Canadian police today cleared the Ambassador Bridge between the province of Ontario and the US metropolis of Detroit, which was occupied by truckers. Truck drivers continued to blockade the important border crossing despite a court order.
According to the court order, they should have left the Ambassador Bridge by 7:00 p.m. (local time) on Friday evening. Yesterday, a strong police presence then began with the evacuation, but initially might not get all the trucks off the bridge.
According to the authorities, arrests were made for the first time today. Around noon (local time) the bridge was free and the access road cleared. The border crossing will reopen “when it’s safe,” said Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens. But “the national economic crisis at the Ambassador Bridge ended today”.
Important traffic artery
The border crossing is an important traffic artery and is used by more than 40,000 commuters and tourists every day. Trucks carrying $323 million worth of goods cross the bridge every day — more than a quarter of all goods traffic between the United States and Canada.
However, other border crossings remained blocked by opponents of the CoV measures. Scores of other protesters also flocked to Canada’s capital, Ottawa, where the streets have been clogged by hundreds of trucks for over two weeks.
