Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers to stop demonstrations that have paralyzed the capital and blocked border crossings in protest of the country’s covid-19 restrictions.
Trudeau made the announcement in a speech to the nation on Monday after meeting practically the leaders of Canada’s provinces.
“These blockades are illegal, and if you’re still participating, it’s time to go home now,” Trudeau said.
The “Freedom Convoy” protests were started by Canadian truck drivers who opposed a covid-19 vaccination or quarantine mandate by the government. The demonstrations have since attracted protesters angry about other pandemic restrictions as well as Trudeau’s administration policy.
Trudeau invoked the 1988 Emergencies Act, which allows the federal government to override authority in the Canadian provinces.
An earlier version of the act has only been used once in peacetime – by Trudeau’s father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. He used the act in 1970 after a militant group of Quebec separatists kidnapped a British diplomat and a provincial minister.
Trudeau said the new emergency measures “will be time-limited, geographically targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are intended to address.”
Traffic is flowing across the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit on February 14, 2022, after protesters blocked the major border crossing for nearly a week in Windsor, Ontario.
On Sunday, Canadian police cleared a convoy of vehicles blocking the Ambassador Bridge connecting Canada and the United States between Windsor and Detroit after the province of Ontario declared a state of emergency to break the demonstration.
A convoy of trucks and other vehicles has also blocked the streets of the Canadian capital Ottawa for more than two weeks, and convoys have blocked several minor border crossings with the United States.
FILE – Ontario’s Prime Minister Doug Ford speaks in Ontario, Canada, June 8, 2021.
Also on Monday, Ontario’s Prime Minister Doug Ford said he would lift several pandemic restrictions in the province, the epicenter of the protest movement, but said the move was not due to the demonstrations.
Ford said the measures included a release of the vaccination requirement within two weeks, earlier than originally planned.
“Given how well Ontario has done in the omicron wave, we can speed up our reopening plan,” Ford said.
Health officials in the province said COVID-19 infections peaked last month.
The Canadian protest movement has been reflected in other countries.
Israelis participated in their own freedom convoy on Monday. Hundreds of vehicles drove along the main road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and met Parliament.
Israeli vehicles participate in a Canada-style protest convoy against the covid regulations in Jerusalem on February 14, 2022.
About 500 vehicles arrived in Brussels on Monday for a similar protest. However, the vehicles were blocked from the city and the police directed them to a parking lot on the outskirts of the city. Protesters then entered the city where they were holding demonstrations.
Similar protests took place in France over the weekend.
Worldwide
In other global events on Monday, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said that “the attack from the fifth wave of the epidemic has hit Hong Kong hard and overwhelmed the city’s ability to cope.”
She added, “The situation is very undesirable, and the government is worried and sad about it.”
According to Reuters, Hong Kong had a daily infection rate of about 100 in early February, but it has now increased to about 1,300 daily cases and is expected to increase.
Lam said in a statement that Hong Kong would work with China to combat the “worsening situation.”
A couple spends an evening at a covid test station in Hong Kong, February 14, 2022, when authorities tightened restrictions on social gatherings after a record number of covid-19 infections.
In Sweden, the Swedish Public Health Agency on Monday recommended a second covid-19 booster syringe for people aged 80 and older to strengthen their immunity to the rising omicron variant.
In a statement, the Swedish chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said that a fourth dose “strengthens the protection” against serious illness.
The authority also recommended a second booster shot for all residents of nursing homes and those who receive nursing care at home. It was stated that the second booster would be administered four months after the first booster shot.
A report in The Washington Post said that President Joe Biden’s plan to send 500 million free covid-19 tests to Americans, or four tests per household, “shortens colored Americans and hardest hit communities.”
“Why can we not present them every time we roll out a plan?” Myron Quon, CEO of Pacific Asian Counseling Services, an organization in Los Angeles, told the Post. He said the four tests for families in vulnerable communities are not sufficient. Not even close. They have to ration.
The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported on Monday that there are more than 413 million global COVID-19 cases and 5.8 million global deaths. More than 10 billion vaccines have been administered, according to the center.
Some information in this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
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