Windsor authorities say Ambassador Bridge blockade over, but protesters are back

Windsor Police and the Canadian city's mayor suggested Sunday the border blockade had ended even as new or returning protesters arrived back at a previously cleared intersection near the Ambassador Bridge.

Windsor Police Sgt. Steve Betteridge said authorities aimed to reopen the bridge for traffic sometime Sunday, but he could not commit to it.

"We're hoping today," Betteridge said. "It takes a little bit of time ... we have to be able to do that safely, we have to be able to make sure that we're ready to do that. ... There's several agencies involved."

Protesters gathered Saturday and Sunday near a gas station at Huron Church and Tecumseh roads, about a mile from the bridge along a major thoroughfare to its entrance. Police cleared those people out about noon Sunday, but an hour later, about 50 protesters were in the area, hooting, drinking coffee, waving Canadian flags, and hollering "Freedom!"

When asked whether they posed an obstacle to reopening traffic, Betteridge said police were staying in the area in force.

The protest, which entered its seventh day and began over truckers opposed to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other restrictions, has shut down the key U.S.-Canadian border crossing between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, costing Michigan and other areas tens of millions of dollars in lost production and worker wages.

Earlier Sunday, police suggested an end had come peacefully after negotiation and some arrests. Windsor Police, who had taken criticism on social media for not forcefully ending the blockade on Friday after a judge OK'd such a move, announced the all-clear just before noon.

"Police used discretion during the course of the demonstration to avoid creating an unstable situation and potentially putting the public at risk," a news release from the department said. "This exercising of police discretion should not be confused with lack of enforcement."

The release also noted: "Throughout this demonstration, Police have respected the protesters' freedom of expression and their right to a peaceful assembly. The importance of public safety remained the number one priority of officers with the goal being a peaceful resolution."

Betteridge said Sunday afternoon that "about 15" people were arrested over the weekend and police towed "seven or eight" vehicles. Most of those arrested face a charge of mischief.

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens tweeted just before 11 a.m. that reopening the bridge was up to authorities.

"Today, our national economic crisis at the Ambassador Bridge came to an end. Border crossings will reopen when it is safe to do so and I defer to police and border agencies to make that determination," Dilkens said.

Overnight Saturday in the cold, the crowd of several hundred protesters left over from earlier in the day had dwindled to just a couple of dozen by Sunday morning.

The supposed end of the standoff — which at first featured semi-trailers blocking access to the bridge, later replaced by people on foot — began in a tweet from Windsor Police about 8:15 a.m. Sunday, which warned of enforcement actions coming — "with arrests being made. Vehicles being towed."

Police advised the public to avoid the area and, in an additional tweet about 9 a.m., said "there will be zero tolerance for illegal activity. "

Before 11 a.m., police issued their last verbal warning to leave or face arrest. Shortly thereafter, protesters could be seen packing up and leaving.

Windsor Police earlier announced a 27-year-old man was apprehended late Saturday night. Around 10:30 a.m., another man could be seen in handcuffs, but the reasons for his arrest were unclear as other protesters stood free nearby. Betteridge did not provide further details of the arrests.

Some protesters left Sunday after the first spate of warnings.

Kim Deon of Milton was among them.

Deon, who said he joined the protest Saturday and returned again Sunday morning, said people knew police were coming around 8 a.m. "to do the push."

"It's not the end," he said. "I think right now we made a statement. And what happened here in the last week is showing the world and showing the rest of the country that, you know what, this needs to be done to stop what's going on in our country."

Barriers up Saturday

Saturday saw the largest crowds, despite a show of force by police early in the day.

Officers brought in a school bus, four other municipal buses and a van labeled "offender transport." Four large pickups with city of Windsor logos on the side also arrived on the scene.

Some protesters early on packed up their things. The owners of a large green tent, which had sheltered a propane grill and some food tables, took it down and hauled away the items underneath it.

All the pickups and semi-trucks of protesters who had stayed overnight Friday drove off by mid-morning, leaving about 50 protesters on foot. A line of police then pushed them back several hundred yards past College Avenue.

A man clad in red-and-black flannel waved a Canadian flag attached to a hockey stick. The word "Freedom" was written on the flag. Others sang the Canadian national anthem.

Some danced to loud music. Others used their cell phones to shoot photos and video of the protest.

"We're still making our point. It's still shut down," said one protester named Dan who wouldn't give his last name. "We're still doing what we set out to do. Just send (the) message to (Canadian Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau and (Ontario Premier Doug) Ford. End the mandates. End the passports and let us live our lives. We're sick and tired of it."

Dan described the protest as "peaceful, friendly and fun-loving."

Around noon Saturday, new protesters appeared on foot, growing their ranks to several hundred.

In late afternoon, a crew used earth-moving equipment to position concrete barricades across Huron Church Road, which carries traffic to the toll booths of the bridge.

More: How truckers at the Ambassador Bridge hurt businesses, sparked protests around the world

More: Judge grants injunction to end Ambassador Bridge trucker blockade

Ottawa protest

Meanwhile Sunday, police held back from a crackdown on a larger protest in Canada's capital, Ottawa.

Local and national police formed a joint command center in Ottawa, where protests have paralyzed downtown, infuriated residents who are fed up with police inaction and turned up pressure on Trudeau.

The protests have reverberated across the country and beyond, with similar convoys in France, New Zealand and the Netherlands. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned that truck convoys may be in the works in the United States.

Staff writers John Wisely and Lily Altavena contributed to this report.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Authorities say blockade over, but Ambassador Bridge protesters are back