WINDSOR, Canada/WASHINGTON: Canada should use federal powers to ease the growing economic disruption caused by the blockage of a vital US-Canada trade route by anti-coronavirus-mandate protesters, President Joe Biden’s administration said on Thursday.
The closure of the Ambassador Bridge, North America’s busiest international land border crossing and a vital supply route for Detroit’s carmakers, has halted some auto output and left officials scrambling to find alternate routes to limit economic damage.
Canadian truckers started the protests as a « Freedom Convoy » occupying Ottawa, the capital, opposing a vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border drivers mirrored by the U.S. government. They began blocking the Ambassador Bridge on Monday and have since shut two smaller border crossings.
As many pandemic-weary Western countries near the two-year mark on coronavirus restrictions, copycat protests have spread to Australia, New Zealand and France while the highly infectious Omicron variant begins to ease in some places.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urged their Canadian counterparts « to use Federal powers to resolve this situation at our joint border, » a White House Official said on Thursday.
« U.S. and Canadian border and customs authorities are working with great urgency to ensure the continued flow of goods and services across our international border, leveraging alternative land routes, as well as air and sea options. »
The U.S. homeland security adviser, Liz Sherwood Randall, is due to speak with her Canadian counterpart, Jody Thomas.
Canadian federal ministers have called the blockade illegal and asked protesters to return home. Police near the Ambassador Bridge have begun receiving additional manpower, Drew Dilkens, the mayor of Windsor, Ontario, which borders Detroit, told CNN.
« (If) the protesters don’t leave, there will have to be a path forward. If that means physically removing them, that means physically removing them, and we’re prepared to do that, » he said.
The closure of the Ambassador Bridge, North America’s busiest international land border crossing and a vital supply route for Detroit’s carmakers, has halted some auto output and left officials scrambling to find alternate routes to limit economic damage.
Canadian truckers started the protests as a « Freedom Convoy » occupying Ottawa, the capital, opposing a vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border drivers mirrored by the U.S. government. They began blocking the Ambassador Bridge on Monday and have since shut two smaller border crossings.
As many pandemic-weary Western countries near the two-year mark on coronavirus restrictions, copycat protests have spread to Australia, New Zealand and France while the highly infectious Omicron variant begins to ease in some places.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urged their Canadian counterparts « to use Federal powers to resolve this situation at our joint border, » a White House Official said on Thursday.
« U.S. and Canadian border and customs authorities are working with great urgency to ensure the continued flow of goods and services across our international border, leveraging alternative land routes, as well as air and sea options. »
The U.S. homeland security adviser, Liz Sherwood Randall, is due to speak with her Canadian counterpart, Jody Thomas.
Canadian federal ministers have called the blockade illegal and asked protesters to return home. Police near the Ambassador Bridge have begun receiving additional manpower, Drew Dilkens, the mayor of Windsor, Ontario, which borders Detroit, told CNN.
« (If) the protesters don’t leave, there will have to be a path forward. If that means physically removing them, that means physically removing them, and we’re prepared to do that, » he said.
