Two months ago, a convoy of extremist truckers and their allies occupied Ottawa. For most of February, the country’s capital was under siege, as occupiers harassed locals while a complacent, credulous, and often sympathetic police service did nothing. Poor communication and planning between local, provincial, and federal governments permitted convoy occupiers to further entrench themselves.

The occupiers were ostensibly in town in the name of ending vaccine mandates. In fact, they were there in service of sundry grievances and commitments that ran the gamut from COVID restrictions and labor and affordability issues to blatant white nationalism. The catchall promotional frame from the occupiers was the Right’s favorite abstract noun: freedom.

Now another convoy is being organized, Rolling Thunder Ottawa, slated to descend upon Parliament Hill on April 29. It remains to be seen whether anything will come of this copycat protest. It may be that Freedom Convoy energies have been exhausted, at least for the moment. In March, the convoy made a brief tour around Ottawa, but failed to win much media attention or engage many participants. Nonetheless, the threat of resurgent occupiers needs to be taken seriously. So too does the fact that, although they’ve left Ottawa, the members of the convoy are still out there, nursing their grievances, bound together on social media networks and by organizing tools.