Traffic continued to move freely Sunday morning in both directions over the Blue Water Bridge near Sarnia.
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There were no protesters or blockades at the crossing between Point Edward and Port Huron, Mich., and traffic was moving at “normal volumes,” Remi Paquette, the chief corporate services officer for the Federal Bridge Corporation, said in an email.
Wait times for vehicles crossing in both directions was less than 15 minutes, according to Michigan’s Department of Transportation.
The bridge sits at the western end of Highway 402, where a blockade in support of the “Freedom Convoy” had been set up earlier in the week in the westbound lanes about 47 kilometers east of Sarnia.
A section of the highway’s westbound lanes – from Nauvoo Road to Forest Road – remained closed Sunday morning, according to the Ministry of Transportation’s 511 Traveler Information website. Traffic was being routed around the closed portion of the highway.
“This is our last stand as free Canadians,” said a supporter of the highway demonstration who was at the site Sunday. He declined to give his name.
He estimated about 700 supporters had visited the demonstration throughout the day Saturday. The supporters, he said, included youngsters who played hockey on a nearby pond, and families and others who ate hamburgers and sausages barbecued at the site. There were fireworks in the evening.
Supporters have visited from as far away as Brantford and Windsor, he said.
A landowner next to where about 25 farm and construction vehicles were parked on the highway’s westbound lanes gave the protesters permission to use the property, where a wall of straw bales provided shelter from the wind, campfires burned and a row of vehicles parked after traveling in we have a private laneway.
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Several dozen supporters were there in the Sunday afternoon, including a few cutting up downed trees in the nearby bush for firewood.
“We’re not economic terrorists,” the man said. He said the demonstrators came to the highway to create awareness “and not to slow down the economy. We want this highway open.”
He said the demonstrators wanted to park the vehicles along the highway and allow traffic to continue moving by, but the OPP made the decision to close the road.
Truck traffic was heavy Sunday on the westbound stretch of London Line where traffic was detoured around the demonstration. It slowed to a crawl at about 2 pm east of Reece’s Corners, where a police officer was in the intersection directing traffic as most trucks turned north on Oil Heritage Road to return to Highway 402.
Meanwhile Sunday, to the south in Windsor, police were beginning a second push to clear protestors at the Ambassador Bridge.
The Windsor police moved against the demonstration Saturday and began another offensive Sunday morning, making arrests, towing vehicles and clearing the few remaining protesters.
A demonstration Saturday in Port Huron, in support of the Canadian protests, attracted spectators and supporters to parking lots and a parkway along the St. Clair River near the Blue Water Bridge, reported the Port Huron Times Herald newspaper.
Westbound traffic on the Ontario side of the bridge had been halted for more than eight hours a week early by a demonstration involving hundreds of vehicles parked on westbound on Highway 402 in Sarnia and Point Edward. The demonstrators left the highway later in the day.
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Trucks were backed up Tuesday from the bridge to the city limits of Sarnia because commercial traffic was being rerouted from the demonstration at the Ambassador Bridge, but Michigan-bound traffic on the crossing returned to normal by the following day.
Paquette said concrete barriers were placed at the entrances to a tourism information building at the bridge following last Sunday’s protest.
“Folks parked in there and accessed the 402 eastbound, which was a security and safety concern for the public,” Paquette said.
The barriers remained in place, as of Sunday.
Long truck backups were reported last week in Michigan on highways approaching the Blue Water Bridge as commercial haulers were directed to the crossing from Windsor where demonstrations block entry to Canada.
Lambton County officials said Saturday they were in contact with the OPP and monitoring the highway blockade in Warwick Township.
“While the right to peaceful protest is a freedom that is valued by every Canadian, this protest, and the others taking place across the country, is having an incredibly negative effect on local residents and businesses,” Lambton Warden Kevin Marriott said in a statement .
“The county is in continued contact with local OPP and remains committed to continue to work with the OPP, as needed, to reach our common interests in bringing this situation to a timely resolution,” he said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency Friday in response to ongoing blockades warning of “severe” consequences for protesters who don’t leave.
Fines for non-compliance will be up to $100,000 and up to a year imprisonment.
With files from the Windsor Star and The Canadian Press
