Canadian police have made progress clearing a week-long blockade by truckers and anti-lockdown demonstrators at a crucial border crossing with the US, as large trucks left the area peacefully and authorities arrested holdouts early on Sunday.
The Ambassador Bridge, the busiest border crossing in North America, was closed because of a small group of anti-vaccine mandate protesters who were joined by supporters in cars and pick-up trucks. The bridge connects Windsor, Ontario, with Detroit, Michigan.
Drew Dilkens, the mayor of Windsor, said: “[Police] have started the enforcement, they are going to continue until they finish it, the goal is to have people move out peacefully.” The Windsor police department said it made several arrests and towed vehicles on Sunday morning, according to its Twitter account and a news release.
“This is no longer just about vaccine mandates and mask mandates, this is more to do with an anti-government protest and it is leaderless,” Dilkens added.
The mayor said daily trade across the Ambassador Bridge was C$400mn (US$314mn), with crossings by 8,000-10,000 trucks.
On Saturday morning, lorry drivers had driven away without resistance after police moved in. Earlier, they had shouted “Shame” and “Freedom” as a police line advanced.
The protesters, part of the self-styled “Freedom Convoy” that has occupied Ottawa, Canada’s capital, for two weeks, had defied warnings to end the blockade, spending the night at the border.
What began as a narrow demonstration against a requirement that truck drivers crossing the Canada-US border be vaccinated against Covid-19 has swelled into a vast, foreign-funded anti-government protest. Justin Trudeau, the centre-left prime minister, has become the main target of the protesters’ anger.
His office said that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had established a co-ordinated command centre with provincial and municipal law enforcement to deal with the demonstrations, and warned that “consequences for breaking the law will be increasingly severe”.
As well as blocking Ambassador Bridge, protesters, whose demands range from easing Covid-19 curbs to the overthrow of Trudeau’s government, have laid siege to Ottawa and clogged traffic at another crucial border crossing in Coutts, Alberta. The Freedom Convoy does not have the support of trade unions representing truckers.
On Friday, a judge ordered an end to the blockade, while Doug Ford, premier of Ontario, declared a state of emergency, threatening those that blocked roads and bridges with C$100,000 fines and a year in jail. Police intervened on Saturday morning after the court-mandated deadline of 7pm on Friday had passed.
Yet the police said 4,000 demonstrators massed in Ottawa on Saturday, many of them dressed in camouflage, marching through residential neighbourhoods waving flags and chanting “Freedom”.
Police stood by as protesters removed barricades at Ottawa’s National War Memorial, which had been installed after people urinated on it and danced on the tomb of the unknown soldier during the protest’s first weekend.
“This isn’t just Ottawa, it’s the nation’s capital. But no one — not the city, the province, or the federal government — can seem to get their act together to end this illegal occupation,” Catherine McKenna, a former cabinet minister in Trudeau’s government, said in a social media post.
Ambassador Bridge supports more than a quarter of trade between Canada and the US, prompting concern from the White House about supply chain disruptions. Last week US president Joe Biden asked Canada to use federal powers to end the blockade, but Trudeau said he was not considering deploying the army.
Manufacturers have already suffered supply chain interruptions. Ford, the second-largest US carmaker, said on Friday that it had stopped work at its Ohio assembly plant, while Toyota and General Motors announced production cuts.
Thousands of anti-vaccine mandate protesters descended on Ottawa at the end of January, when about 400 trucks blocked streets in front of parliament for a fortnight. The protesters erected a stage, a screen, a bar tent, kitchens, bouncy castles and a hot tub. The hooting of vehicle horns has continued despite an injunction issued by a judge last week.
The protests have won the backing of high-profile figures on the US right wing, including former president Donald Trump, and inspired similar actions in France, New Zealand, the US and Australia.
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2022-02-13 17:39:33Z
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