Ontario brings in MORE draconian rules to crack down on Freedom Convoy truckers

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President Joe Biden’s administration has urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to use its federal powers to end the Freedom Convoy demonstrations blockading key border crossings to protest Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions.

On Friday the blockade halting traffic at the Ambassador Bridge crossing connecting Windsor, Ontario to Detroit entered its fifth day, disrupting the flow products between the two countries and threatening to shut down production at several US auto plants.   

The bridge, which connects Windsor, Ontario with Detroit, Michigan, is North America’s busiest international land border and usually carries more than $327million of goods per day on over 8,000 trucks, accommodating 27 percent of the approximately $400 billion in annual trade between Canada and the US.

The White House on Thursday said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke with their Canadian counterparts and urged them to help resolve the standoff. Details of the discussions were not immediately available. 

Windsor mayor Drew Dilkens has stepped up calls for the use of force to end the blockades, telling CNN that if ‘the protesters don’t leave, there will have to be a path forward.’ 

‘If that means physically removing them, that means physically removing them, and we’re prepared to do that,’ he said. 

Conservative Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has called the protests an ‘occupation’, has reportedly authorized hefty fines, vehicle seizures, and the suspension of commercial licenses as tools to crack down on the protests.

Ford also moved to cut off funding for the protests by successfully asking a court to freeze $8.6 million in donations to the convoy through crowd-funding site GiveSendGo. The Christian fundraising site, based in the US, said in a statement that the Canadian court had no jurisdiction in the matter.

Canadian officials previously got GoFundMe to cut off funding after protest organizers used the site to raise about 10 million Canadian dollars ($7.8 million). GoFundMe determined that the fundraising effort violated the site’s terms of service due to unlawful activity.  

Truck drivers, who have been in the city since the Freedom Convoy traveled to the nation’s capital on January 23, have since Monday blocked the Ambassador Bridge. Two other crossings, in Alberta and Manitoba, are also currently under protester blockade.

They are protesting Trudeau’s vaccine mandate, under which truckers driving international routes must be fully vaccinated, and though 85 percent of them are, many oppose the rules.   

Federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said Royal Canadian Mounted Police reinforcements are being sent to Windsor, Ottawa and Coutts, Alberta where another border blockade is happening.

Trudeau met virtually with leaders of Canada’s opposition late Thursday and said he spoke with Windsor’s mayor. 

Trudeau’s office said there is a willingness to ‘respond with whatever it takes’ to end the blockades. 

And with political and economic pressure mounting, Windsor Mayor Dilkens announced the city will seek a court injunction to end the occupation. He said: ‘The economic harm is not sustainable and it must come to an end.’ 

In Ottawa, the epicenter of the protests, police were waiting on Thursday for a request for provincial and federal reinforcements to be completed. 

They have made 25 arrests so far. Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly expects the reinforcements to arrive in the next 48 hours, ahead of a potential rise in protesters in the city over the weekend.

‘This is an entirely sophisticated level of demonstrators. They have the capability to run strong organization here provincially and nationally, and we’re seeing that play out in real-time,’ Sloly told reporters.

‘It is a significant risk that we’re trying to mitigate and overcome, and as we get more resources, we will get better results.’  

As the standoff dragged on, some US pundits grew increasingly strident in their calls for the demonstrations to be crushed with the use of force.

‘Slash the tires, empty gas tanks, arrest the drivers, and move the trucks,’ tweeted CNN contributor Juliette Kayyem.

‘The convoy protest, applauded by right wing media as a “freedom protest,” is an economic and security issue now,’ she added. 

Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias tweeted: ‘Send the Marines to Detroit and clear the bridge.’

Though he may have sounded tongue-in-cheek, Yglesias explained in other tweets why he felt it was necessary to stop the protests by any means necessary.

‘It’s in fact critically important that the world not allow democratic self-government to be replaced by heckler’s veto by whichever faction happens to own larger vehicles,’ he wrote.

‘People on foot blocking traffic for short periods of time isn’t great but society survives it happening because it’s a fairly ineffective tactic. The truck blockade is more potent & would be a great tactic for bringing down a dictator, exactly why democracies can’t tolerate it,’ added Yglesias. 

The Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit is one of the busiest border crossings in North America and a supply route for Detroit’s carmakers, some of whom are scrambling to find alternate routes to limit economic damage.

Canada sends 75 percent of its exports to the United States, and the bridge usually handles 8,000 trucks a day, representing a quarter of all cross-border trade, or about C$500 million ($392.56 million) per day.

About C$100 million worth of auto parts cross the border each day, with many shipments timed to arrive just as manufacturers need them.

General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co, Chrysler parent Stellantis and Toyota Motor Corp have been impacted by the blockades.

Anderson Economic Group is estimating $51 million in lost wages just this week due to the blockade, ramping up pressure on officials to take action to resolve the crisis.  

While Canadian officials at the federal, provincial and municipal levels have held regular meetings, they have had limited impact on the ground.

Ottawa Police lost their enforcement opportunity when the convoy first rolled into town at the end of January, said Carleton University criminologist Jeffrey Monaghan, adding they now have no good options.

Monaghan told Reuters the police could go in aggressively and risk a violent confrontation or they could tighten the screws – a longer-term approach that will likely anger residents. 

Trudeau on Thursday night said that he had been in talks about how to end the protests, which began in mid January and have caused significant economic damage.

The drivers set out from British Columbia on January 23 for Ottawa, and staged a protest in the capital on January 29 before taking their demonstrations across the country. 

Over 85 per cent of truck drivers, and 90 per cent of all Canadian adults, are fully vaccinated and the protest has been condemned by the Canadian Trucking Alliance.

‘This evening, I had several meetings that were focused on the illegal blockades and occupations happening across the country,’ Trudeau tweeted.

‘They’re harming the communities they’re taking place in – and they’re hurting jobs, businesses, and our country’s economy.’

Trudeau said he had held an Incident Response Group meeting with ministers and officials to discuss the crisis.

‘We’ll continue to work closely with municipal and provincial governments to end these blockades, and to make sure they have the resources they need,’ he said.

He said he had spoken to the mayor of Windsor, Drew Dilkens, to offer his support.

‘We’re committed to helping the Mayor and the province get the situation under control – because it is causing real harm to workers and economies on both sides of the border.’

And he spoke to leaders of the opposition, urging them to unite with him and call for an end to the protests.

‘Finally, I briefed the leaders of the opposition parties on the current situation and the latest developments.

‘I stressed how important it is for all Members of Parliament, from every party, to denounce these illegal acts – and to call for an end to these blockades.’

After the meeting, Conservative interim leader Candice Bergen said she wants Trudeau to ‘take action to bring this to an end peacefully and quickly.’ 

In the US, authorities braced for the possibility of similar truck-borne protests inspired by the Canadians, and authorities in Paris and Belgium banned road blockades to head off disruptions there, too. 

The US Department of Homeland Security said in a bulletin to local and state law enforcement agencies that it has received reports that truckers are planning to ‘potentially block roads in major metropolitan cities’ in a protest against vaccine mandates and other issues.

The agency said the convoy could begin in Southern California as early as this weekend, possibly disrupting traffic around the Super Bowl, and reach Washington in March in time for the State of the Union address, according to a copy of Tuesday’s bulletin obtained by The Associated Press.

The White House said the department is ‘surging additional staff’ to the Super Bowl just in case.

The ban on road blockades in Europe and the threat of prison and heavy fines were likewise prompted by online chatter from groups calling on drivers to converge on Paris and Brussels over the next few days.

The Ambassador Bridge is the busiest US-Canadian border crossing, carrying 25 per cent of all trade between the two countries, and the effects of the blockade there were felt rapidly.

Ford said its Windsor engine plant reopened Thursday after being shut down on Wednesday because of a lack of parts. But the factory and the company’s assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario, near Toronto, were operating at reduced capacity, the automaker said.

On the US side, GM sent the first shift home two hours early Thursday at its Flint, Michigan, heavy-duty pickup truck plant due to parts shortages.

Stellantis cut short the first shift Friday at its Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio, due to parts shortages.

