WINDSOR, Canada (Reuters) – Canadian police evicted protesters and evacuated vehicles that had been blocking the Ambassador Bridge, one of the main thoroughfares between Canada and the United States, for several days, but it remained closed at the start of the day on Sunday.
Several demonstrators were arrested during the evacuation operations, carried out in application of a court decision rendered on Friday.
US President Joe Biden had asked Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to get the federal authorities to intervene to end the blockade of the bridge, which is the busiest crossing point between their two countries and on which a large part depends. the supply of spare parts to several large automobile factories in the Detroit area.
Trucks, motorhomes and cars had been preventing traffic in both directions since Monday.
This blockade was part of the “Freedom Convoy”, a protest movement of truck drivers opposed to compulsory vaccinations which also led to the blocking of part of Ottawa, the Canadian federal capital.
The movement, which entered its 17th day on Sunday, quickly aggregated very diverse demands, from health restrictions to the carbon tax. On Saturday, some 4,000 people demonstrated in the streets of Ottawa and a thousand in Toronto, the financial capital.
(XXXX report, French version Marc Angrand)
by Kayla Tarnowski and Julio Cesar Chavez