Demonstrations: reports of national emergency in Canada

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is reportedly planning to use an emergency law for the first time in the wake of weeks of heated protests in Canada against the government’s corona policy.

The historic move against mostly right-wing demonstrators in the capital Ottawa, among others, would briefly give Trudeau the power to override civil liberties to restore public order. The public TV broadcaster CBC, among others, reported on the liberal government’s plans to crack down on the road blockades in Ottawa by using the law for the first time since it was enacted in the 1980s.

Demonstrating against corona measures for weeks

Trudeau met his crisis team over the weekend. “We will continue to ensure that the relevant authorities at the city, provincial and state levels have what they need to end these blockades and protect the safety of the population,” he said. In view of the trucker protests that have been going on for about three weeks, Trudeau had not previously ruled out the violent dissolution of blockades and called the blockades illegal. With Ontario, one of the affected provinces has already declared a state of emergency.

Thousands of people have been demonstrating in Canada against corona measures and vaccination regulations for weeks. With trucks and other vehicles, they block, among other things, parts of downtown Ottawa. The protests initially focused on vaccination requirements for truck drivers and then on government pandemic restrictions overall. In January, a regulation came into effect requiring truck drivers returning from the United States to also present proof of vaccination.

At the weekend, emergency services cleared an epicenter of the protests: After a blockade of almost a week, traffic on an important border bridge between the city of Windsor in Canada and Detroit in the USA is flowing again. After an injunction from a Canadian court, authorities had begun to disperse protests in the area. The governments on both sides of the border had previously warned of the economic consequences of the blockade.

Many arrests

Windsor Police said more than two dozen people were arrested over the weekend and a dozen vehicles impounded or towed away. According to Trudeau, the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge and other border crossings led to the halt of car production by six manufacturers due to missing parts. 25 percent of Canadian-American freight traffic flows across the bridge – this corresponds to a goods value of the equivalent of 275 million euros per day. The region is closely interwoven economically across the border.

Elsewhere, protests against the Canadian government’s corona measures continued. According to officials, at least one other border crossing between Coutts in the Canadian province of Alberta and Sweet Grass in the US state of Montana remained closed early Monday morning. In Ottawa, too, truckers held out despite the freezing cold. There were also numerous arrests there over the weekend, the police said. Some of the demonstrators had shown “aggressive behavior” and “overwhelmed” the police officers.

Large parts of the population had supported Trudeau’s sometimes very strict anti-Covid course over the past two years. However, the latest studies indicate a possible trend reversal, even if the picture is not yet clear. Some supporters of the 50-year-old also perceived measures due to the rampant omicron variant, such as new travel restrictions and closures of the interiors of bars and restaurants ordered by local governments, as exaggerated.