Canada: Police position themselves to evacuate a bridge, crowds flock to Ottawa to challenge the restrictions

The day after a telephone conversation in which US President Joe Biden urged Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to reopen strategic border crossings between the two countries, the police positioned themselves on Saturday morning near the Ambassador Bridge to dislodge anti-terror protesters. -sanitary measures that have blocked it since Monday.

Dozens of agents and vehicles arrived on site after 8 a.m. (2 p.m. in France) and took position against the fifty or so demonstrators installed in their trucks and pick-ups to paralyze exchanges between Detroit the American and Windsor the Canadian.

In the middle of the morning, the police progressed smoothly around the bridge: the demonstrators dismantled certain tents installed in the middle of the traffic lanes and the first trucks left the scene.

But several dozen demonstrators still occupied the road and faced the police, supported by armored vehicles.

“We urge all protesters to act lawfully and peacefully,” police in Windsor, where the bridge is located, tweeted Saturday morning, announcing that they had begun their intervention.

She asks residents to avoid the area.

The Windsor Police & its policing partners have commenced enforcement at and near the Ambassador Bridge.

We urge all demonstrators to act lawfully & peacefully.

Commuters are still being asked to avoid the areas affected by the demonstrations at this time.

— Windsor Police (@WindsorPolice) February 12, 2022

A quarter of the trade between the United States and its northern neighbor passes through this bridge.

The Superior Court of the province of Ontario ordered the protesters to leave on Friday.

The injunction had not shaken the demonstrators, who said they were determined to go through with their action.

Despite the snow, hundreds of protesters flock to Ottawa

Saturday morning, for the third consecutive weekend, the crowd has an appointment in the streets of the federal capital Ottawa, epicenter of the movement.

Canadian flags in hand or strapped to their shoulders, there were hundreds of people heading downtown and sneaking past parked trucks, despite the falling snow.

“I am not vaccinated and I am not dead”, says Marc-André Mallette, 38, who says he supports the cause “from the start”.

The federal capital is invested for the 3rd consecutive Saturday by the anti-restrictions.

REUTERS/Blair Gable

John Pacheco, who comes three times a week to demonstrate, took his 15-year-old daughter Sophia on Saturday.

This "Catholic activist" is pleased to see that convoys are spreading throughout the world.

“If I'm not vaccinated, I can't go to church,” protests Sophia Pacheco, who has installed rosaries around the Canadian flag.

Read alsoCity paralyzed, state of emergency declared… 5 minutes to understand the situation in Ottawa

Part at the start of the movement of truckers against the vaccination obligation to cross the border with the United States, the protest has extended to broader claims against all health measures but also the government of Justin Trudeau.

A third of Canadians support the movement

The latter has been strongly criticized by the opposition for his inaction since the start of the movement.

Since the start of the protest, Justin Trudeau has judged it to be a “marginal and noisy minority”.

But in a country where health measures are in most provinces more restrictive than elsewhere in the world, the movement has received wider popular support than anticipated by the authorities.

Protesters challenge the policy led by Justin Trudeau.

REUTERS/Blair Gable

According to a poll, a third of Canadians support the movement and 44% of those vaccinated understand “the cause and the frustrations conveyed by the protesters”.

Since the start of the movement, several central Canadian provinces have announced the abandonment of the vaccine passport and the mask in the coming weeks.

But this is not the case for the two most populous provinces in the country: Ontario, the epicenter of the protest, where a state of emergency has been declared, and Quebec.