Demonstrations demanding an end to Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates have caused a gridlock in the capital city of Ottawa since the end of last month. The protests including mostly truckers and some others are now trickling to the key Canada-United States border and have started disrupting trade in the area.
As per the statement by the mayor of Windsor located in Ontario where the protestors have closed the bridge crossing to the United States of America have led to the choking of trade. The mayor said that the state police would remove the protestors physically if necessary.
It all started when the Freedom Convoy when it was driving across Canada towards Ottawa in late January had apparently opposed the vaccinate-or-quarantine mandates that were meant for the cross-border truckers. But most of the cross-broad truckers are opposing the convoy. The Canadian Trucking Alliance which is an industry group stated that it is opposed to the protests on public roadways and said that the vast majority of the truckers of Canada were fully vaccinated as well.
The protests in Canada have now expanded to protest against a wide range of provincial and federal Coronavirus measures. In the hopes of ending the blockades, the government of Canada is threatening to end the Ottawa occupation, to impose criminal charges, traffic tickets and the refusal of access to fuel.
A court has granted an interim injunction this week, which will lead to the prevention of the blaring horns in downtown Ottawa by the protestors. People who are protesting have said that they were peaceful but a few amongst them had waved Confederate flags and Swastikas in the early days of the occupation. Some of the residents of Ottawa have also accused the protestors of harassment. The police have also arrested around a dozen people and have issued over 1300 tickets for noise and some other violations of the law.
Although the police have a lot of options when it comes to the removal of the protestors and ending the blockades, such as laws and bylaws against traffic, excessive noise, harassment among others. The police have been unable or unwilling to act has to do with the complicated factors including the blockade’s urban setting and children being present with a lot of protestors. Police is fearing violence if they got too aggressive.
3 of the border blockades have been disrupting trade between Canada and the United States worth hundreds of millions of dollars. As per the results of a recent poll, it was found that around 62 per cent of Canadians have opposed the Freedom Convoy. The population of Canada have been following the health measures of the government with around79 per cent of the eligible population being fully vaccinated.
