In Canada, Trudeau expects to use emergency powers to stop truck-led protests

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was expected on Monday to resort to rarely used emergency powers to end trucker-led protests against Covid-19 health rules, as police arrested 11 people using a “stack of firearms” blocking a border crossing with United States in Alberta.

According to CBC public radio, Trudeau will introduce emergency legislation to give the government additional powers in a national crisis to end truck-led protests now entering a third week.

Hundreds of large excavators are still blocking the streets of the capital, Ottawa.

The threat of violence continued, with federal police saying they arrested 11 protesters carrying rifles, pistols, body armor and ammunition at the border between Coats, Alberta and Sweet Grass, Montana, just a day after evacuating another major border crossing point between the United States and Canada. .

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement: “The group has been said to be prepared to use force against the police if any attempts are made to disrupt the blockade.”

Meanwhile, Ontario has announced it is lifting vaccine passport requirements.

Truck drivers and their supporters are resisting mandatory vaccinations and the broader anti-establishment agenda that has launched copycat movements in France, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand, where some American truck drivers are considering a protest in March.

Facing mounting pressure to act, Trudeau said Friday that all options were “on the table” to end the “illegal” demonstrations that are hurting the country’s economic recovery.

He was due to discuss the situation with prime ministers across the country and hold a news conference on Monday at 4.30pm (2130 GMT), a day after a special federal response group convened on efforts to end the occupation of Ottawa and the remaining blockade of Alberta’s border crossings. and Manitoba.

Emergency law was used only once in peacetime – by Trudeau’s father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, during the October crisis of 1970.

It witnessed the dispatch of troops to Quebec to restore order after hard-line separatists kidnapped a British trade attache and Quebec minister, Pierre Laporte, who was found strangled in the trunk of a car.

Spreading protests The “Freedom Caravan” began with Canadian truck drivers protesting against mandatory vaccinations to cross the Canada-US border.

But her demands now include an end to all Covid-19 health measures and, for many protesters, to bring down Trudeau’s liberal government – just five months after he won re-election.

Truck drivers have found support among governors and opponents of a vaccine mandate around the world, even as Covid-19 measures have been waning in many places.

In Paris, at the weekend, police fired tear gas and imposed hundreds of fines in an attempt to break up convoys coming from across France.

The Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria saw counterfeit moves, and Belgian authorities said on Monday they had intercepted 30 vehicles as police rushed to stop a convoy of trucks.

Canadian police over the weekend cleared a blockade on the Ambassador Bridge, which handles an estimated 25 percent of trade with the United States, and has disrupted business in the world’s largest economy.

Truck drivers dig in Ottawa Monday morning, as a severe freeze began, protesters remained united despite threats of jail time and fines of up to C$100,000 (US$80,000).

Phil Rio, behind the wheel of a large truck, told AFP the departure was “not in my plans”.

“By maintaining the pressure we have a better chance of achieving our goal,” the 29-year-old explained.

“There are other customs checkpoints that are prohibited, and more will be closed in other places,” he added.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford earlier announced that it would raise vaccine passport requirements by March 1 in the province — following in the footsteps of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Ontario, the densely populated Canadian province, had reimposed at the end of December among the world’s most restrictive health measures.

“We’re going to get rid of passports,” Ford said at a news conference, explaining that the vast majority of people have been vaccinated and that the peak cases raised by the variant of Omicron have passed.

Meanwhile, Ottawa residents have grown frustrated, saying the protest has kept them imprisoned in their homes.

Most businesses in the city center were also closed or had virtually no customers after officials warned residents to stay away from the turbulent protests.

Give her her last name, said Hayley, a young woman on her way to work who refused to work.

Like the thousands of opposition protesters who blocked more trucks from entering the city center this weekend, she called on the prime minister to end the crisis.

(AFP)