Dispute in Canada: the police evacuate a border bridge with the United States

Europe 1 with AFP 3:45 p.m., February 13, 2022

Canadian police resumed their operation on Sunday to clear the Ambassador Bridge, a key border axis between Canada and the United States blocked since Monday by anti-sanitary measures protesters, and began to make arrests.

A large contingent of police gathered near the bridge in the early morning and law enforcement began making arrests and towing vehicles, Windsor Police said in a tweet.

An operation that has been going on since Saturday

The operation had started on Saturday morning and the police, advancing cautiously and slowly, had pushed the protesters back and cleared a major intersection, but not all the protesters had been evacuated by the end of the day and traffic on the bridge n had not been restored.

The police had not made any arrests on Saturday.

The operation was launched under a decision of the Superior Court of Ontario, which on Friday ordered the departure of these demonstrators installed since Monday on this major border axis between the two American neighbors, a blockage which pushed Washington to intervene with the Trudeau government.

The closure of this bridge has already caused disruption to the automotive industry on both sides of the border.

More than 25% of goods exported between the United States and Canada pass through this bridge.

Third week of protest in Canada

The anti-sanitary measures protest movement, which has spread in several countries including France, has entered its third week in Canada.

He left at the start of a movement of truckers protesting against the obligation to be vaccinated to cross the border between Canada and the United States, but the demands extended to a refusal of all health measures and for many protesters to a rejection of the government of Justin Trudeau.

Other border axes are also blocked, in the provinces of Manitoba and Alberta and the movement has not weakened in the capital Ottawa paralyzed by demonstrators since the end of January.

Saturday, for the third consecutive weekend, a large crowd continued to occupy the streets of the city center in a sometimes festive atmosphere with music, dance floors, stands for coffee, but also concerts of horns deafening.

According to Ottawa police, some 4,000 protesters were present in the city center on Saturday.

The police said in a statement that some of them had been aggressive or had made illegal gestures.

She also repeated that she had limited means to deal with this situation, which led the authorities of the city and the province of Ontario to declare a state of emergency.