Ambassador Bridge reopens with heavy police presence around former protest site
CBC
Traffic has once again started flowing across the Ambassador Bridge, after a six-day protest shuttered the international crossing between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit.
Shortly after midnight on Monday, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) announced "normal operations" had resumed at the bridge, one of the busiest border crossings in the country.
Protesters against pandemic restrictions had blocked the main exit and entrance of the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor for nearly a week, before finally being removed by police on Sunday.
Early Monday morning, U.S. Customs and Border Protection tweeted a photo of the first transport truck able to cross.
"I want to thank the unified coalition of business leaders and organizations representing working men and women on both sides of the border for coming together to get this resolved," Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a news release Monday.
"And I appreciate the U.S. and Canadian governments for hearing Michigan's concerns loud and clear and stepping up to reopen the bridge."
Police are still heavily present in the area along Huron Church Road Monday — the main corridor for traffic to the bridge — to ensure protesters do not return to block the roadway.
"There may be a cat-and-mouse situation for a little while," Windsor police Chief Pam Mizuno told reporters Sunday.
Mizuno said police are prepared to deal with any further attempts to block the area. About 25 to 30 people were arrested and charged with mischief Sunday as police cleared the protesters.
Access to intersections along Huron Church Road is being limited Monday, presumably to ensure protesters cannot enter the area.
Meanwhile, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said Monday that the nearly week-long closure of the Ambassador Bridge came at a cost of about $3 billion to the economy.
"You have families that work for the Big 3 [automakers], many of them in Windsor, sent home.… So there's an impact and a ripple throughout the entire community. But I'm happy today the bridge is open and police are in control," Dilkens told CBC's Windsor Morning.
"This is a crucial piece of infrastructure that is the Ambassador Bridge and we've got to do all we can to keep that road open until this so-called Freedom Convoy is sorted out."
On Friday, police began handing out flyers to protesters, informing them of a provincewide state of emergency declared by Premier Doug Ford due to a number of protests in Ontario. Later that afternoon, an Ontario Superior Court granted an injunction, barring protesters from blocking traffic on the Ambassador Bridge.
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