WINDSOR, Canada (Reuters) – Canadian police said on Saturday they had begun evacuating protesters blocking the Ambassador Bridge at the border with the United States, the day after a court order ordered an end to the protests.
Traffic has been interrupted for five days on this bridge, which is usually the busiest land link between Canada and its southern neighbor and on which the supply of spare parts for several auto factories in the Detroit area depends.
About fifteen trucks, cars and commercial vehicles were still blocking traffic in both directions at the start of the day.
“We call on all protesters to act lawfully and peacefully,” Windsor City Police said on Twitter, warning motorists to avoid the area.
The number of demonstrators present on the bridge had already decreased on Friday evening to return to around 200.
The movement of “freedom convoys” in Canada, which began in the federal capital, Ottawa, with the mobilization of truck drivers opposed to the obligation to vaccinate imposed for crossing the American border, entered its 16th on Saturday. day.
It affects three cross-border crossing points including the Ambassador Bridge and has curbed commercial exchanges between the two countries.
(Report Kayla Tarnowski and Ismail Shakil, French version Marc Angrand)