- Canadian govt authorizes cops to seize vehicles, threatens $100,000 fines and a year in jail, and to revoke truckers’ licenses after Biden urged Trudeau to get even tougher on Freedom Convoy
A state of emergency has been declared in Ontario after the Biden administration urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to use its federal powers to end the Freedom Convoy demonstrations blockading key border crossings to protest Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions.
Conservative Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Friday declared a 42-hour state of emergency, threatening vehicle seizures, fines of C$100,000, jail time of up to a year, and suspension of commercial licenses to punish protesters who do not comply with orders to disperse.
‘This is a pivotal moment for out nation. The eyes of the world are on our nation, and what they are seeing is not who we are,’ said Ford at a briefing. ‘As a province, as a nation, we must collectively draw a line.’
‘We cannot have people occupying cities, holding them hostage,’ he said.
With pressure mounting, protesters said they were reopening a single lane on the Ambassador Bridge entering Canada as a purported show of good faith.
Biden and Trudeau are scheduled to speak directly on Friday during a virtual meeting with other NATO leaders on the situation in Ukraine, but it was unclear whether they also planned to discuss the ongoing US-Canada border blockade.
The White House on Thursday said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke with their Canadian counterparts and urged them to help resolve the standoff. Details of the discussions were not immediately available.
On Friday the blockade halting traffic at the Ambassador Bridge crossing connecting Windsor, Ontario to Detroit entered its fifth day, disrupting the flow products between the two countries and threatening to shut down production at several US auto plants.
The bridge, which connects Windsor, Ontario with Detroit, Michigan, is North America’s busiest international land border and usually carries more than $327 million of goods per day on over 8,000 trucks, accounting for 27 percent of the approximately $400 billion in annual trade between Canada and the US.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer called the protest an ‘illegal blockade’ that is causing an ‘economic crisis’ in Michigan.
Windsor mayor Drew Dilkens has stepped up calls for the use of force to end the blockades, telling CNN that if ‘the protesters don’t leave, there will have to be a path forward.’
‘If that means physically removing them, that means physically removing them, and we’re prepared to do that,’ he said.
Ford, the Conservative Ontario Premier who has called the protests an ‘occupation’, has reportedly authorized hefty fines, vehicle seizures, and the suspension of commercial licenses as tools to crack down on the protests.
Ford also moved to cut off funding for the protests by successfully asking a court to freeze $8.6 million in donations to the convoy through crowd-funding site GiveSendGo. The Christian fundraising site, based in the US, said in a statement that the Canadian court had no jurisdiction in the matter.
Canadian officials previously got GoFundMe to cut off funding after protest organizers used the site to raise about 10 million Canadian dollars ($7.8 million). GoFundMe determined that the fundraising effort violated the site’s terms of service due to unlawful activity.
Truck drivers, who have been in the city since the Freedom Convoy traveled to the nation’s capital on January 23, have since Monday blocked the Ambassador Bridge. Two other crossings, in Alberta and Manitoba, are also currently under protester blockade.
They are protesting Trudeau’s vaccine mandate, under which truckers driving international routes must be fully vaccinated, and though 85 percent of them are, many oppose the rules.
Ontario has brought in more draconian rules to crack down on Freedom Convoy truckers – including vehicle seizures and fines – just days after honking was banned and after the US told Canada to use federal powers to end the blockades (pictured, the blockade on Ambassador Bridge)
Protestors and supporters set up at a blockade at the foot of the Ambassador Bridge, sealing off the flow of commercial traffic over the bridge into Canada from Detroit on Thursday
The empty Ambassador Bridge is pictured on Thursday, looking toward Canada. Usually, 8,000 trucks cross the bridge every day
Biden and Trudeau are seen together in 2016. Biden’s administration is urging Trudeau’s government to use its federal powers to end the Freedom Convoy demonstrations blockading key border crossings
Federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said Royal Canadian Mounted Police reinforcements are being sent to Windsor, Ottawa and Coutts, Alberta where another border blockade is happening.
