Topline
Canadian protesters were leaving the blockade at the border crossing connecting Alberta and Montana Tuesday, but those at the bridge linking Manitoba and North Dakota continued to protest the country’s Covid-19 vaccine mandates for truckers, a day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers to disband the demonstrations.
Key Facts
Canadian truckers protesting the country’s vaccine rule at the bridge connecting Coutts, Alberta, and Sweet Grass, Montana, were driving away, the Associated Press reported, after disrupting traffic for more than two weeks in a demonstration that involved the arrest of 13 people and seizure of guns, ammunition and body armor.
At the Canadian border crossing with North Dakota, protesters continued to protest for the sixth day in a row, only allowing emergency vehicles to pass through, CBC reported.
Peter Sloly, the Ottawa police chief, stepped down from his post Tuesday for his handling of the demonstrations that snarled traffic, affected local businesses and neighborhoods and forced automakers to cut down production, according to multiple reports—Trudeau has also come under fire for not having stepped in earlier on to stop the chaos.
Sloly has also been accused of bullying senior police officers, and his volatile behavior allegedly affected the police response to the protests, CBC reported.
Big Number
$500 million. That’s how much the blockades at the three key border crossings—the Ambassador Bridge as well as between Manitoba-North Dakota and Alberta-Montana—cost every day, according to Canada’s minister of finance Chrystia Freeland.
Key Background
Rallies started in late January when a group of Canadian truckers moved into Ottawa, the Canadian capital, clogging up streets and blaring horns. The opposition to the country’s rules to curb Covid-19, such as vaccine mandates for truckers, quickly expanded to demonstrations blocking traffic at the U.S.-Canada border. The blockade at the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan, disbanded Sunday, and Windsor Police have arrested 47 people and towed 37 vehicles in connection to the six-day demonstration. Protesters resisting to leave at the two other border crossings prompted Trudeau to invoke the Emergencies Act on Monday for the first time since it was signed into law in 1988, giving authorities tools and resources to prevent unlawful demonstrations.
Tangent
The emergency order has also given financial institutions the power to freeze accounts they believe are tied to fund the “Freedom Convoy” trucker protests. Protesters have been raising money on a Christian site GiveSendGo to support the demonstrations after GoFundMe froze $10 million in donations to the cause earlier this month.
Further Reading
Trucks leaving blockade at Canadian border crossing (Associated Press)
Manitoba border blockade enters 6th day with federal Emergency Act act now in effect (CBC)
Ottawa’s police chief resigns amid criticisms of the force’s response to the occupation. (New York Times)
Trudeau Invokes Rare Emergency Powers To Shut Down ‘Freedom Convoy’ Blockades (Forbes)
