Evangeline Lilly Wants Justin Trudeau To Meet With Vaccine Mandate Protesters

In Ottawa, Canada, Protests started on January 22 and are currently in full gear. The demonstrations began with a truck convoy going to Ottawa to protest the vaccine mandate for truckers moving across the US-Canada border. It soon escalated into opposition to the pandemic restrictions across the country.

Evangeline Lilly is known for her role in the Marvel movie “Ant-Man” as Hope Pym. The actress has a history of airing her pro-choice views concerning COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates. In early 2022 she came under fire for her comments about social distancing during the pandemic.

Lilly recently released a video appealing to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to listen to the protesters all over the country. The actress mentioned that the government wasn’t exploring ways to unify the people and asked them to “sit with them” and discuss a possible solution.

Lilly posted a video earlier this week, asking Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau to listen to the groups against the vaccine mandates and pandemic restrictions. She made the post on the Instagram account of Bridge City News. The news channel airs on a Christian television network called the Miracle Channel.

She said, “I want to speak to you today about your current approach to and current treatment of our fellow Canadians who are protesting your federal vaccine mandates.” The “Ant-Man” actress then asked, “Why won’t you sit with them? They have asked to meet with you, Prime Minister: medical experts, top scientists, doctors, nurses, parents, grandparents, intelligent, loving, concerned citizens.”

Lilly then asked the government to talk to the protesters across the country and air their opinions on the importance of the pandemic mandates. The actress said to “ask them with open hearts and minds, and then reciprocate.”

“Listen to what they have to say with a mind open to hearing things that might go against the ideas you are entrenched in,” she added. The 42-year-old then pointed out that there were possible ways to unify the Canadian people that Trudeau’s administration hadn’t explored yet.

Lilly said, “You unify people by finding solutions together, not by vilifying those who say there is a better way. What we need right now from our leadership is unification, and that requires being willing to see, recognize and hear from the people sitting out in the cold at your door.”

The protests started in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, on January 22. It kicked off with truckers organizing a demonstration because a mandate required them to be vaccinated before traveling from the U.S. to Canada.

It soon grew to be a rally against the pandemic restrictions by everyone affected. The demonstrations spread to Toronto, Calgary, and Quebec City and blocked most supply chain lines. Several far-right activists were among the protest organizers, and according to The New York Times, this had led to several arrests this week.

A false report circulated on social media about the number of people protesting. 2.3 million people were protesting; however, fact-checkers on Reuters debunked the number. In response to the protests, Prime minister Trudeau declared a National public order emergency in the country. In a speech addressed to the nation, he said, “We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue.”

This isn’t the Marvel actress’s first time talking about vaccine mandates. Earlier in January, Lilly made a post on Instagram about the rally she attended in Washington D.C. She captioned it, “This is not safe. This is not healthy. This is not love. I understand the world is in fear, but I don’t believe that answering fear with force will fix our problems. I was pro-choice before COVID, and I am still pro-choice today.”

Earlier in March, the actress came under fire for an Instagram post where she said she wasn’t going to social distance because of a “respiratory flu.” After receiving backlash from her followers, the actress apologized for the slight.

The actress wrote, “I want to offer my sincere and heartfelt apology for the insensitivity I showed in my previous post to the very real suffering and fear that has gripped the world through COVID19. I thought I was infusing calm into the hysteria. I can see now that I was projecting my own fears into an already fearful and traumatic situation.”