(OTTAWA) Michigan’s governor is calling on Canada to end the protest once morest health measures that is still blocking traffic from the United States on Thursday at the Ambassador Bridge, a strategic trade link between Ontario and Michigan.
Posted at 11:05 a.m.
Updated at 12:52 p.m.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Thursday the protest is hurting “working families in Michigan who are just trying to do their jobs.” Mme Whitmer believes that local, provincial and national governments must “defuse this economic blockade”.
Police on the Canadian side said Thursday morning that traffic to the United States was possible, but very slow. Motorists were advised to avoid the approaches to the bridge due to the protest which continued on Thursday.
PHOTO CARLOS OSORIO, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gretchen Whitmer
The protest on the Canadian side of this bridge that connects Windsor and Detroit began last Monday. The bridge is considered the busiest international commercial land border crossing in North America. A man was arrested on Wednesday for dangerous driving.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he and his Ontario counterpart, Doug Ford, were working to bring the situation under control in Windsor and Ottawa, where a similar protest has dragged on for nearly two weeks.
Automaker Ford of Canada is operating its Oakville and Windsor plants at reduced capacity on Thursday, saying the bridge disruption might have a widespread impact on automakers on both sides of the border.
Meanwhile, automaker Stellantis says its U.S. and Canadian factories cut second shifts Wednesday night, due to parts shortages caused by the bridge closure.
Emergency meeting requested
Late Thursday morning, Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet tweeted that he wanted to meet urgently with the other federal party leaders, “given worrying developments” on the impasse. which persists, in several places in the country, surrounding the convoys of truckers and their sympathizers.
“If necessary, I undertake to respect the confidentiality of the interventions and security measures of which we will be informed,” he says. We are no longer at the denunciation of so-called health relentlessness. We must inform and act. »
He said he was joining the Conservative Party of Canada, Candice Bergen, who also called for a meeting between party leaders.
In a letter sent to Prime Minister Trudeau on Monday, Ms.me Bergen says she wants to “discuss ways to calm the protests, calm the situation and find solutions that will allow the citizens of Ottawa to return to their normal lives and activities.”
She, for her part, wants health restrictions to be lifted. On this subject, she presented a motion demanding that the government present a plan in this regard by February 28. The vote on this official opposition motion should take place next Monday in the Commons.
