Canadian police on Wednesday threatened to arrest trucker-led protesters who have shut down central Ottawa and disrupted cross-border trade in anger at COVID-19 health rules, while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the movement “unacceptable.”
With more people joining the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and the Michigan city of Detroit in solidarity with the two-week-long truckers protest in the Canadian capital, Trudeau said that the action threatens the country’s economic recovery.
“Blockades, illegal demonstrations are unacceptable, and are negatively impacting businesses and manufacturers,” Trudeau said in the House of Commons. “We must do everything to bring them to an end.”
Photo: AFP
To the protesters, he said: “You can’t end a pandemic with blockades... You need to end it with science. You need to end it with public health measures.”
“The reality is that vaccine mandates, and the fact that Canadians stepped up to get vaccinated to almost 90 percent, ensured that this pandemic didn’t hit as hard here in Canada as elsewhere in the world,” Trudeau said.
Earlier, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that US officials were “in very close contact” with Canadian border agencies about the bridge blockade.
Psaki also expressed concerns about the impacts of the protests on the US economy, saying that the action “poses a risk to supply chains, to the auto industry.”
The Ambassador suspension bridge is a key trade corridor, with more than 40,000 commuters, tourists and trucks carrying US$323 million of goods across the span each day.
Several Canadian and US chambers of commerce and industry associations, in a joint statement, demanded that the bridge be cleared, saying: “As our economies emerge from the impacts of the pandemic, we cannot allow any group to undermine the cross-border trade.”
Another trade link between Coutts, Alberta, and Sweet Grass, Montana, has also been blocked by protesters for several days.
By Wednesday evening, the atmosphere on the streets of downtown Ottawa was one of protest and celebration.
“We’re not going anywhere,” said trucker John Deelstra, smiling from behind the wheel of his big rig, which has been at the demonstration since it began.
Not far away, Ontario trucker Lloyd Brubacher offered up the same steely resolve: “I’m not going anywhere,” he told reporters, adding that he planned “to fight to the bitter end.”
About 400 vehicles are still camped on Parliament Hill below Trudeau’s offices, against a backdrop of barbecues, campfires and music.
“This is a dramatic situation that is impacting the well-being of Canada’s relationship with the United States and impacts immensely how business is able to conduct its operations,” University of Ottawa professor Gilles LeVasseur told reporters.
The “Freedom Convoy” began last month in western Canada — launched in anger at requirements that truckers either be vaccinated against COVID-19, or test and isolate, when crossing the US-Canada border.
Ottawa police warned protesters that they could face criminal charges and their trucks could be seized if they continue their “unlawful” clogging of downtown streets.
However, the truckers remained defiant.
“We’ve got guys here — they’ve lost everything due to these mandates, and they’re not giving up, and they’re willing to stand their ground and keep going until this is done,” said protester John Vanreeuwyk, a feedlot operator from Coaldale, Alberta. “Until Trudeau moves, we don’t move.”
At a news conference in Ottawa, Benjamin Dichter, one of the protest organizers, said: “I think the government and the media are drastically underestimating the resolve and patience of truckers.”
“Drop the mandates. Drop the passports,” he said.
Conservative leader Candice Bergen said in parliament that countries around the world are removing restrictions and Canadian provinces are, too.
She accused Trudeau of wanting to live in a “permanent pandemic.”
“Many of the reasons that were previously to keep Canadians under restrictions are vanishing before our eyes,” Bergen said. “The prime minister needs to put his ego aside. He needs to do what’s right for the country. He needs to end the mandates. He needs to end the restrictions.”
Additional reporting by AP
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