The administration U.S. President Joe Biden is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to use federal powers to end the truck blockade at the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan.
For the fourth straight day, scores of truckers taking part in what they call the “Freedom Convoy” blocked the Ambassador Bridge, disrupting the flow of auto parts and other products between the two countries. Estimates peg the two-way trade between the U.S. and Canada at the Ambassador Bridge at between $300 million U.S. and $500 million U.S. a day.
The White House said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said they each spoke with their Canadian counterparts and urged them to help resolve the standoff that is disrupting trade.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) reinforcements are being sent to Windsor, Ottawa and Coutts, Alberta where other protest are happening.
Prime Minister Trudeau's office has said that there is a willingness to “respond with whatever it takes” to end the blockades.
Canadian officials previously got GoFundMe to cut off funding after protest organizers used the site to raise about $10 million to support their efforts. GoFundMe determined that the fundraising effort violated the site’s terms of service due to unlawful activity.
With political and economic pressure mounting, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens announced the city will seek a court injunction to end the occupation.
The protesters are against vaccine mandates for truckers and other COVID-19 restrictions and are railing against Trudeau, even though many of Canada's precautions, such as mask rules and vaccine passports for getting into restaurants, theaters and other places, were enacted by provincial authorities, not the federal government.
Trudeau has continued to stand firm against lifting vaccine mandates, including a requirement that all truck drivers entering the country be fully vaccinated. But because an estimated 90% of the nation’s truckers are already inoculated, some conservatives have called on the prime minister to drop the mandate.
The convoy has been promoted and cheered on by many Fox News personalities in the U.S. and attracted support from the likes of former President Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
To get around the blockade and into Canada, truckers in the Detroit area have had to drive 70 miles north to Port Huron, Michigan, and cross the Blue Water Bridge, where there was a two-hour delay leaving the U.S.
