US-Canada border standoff dissolves peacefully as police move in

A tense standoff at a US-Canadian border bridge eased somewhat Saturday after Canadian police persuaded demonstrators to move the trucks they had used to barricade the busy international crossing.

But protesters still blocked access as night approached, snarling traffic and trade between the two countries for a sixth day.

The standoff had earlier appeared to be dissolving peacefully as Canadian police finally moved in to disperse the nearly weeklong blockade and demonstrators began leaving without resistance.

Many demonstrators drove away from the Ambassador Bridge spanning the river between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, as scores of police approached shortly after dawn.

They had spent the night there in defiance of new warnings to end the blockade, which disrupted the flow of traffic and goods and forced the auto industry on both sides to roll back production.

A judge on Friday ordered protesters at the Ambassador Bridge over the US-Canadian border to end the blockade that has now entered a sixth day.

On Friday, the Ontario premier, Doug Ford, declared a state of emergency in the province that will allow his cabinet to impose $100,000 fines and up to one year in jail as punishments against people who continue to illegally block roads, bridges, walkways and other critical infrastructure.

Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz of the Ontario superior court issued an injunction giving protesters blocking cross-border traffic until 7pm Friday to clear out. However, the deadline came and went.

Windsor police immediately warned that anyone blocking the streets could be subject to arrest and their vehicles could be seized.

The news was met earlier with defiance by protesters.

The Ambassador Bridge is the busiest US-Canadian border crossing, carrying 25% of all trade between the two countries. The standoff comes at a time when the auto industry is already struggling to maintain production in the face of pandemic-induced shortages of computer chips and other supply-chain disruptions.

Pandemic restrictions have been far stricter in Canada than in the US, but Canadians have largely supported them. The vast majority of Canadians are vaccinated, and the Covid-19 death rate is one-third that of the US.