Amid progress at a border bridge, Ottawa remained frozen by an antigovernment protest. There were signs of a slight thaw, with truckers said to be weighing pulling out of part of the capital.
Canadian law enforcement officials said Sunday that they were preparing to reopen a major international bridge which had been blockaded by protesters for almost a week, raising hopes for industries, especially auto manufacturing, slowed to a near standstill by the unrest. But at the footstep of Parliament some 500 miles to the northeast, they appeared powerless to quell the near-chaos. As officials announced that the Ambassador Bridge, which ties Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit, had been reclaimed after a series of arrests in the morning, some hailed it as victory for a government deeply shaken by the intransigence of anti-vaccine mandate protests that began three weeks ago and that have since mushroomed. But it was a rare victory — and as of nightfall on Sunday, not a fully realized one. By day’s end, the bridge was still not open for traffic. And in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, hundreds of truckers were entering their third week of occupation of the area around Parliament Hill. They appeared to be emboldened by a growing sense of impunity, though late Sunday there were reports that an agreement had been broached for the drivers to pull out of some neighborhoods over the coming days. The mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson, revealed back-channel negotiations with the truckers’ leadership to remove their convoy from residential neighborhoods, among other measures. The mayor’s office released an emailed letter dated Saturday from one of the protest leaders, Tamara Lich, in which she said, “We will be working hard over the next 24 hours to get buy in from the truckers.” The mayor said Sunday in an interview that the conversations began several days ago, with the only concession offered to the truckers being an agreement to meet. The proposal would have the truckers leaving a residential area, where 15,000 people live, he said, but they would not be forced from Wellington Street, site of the legislative buildings. “My preoccupation has been to give some relief to the people who live in these areas,” he said. “It’s not the politicians or the truckers themselves who are suffering, it’s the people who live in these communities.” Word that tensions might ease a bit in the beleaguered capital came after protesters and their supporters spent the weekend jamming the streets with dance parties, bonfires and even an inflatable hot tub. People swarmed local stores without masks, violating local regulations, and lavished the truckers encamped in their vehicles with cash and gifts that they tossed through their windows. The slim ranks of police officers strolling through the occupation appeared largely to be standing by as people openly violated myriad laws. Some flaunted jugs of diesel fuel — forbidden supplies for the truckers — who leaned on their truck horns. In Windsor, a city on the edge of the Detroit River, at the southernmost heel of the province of Ontario, the police took a more assertive stance. Beginning Saturday morning, hundreds of officers staged a maneuver to rout the trucks that had been blocking the approaches to the Ambassador Bridge all week.
