Ambassador Bridge reopens after week-long protest

The Ambassador Bridge crossing between Canada and the U.S. has reopened, the Detroit International Bridge Company announced in a statement late Sunday.

"The Ambassador Bridge is now fully open allowing the free flow of commerce between the Canada and U.S. economies once again," the company, which is responsible for maintaining the bridge, said in the statement.

The Canada Border Services Agency confirmed the border crossing that links Windsor, Ont., with Detroit had reopened.

Windsor Police also warned they're still monitoring the situation at the site of the protest.

"We continue to remind the public that enforcement is ongoing in the demonstration area and there will be zero tolerance for illegal activity," Windsor Police tweeted Monday morning. "The public should also continue to avoid the area."

On Sunday, Windsor Police Chief Pamela Mizuno said officers had made between 25 and 30 arrests, seized five vehicles that day and towed seven vehicles the day before in an effort to clear protesters from the area.

During an afternoon press conference, Mizuno said the police service was focusing on reopening roadways, but officers were trying to do so in a "safe and sustainable" way.

She said police were working on their operational plans, with their main goals being to restore traffic flow in the area and reopen the bridge.

Mizuno said there will be criminal consequences for those who interfere with or interrupt traffic flow in the area by the bridge.

The city’s mayor applauded the work of the police and said the Ambassador Bridge would reopen "when it is safe to do so."

"Today, our national economic crisis at the Ambassador Bridge came to an end. Border crossings will reopen when it is safe to do so and I defer to police and border agencies to make that determination," Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said in a statement on Sunday morning.

Since Saturday morning, police have been slowly pushing back protesters away from the bridge entrance. Police also stated that vehicles are being towed, and residents should continue to avoid the area. They warned there would be “zero tolerance for illegal activity.”

"Lots of trained teams are here to deal with this and we're at the very end, I hope, here in the city of Windsor," Dilkens told CTV's Question Period on Sunday.

"Police are trying to be very cautious, very measured in their approach so that nobody gets hurt, that they don't further inflame the situation, but that they do end it.”

The Ambassador Bridge is the busiest crossing in North America and had been closed for nearly a week as a result of the protest calling for an end to all COVID-19 restrictions. While the larger rigs may no longer be crowding the protest site, other demonstrators had stood their ground despite an injunction demanding that they leave.

PROTESTS ACROSS CANADA CONTINUE

Meanwhile, protesters in Ottawa continued to rally for the third weekend in a row, demonstrating against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other health restrictions.

On Saturday, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson sent a letter to convoy organizer Tamara Lich requesting that protesters leave residential areas before noon on Monday. He also indicated that he would be willing to meet with the organizers.

According to the mayor’s office, organizers of the convoy have agreed to the request through “backchannel negotiations,” with Lich saying there's plan to "consolidate our protest efforts around Parliament Hill."

"We will be working hard over the next 24 hours to get buy in from the truckers. We hope to start repositioning our trucks on Monday," she wrote.

Watson says that should the convoy members live up to their commitments, the agreement would provide “our most impacted residents with a much-needed break from the noise and exhaust fumes, as well as improve the sense of safety and security of our residents.”

Saturday's rally in nation's capital saw a surge of protesters, outnumbering the presence of officers in the city. Protesters also held another party with loud music on Saturday night, complete with a DJ, a giant TV screen and even a hot tub.

Ottawa police on Saturday formed a new "Integrated Command Centre" along with the RCMP and the Ontario Provincial Police. Police say the new command centre will "result in a significantly enhanced ability to respond to the current situation in our city."

Watson said on CTV's Question Period Sunday "there's no question" that control was lost in the city "a week or so ago, and it's just gotten worse on weekends."

In a separate interview, Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair told CTV's Question Period that the federal government is prepared to invoke the Emergencies Act to see an end to the convoy protests.

"We have an emergency act that I will tell you, there has been a near-constant and vigorous examination of those authorities and what's required," he said.

“The country needs the police to do their job,” said Blair, a former Toronto police chief.

"We need them to enforce our laws, to restore peace and order at our borders and in our cities, and we need them to use the tools that are available to them."

However, Watson has called on the other levels of government to send in more policing resources, something that his city has been requesting for almost a week.

"We need actual action from the province, from the federal government. We do not have the resources to bring order to this situation and that's why we reached out to those other orders of government," Watson said.

Some Ottawa residents took matters into their own hands. CTV News producer Mackenzie Gray said a group of counter-protesters had blocked another convoy of vehicles attempting to join the main group of protesters on Sunday morning. Counter-protesters also held a march on Saturday, calling on convoy participants to leave.

Watson said the city's lawyers will be in court on Monday seeking an injunction to address bylaw infractions in the downtown core related to noise, idling, fireworks and open-air fire bylaws.

In B.C., four people were arrested for mischief at the protest near the Pacific Highway Border Crossing in Surrey, B.C.

The highway remains blocked off by police on 176 Street and its feeder routes, but RCMP say some of the vehicles and protesters who stayed on the street overnight have now packed up and left the area.

Though the RCMP say in a release that the "border crossing remains closed," the Canadian Border Services Agency has confirmed it is still open, but suggests travellers use a different crossing if possible.

In southern Manitoba, another border blockade grew, with RCMP estimating about 75 vehicles were in attendance Sunday. Police say all four lanes of Highway 75 at Provincial Road 200 north of the border remain blocked.

And in Coutts, Alta., RCMP disabled three excavators they believe were on their way to a truck blockade that's shut down the U.S. border crossing.

With files from CTV News Ottawa, CTVNews.ca's Rachel Aiello and The Canadian Press.