Category Archives: Canada

Saunas, haircuts, hot meals: Ottawa protesters set up for the long haul

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Protesters against Covid-19 rules seem unfazed by possible police action as prime minister invokes emergency powers

A day after Canada’s prime minister announced a dramatic escalation in his government’s fight against blockades across the country, protesters in the nation’s capital were scheduling haircuts and receiving massages, apparently unfazed by the prospect of ramped-up police enforcement.

Hundreds of semi-trucks which have been parked out front of Canada’s parliament since late January have become emblematic of the protests, but planning and logistics for the occupation is run from a second site in a hotel parking lot on Coventry Road, 5km east of the downtown area.

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Seven dead and 17 missing as Spanish fishing boat sinks off Canada

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Three crew rescued from life raft as international mission combs icy seas for survivors

At least seven people have died and 14 are missing after a Spanish fishing boat sank in bitterly cold seas off the north-east coast of Canada early on Tuesday morning.

Spain’s maritime rescue service said an international operation was under way to locate the crew of the Villa de Pitanxo, a boat from the north-western Galicia region that went down 280 miles (450km) off the Newfoundland coast.

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Canada: Justin Trudeau invokes emergency powers amid trucker blockades – video

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The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, announced the government would invoke the Emergencies Act as the country goes into a third week of 'illegal and dangerous' blockades.

 'We are not preventing the right of people to protest legally,' said Trudeau, adding that the military would not be deployed as part of the measures


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Trudeau invokes rare emergency powers in attempt to quell protests

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Emergencies Act gives government broad powers for 30 days, but prime minister is not expected to call in the military

The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has invoked legislation that gives his government sweeping powers to fight a growing number of “illegal and dangerous” blockades across the country.

The first prime minister to invoke the Emergencies Act, Trudeau said the measures would be time-limited and only apply to specific geographic regions. “We are not preventing the right of people to protest legally,” he said, adding that the military would not be deployed. “The act is to be used sparingly and as a last resort.”

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Foreign money funding ‘extremism’ in Canada, says hacker

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Exclusive: leak shows more than half of donations to convoy protest through GiveSendGo came from US

A hacker who leaked the names and locations of more than 90,000 people who donated money to the Canadian trucker convoy protest has said it exposed how money from abroad had funded “extremism” in the country.

In an exclusive interview, the hacker told the Guardian that Canada was “not safe from foreign political manipulation”. “You see a huge amount of money that isn’t even coming from Canada – that’s plain as day,” said the hacker, who belongs to the hacktivist group Anonymous.

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Second of five whales brought from Canada to US aquarium dies

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Female was receiving intensive care for multiple health issues but died early Friday morning, and a male beluga died in August

The second of five whales brought from Canada to Connecticut’s Mystic aquarium last year for research purposes has died.

The aquarium announced on its website that the female had been receiving intensive care for the past several months for multiple health issues but died early Friday morning. A necropsy was to be performed to determine the cause of death.

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Key US-Canada border bridge to reopen after police clear blockade

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Ambassador bridge linking Detroit and city of Windsor to reopen on Sunday, official says, as numbers swelled to about 4,000 demonstrators

Canadian police have cleared protesters from the Ambassador bridge linking the country to the United States, ending a six-day blockade and allowing North America’s busiest trade route to reopen.

Police moved in to clear and arrest the remaining protesters on the border bridge early on Sunday, trying to end one of the main demonstrations that have broken out across Canada against Covid-19 vaccine mandates and other restrictions to bring the pandemic under control.

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Freedom convoys: legitimate Covid protest or vehicle for darker beliefs?

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The blockade of Ottawa has sparked copycat action around the globe, and such disparate demonstrations of grievance may prove hard to shut down

It only took six dozen trucks, and a few hundred protesters to bring Canada’s capital to a standstill and close a critical border crossing with the US, throttling the car industry that straddles the line between both countries and relies on a constant flow of trade.

On Saturday, Canadian authorities finally began taking action to clear the Ambassador Bridge into the US, the busiest land crossing in North America, which had been blockaded by just over a dozen trucks and smaller vehicles, and a crowd a few hundred strong.

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Protests grow across Canada as police struggle to reopen key bridge

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Police had early success in clearing Ambassador Bridge, but demonstrators still choke vital trade route

Protesters opposed to Covid-19 vaccine mandates and other restrictions withdrew some of their vehicles from a US-Canadian border bridge on Saturday, but ramped up demonstrations in cities across Canada, including the capital, where police said they were awaiting more officers before ending what they described as an illegal occupation.

Late on Saturday police made the first arrest of a protester blocking the Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, more than a day after authorities moved in seeking to end the blockade of the important trade corridor.

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US-Canada border standoff dissolves peacefully as police move in

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Many demonstrators drove away from Ambassador Bridge as scores of police approached shortly before dawn

A tense standoff at a US-Canadian border crossing crucial to both countries’ economies appeared to be dissolving peacefully Saturday as Canadian police moved in to disperse the nearly weeklong blockade and demonstrators began leaving without resistance.

Many demonstrators drove away from the Ambassador Bridge spanning the river between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, as scores of police approached shortly after dawn.

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Durham police help save woman 3,000 miles away in Canada

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Suspect arrested 30 minutes after woman in Durham, Ontario, mistakenly contacts English force

Control room staff helped save a woman in danger more than 3,000 miles away after she contacted the wrong Durham police force.

