Another protest against COVID mandates sparked by the “Freedom Convoy” is expected in Toronto on Saturday. Police are preparing with road closures and tightened security in the area surrounding Queen’s Park.
In Windsor, the standoff between Canadian police and protesters blocking a key bridge to the United States continued more than seven hours after authorities moved in seeking to end the blockade of the important trade corridor.
The crowd of protesters, however, had grown significantly, with new arrivals joining the street-party atmosphere on foot as police had blocked off access roads and were ticketing and towing vehicles parked nearby.
Protests are also continuing across British Columbia this weekend led by residents voicing their displeasure with pandemic-related mandates.
Protesters lined the streets of downtown Victoria sporting Canadian flags, holding signs and waving to honking vehicles doing laps around the provincial legislature.
Victoria police have said they were expecting traffic disruptions caused by “large protests” and have temporarily deployed closed-circuit TV cameras in the area to support “public safety.”
Hundreds of protesters are still occupying a stretch of Huron Church Road in Windsor, Ont., near the Ambassador Bridge.
Efforts to clear the area surrounding the bridge have hit a standstill, with more adults and children trickling in this afternoon.
Some people are playing music while others are chanting or honking horns. A drone is flying above the protest site.
In Alberta, the Canada Border Services Agency says services at the border crossing at Coutts, Alta. have been temporarily suspended.
A protest by people opposed to COVID-19 public health restrictions has impeded or outright blocked access to the normally busy border crossing for two weeks.
The CBSA says in a news release that the ports of North Portal and Regway in Saskatchewan, and Rooseville and Kingsgate in British Columbia are the closest alternative processing sites for commercial traffic.
But it warns that “due to evolving circumstances” travellers should check the CBSA website for updates.
Meanwhile, RCMP in Manitoba say an officer will be stationed at an access point to a hospital in anticipation of a protest on Highway 3 near Winkler and Morden today.
Police in Windsor, Ontario have begun to clear out people who’ve been blocking the Ambassador Bridge between Canada with Detroit. But traffic from Detroit to Windsor remains halted.
Officers in yellow vests gathered in rows near the bridge in Windsor, warning the protesters verbally they could face criminal charges if they continue to occupy roadways.
In Ottawa, hundreds of people and dozens of trucks remained dug in front of Parliament Hill and around downtown, where many have been parked since the end of January.
Protesters have torn down a fence that was erected around the National War Memorial in Ottawa.
Toronto-Dominion Bank has frozen two personal bank accounts into which $1.4 million had been deposited in support of the protesters, a spokesperson said on Saturday.
Canadian police have said the protests have been partly funded by U.S. supporters and Ontario froze funds donated via one U.S. platform, GiveSendGo, on Thursday.
Toronto was also bracing for a second weekend of protests. The Toronto Police have the downtown core locked down, not allowing vehicles near the provincial legislature at Queen’s Park.
Farm tractors and other vehicles started blocking the lanes of an intersection in the City of Cornwall on Saturday morning. The group had slowed down access to the city coming out of the Canada-U.S. port of entry earlier the same day. They were led by some of the same organizers of a convoy from Alexandria (roughly a 40-minute drive from Cornwall) to Ottawa last weekend.
In Fredericton, New Brunswick, police say an ongoing protest against COVID mandates remains peaceful.
“We are pleased to report that the overnight hours were uneventful. There were no criminal offenses,” they said in a Twitter post on Saturday.
In Paris, France, motorists and protesters started flocking to the city on Friday as police upped their presence, bringing in heavy-lift equipment and armoured vehicles.
On Saturday, police cleared demonstrators at the Champs-Elysees who evaded authorities. A video from a French journalist shows police using tear gas to disperse the crowd.
In the United States, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned authorities earlier this week that protests planned by truckers could cause disruptions in Los Angeles, where the Super Bowl is set to take place on Sunday.
“The convoy will potentially begin in California early as mid-February, potentially impacting the Super Bowl scheduled for 13 February and the State of the Union address scheduled for 1 March,” according to a Homeland Security memo obtained by The Hill.
Canadian truckers may join the American convoy, which is expected to end in Washington.
Editor：Michael
