{"id":2813,"date":"2022-02-12T18:37:13","date_gmt":"2022-02-12T23:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canlives.com\/?p=2813"},"modified":"2022-02-12T18:40:52","modified_gmt":"2022-02-12T23:40:52","slug":"day-16-of-the-freedom-convoy-protests-across-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canlives.com\/?p=2813","title":{"rendered":"Day 16 of the Freedom Convoy protests across Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

A<\/span>nother protest against COVID mandates sparked by the \u201cFreedom Convoy\u201d is expected in <\/em>Toronto<\/strong><\/span> on Saturday. Police are preparing with road closures and tightened security in the area surrounding Queen\u2019s Park.<\/em><\/p>\n

In Windsor<\/strong><\/span>, 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Protests are also continuing across British Columbia this weekend led by residents voicing their displeasure with pandemic-related mandates.<\/p>\n

Protesters lined the streets of downtown Victoria <\/strong><\/span>sporting Canadian flags, holding signs and waving to honking vehicles doing laps around the provincial legislature.<\/p>\n

Victoria police have said they were expecting traffic disruptions caused by \u201clarge protests\u201d and have temporarily deployed closed-circuit TV cameras in the area to support \u201cpublic safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hundreds of protesters are still occupying a stretch of Huron Church Road in Windsor<\/strong><\/span>, Ont., near the Ambassador Bridge.<\/p>\n

Efforts to clear the area surrounding the bridge have hit a standstill, with more adults and children trickling in this afternoon.<\/p>\n

Some people are playing music while others are chanting or honking horns. A drone is flying above the protest site.<\/p>\n

In Alberta<\/strong><\/span>, the Canada Border Services Agency says services at the border crossing at Coutts, Alta. have been temporarily suspended.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The CBSA says in a news release that the ports of North Portal and Regway in Saskatchewan,<\/strong><\/span> and Rooseville and Kingsgate in British Columbia are the closest alternative processing sites for commercial traffic.<\/p>\n

But it warns that \u201cdue to evolving circumstances\u201d travellers should check the CBSA website for updates.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, RCMP in Manitoba <\/strong><\/span>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.<\/p>\n

Police in Windsor,<\/strong><\/span> Ontario have begun to clear out people who\u2019ve been blocking the Ambassador Bridge between Canada with Detroit. But traffic from Detroit to Windsor remains halted.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In Ottawa<\/strong><\/span>, 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.<\/p>\n

Protesters have torn down a fence that was erected around the National War Memorial in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Toronto<\/strong><\/span> 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\u2019s Park.<\/p>\n

Farm tractors and other vehicles started blocking the lanes of an intersection in the City of Cornwall<\/strong><\/span> 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.<\/p>\n

In Fredericton, New Brunswick, police say an ongoing protest against COVID mandates remains peaceful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are pleased to report that the overnight hours were uneventful. There were no criminal offenses,\u201d they said in a Twitter post on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\n

In Paris<\/strong><\/span>, France, motorists and protesters started flocking to the city on Friday as police upped their presence, bringing in heavy-lift equipment and armoured vehicles.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\n

In the United States, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security\u00a0warned<\/a>\u00a0authorities earlier this week that protests planned by truckers could cause disruptions in Los Angeles,<\/strong><\/span> where the Super Bowl is set to take place on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d according to a Homeland Security memo obtained by The Hill.<\/p>\n

Canadian truckers may join the American convoy, which is expected to end in Washington<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Editor\uff1aMichael<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another protest against COVID mandates sparked by the \u201c […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-huodongzhongxinjiaodianzixun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canlives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canlives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canlives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canlives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canlives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2813"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canlives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2819,"href":"https:\/\/canlives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813\/revisions\/2819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canlives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canlives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canlives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canlives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}