Canada police threatened Wednesday to arrest the protesters led by truck drivers who had closed the Central Ottawa and disrupted cross-border trade in anger in Covid’s health rules, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau experienced “unacceptable.”
With more people who joined the Ambassador bridge blockade between Windsor and US City Detroit in solidarity with two-week long trucks protest in the Canadian capital, Trudeau warned that action threatened the country’s economic recovery.
“Blockade, illegal demonstrations are unacceptable, and have a negative impact on business and producers,” Trudeau said at the House of Commons. “We have to do everything to end them.”
For the protesters, he said, “You cannot end the pandemic with a blockade … You must end it with science. You must end it with public health steps.”
Previously, the Secretary of the Press White Building Jen PSaki said US officials were “in very close contacts” with Canadian border agents about the bridge blockade.
PSAKI also expressed concern about the impact of protests in the US economy, said the action “raises the risk of supplying the chain, to the automotive industry.”
The Ambassador Suspension Bridge is the main trade corridor, with more than 40,000 commuters, tourists and trucks carrying goods worth US $ 323 million across the range every day.
Some of the Canadian and American and American industrial associations and associations, in a shared statement, demanded the bridge cleaned, by saying “when our economy arises from the impact of pandemics, we cannot allow any group to damage cross-border trade.”
Other trade links between Coutts, Alberta and Manis Grass, Montana have also been blocked by protesters for several days.
‘Freedom convoy’
“This is a dramatic situation that has an impact on the welfare of Canadian relations with the United States and has a very impact on how business is able to carry out its operations,” said Professor of Ottawa University Gilles Levasseur told AFP.
The so-called “freedom convoy” began last month in West Canada – launched angrily on the requirements vaccinated by truck drivers, or testing and isolating, when crossing the US-Canadian border.
Having snowball into the occupation of the capital city of Canada, protests have triggered demonstrations of solidarity throughout the country and abroad.
On Wednesday the Ottawa police warned the protesters, they could face criminal demands and their trucks could be confiscated if they continued blockage of the city center streets “who violated the law”.
The Association of the Canadian Vehicle Association of President Brian Kingston said The Ambassador Bridge Blockade “threatened the fragile supply chain already under pressure due to lack and backlog related to pandemic.”
Officers pointed to the 5,000 factory workers in Windsor, Ontario was sent home on Tuesday morning because of the blockade, and several automatic assembly plants prepared to close, when the Windsor Mayor Drew Dipkens said fear of eternal impact on business.
Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst with AutoTrader in Detroit, explained that the North American assembly plant relied on delivery on time on the entire bridge.
The automatic sector “is a significant part of the economy and most consumer spending” which has been hit for the past year, he said.
There is a gradual increase after the October inventory and low point production disorders, “but this (protest) can be a setback if it is still alive.”
Canadian public security minister Marco Mendicino warned “serious danger to the economy” and asked protesters to “go home!”
“This is an illegal economic blockade … against all Canadians,” added the Transport Minister Omar Alghabra.