Ongoing protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Canada blocked traffic at Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Canada, on Monday evening. As of Tuesday morning, the bridge was still shut down.
Canadian truckers, protesting the mask mandates on cross-border traffic began blocking the streets of Ottawa, Canada’s capital, on Jan. 28. Now, with the protests coming up on nearly two weeks, escalating tensions as frustration over the demonstrations continue to roil the nation.
Trucks started blocking traffic at the Ambassador Bridge, located between Lake Erie and Lake Huron, late on Monday, reports Reuters. Canada’s Border Services Agency said on Tuesday that the bridge was closed, but police later tweeted that U.S.-bound lanes were now open.
Canada sends three-fourths of its goods exports to the United States, and the bridge usually handles around 8,000 trucks a day.
“We got sent here to send a message and the message isn’t getting through,” Ottawa protest spokesman Tom Marazzo told reporters on Monday night.
According to a report by the Detroit Free Press, Gregg Ward, president of a ferry service between Detroit and Windsor, said that the last time he remembers the bridge being shut down was in 1990 due to an independent trucker protest.
Protests also blocked traffic overnight Monday at an access point between Alberta and Montana, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said, according to CNN News.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was expected to return to parliament on Tuesday, after being in isolation for a week after testing positive for COVID-19.
Trudeau has soundly denounced the protesters’ tactics and will be facing opposition legislators demanding he do more to end what one aide called a “national humiliation.”
“Individuals are trying to blockade our economy, our democracy, and our fellow citizens’ daily lives,” Trudeau told an emergency debate in the House of Commons on Monday night. “It has to stop.”
The Canadian Trucking Alliance condemned the actions of protesters during the event, calling the demonstration a “disgusting act.”