Trudeau met virtually with leaders of Canada’s opposition late Thursday and said he spoke with Windsor’s mayor.
Trudeau’s office said there is a willingness to ‘respond with whatever it takes’ to end the blockades.
And with political and economic pressure mounting, Windsor Mayor Dilkens announced the city will seek a court injunction to end the occupation. He said: ‘The economic harm is not sustainable and it must come to an end.’
In Ottawa, the epicenter of the protests, police were waiting on Thursday for a request for provincial and federal reinforcements to be completed.
They have made 25 arrests so far. Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly expects the reinforcements to arrive in the next 48 hours, ahead of a potential rise in protesters in the city over the weekend.
‘This is an entirely sophisticated level of demonstrators. They have the capability to run strong organization here provincially and nationally, and we’re seeing that play out in real-time,’ Sloly told reporters.
‘It is a significant risk that we’re trying to mitigate and overcome, and as we get more resources, we will get better results.’
As the standoff dragged on, some US pundits grew increasingly strident in their calls for the demonstrations to be crushed with the use of force.
‘Slash the tires, empty gas tanks, arrest the drivers, and move the trucks,’ tweeted CNN contributor Juliette Kayyem.
‘The convoy protest, applauded by right wing media as a “freedom protest,” is an economic and security issue now,’ she added.
Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias tweeted: ‘Send the Marines to Detroit and clear the bridge.’
Though he may have sounded tongue-in-cheek, Yglesias explained in other tweets why he felt it was necessary to stop the protests by any means necessary.
‘It’s in fact critically important that the world not allow democratic self-government to be replaced by heckler’s veto by whichever faction happens to own larger vehicles,’ he wrote.
‘People on foot blocking traffic for short periods of time isn’t great but society survives it happening because it’s a fairly ineffective tactic. The truck blockade is more potent & would be a great tactic for bringing down a dictator, exactly why democracies can’t tolerate it,’ added Yglesias.
Conservatives in the US have largely defended the truckers,
A woman with a mohawk hair-cut featuring the Canadian maple leaf joins hundreds of truck drivers and their supporters as they gather on Thursday to block the streets of downtown Ottawa as part of a convoy of truck protesters
Canadian truckers blockade the roads in downtown Ottawa near the country’s parliament as part of a protest against vaccine mandates that would forced drivers who do international routes to have the jabs
A protester carries a sign reading ‘Let’s go Trudeau. No, seriously, go’ at a truckers demonstration against the Covid-19 vaccine mandate for international drivers in Ottawa, Ontario on Thursday
- US President Joe Biden on Thursday urged his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau to use federal powers to end the truckers blockades (pictured in Ontario on Thursday) after the bumper-to-bumper demonstrations forced auto plants on both sides of the border to shut down or scale back production
The Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit is one of the busiest border crossings in North America and a supply route for Detroit’s carmakers, some of whom are scrambling to find alternate routes to limit economic damage.
Canada sends 75 percent of its exports to the United States, and the bridge usually handles 8,000 trucks a day, representing a quarter of all cross-border trade, or about C$500 million ($392.56 million) per day.
About C$100 million worth of auto parts cross the border each day, with many shipments timed to arrive just as manufacturers need them.
General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co, Chrysler parent Stellantis and Toyota Motor Corp have been impacted by the blockades.
Anderson Economic Group is estimating $51 million in lost wages just this week due to the blockade, ramping up pressure on officials to take action to resolve the crisis.
While Canadian officials at the federal, provincial and municipal levels have held regular meetings, they have had limited impact on the ground.
Ottawa Police lost their enforcement opportunity when the convoy first rolled into town at the end of January, said Carleton University criminologist Jeffrey Monaghan, adding they now have no good options.
Monaghan told Reuters the police could go in aggressively and risk a violent confrontation or they could tighten the screws – a longer-term approach that will likely anger residents.
