In Canada, frustrations linger even as bridge reopens to traffic

Largely civil and without violence, a demonstration in Windsor, Ont. was finally cleared by police Sunday after blocking one of North America’s busiest cross-border trade arteries for more than five days.

It was a most Canadian protest -- except when it wasn’t.

Largely civil and without violence, a demonstration in Windsor, Ontario was finally cleared by police Sunday morning after blocking one of North America’s busiest cross-border trade arteries for more than five days. But while the stand-off is over, and the Ambassador Bridge has reopened, deeply divisive issues remain.

Many of the Ambassador Bridge protesters hold views that are uncompromising, including a hardened mistrust of media and of the doctors and scientists responsible for giving advice about COVID-19. They often mentioned their love of country, even as their upside-down Canadian flags billowed in the frigid breeze. Fury with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was expressed in profanity-strewn banners, but dealings with reporters, police, and residents were largely polite.

So while aspects of the bridge protest -- and in particular its quiet end -- reflected Canada, the divisions it exposed are similar to those emerging elsewhere. Confusion, anger and exasperation after more than two years of the pandemic drew support from like-minded groups in the U.S. and parts of Europe amid chafing at what they see as governmental overreach, economic fears and a deeply emotional desire to return to something like normal. 

As elsewhere, Canada’s protesters were opposed to vaccine mandates, but some had other reasons for being there, including concerns about inequality. The consequences of pandemic-related decisions in Ottawa are being borne by the working class, said Jerome Beal, a self-employed construction worker. Food, housing and energy costs are soaring and people are losing their homes, he said.

“They’re making it impossible for the middle-class people to be middle class,” Beal said. “There’s either going to be the yays or the nays. And that’s a shame because what that does is systematically divide us.”