OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Ottawa’s police chief resigned Tuesday amid criticism of his inaction against the trucker protests that have paralyzed Canada’s capital for more than two weeks, while demonstrators elsewhere across the country abandoned another one of the blockades at the U.S. border.
Trucks with horns blaring rolled out of the southern Alberta town of Coutts, ending the siege that had disrupted trade for more than two weeks. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police earlier this week arrested 11 people at the blockaded crossing and seized a cache of guns and ammunition.
The two developments came a day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked extraordinary emergency powers to try to end the occupation in Ottawa and elsewhere around the country. Across Canada and beyond, the question in the coming days will be whether it worked.
In Ottawa, the bumper-to-bumper demonstration by hundreds of truck drivers against the country’s COVID-19 restrictions — and the failure of Police Chief Peter Sloly to break the siege early on — have infuriated many residents. They have complained of being harassed and intimidated by protesters.
Sloly’s resignation was confirmed by a government official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said it is time for police to begin using their broad authority conferred under Canada’s Emergencies Act, which allows the government to ban the blockades and begin towing away trucks.
“We need law enforcement to take the reins, to utilize the Emergencies Act and to enforce,” he said late Monday after Trudeau announced he was invoking the law. “We have given new powers to police and we need them to do the job now.”
Government leaders have not indicated when or where the crackdowns on the self-styled Freedom Convoy would begin. Mendicino said they were still working out the final details on where the prohibited zones will be.
The government will be able to ban blockades at border crossings, airports and in Ottawa; freeze truckers’ personal and corporate bank accounts and suspend their licenses; and target crowd-funding sites that are being used to support the blockades.
It also can force tow trucks to move the big rigs out of intersections and neighborhoods. Up to now, some towing companies have been reluctant to cooperate because of their support for the truckers or fears of violence.
Since late January, protesters in trucks and other vehicles have jammed the streets of the capital and obstructed border crossings, decrying vaccine mandates for truckers and other COVID-19 precautions and condemning Trudeau’s Liberal government.
Trudeau’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act came amid growing frustration with government inaction and concerns about the weapons found at the Alberta crossing. The Mounties also said a heavy-duty truck and farm tractor tried to ram a police cruiser on Sunday.
The nation’s public safety minister said the nation can no longer tolerate disruptions and threats.
“What the operation revealed is that you got a very small, hardened core driven by ideology,” Mendicino said. “We have been fortunate thus far there has not been mass violence.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose province includes Ottawa and Windsor, the site of a now-disbanded blockade at the Ambassador Bridge to Detroit, said: “Hopefully the police in the next few days, hopefully sooner, can move.”
Ford said the siege in Ottawa is complicated by the presence of children in the protest. “They have kids there. We don’t want anything to happen to kids. Bring your kids home,” he said.
The busiest and most important border crossing, the Ambassador Bridge, was reopened on Sunday after police arrested dozens of demonstrators. The nearly weeklong siege had disrupted auto production in both countries, but it was returning to normal on Tuesday.
Authorities also said traffic was moving again at the Pacific Highway border crossing south of Vancouver. The Mounties said officers ordered demonstrators out late Monday and several were arrested.
“While we have seen progress it is important that we continue to secure that progress going forward,” Mendicino said.
Protesters in the capital appeared to be more entrenched, vowing not to back down in the face of pressure from the government.
Erik Mueller, a truck driver who quit his job to join the blockade in Ottawa, said he was opposed to the Liberal party in charge of the government. He called the emergency measures targeting the drivers “insane.”
“We are not backing off,” he said. “We have too much to lose.”
Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Tuesday vaccinated travelers will no longer need a molecular COVID-19 test to enter Canada starting Feb. 28 because the situation has improved. Travelers can instead opt for a rapid antigen test approved by the country they are coming from.
The measure that requires truckers to be vaccinated to enter Canada remains in place. The U.S. has the same requirement on its side.
Restrictions for unvaccinated children are also being eased.
The protests have drawn support from right-wing extremists in Canada and have been cheered on in the U.S. by Fox News personalities and conservatives such as Donald Trump.
Over the past weeks, authorities have hesitated to move against the protesters, citing in some cases a lack of manpower and fears of violence.
The demonstrations have inspired similar convoys in France, New Zealand and the Netherlands. U.S. authorities have said that truck convoys may be in the works in the United States.
Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writer Ted Shaffrey in Ottawa, Ontario, and Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report.