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Fact check: Trucker prayer circle photo from Honduras in 2020, not recent Canada protests

McKenzie Sadeghi   | Paste BN

The claim: An image shows a trucker prayer circle

Amid anti-vaccine mandate protests in Canada, an image purporting to show truckers praying and holding hands has surfaced on social media.

“Truckers gather to pray for guidance and protection,” reads text in a Feb. 16 Facebook post featuring the photo, which accumulated more than 1,900 shares in two days.

“I can’t recall (Black Lives Matter) doing this during any of their protests," the post's caption reads.

For weeks, truckers have been protesting Canada's requirement that drivers be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo testing and quarantine requirements to enter the country. Colloquially known as the "Freedom Convoy," the protesters recently blocked a major trade route between the U.S. and Canada, and some organizers were recently arrested.

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The image in the Facebook post first went viral on Twitter, where it was shared in a Feb. 15 post that accumulated more than 3,000 likes. Other social media pages have shared the same photo and caption in recent days.

While the posts don’t specifically mention when or where the image was taken, the timing implies the prayer circle is related to the 2022 trucker protest in Ottawa, Canada's capital. Comments show many users assumed the photo was tied to the current trucker protest.

But the photo actually shows truckers in Honduras in 2020.

Paste BN reached out to the Facebook users who shared the post for comment.

Photo is from 2020

The photo circulating online does show truckers gathered in a prayer circle, but it is unrelated to demonstrations against COVID-19 restrictions in Canada and elsewhere.

Honduran newspaper La Prensa shared the image in a March 2020 article about truckers praying for safety during the pandemic. At the time, they were exempt from COVID-19 restrictions implemented in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. 

“This group of Hondurans must work during the curfew since they are exempt from the measures that the Government has established to prevent COVID-19 from spreading further in the country,” La Prensa captioned the photo, according to a Google translation.

La Prensa credited the Honduran Institute of Land Transport, which shared the image to Facebook on March 30, 2020.

“Freight transport drivers start their workday with a prayer. This is an example worth recognizing for these people who are in charge of supplying products nationwide," reads the caption, according to a Google translation.

Some demonstrators in Ottawa have recently gathered for prayer services on the lawn of Parliament Hill, according to CBC News.

Paste BN and other fact-checking organizations have debunked a number of photos falsely claiming to show the “Freedom Convoy” protests in Canada.

Our rating: Missing context

Based on our research, we rate MISSING CONTEXT the claim that an image shows a trucker prayer circle, because without additional details it could be misleading. The photo shows truckers in Honduras praying for safety during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. The image is unrelated to recent demonstrations in Canada.  

Our fact-check sources: 

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