Truckers block third border crossing as crisis deepens

TORONTO (NewsNation Now) — Access to now three border crossings in the United States has been cut off by truckers and demonstrators on the Canadian side protesting COVID-19 restrictions.

Hundreds of demonstrators in trucks have paralyzed the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit this week, disrupting the flow of auto parts and other products between the two countries. Now the demonstrators have closed two more border crossings.

Demonstrators have blocked crossings at Coutts, Alberta, opposite Montana; and at Emerson, Manitoba, across from North Dakota. Royal Canadian Mounted Police reinforcements are being sent to the Coutts and Emerson crossings.  

The protesters are decrying vaccine mandates for truckers and other COVID-19 restrictions and are railing against Canadian Prime Minister Justin 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, and are already rapidly being lifted as the omicron surge levels off.

The Ambassador Bridge is the busiest U.S.-Canadian border crossing, carrying 25% of all trade between the two countries, and the effects of the blockade there were felt rapidly.

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. Federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said

Stephanie Pituley is a trucker, mother and protester who brought her children along with her for the 27-hour drive.

“We’ve brought our children in our trucks for as long as we can remember, I don’t feel that they’re in any danger whatsoever,” Pituley said to NewsNation. “If anything, this is an experience for them and one that they will remember forever. So you can’t learn that in the classroom.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a bulletin to local and state law enforcement agencies that it has received reports that truckers are planning to “potentially block roads in major metropolitan cities” in a protest against vaccine mandates and other issues.

A U.S. trucker said there is currently “something in the works” to stage a protest similar to the one in Canada here in America on “The Donlon Report.”

“I know that firsthand knowledge,” said trucker Brian Ilsley. “But we’re not really trying to go too far with it. We’re trying to keep it in house as much as we can. Because we want to make sure that this stays a grassroots movement.”

Despite Ilsley’s claim, a spokesperson for the Midwest Truckers Association said in a statement: “There’s no organized effort that we or officials know of that truckers will protest in the U.S.”

The blockade is happening at a bad time for the U.S. auto industry. Supplies of new vehicles already are low across the nation because of the global shortage of computer chips, which has forced automakers to temporarily close factories.