Canadian police dislodged, Sunday, February 13, the last demonstrators who blocked the Ambassador Bridge, a key border axis between Canada and the United States. However, protesters remain mobilized across the country, particularly in the capital, Ottawa, where the movement has entered its third week.
A large contingent of police gathered near the bridge in the early morning and the police made arrests and towed vehicles. The road leading to the bridge was cleared, but traffic was still not restored by late morning.
“Our national economic crisis at the Ambassador Bridge ended today”, welcomed the mayor of Windsor (Ontario), Drew Dilkens, alluding to the heavy financial cost of the blockade, which had lasted since Monday. He added that the border crossing would be reopened in due course, leaving the police and border services to make that decision.
In a statement, Mr. Dilkens called on the country’s federal and provincial leaders to “avoid any political rhetoric likely to sow division”after two years of restrictions due to the pandemic.
Calm evacuation
The operation began on Saturday morning. The police, advancing cautiously and slowly, had pushed the demonstrators back and cleared a major intersection, but not all the protesters had been evacuated by the end of the day.
The operation was launched under a decision of the Superior Court of Ontario, which ordered, on Friday, the departure of the demonstrators installed since Monday on this major border axis between the two American neighbors. A blockage that prompted Washington to intervene with the government of Justin Trudeau.
The closure of this bridge has already caused disruption to the automotive industry on both sides of the border. More than 25% of goods exported between the United States and Canada pass through this bridge.
Refusal of sanitary measures
This challenge in Canada has inspired other similar initiatives around the world. In France, part of the convoys opposed to the vaccine pass left the Paris region on Sunday to reach Brussels and demonstrate there on Monday, despite the ban on the Belgian authorities.
Thousands of people had converged on Paris to demonstrate there the day before, baptizing their movement “freedom convoy”. The Parisian demonstration had been banned by the Prefecture of Police.
The Canadian protest, which is entering its third week, was part of a movement of truckers protesting against the obligation to be vaccinated to cross the border between Canada and the United States, but the demands have extended to a refusal of all health measures and, for many demonstrators, a rejection of Mr. Trudeau’s government.
On Saturday, demonstrations continued in several Canadian cities, including Toronto and Montreal, and other border crossings remain blocked, in the provinces of Manitoba and Alberta.
If the situation in Ottawa was calmer, Sunday morning, the movement did not weaken in the capital, paralyzed by the demonstrators since the end of January. Ottawa police said some 4,000 protesters were in the downtown area on Saturday. Police said in a statement that some of them had been aggressive. She also repeated that she had limited means to deal with this situation, which led the authorities of the city and the province of Ontario to declare a state of emergency.