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image sources, Reuters
After nearly a week of blockages, Canadian police completed the clearing of one of the key bridges on the border with the United States on Sunday, which had been used by demonstrators who oppose compulsory vaccination.
Protests by truckers over the certification of COVID vaccines to cross the border had crippled trade on the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont.
However, on Friday a judge issued an order to disperse the protestalthough dozens of protesters remained defiant.
This Sunday, the police completely cleared the road, although it is still closed, according to BBC journalists present at the scene.
what happened on sunday
In a statement, police said Sunday’s action resulted in “several arrests” and several vehicles were also seized.
The operation began on Saturday morning, when many trucks involved they left quietly by order of the authorities.
But as news of the police action spread, more protesters appeared, temporarily swelling the crowd.
On Sunday morning, however, only a few dozen people remained and the police resumed their operation.
Windsor Police warned people to avoid the bridge area, tweeting: ‘Operation will continue in the demonstration area and there will be zero tolerance for illegal activity.’
image sources, Reuters
The protest has inspired others around the world to take similar action, with the aim of crowding the streets of the city and attracting attention, as in France, Netherlands and New Zealand.
Paris saw hundreds of vehicles from across France converge on the city on Saturday, in a demonstration aimed at disrupting traffic to protest against the use of covid passes to enter bars, restaurants and public spaces.
Hundreds of motorists have been fined for the banned protests and dozens of people have been arrested amid volleys of tear gas near the Champs-Élysées.
Many protesters have also planned a protest in Brussels, home to several key EU institutions, to join a wider European movement based on the Canadian protests.
Brussels also banned the event.
The beginning of the end
By Robin Levinson-King, BBC News, Windsor
Police arrived to clear remaining protesters in the cold early Sunday morning, ending a blockade that had stopped ground traffic in one of Canada’s most important trade routes for almost a week.
Their numbers had dwindled overnight, from hundreds of protesters on Saturday to around 30 worshipers ready to brave the nighttime temperature of -17C.
The police had erected concrete barricades, effectively enclosing their camps, located south of the Ambassador Bridge, and surrounded them with tactical equipment.
“Nobody is doing anything there. We are all standing with our Canadian flags, we want freedom,” protester Tyler Kok told the BBC.
“I heard one of the police say ‘we’ll take the trucks first’ so I mean it’s like the beginning of the end. I was hoping it wouldn’t end like this, I hoped the police would allow us to continue to protest peacefully,” he added.
This demonstration had already cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars in trade lost.
About a kilometer further on, after dispersing Kok and his friends, the police moved in to dismantle a second small encampment.
Horns blared in protest, but since the police outnumbered the demonstrators, their sound was a swan song, not a battle cry.
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