Truckers are parked near Parliament in Ottawa as they continue protest against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s vaccine mandates which were imposed last month
Demonstrators against Covid-19 vaccine mandates block the roadway at the Ambassador Bridge border crossing on Wednesday evening as Ontario state officials move to impose more draconian rules in a bid to end the blockades
Trudeau on Thursday night said that he had been in talks about how to end the protests, which began in mid January and have caused significant economic damage.
The drivers set out from British Columbia on January 23 for Ottawa, and staged a protest in the capital on January 29 before taking their demonstrations across the country.
Over 85 per cent of truck drivers, and 90 per cent of all Canadian adults, are fully vaccinated and the protest has been condemned by the Canadian Trucking Alliance.
‘This evening, I had several meetings that were focused on the illegal blockades and occupations happening across the country,’ Trudeau tweeted.
‘They’re harming the communities they’re taking place in – and they’re hurting jobs, businesses, and our country’s economy.’
Trudeau said he had held an Incident Response Group meeting with ministers and officials to discuss the crisis.
‘We’ll continue to work closely with municipal and provincial governments to end these blockades, and to make sure they have the resources they need,’ he said.
He said he had spoken to the mayor of Windsor, Drew Dilkens, to offer his support.
‘We’re committed to helping the Mayor and the province get the situation under control – because it is causing real harm to workers and economies on both sides of the border.’
And he spoke to leaders of the opposition, urging them to unite with him and call for an end to the protests.
‘Finally, I briefed the leaders of the opposition parties on the current situation and the latest developments.
‘I stressed how important it is for all Members of Parliament, from every party, to denounce these illegal acts – and to call for an end to these blockades.’
After the meeting, Conservative interim leader Candice Bergen said she wants Trudeau to ‘take action to bring this to an end peacefully and quickly.’
Truck drivers, who have been in the city since the Freedom Convoy traveled to the nation’s capitol on January 23, have since Monday blocked the bridge in a demonstration against Trudeau’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate
In the US, authorities braced for the possibility of similar truck-borne protests inspired by the Canadians, and authorities in Paris and Belgium banned road blockades to head off disruptions there, too.
The US Department of Homeland Security said in a bulletin to local and state law enforcement agencies that it has received reports that truckers are planning to ‘potentially block roads in major metropolitan cities’ in a protest against vaccine mandates and other issues.
The agency said the convoy could begin in Southern California as early as this weekend, possibly disrupting traffic around the Super Bowl, and reach Washington in March in time for the State of the Union address, according to a copy of Tuesday’s bulletin obtained by The Associated Press.
The White House said the department is ‘surging additional staff’ to the Super Bowl just in case.
The ban on road blockades in Europe and the threat of prison and heavy fines were likewise prompted by online chatter from groups calling on drivers to converge on Paris and Brussels over the next few days.
The Ambassador Bridge is the busiest US-Canadian border crossing, carrying 25 per cent of all trade between the two countries, and the effects of the blockade there were felt rapidly.
Ford said its Windsor engine plant reopened Thursday after being shut down on Wednesday because of a lack of parts. But the factory and the company’s assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario, near Toronto, were operating at reduced capacity, the automaker said.
On the US side, GM sent the first shift home two hours early Thursday at its Flint, Michigan, heavy-duty pickup truck plant due to parts shortages.
Stellantis cut short the first shift Friday at its Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio, due to parts shortages.
Also, Honda will temporarily stop production on one assembly line during the day shift Friday at its plant in Alliston, Ontario. It’s because of border delays. U.S. plants are scheduled to run normally Friday.
Toyota said three of its plants in Ontario closed for the rest of the week because of parts shortages, and production also had to be curtailed in Georgetown, Kentucky.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer urged Canadian authorities to quickly resolve the standoff, saying: ‘It’s hitting paychecks and production lines. That is unacceptable.’
Appearing on CNN, Whitmer called the protest an ‘illegal blockade’ that is causing an ‘economic crisis’ in Michigan.
‘This is not just about the Michigan economy, this is this is for working people all throughout the Midwest,’ she said.