As Ottawa remained paralyzed by nearly two weeks of protests against pandemic measures, the demonstrations continued to reverberate beyond Canada, with a new road blockade temporarily cutting off the country’s busiest border crossing and copycat convoys spreading to New Zealand and Australia, with plans for a third in the United States.
While smaller than the protests that have buffeted the core of Ottawa, Canada’s capital, the new protest targets the Ambassador Bridge to Detroit. The bridge is a vital link for the automobile industry, which relies on a constant shuttling of parts and components across the border to keep factories humming in Ontario and the Midwestern United States.
The heavy trucks and private vehicles have blocked traffic destined for Canada. On Tuesday morning the Canada Border Services Agency listed the bridge as “temporarily closed.” But Windsor Police said on Twitter that traffic was again moving to the United States through a secondary entrance to the bridge.
Most of the trucks in the Windsor protest were covered with flags and posters denouncing vaccine mandates and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Mr. Trudeau himself had his own message for the protesters in the national capital, whom he accused of undermining Canadian democracy: “It has to…
