(Updated with announcement of a reopening of the bridge this Sunday)
by Kayla Tarnowski and Chris Helgren
WINDSOR, Canada, February 13 (Reuters) – The Ambassador Bridge, one of the main thoroughfares between Canada and the United States which had been blocked for several days by protesters hostile to health restriction measures linked to the COVID-19 pandemic , will reopen this Sunday after being cleared by Canadian police, Washington announced.
“Canadian authorities intend to reopen the Ambassador Bridge today after completing routine security checks,” White House Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall said in a statement.
Several protesters were arrested early Sunday morning when the police intervened to evacuate the demonstrators and about fifty vehicles, including buses and even an armored vehicle, 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 last 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.
In Ottawa, residents exasperated by this deadlock situation began Saturday to prevent new vehicles from coming to swell the ranks of protesters and demonstrated to ask the police to intervene.
The movement, which entered its 17th day on Sunday, quickly aggregated very diverse demands, from health restrictions to the carbon tax.
(Report by Kayla Tarnowski Ambassador, with Chris Helgren Ottawa and David Morgan Washington, French version Marc Angrand and Tangi Salan)