Canada scrambles to end protests against COVID measures as bridge blockades drag on

Article content

OTTAWA — Canadian authorities are scrambling to find ways to end the 13-day occupation of the national capital’s downtown over COVID-19 measures, as protesters continue to block two border crossings between the United States and Canada, including the key Ambassador Bridge.

While police say the number of protesters in Ottawa is dropping, a blockade that start Monday at the vital Ambassador Bridge https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/angry-canada-truckers-block-busiest-bridge-with- us-trudeau-faces-grilling-2022-02-08 linking Canada and the United States is disrupting trade.

Article content

The bridge, one of the busiest border crossings on the continent, handling around 8,000 trucks a day, reopened on Tuesday for US-bound vehicles, but the Canada Border Services Agency’s website showed lanes from the United States were still closed on Wednesday.

Business associations on both sides of the border have called for the reopening of the bridge. “As our economies emerge from the impacts of the pandemic, we cannot allow any group to undermine the cross-border trade that supports families on both sides of the border ,” they said in a joint statement.

“Everyone has the right to protest peacefully … but the economic and social harm that these protests are having here in Windsor and Ottawa and across Canada is quite significant,” Mayor Drew Dilkens told reporters at a briefing.

Article content

“This cannot be allowed to be sustained for any length of time. Action will have to be taken to reopen this bridge,” he said, adding that the city had asked for additional resources from federal and provincial governments to deal with the protests.

The bridge closure has already caused a shortage of parts at carmaker Stellantis’s assembly plant in Windsor, Ontario. The company said it had to end shifts early on Tuesday, but the plant was able to resume production Wednesday morning.

“We are working with all relevant partners to see this come to a swift conclusion and we will continue to do everything we can to support Canadian workers and businesses,” Canada’s Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said on Twitter.

Article content

Protesters have also been blocking another border crossing at Coutts, Alberta, police said on Tuesday, the same day the main oil-producing Canadian province announced plans to ease pandemic restrictions.

Starting as a “Freedom Convoy” opposing a vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border truckers mirrored by the US government, the protest is about much more. Demonstrators have aired a litany of grievances encompassing COVID-19 health measures, a carbon tax and other legislation.

“We continue to know that science and public health rules and guidance is the best way to this pandemic is the way we’re going to get to the other side,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters as he entered a Liberal caucus meeting on Wednesday .

Article content

Downtown residents criticized police for their initially permissive attitude toward the blockade in Ottawa, but authorities began trying to take back control Sunday night with the seizure of thousands of liters of fuel and the removal of an oil tanker truck.

Protesters say they are peaceful, but some Ottawa residents have said they were attacked and harassed. Criminal investigations are under way into, among other things, attempted arson at a downtown apartment building.

While tougher policing has dissuaded some demonstrators, Deputy Police Chief Steve Bell has said many of those remaining in Ottawa were highly “determined and volatile.” Police have made 23 arrests so far.

Police have asked for reinforcements – both officers and people with legal expertise in insurance and licensing – suggesting intentions to pursue enforcement through commercial vehicle licenses.

The office of Canada’s public safety minister, Marco Mendicino, confirmed on Tuesday that they were in talks to provide more officers as well as tactical troops, joint intelligence and community liaison teams.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru and Anna Mehler Paperny in Ottawa; Additional reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit, Steve Scherer in Ottawa and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Denny Thomas and Lisa Shumaker)