Durham constabulary was contacted on Wednesday afternoon on its online live chat facility by a distressed woman who reported an intruder trying to get into her home in Durham, Canada.

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Protesters defy order to clear bridge connecting Canada and US

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Hours after the injunction order to end the blockade, protesters opposing pandemic restrictions stayed at the bridge entrance

Protesters opposing pandemic restrictions were still occupying a vital Canada-US trade corridor hours after an injunction order to end the blockade that has disrupted North America’s auto industry took effect.

Prime minister Justin Trudeau has promised president Joe Biden quick action to end the crisis and earlier on Friday a Canadian judge ordered an end to the four-daylong blockade of the Ambassador Bridge, North America’s busiest land border crossing.

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Ontario declares state of emergency, threatening fines and jail time to end blockade

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Court grants an injunction to remove protesters from the bridge between Windsor and Detroit

The province of Ontario has invoked a state of emergency and says it will use the threat of hefty fines, jail time and vehicle licence seizures to end a blockade that has crippled trade between Canada and the United States.

Border traffic at the Ambassador Bridge, which links Windsor to Detroit, has been shut down since Monday as part of a nationwide protest against pandemic restrictions, snarling nearly C$300m (US$235m) of trade each day.

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US urges Canada to end trucker border blockade as mayor says protesters could be removed by force

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Authorities work on alternative travel routes as protest hits auto production and injunction sought to remove Ambassador Bridge demonstrators

The US government has urged Canada to use federal powers to ease the growing economic disruption caused by the blockade of the vital Ambassador Bridge by protesters opposed to coronavirus mandates.

The closure of North America’s busiest international land border crossing, a vital supply route for Detroit’s carmakers, has halted some auto output and left officials scrambling to limit economic damage.

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Paris police authority bans ‘freedom convoy’ Covid protests

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Protesters have set out from southern France inspired by demonstrators in Canada

“Freedom convoys” of motorists that have set off from half a dozen French cities in protest against the country’s coronavirus restrictions will not be allowed to enter Paris, the capital’s police authority has said.

“The stated objective of these demonstrations is to ‘block the capital’ by preventing road traffic from circulating in order to further their demands … from Friday, before moving on to Brussels on Monday,” the authority said.

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US-Canada bridge blockade risks huge economic damage, governments warn

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While protest remains on bridge between car-manufacturing cities of Detroit and Windsor, businesses risk losing $50m a day

Blockades on the busiest border bridge between Canada and the US could have a serious impact on the economies of both countries, disrupting the automotive industry, agricultural exports, and causing multimillion-dollar losses, the two countries’ governments have said.

The warnings came as business associations said that manufacturing plants at the heart of North America’s automotive industry face potential shortages, shutdowns, layoffs as “freedom convoy” protesters continue to block traffic on the Ambassador Bridge, between the car-manufacturing cities of Detroit and Windsor.

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Arrests in Ottawa as Canadian truckers block main bridge to US

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Police detain 23 in Ottawa protests over Covid restrictions, while trucks block Ambassador Bridge linking cities of Detroit and Windsor

Traffic has ground to a halt at the busiest border crossing in North America, as Canadian truckers and others angry with vaccine mandates spread their protest beyond Ottawa.

Trucks started blocking the Ambassador Bridge linking the cities of Detroit and Windsor late on Monday, closing down traffic in both directions. On Tuesday, entry to Canada remained blocked while US-bound traffic slowed to a crawl. Each day, 8,000 trucks normally cross the bridge, which handles about 27% of trade between Canada and the US. Protesters also targeted another major border crossing in Coutts, Alberta.

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5G and QAnon: how conspiracy theorists steered Canada’s anti-vaccine trucker protest

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Ottawa’s occupation was a result of unrivaled coordination between anti-vax and anti-government organizations

Thousands of demonstrators have successfully occupied Canada’s frigid capital for days, and say they plan on staying as long as it takes to thwart the country’s vaccine requirements.

The brazen occupation of Ottawa came as a result of unprecedented coordination between various anti-vaccine and anti-government organizations and activists, and has been seized on by similar groups around the world.

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Ottawa protesters turn to Christian crowdfunding site after GoFundMe snub

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GoFundMe blocked fundraising after Canadian city declared emergency over protests against vaccine mandates

A trucker-led protest against vaccine mandates in Canada has raised several million dollars on a Christian crowdfunding site after being removed from GoFundMe, sparking debate over how online platforms moderate campaigns.

GoFundMe blocked fundraising for the “Freedom Convoy” over the weekend, after the mayor of Ottawa declared a state of emergency over a week-long protest led by truck drivers over Covid-19 restrictions.

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Ottawa protesters defy growing calls to end occupation of capital

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Protesters against Covid vaccine mandates have defied government calls for them to end a 10-day occupation of Canada’s capital, a day after the city’s mayor declared a state of emergency and promised to “get the city back”.

Ottawa police have described the protest as a “siege” on the city, where hundreds of trucks and cars have blockaded the downtown areas. On Sunday, Mayor Jim Watson warned that officials were “losing this battle”, and a civil class-action lawsuit was filed against protesters over the incessant horn blasting and disruption to daily life.

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