Politicians north and south add their voices to end border blockades – National Post

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Pressure has mounted on both sides of the border, and across the political aisle in Canada, for protesters blockading key crossings with the U.S. and others encamped by Parliament Hill to go home, or for officials to move them out of the way.

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Political patience with the protesters has run thin as vehicles choke the flow of goods at border crossings, including at Coutts, Alta.; Emerson, Man.; and the busy Windsor-Detroit Ambassador Bridge.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance said Thursday the industry would pay a heavy price for the border actions. It called on governments to end the current blockades and provide a plan to prevent them from happening again.

Political support for the protesters seemed to evaporate as well, as the interim Conservative leader, who two weeks ago suggested her party do everything to make the demonstrations the prime minister’s problem, reversed course and cut her party’s support.

Speaking to the House of Commons, Candice Bergen called on protesters to go home and end activity that she said was hurting the country’s economic rebound from COVID-19.

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“Take down all of the blockades. Protest peacefully and legally, but it’s time to remove the barricades and the trucks for the sake of the economy,” Bergen said.

South of the border, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in a written statement urged federal, provincial and local authorities in Canada to immediately end the blockades that threaten her state’s economy. She did so hours before a Michigan congresswoman, Elissa Slotkin, warned of similar protests in the future the longer Canadian authorities let the situation persist.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said the RCMP is sending reinforcements to Ottawa and Windsor, the latter city moving Thursday to seek a court injunction against the protesters.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government was working with municipal leaders and the Ford government in Ontario to put an end to barricades that were “hurting communities across the country.

“We’re going to continue to do what’s necessary to end these barricades,” Trudeau told reporters on his way into the House of Commons.

But the protests showed no signs of letting up.

Traffic was almost at a standstill Thursday as yet another protest blocked the main border crossing between Manitoba and the United States.

About three dozen trailer trucks, tractors, pickups and snowmobiles halted traffic in both directions on Highway 75, about two kilometres north of the Emerson crossing and 100 kilometres south of Winnipeg. The protesters only allowed trucks carrying livestock through.

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“This is not a slow-roll protest. Things are completely blocked right now,” said David Carlson, reeve of the Emerson-Franklin rural municipality.

The blockade could affect emergency response times, Carlson said, because municipalities on both sides of the sparsely populated border area share duties.

On Thursday evening, it was clear they planned to stay some time, as portable toilets and fire barrels were brought to the blockade.

Speaking to a crowd gathered by Parliament Hill, protester Bethan Nodwell urged the crowd to hold the line downtown until reinforcements arrive this weekend.

“We’re blocking the airports. We’re blocking borders. We are blocking it all. We are not going to retreat,” she said into the microphone.

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The situation in Ottawa, which has spurred similar actions nationally and abroad, continued to dominate debate even as political fissures have formed inside the Liberal caucus and Official Opposition over the handling of the protests and public health measures.

We are blocking it all. We are not going to retreat

The House of Commons foreign affairs committee met Thursday, at which the NDP sought unanimous consent to invite U.S. Ambassador David Cohen to testify. The New Democrats want to hear from him about American funding of the protest in Ottawa through online donations, which they say is an attack on Canada’s democracy.

Barry MacKillop, a deputy director at Canada’s financial intelligence hub Fintrac, told a House of Commons committee on public safety and national security that its system doesn’t cover crowdfunding sites such as GoFundMe.

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Donors raised more than $10 million for the protesters through GoFundMe, which announced last week it was pulling the plug on the campaign, saying the money would be refunded.

The site said it initially believed the demonstration was going to be a peaceful event, but withdrew its support once it realized it had become an “occupation.”

MacKillop testified that Fintrac’s mandate is to identify money linked to terrorist financing and money laundering from reports it receives each year from entities including banks, insurance companies, money service businesses and casinos.

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He said crowdfunding sites are not regulated but money service businesses such as PayPal and Stripe that process payments could submit reports of suspicious transactions.

Earlier Thursday, NDP MP Alistair MacGregor announced the committee would hear directly from representatives from GoFundMe on March 3 about what measures it has in place to prevent the funding of extremism.

A dozen trucks left an area outside Ottawa’s core, 10 left Parliament Hill, another was towed

The so-called Freedom Convoy rolled in to Ottawa two weeks ago, ostensibly to protest federal vaccination mandates for truckers, but it has also demanded an end to all COVID-19 restrictions and some in the group have called for the government to be dissolved.

Ottawa police said Thursday that a dozen trucks left an area outside the downtown core after negotiations with protesters who have used the parking lot there as a staging and logistics ground. Ten more trucks left streets near Parliament Hill, and another vehicle was towed for obstructing traffic.

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As part of the announcement, police reissued their call for remaining protesters to leave the national capital after immobilizing the core of the city for almost two weeks.

Demonstrators with large trucks have been warned by police that if they continue blocking streets they could be charged with mischief to property or have their vehicles and other property seized and possibly forfeited. Police also warned that charges or convictions might mean being barred from travelling to the United States.

With a temporary injunction in place on protesters honking their truck horns, none could be heard early Thursday from the vehicles parked along Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill. But a convoy of vehicles briefly snarled traffic on Thursday morning around the city’s airport, and local police warned of fake calls flooding the 911 emergency system.