A weeklong demonstration that blocked the entrance to the Ambassador Bridge, a crucial roadway for U.S.-Canadian trade, this weekend was declared over as police said the few remaining protesters would be arrested.
"Today, our national economic crisis at the Ambassador bridge came to an end," Drew Dilkens, mayor of the Canadian border port city of Windsor, Ontario said in a statement Sunday afternoon.
"Border crossings will reopen when it is safe to do so and I defer to police and border agencies to make that determination," he said.
Windsor Police Service Deputy Chief Pam Mizuno said that after a day of snowfall, temperatures in the teens, 25 to 30 arrests, and the seizure of five vehicles, the demonstration was all but over.
A few remaining protesters were subject to arrest if they occupy areas off-limits or try to to block roadways, she indicated at an afternoon press conference Sunday.
"There may be a cat-and-mouse situation for a while," she said.
Police appeared to be less confident about reopening the bridge based on a time goal, as a number of steps remained before vehicle traffic would be allowed across, Mizuno said.
She did not say what those steps were, but among them might be clearing obstructions. Yesterday concrete barriers known as K-rails were installed near the entrance of the bridge, apparently to prevent vehicles from supplementing the blockade and help police corral demonstrators away from the structure.
"We can’t open the bridge until we continue with what we’re planning," Mizuno said. "We need to make sure this is a safe and sustainable solution."
While she reiterated the service's stance of zero tolerance for "any activity" in the area, the deputy chief said protesters do have a right to voice their concerns in a legal manner, such as by staying on sidewalks.
Police officers began to disperse protesters Saturday after Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz of Ontario Superior Court ordered them to leave at a hearing Friday.
After some success Saturday the demonstration appeared to be breaking up before the crowd swelled again before nightfall. An overnight front bringing snow may have helped authorities as the number of protesters dwindled and officers made arrests Sunday.
The demonstrations in Windsor started Feb. 7 and were effective in creating at least partial blockades of cross-border traffic there throughout the week.
On Saturday the office of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Ontario Provincial Police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police were assisting local authorities.
The Ottawa Police Service, largely alone in its battle to free the capital from the grip of demonstrators and truck drivers who had locked up street traffic, announced Saturday that provincial authorities, along with the RCMP, were now part of "an enhanced, Integrated Command Centre" dedicated to ending what Ottawa Chief Police Chief Peter Sloly has described as a "siege."
At the border, Windsor and lawyers for auto parts makers had successfully argued that the blockade was causing undue economic harm for the city and the region by disrupting the flow of traffic and goods, as well as by forcing the auto industry on both sides to roll back production.
The closure of the bridge, which carries more than one-fourth of the trade between the U.S. and Canada, has affected an estimated $392.56 million a day in cross-border transactions.
Ramps to the bridge remained closed pending further notice, Michigan State Police tweeted in the morning. It said trucks could use another border crossing, the Blue Water Bridge, which is around 60 miles to the north, and that cars could use a tunnel.
The Windsor demonstration is one of multiple spinoffs tied to truckers’ “Freedom Convoy,” which started out against vaccination mandates for truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border and has evolved into opposition to Trudeau’s government and pandemic restrictions.
The main protest is in its third weekend in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, where hundreds of protesters have used their trucks to block streets, blare their horns and disrupt traffic.
On Saturday, demonstrators also temporarily shut down smaller border crossings in Surrey, British Columbia; Emerson, Manitoba; and Coutts, Alberta, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency Friday, saying he would use all government resources to end the two-week protest. He said the protests amounted to a “siege” of downtown Ottawa and the Ambassador Bridge.
The protests have reverberated outside the country, inspiring similar convoys in Europe and New Zealand.
The protests in Canada have sparked a backlash both in Ottawa and across the country over allegations of harassment, as well as the presence of Confederate flags and flags bearing swastikas.
A majority of Canadians oppose the truckers’ actions, according to an Ipsos poll.
Zeta2020 on February 13rd, 2022 at 15:48 UTC »
There is conflicting information on whether the bridge is open or not. The transport trucks are apparently gone, but there are still reports of hundreds of people and passenger vehicles blocking the bridge. Is there anyone in Windsor who can confirm situation?
darkwingduck487 on February 13rd, 2022 at 15:44 UTC »
My uncle was bitching about this last night and how they were having their constitutional right violated by being arrested for protesting and how this is just one of Bidens' agendas. Completely ignoring the fact that this is in Canada, and our constitution has nothing to do with them, nor does our president have anything to gain from this. So then it became antifas fault..
tehmlem on February 13rd, 2022 at 15:32 UTC »
You don't get to say zero tolerance after literal weeks of tolerance