Los Angeles, Feb 21 :Actress Evangeline Lilly has written to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, urging him to speak with the groups protesting vaccine mandates and pandemic restrictions in the country and hear their concerns. The MCU and Hobbit actress addressed Trudeau in a video posted to the Instagram account for Bridge City News, a Canadian news show. In the video, Lilly stated: “I want to speak to you today about your current approach to and your current treatment of our fellow Canadians who are protesting your federal vaccine mandates. They have asked to meet with you, prime minister, medical experts, top scientists, doctors, nurses, parents, grandparents, intelligent, loving, concerned citizens.” She then further went on to directly ask “Why won’t you sit with them?” Demonstrations by truckers began in the Canadian capital of Ottawa on January 22. They started with truckers in a self styled ‘Freedom Convoy’ protesting a mandate stating that truckers travelling from the United States to Canada be vaccinated. The protests soon became a rallying cry for people wishing to protest pandemic restrictions as well, spreading to Toronto, Quebec City and Calgary and blocking supply chain lines. “If you’re so convinced of your own reasons for the mandates, sit down and walk the leaders of a group of 2.3 million protesters across the country who represent many millions more across the nation, and explain it to them and ask them to listen with open hearts and minds, and then reciprocate,” Lilly added in her video. She concluded “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, recognise and hear from the people sitting out in the cold at your door.” This is not the first time Lilly has been vocal about vaccine mandates. In January, the actress posted on Instagram that she attended a rally in Washington, D.C. “This is not safe,” Lilly wrote on social media at the time. “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.” The actress who plays Hope Van Dyne in MCU’s Ant Man films, has wrapped filming on ‘Ant-Man’ and the ‘Wasp: Quantumania’, which will be released on July 28, 2023.(UNI)