Vital U.S.-Canada border crossing reopens, but ‘Freedom Convoy’ trucker protests continue in Ottawa

Police arrested at least two dozen protesters while clearing the Ambassador Bridge, the country’s busiest land border crossing and a key supply route linking Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, on Sunday. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson also on Sunday said he brokered a tentative agreement with Tamara Lich, a key protest organizer, to make the protests less disruptive to residents in exchange for a meeting.

But prospects for a breakthrough in the capital were immediately cast into doubt, with Lich tweeting that no “deal” had been made.

U.S.-Canada border crossing reopens after six-day blockade by ‘Freedom Convoy’ protesters

Watson’s office released letters the mayor sent Lich, the president of Freedom Convoy 2022, one of the organizing bodies for the protests, outlining a deadline of Monday at noon for “clear evidence” that the convoy of over 400 trucks will depart residential areas. Lich, in her letter dated Saturday, which was released by Watson, said “we look forward to working with authorities to ensure the safe movement of our trucks to their new locations” before denying Sunday there was any agreement.

This back-and-forth is the latest chapter of a saga that has pitted law enforcement against protesters since a convoy of truck drivers opposed to vaccine mandates illegally parked by Parliament in Ottawa on Jan. 28.

The protests, which have raged for three straight weekends, have inspired protests across the globe — from New York to New Zealand — of people fed up with pandemic policies, angry at their governments, and, in some cases, driven by extremist views and calls for insurrection.

‘Freedom Convoy’ in Canada inspires vaccine-mandate protests from New York to New Zealand

Across the Atlantic, Freedom Convoy protesters were set to arrive in Brussels on Monday even after authorities there banned them from entering the city. A similar ban from Parisian authorities didn’t stop a French convoy from temporarily blocking parts of the Champs-Élysées on Saturday, disrupting traffic on the capital’s most recognizable street and marking the first major European emulation of Canada’s anti-government and anti-vaccine mandate movement.

Brussels braces for arrival of ‘Freedom Convoy’-inspired protests against vaccine mandates

While Canadian law enforcement’s efforts to clear protesters from the Ambassador Bridge were successful, disruptions continued to plague other vital cross-border arteries over the weekend, including in Coutts, Alberta, which connects to Montana, and the crossing from Surrey in British Columbia to Washington state.

Canadian Border authorities said Saturday in a statement that services at the Coutts port of entry are “temporarily suspended.” Police in Surrey blocked off an area surrounding the Pacific Highway Border Crossing in response to protests on Saturday, and said the next day that four people were taken into police custody.

The statement Sunday said “some of the vehicles and protesters who stayed overnight Saturday have now packed up and left the area,” but the crossing remained closed, with law enforcement blocking the border area.

Canada’s capital is jammed, its border crossings are blockaded, and there’s no end in sight

In Ottawa, well-funded Freedom Convoy protesters have remained despite being threatened with fines, prison time and the loss of their licenses. Though local and provincial officials declared states of emergency, loud dance parties with illegal fireworks and alcohol raged in the blockaded streets throughout the weekend as police largely stood by.

More than 4,000 protesters occupied downtown Ottawa on Saturday, according to police, who warned of “aggressive, illegal behaviour by many demonstrators” and “limited police enforcement capabilities.”

Police have aimed to contain protests and minimize harm to officers and residents, but “it doesn’t work … where the organizers have the objective of being as disruptive as possible to Canadian government and economy until their political demands are met,” said Michael Kempa, a criminology professor at the University of Ottawa.

Ottawa police have cited the presence of children, who they say are in about 100 of the 400 trucks parked in the city, as a major concern. Highly combustible red and yellow cans of fuel for trucks and heaters are also constantly circulating throughout Ottawa’s “red zone” of blockaded streets.

This has led to a backlash among local residents who say the police isn’t doing enough to protect their quality of life amid protests they say have been loud, disruptive and at times turned violent.

Residents have in some cases taken matter into their own hands, with a lawsuit underway filed by a 21-year-old resident of downtown Ottawa, alleging that Freedom Convoy organizers and some protesters have used dangerous levels of noise as a protest tactic. On Friday, the city of Ottawa, responding to frustrated residents, filed an injunction against demonstrators violating city bylaws.

Meanwhile, counterprotests have cropped up from Ottawa to Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, where on Saturday pedestrians and cyclists briefly prevented the convoy from crossing a road to reach downtown.

Bryan Pietsch in Seoul and Rick Noack in Paris contributed to this report.

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