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image source, Reuters
After nearly a week of blockades, Canadian police cleared one of the main bridges on the border with the United States on Sunday, which had been taken over by protesters against mandatory vaccination.
Protests by truck drivers against the certification of the covid vaccine to cross the border had paralyzed commerce across the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario.
Well on Friday a judge issued an order to dissolve the protestthough dozens of protesters remained defiant.
This Sunday, police cleared the road completely, although it remains closed, according to BBC journalists on the scene.
what happened on Sunday
In a statement, police said Sunday’s action resulted in “several arrests” and several vehicles were also seized.
The operation started Saturday morning, when many trucks were involved they left peacefully by order of the authorities.
But as word of the police action spread, more protesters showed up, temporarily causing the crowd to swell.
By Sunday morning, however, only a few dozen people were left and the police resumed their operation.
Windsor police warned people to avoid the bridge area, tweeting: “The operation will continue in the demonstration area and there will be no tolerance for illegal activity.”
image source, Reuters
The protest has inspired others around the world to take similar actions, in an effort to congest city streets and attract attention, as in France, the Netherlands and New Zealand.
Paris saw hundreds of vehicles pour into the city from across France on Saturday, in a demonstration to disrupt traffic in protest against the use of covid passes to enter bars, restaurants and public spaces.
Hundreds of motorists were fined for the banned protests and dozens of people were arrested in tear gas bursts near the Champs-Elysées.
Many protesters also planned a protest in Brussels, home to several key EU institutions, to join a wider European movement based on the Canadian demonstrations.
Brussels has also banned the event.
the beginning of the end
By Robin Levinson-King, BBC News, Windsor
Police arrived to disperse the remaining protesters in the cold early Sunday morning, ending the blockade that had brought ground traffic to a standstill one of Canada’s most important trade routes for almost a week.
Their numbers had dwindled overnight from hundreds of protesters on Saturday to about 30 stalwarts ready to brave the -17°C temperature overnight.
Police had erected concrete barricades, effectively encircling their encampments, located south of the Ambassador Bridge, and encircling them with tactical equipment.
“No one is doing anything there. We all stand with our Canadian flags, we want freedom,” protester Tyler Kok told the BBC.
“I heard one of the policemen say ‘we’ll take the trucks first’ so I mean it’s the beginning of the end. I hoped it wouldn’t end like that, I hoped the police would allow us to stay peaceful protest,” he added.
That protest had already cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars lost trade.
About a kilometer later, after Kok and his friends dispersed, police deployed to a second small camp.
The horns blared loudly in protest, but because the police outnumbered the demonstrators, their sound sounded like a swan song, not a battle cry.
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