A major US-Canada border crossing reopened late on Sunday almost a week after it was forced shut by truck driver-led protests against COVID-19 restrictions, prompting police to quell the demonstration with a series of arrests.
The blockading of the Ambassador Bridge, which handles an estimated 25 percent of trade between the two countries, had disrupted business in the world’s largest economy, and forced automakers in the US and Canada to halt or scale back production.
The demonstrations, which have also paralyzed the Canadian capital, Ottawa, have sparked similar movements in France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand. Some US truckers are considering a protest next month.
Photo: AP / Canadian Press
“The Ambassador Bridge is now fully open, once again allowing the free flow of commerce between the Canadian and US economies,” the Detroit International Bridge Co said in a statement.
In a tweet, Canadian Border Services confirmed the reopening, but said “non-essential travel is not advised.”
Police on Saturday had begun clearing the bridge to the US city of Detroit, successfully removing trucks from one major intersection. However, some demonstrators remained, extending the protracted standoff and preventing traffic from flowing. By Sunday, police said between 25 and 30 protesters had been arrested.
“There will be zero tolerance for illegal activity,” police in Windsor, Ontario, wrote on Twitter.
Warning of “serious consequences” for the US economy, Washington had applied pressure on the Canadian government, asking it last week to use “federal powers” to end the blockade.
As police moved to clear the protest over the weekend, US officials praised the “decisive” action. Speaking before the bridge resumed operations, White House national security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said US and Canadian officials recognized “the imperative of taking swift, strong action and deterring future blockades.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had underscored that “this conflict must end,” but faced criticism for failing to act more decisively.
Truckers had originally converged on the capital to press their demand for an end to a vaccination requirement affecting drivers crossing the international border.
However, the movement spread, with protesters eventually calling for an end to all vaccine mandates, whether imposed by the federal or provincial governments.
Ottawa has been the epicenter of protests. On Saturday, police said about 4,000 demonstrators were still occupying the downtown area, in the third weekend of the movement.
The atmosphere among protesters was mostly festive, with music, dancing and constant sounding of air horns — but the noise, obstruction and sometimes rude and aggressive behavior of demonstrators has harmed area businesses and infuriated many locals.
In response, authorities in Ontario declared a state of emergency, while the provincial supreme court ordered truckers to end their blockade. However, the truckers’ message resonated more widely than officials expected. One opinion survey found that about one-third of Canadians support the protest movement.
The truckers also found support among conservatives and vaccine mandate opponents across the globe, even as COVID-19 measures are being rolled back in many places.
In Paris on Saturday, police fired tear gas and issued hundreds of fines in an effort to break up convoys coming from across France.
Vehicles in the Netherlands brought The Hague’s city center to a standstill in another Canada-style protest.
In Switzerland, hundreds of protesters marched in Zurich to protest virus restrictions, while several thousand others rallied against them, Swiss media reported.
An estimated 10,000 Australian protesters marched through the capital, Canberra, to decry vaccine mandates, while in New Zealand, anti-vaccine mandate advocates have been camped near parliament for days.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS