After seven days of paralysis, Canadian police managed Sunday evening to reopen the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor in Ontario to the American city of Detroit in Michigan.
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Justin Trudeau bangs his fist on the table. The Prime Minister of Canada announced on Monday February 14 the use of the Emergency Measures Act to end the blockages “illegal” protesters anti-sanitary measures underway in the country for more than two weeks. This decision corresponds to a state of national emergency, and allows the government to resort to “extraordinary measures” to face a “national crisis”.
Justin Trudeau, however, clarified that the army would not be deployed and that the new measures would be “limited in time and geographically”.
After seven days of paralysis, Canadian police managed Sunday evening to reopen the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor in Ontario to the American city of Detroit in Michigan. The blocking of this major border axis had prompted Washington, worried about the economic consequences, to intervene with the government of Justin Trudeau.
Several Canadian provinces had earlier in the day their opposition to the use of this law, mentioned during a meeting organized in the morning between Justin Trudeau and the Prime Ministers of the ten Canadian provinces and three territories. “We do not want to have a state of emergency in Quebec”had reacted the Prime Minister of this province, François Legault, considering that this “[n’était] not necessary” and that he was rather “time to come together, not divide”. The latter also explained that the province is studying the possibility of “withdrawing the vaccine passport”.
In the center of the country, the Premier of Manitoba Heather Stefanson had for her part indicated that she was not “convinced that the law on emergency measures should be applied” in his province. Speaking about the national situation, the only female prime minister of a Canadian province said that among all prime ministers “a clear consensus that the situation in each province and territory is very different”.
The Premier of New Brunswick echoed the same message: “I don’t think it is necessary to add additional measures at this time” said Blaine Higgs at a press conference.