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Canadian police have apparently failed to reopen a bridge linking Ontario and Michigan, 24 hours after a judge ordered the span to be cleared of anti-vaccine mandate truckers who have occupied it for at least five days.
Demonstrators who had spent the night in their vehicles or at nearby hotels rose with the sun Saturday, vowing to continue their fight against vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions. They gathered in small groups, discussing their strategies for keeping the bumper-to-bumper demonstration going.
Police arrived just after 8 a.m. to begin moving the protesters off the bridge.
At first, the demonstrators calmly packed up their BBQs and took down their tents, with most leaving without any resistance, according to Sean O’Shea of Canada’s Global News.
But while shoulder-to-shoulder lines made up of dozens of officers, many in military-style gear, slowly squeezed the demonstrators away from the intersection leading to the bridge, a steady flow of people carrying flags and chanting, “Freedom!” began joining the tense but peaceful standoff.
Law enforcement initially outnumbered the demonstrators, according to reporters on the scene, but by midday, the demonstrators had swelled to a few thousand people.
By Saturday evening, the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, was still closed to the public, according to reports from the scene.
Police hadn’ t budged for hours, one reporter said.
“There has been very little, if any, movement from the police line for hours. Windsor protesters again have loud music blasting. There’s no traffic flowing on the Ambassador Bridge. No arrests,” journalist Thomas Daigle of CBC News tweeted around 5:30 p.m.
The judge’s Friday evening order, combined with a state of emergency declared by Ontario Premier Doug Ford, enabled backups from the Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to work with the Windsor Police. The initially huge police presence included snipers on rooftops and at least one armored vehicle.
One hardcore group of protesters promised to “hold the line,” CBC News reported.
The Ambassador Bridge is the busiest US-Canadian border crossing, carrying 25% of all trade between the two countries. The multi-day closure of the span has stopped about $700,000 worth of goods from being transported between the two countries.
The blockade forced Ford Motor Co. and General Motors to shut down production at plants on both sides of the border, along with creating shortages in some Canadian stores. The standoff came at a time when the auto industry is already struggling to maintain production in the face of pandemic-induced shortages of computer chips and other supply-chain disruptions.
Meanwhile, about seven hours to the east in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, police had been awaiting reinforcements before moving in on a larger protest that has virtually shut down the center of the city since it began Jan 28.
In a statement Saturday morning, Ottawa Police said they were deploying “all available resources to put an end to the unlawful demonstration in the downtown core, respond to calls for service, and improve neighborhood safety.”
“We have a plan to end this unlawful occupation and await the necessary reinforcements to do so,” the statement said, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
There were signs of building protests from both the anti-vax mandate side and citizens in the city who are tired of “effectively being held hostage,” the paper reported.
But protesters in the capital showed no signs they were planning to leave – social media showed two men sitting in a hot tub at the encampment early Saturday – despite new emergency measures that imposed potential fines up to $100,000 and jail terms, the numbers did not appear to grow much.
In Toronto, where a third weekend protest was also expected, police put up road blocks around the city earlier in the week to prepare for the demonstration, Toronto City News reported, though it was unclear whether it would take place. Around 2,000 demonstrators attended a Feb. 5 Toronto protest.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Saturday she visited the interagency command center in Buffalo to ensure that the state was prepared for any impact from the protests on the other side of the border. “We are ready to address any potential travel and commerce disruptions, and also ensure we can protect everyone’s right to peaceful protest,” she said in a statement.
The Canadian protests have prompted similar demonstrations in other countries, including as far away as New Zealand, where demonstrators blocked roads as protesters rallied outside Parliament, the New Zealand Herald reported.
In Paris, French police fired tear gas at demonstrators on the Champs Elysees avenue Saturday shortly after a “Freedom Convoy” protesting against COVID-19 restrictions made its way into the capital, according to a report.
Cars carrying protesters managed to get through some police checkpoints in central Paris to bottle up traffic around the Arc de Triomphe monument.
Earlier Saturday morning, Paris police said they stopped at least 500 vehicles attempting to enter the capital in defiance of a police order, to partake in vaccine-mandate protests. Authorities also said that more than 200 tickets were handed out to motorists.
Roughly 7,000 officers mobilized for the weekend protests in the City of Light.
With Post wires
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