Canadian lawmakers have expressed increasing worry about the economic effects of disruptive demonstrations after the border crossing between the US and Canada became partially blocked by truckers protesting vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions.
The blockade at the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, prevented traffic from entering Canada while some US-bound traffic was still moving.
Public Safety Minister, Marco Mendicino said, calling the bridge “one of the most important border crossings in the world.” It carries 25% of all trade between Canada and the United States.
Canadian Transport Minister, Omar Alghabra, disclosed such blockades will have serious implications on the economy and supply chains.
“I’ve already heard from automakers and food grocers. This is really a serious cause for concern.”
Canadian Transport Minister, Omar Alghabra, speaking in Ottawa, Canada’s capital.
Public Safety Minister Mendicino said: “Most Canadians understand there is a difference between being tired and fatigued with the pandemic and crossing into some other universe.”
Speaking in an emergency debate in Parliament, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the protesters are “trying to blockade our economy, our democracy.”
Auto parts and other goods were still flowing across the border on Tuesday (February 8, 2022) evening, despite the bridge delays. But trucks had to travel almost 70 miles north to the Blue Water Bridge connecting Sarnia, Ontario, to Port Huron, Michigan. Authorities at that bridge reported a nearly three-hour delay for trucks to cross. In total, the trip will take more than five hours longer than normal.
“Anti-government provocateurs”
President of the Canadian Auto Parts Manufacturers Association, Flavio Volpe, said the protesters have no right to park vehicles in the middle of roads. He questioned how many of the protesters were truckers because trucker associations and large logistics companies have rejected the blockades.
Flavio Volpe said, “It is really a collection of kind of anti-government provocateurs.”
Volpe said the protests also threaten supplies of fresh produce, livestock and other food.
President of the LMC Automotive Consulting firm in Troy, Michigan, Jeff Schuster, said even a five-hour delay can cause production disruptions because factories are running so lean on part supplies with an already fragile supply chain.
“Everything is so ‘just-in-time’ these days. We’re still dealing with parts shortages in general and supply chain issues. This is just another wrench in the industry that we’re dealing with right now.”
President of the LMC Automotive Consulting firm in Troy, Michigan, Jeff Schuster
Trade route blocked
Protesters also closed another important US-Canada border crossing in Coutts, Alberta.
The daily demonstrations staged by the so-called Freedom Truck Convoy are centered in Ottawa, where demonstrators used hundreds of parked trucks to paralyse parts of the capital for more than 10 days. Protesters say they will not leave until all vaccine mandates and COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.
Protest organisers are for weeks, calling for the removal of Trudeau’s government, although most of the restrictive measures were put in place by provincial governments.
François Laporte, President of Teamsters Canada, which represents over 55,000 drivers, including 15,000 long-haul truckers, said the protests do not represent the industry in which 90% of drivers are vaccinated.
Laporte said in a statement that, the Freedom Convoy “and the despicable display of hate led by the political Right and shamefully encouraged by elected conservative politicians does not reflect the values of Teamsters Canada, nor the vast majority of our members.”
Chairman and CEO of TFI International Incorporation, Alain Bédard, said Canada’s largest trucking company is virtually untouched by the vaccine mandate for truckers crossing the US-Canada border.
Mr. Laporte said, “Vaccination at TFI is not an issue at all,” adding that the company’s few unvaccinated drivers are kept in Canada.
The protest has also infuriated people who live around downtown Ottawa, including neighbourhoods near Parliament Hill, the seat of the federal government.
Dave Weatherall, a federal civil servant, living near the truckers’ prime staging area in a city-owned parking lot outside of the downtown core, said “they’re using the lot to terrorise people.”
“It’s the first time since having kids that I’ve seriously wondered about the world we brought them into. I always figured they could handle most things the world will throw at them, but this feels different.”
Dave Weatherall, a federal civil servant
Joel Lightbound, a lawmaker for Trudeau’s Liberal Party, rebuked his leader for dividing Canadians, saying his government needs to create a road map for when coronavirus measures should be lifted.
“It is time we stopped dividing people, to stop pitting one part of the population against each other.”
Joel Lightbound, a lawmaker for Trudeau’s Liberal Party
“We’re all tired of Covid”
Trudeau said everyone is tired of COVID-19, and that the restrictions will not last forever. He noted that Canada has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.
Trudeau lawmaker on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, said“This government has been focused every step of the way on following the best science, the best public health advice, to keep as many people as safe as possible. Frankly, it’s worked.”
Pandemic restrictions are far stricter in Canada than in the US, but Canadians have largely supported the measures. Canada’s death rate is one-third of its neighbour, the US.
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