By
February 12, 2022
-Western Standard
Scores of police officers have begun to confront a large number of protesters who are blockading the vital Ambassador Bridge into the US.
Dozens of officers have begun to slowly advance on the blockaders.
So far no one has been arrested as the police slowly move forward to the group of Maple Leaf-waving protesters.
“We urge all demonstrators to act lawfully and peacefully,” Windsor police said in a tweet as officers started to move in.
Police started to move in about 8 a.m. (EST) after an Ontario judge issued an injunction ordering the removal of Freedom Convoy truckers blockading the vital bridge that links Windsor and Detroit.
Officers clad in military camouflage, armed with automatic weapons, are keeping a close eye on the group as police spotters watch from the roof of a nearby building.
An armoured vehicle was situated directly behind the line of advancing police.
More protests are expected today across the country. A Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa is entering its third week while the border remains closed at two border crossings in Southern Alberta.
A Calgary-based lawyer who argued against the injunction said he thinks many of the protesters will ignore the order.
James Kitchen, who was only asked to represent the Windsor group Citizen’s For Free 20 minutes before the virtual hearing, said the Charter of Rights and Freedoms gives the protesters the right to be there and said they were willing to end the full blockade and only close down one lane.
Kitchen agreed the blockade is causing economic chaos but added that “the concern about auto workers not able to work because of the protests disruption to the flow of goods should be equally applied to truckers, health care workers, and civil servants who aren’t able to work because they didn’t take an ineffective vaccine”.
“It was my honour to represent them,” Kitchen said.
For more than a week, truckers fighting against vaccine mandates have either completely blocked the span or narrowed traffic down to one lane.
