backlash the protests could ignite on truckers.

“It’s gonna make for less loads, important loads,” Blair said. “It’s not the drivers it’s gonna hurt, it’s the American people — then who are they gonna blame?”

Blair also expressed support of a U.S. convoy that could take place in March. Until then, truckers such as Blair, Meece and the others hope that people listen to the concerns raised by the protesters in Canada.

“It’s bad and it is the way it is, but they got to do what they got to do,” Meece said. “If they get moving, then the whole thing is for nothing.”