Canada reopens traffic on border bridge with the US blocked by anti-vaccine truckers for a week

The Ambassador Bridge, a key border crossing between Canada and the United States, was reopened to traffic after seven days of blockade by protesters opposed to measures to stop the coronavirusannounced Sunday night the company that operates the bridge. “The Ambassador Bridge is now fully open, once again allowing the free flow of trade between the Canadian and US economies,” the company said in a statement. The blockade had implications for the automobile industry on both sides of the border.

the police of Canada cleared a strategic bridge on Sunday, although protests continue in the country, particularly in Ottawa.

LOOK: Canada: Police clear the blockade of the Ambassador International Bridge, on the US border.

A large group of police officers, more determined than the day before, made numerous arrests throughout Sunday and cleared the road that leads to the Ambassador Bridge, but the vehicles only returned to traffic on Monday.

Liz Sherwood-Randall, National Security Advisor to US President Joe Biden, indicated that the Canadian authorities had “the intention to reopen the bridge Ambassador” on Sunday, after having made the necessary verifications.

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The counselor thanked “the determined efforts of the (Canadian) public force along the border to achieve the complete lifting of the blockades.”

Washington asked Ottawa last week to use “federal powers” to end the blockade with “serious consequences” on the US economy, due to the importance of the trade that passes through that bridge.

The mayor of the city of WindsorDrew Dilkens, celebrated that the “national economic crisis in the ambassador bridge finished today.”

The cross-border crossing will be reopened “when it is safe to do so”, he added, before specifying later on the CBC network that the police estimated to be able to reopen it Sunday night or early Monday.

Police made multiple arrests and continued to monitor the area Sunday afternoon due to the nearby presence of protesters.

The shutdown has caused disruption to the auto industry in both countries. More than 25% of the goods traded between the United States and Canada pass through this bridge.

Rejection of sanitary measures

The mobilizations of Canada inspired similar protests in other countries.

In FranceSome 1,300 vehicles participated in the convoys against the sanitary passes and made a stopover on Sunday near the city of Lille (north). On Monday they plan to arrive in Brussels despite the prohibition of the Belgian authorities.

Thousands of opponents of the health pass or the French president, Emmanuel Macronconverged on Paris to demonstrate there on Saturday.

The Canadian movement, which is entering its third week, began with a mobilization of truckers protesting against the obligation to get vaccinated to cross the border between Canada and the United States.but the demands extended to the rejection of all health measures and even the government of the prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

Demonstrations continued over the weekend in several Canadian cities, including Toronto and Montreal. Other border crossings remain blocked in the provinces of Manitoba and Alberta.

Although the situation was calmer in Ottawa on Sunday morning, the movement that has paralyzed the Canadian capital since the end of January has not weakened.

Many demonstrators were still in the center of Ottawa on Sunday. “We get involved in measures for a disease that is not so terrible”, lamented one of them, Charles Beliveau, interviewed by AFP, who plans to leave Ottawa on Sunday night, but hopes to return.

For her aunt, Jessy Beliveau, wearing a blue wig and a dress made of disposable masks, “people die of sadness, not of illness.” “Covid exists, yes, it is a flu”, she adds, calling for the end of sanitary measures. “We believe that they have lasted too long,” summarizes the woman who says she has been protesting for months.

With residents growing exasperated at the occupation of the city center, the weekend was also marked by counter-demonstrations by locals who tried to stop a convoy of protesters on Sunday.

A light of hope was lit, however, for the inhabitants of Ottawa: The mayor announced a possible agreement with one of the organizers of the demonstrations to clear the most residential areas of trucks.

According to various media, the organizer Tamara Lich responded positively to Mayor Jim Watson’s request to move the trucks parked in residential areas to concentrate them on the street that adjoins Parliament.

The deal must however be approved by the truckers.

In an interview with CBC, Civil Protection Minister Bill Blair was highly critical of the Ottawa police. He considered it “inexplicable” that he is not able to restore order.

“The police must do their job and “enforce the law in the city,” he declared.

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Source: Elcomercio

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