Also, Honda will temporarily stop production on one assembly line during the day shift Friday at its plant in Alliston, Ontario. It’s because of border delays. U.S. plants are scheduled to run normally Friday.

Toyota said three of its plants in Ontario closed for the rest of the week because of parts shortages, and production also had to be curtailed in Georgetown, Kentucky.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer urged Canadian authorities to quickly resolve the standoff, saying: ‘It’s hitting paychecks and production lines. That is unacceptable.’ 

Appearing on CNN, Whitmer called the protest an ‘illegal blockade’ that is causing an ‘economic crisis’ in Michigan. 

‘This is not just about the Michigan economy, this is this is for working people all throughout the Midwest,’ she said. 

Hundreds of demonstrators in trucks have also paralyzed the streets of downtown Ottawa for almost two weeks now, and have now closed three border crossings: at Windsor; at Coutts, Alberta, opposite Montana; and at Emerson, Manitoba, across from North Dakota.

The protesters are decrying vaccine mandates for truckers and other Covid-19 restrictions and are railing against Trudeau, even though many of Canada’s precautions, such as mask rules and vaccine passports for getting into restaurants, theaters and other places, were enacted by provincial authorities, not the federal government, and are already rapidly being lifted as the omicron surge levels off.

Trudeau continued to stand firm against lifting vaccine mandates, including a requirement that all truck drivers entering the country be fully vaccinated. But because an estimated 90 per cent of the nation’s truckers are already inoculated, some conservatives have called on the prime minister to drop the mandate.

The convoy has been promoted and cheered on by many Fox News personalities and attracted support from the likes of former President Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

The Associated Press identified more than a dozen Facebook groups encompassing roughly a half-million members that are being used to drum up support for the Canadian protests or plan similar ones in the U.S. and Europe.

To get around the blockade and into Canada, truckers in the Detroit area have had to drive 70 miles north to Port Huron, Michigan, and cross the Blue Water Bridge, where there was a two-hour delay leaving the US.

The blockade is happening at a bad time for the US auto industry. Supplies of new vehicles already are low across the nation because of the global shortage of computer chips, which has forced automakers to temporarily close factories.

‘The disruptions we are seeing at the US-Canada border — at the Detroit-Windsor Ambassador Bridge and at other crossings — are adding to the significant supply chain strains on manufacturers and other businesses in the United States,’ the US Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and Business Roundtable said in a joint statement.

‘We respectfully urge the Canadian government to act swiftly to address the disruption to the flow of trade and its impact on manufacturers and other businesses on both sides of the border.’    

The Ambassador Bridge is one of at least three being blocked by the truckers – others barricaded include a crossing in Emerson, Manitoba, which sees $55 million in trade a day and a bridge in Coutts, Alberta, where $34 million in goods crosses daily – largely related to the beef and cattle industry and produce.

On Saturday, protests are planned on the Peace Bridge which connects Buffalo, New York with Fort Erie, Ontario.

Dennis Darby, head of the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters lobby group, said the blockades were harmful.

‘It’s bad for Canada,’ he said, describing them as an ‘own goal.’

Ford’s restrictions are just the latest attempt to control the protesters.

On Monday, a court approved a 10-day ban on the honking of horns in Ottawa, the Ontario city and Canadian capital, after residents complained of the noise. 

The day before the ban, a 4ft-10 inch great grandfather was handcuffed and arrested for honking his horn in support of the protesters in Ottawa. 

A bystander filmed while two officers pulled over Gerry Charlebois, 78, for beeping his horn.

‘What did he do wrong?’ the bystander asked. 

‘None of your f****** concern, man,’ one officer responded. 

The six-minute video shows officers shouting back and forth, with furious onlookers and Charlebois as he protests his arrest. 

Eventually an officer in a blue surgical mask grabs Charlebois to restrain him, and brings the vaccinated great-grandfather down to his knees in the middle of the street before handcuffing him against his van. 

Charlebois sustained injuries to his arms, hands, shoulders and knees. 

He was later fined $118 for ‘unnecessary noise’ but has not been criminally charged.