Canada eases coronavirus border controls after trucker protests

Canada announced on Tuesday the reduction of controls against the coronavirus on its borders, more than two weeks after the beginning of a mobilization against these measures that generated strong disturbances.

“It is time to adjust our approach. Today we are relaxing our measures at the borders,” said the Minister of Health, Jean Yves Duclos, who pointed out that the requirement to present a PCR test to enter Canadian territory ceased to have any effect.

“These changes are possible not only because the peak of the omicron variant has passed, but because Canadians across the country are listening to scientists and experts, adhering to public health measures and taking steps to protect themselves, their families and their loved ones. communities,” he said.

The government also lifted its recommendation to avoid foreign travel.

This is the first clear sign of giving in to the demands of the protesters, after the country’s authorities activated exceptional powers on Monday to try to end weeks of protests against anticovid measures.

The mobilizations have been led by truckers who have paralyzed the capital, Ottawa, and blocked vital border crossings with the United States.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday announced the exceptional use of the Emergency Measures Act to end “illegal” lockdowns.

Initially downplayed by the authorities, the protest movement that began in late January began with truck drivers protesting against the obligation to get vaccinated to cross the border between Canada and the United States.

But the mobilizations were expanded to include claims to all health measures and even to the entire management of the Trudeau government.

The movement was replicated in other countries such as France, Belgium and New Zealand.

The activation of the state of emergency was “a double-edged sword for Justin Trudeau,” said Félix Mathieu, professor of political science at the University of Winnipeg (center).

“If there is the slightest clash, he will be considered the main culprit. All the weight is now on his shoulders,” added the analyst.

“We’re not going anywhere”

On the streets of the capital, the situation on Tuesday morning had not changed: a long line of trucks continued to block Wellington Street, where the Legislative headquarters are located.

The policemen were also close by, sitting inside their patrol cars, an AFP journalist said.

On the 19th day of the downtown occupation, Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly has tendered his resignation, a city councilman announced Tuesday.

Sloly was widely criticized for his handling of the protest and in particular for letting the trucks set up in the heart of the city, in front of Parliament and under the windows of Trudeau’s office.

On the side of the protesters, Tyler, 20, the owner of a black truck, has not moved since the start of the mobilization. Wearing a black hooded cap and sweater, he says Trudeau “is scared” and “lost control.”

The new measures will not have “consequences,” says the young man from Hamilton, Ontario. “Truckers aren’t going anywhere.”

“We just want to have a conversation, that’s all, sit down and have a conversation,” he says.

Installed in the front of his truck, David Fortin, 48, asks for the same thing: “That Trudeau come to meet us instead of running away,” says this man from Quebec, who has been participating in the protest since the first day. .

He says that he is not afraid and that he will leave when “the sanitary measures are over.”

Borders

As for the blockade points at the borders, the police intervention in Coutts, in the province of Alberta, ended with 11 people detained and the seizure of weapons and ammunition.

“The lockdown is over,” Alberta police spokeswoman Roberta McKale told AFP. “Everyone is leaving voluntarily.”

But in Emerson, Manitoba province, protesters refused to leave and the border remained closed.

Meanwhile on the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor, Ontario, with the US city of Detroit, police managed to evacuate protesters on Sunday night.

A total of 46 people have been arrested and 37 vehicles seized, city police said Tuesday.

However, in recent days several provinces, including Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta, have announced the lifting of restrictions. And for the first time, Quebec has said it is thinking about it.