Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency on Friday and said he’ll use all government resources to end a two-week protest by Canadian truckers over Covid-19 rules.
Ford said the trucker protested amounts to a “siege” of downtown Ottawa and the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor and Detroit.
“It’s an illegal occupation,” Ford told reporters. “This is no longer a protest.”
Ford told protesters to go home and threatened heavy fines — but stopped just short of saying he’s ordering immediate police action to clear streets.
“I want to make it very clear that I do not, I repeat do not, direct the police,” Ford said.
“We make the laws. The police enforce the laws. But again we cannot … have people occupying cities, holing them hostage, holding millions and millions of people hostage to go to their jobs and tens and tens and tens of thousands of people (who) cannot go do their job.”
Truckers had been staging a protest that had shut down Ottawa’s core over various Covid-19 rules, leading the mayor of Canada’s capital to declare a city state of emergency on Sunday.
Dubbed the “Freedom Convoy,” hundreds of protesters have been using their trucks to block city streets, blare their horns and disrupt traffic.
Ford said he respects the right of truckers to protest, “but like all rights, these are not without reasonable limits.”
“There is a wide difference between a demonstration that people make their point and go home and people (who) put their lives, their family’s lives and communities at risk,” Ontario Solicitor General Sylvia Jones said.
“That’s unfortunately what we are now seeing in Windsor and of course in Ottawa for the last number of days, over a week.”
The bridge blockage is leading to serious economic consequences south of the border, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said.
“In Michigan, our economic momentum is at risk because commercial traffic is at a standstill at the Ambassador Bridge and heavily backed up at the Blue Water Bridge,” she said in a statement on Friday. “I’m continuing to take action to ensure Michigan workers and families are supported.”
The protest has also sparked backlash in both Ottawa and across Canada over alleged harassment as well as the presence of Confederate flags and flags bearing swastikas.
A slim majority of Canadians do not back the truckers’ actions, according to an Ipsos poll.
This is a developing story, please refresh here for updates.