Photo: GEOFF ROBINS / AFP / Getty Images
A mass protest in Ottawa, Ontario, which began with truckers opposing a cross-border Covid vaccine mandate, continues to complicate traffic in that country and now traffic between the United States and Canada, according to NPR.
From the Mayor of Ottawa to the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, have called on Canadian truckers to protest against the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus and the vaccine mandates to stop their protest.
Truckers also partially cut off a key trade artery between the United States and Canada since Monday, threatening to further disrupt production of new cars and trucks that has already been hampered by a prolonged shortage of computer chips.
After blocking streets in Ottawa, the capital of Can day, for 02 days, Truckers took their anti-government blockade to the Ambassador Bridge, which links Windsor, Ontario, with the city of Detroit.
Commercial artery blockade between the United States and Canada
On Monday, some Canadian truckers blocked traffic on the Ambassador Bridge, a key junction between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, the CBC reported. They also garnered the endorsement of over 100 Alaskan truckers who rallied in support of the convoy , according to the Anchorage Daily News.
Border traffic on the Ambassador Bridge, located between Lake Erie and Lake Huron, remained closed this Tuesday, although the police of the city of Windsor informed through the social network Twitter that the lanes in the direction of the United States were already open.
US bound is open at the Ambassador Bridge and can be accessed from the Wyandotte St. West entrance. dg 12833.—Windsor Police (@WindsorPolice) February 8, 2022
About 8,000 Trucks cross this bridge daily, through which it circulates around the 27% of trade between Canada and the United States, according to The Guardian newspaper.
It is estimated that approximately $323 Millions of dollars worth of goods cross the Windsor-Detroit border each day in the Ambassador Bridge, making it the busiest international border crossing in North America.
Why is the protest?
The “Freedom Convoy” began last month as a caravan of truckers planning to drive to Ottawa to voice their opposition to a government mandate requiring them to get vaccinated against COVID-10 to cross the border between the United States and Canada.
That is despite the fact that the Canadian Trucking Alliance says that the “vast majority” of the country’s trucking industry is vaccinated.
But the narrow focus of the protest grew rapidly as plus people joined the demonstration to voice their own grievances against the Canadian government.
Some protesters say they will stay until all public health mandates are lifted, while others have called for the dissolution of the current government, NPR’s Emma Jacobs reported.
In addition, QAnon posters, right-wing militias, and Confederate and Nazi flags have also appeared among the protesters, Jacobs said.
Ottawa City Councilman Matthew Luloff told the morning edition on NPR on Tuesday that the protest has morphed into a more hostile and far-reaching anti-government demonstration of what was originally planned.
On a note of frustration, Luloff said that while protesters are calling for Trudeau and other government officials to resign, Canada just ce make your elections a few months ago.
The protests have been peaceful, with some exceptions
The demonstrations have remained largely peaceful. Much of the criticism of the protest focuses on the disruptions to city life for those who reside and work in Ottawa.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson previously told CBC that residents feel like “prisoners in their own house” as crowds gather downtown, block traffic and sometimes harass people on the street.
The Ottawa police made multiple arrests over the weekend, seized fuel from some protesters, and issued more than 450 fines. The city declared a state of emergency and a judge ruled that truckers could not blast their horns during 10 days.
Support in the United States
Still, the confrontation, as well as the movement it represents, has galvanized many conservative leaders in Canada and the United States, with figures such as former President Donald Trump and US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene praising the convoy and pleading their cause.
It may interest you:
– Justin Trudeau accuses anti-vaccines of “blocking” democracy with their protest
– COVID: Ottawa declares state of emergency for the protest of truck drivers against the mandatory vaccine in Canada