Canada allowed U.S. draftees to escape Vietnam; it allows most drug use but has apparently drawn the line at COVID-19. Canadian Superior Court Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz Friday decreed the “Freedom Convoy” blockade at Ambassador Bridge on the Canada-U.S. border must end.
“30 minutes before injunction kicks in at the Ambassador Bridge blockade — protestors vote to stay,” tweeted CBC reporter Chris Ensing Friday. His post included a video clip where organizers offered protestors three choices and asked for a voice vote. The cheer vote for Option One, which was to get out of their cars, lock arms and go nowhere, was the resounding choice.
Soon afterwards, CityNews reporter Adrian Ghobrial posted a video to Twitter noting the crowd at the bride increased after the injunction took force.
A continuing protest against mandatory vaccination for truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border has angered provincial and federal politicians.
“We want to be free, we want to have our choice again, and we want hope – and the government has taken that away,” Harold Jonker, a truck driver and trucking company owner, explained to the BBC as he drove through the town of Brockville, when the protest convoy began.
The protest began peacefully but police expressed worry that it would not stay peaceful.
“The demonstrations this weekend will be unique – fluid, risky and significant,” Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly said when the Freedom Convoy first began entering Ottawa. According to the BBC report, he described them as “massive in scale” and “unfortunately they are polarizing in nature”.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reportedly denounced “symbols of hatred and division” that were on display during mass demonstrations by Freedom Convoy protestors and their supporters in the Canadian capital, Ottawa.
Trudeau told reporters late last month that while people have a right to protest, “hate can never be the answer”.
“At some point, the organizers — if we can call them that — have to say, ‘All right, it’s time to move on and allow the people of Ottawa to get back to some sense of normalcy,’” Mr. Watson, the mayor, told CityNews Ottawa, according to a New York Times report.
Police in Windsor, Ontario, Saturday announced they had “commenced enforcement” at the Ambassador Bridge and had begun steadily pushing protesters away from the bridge.
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