As Canadian authorities broke up the week-long blockade that had shut the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, there was a smaller protest at the U.S. end of the Peace Bridge this weekend to support Canadian truckers battling COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Protesters, many of them waving American and Canadian flags, gathered in the shadow of the Peace Bridge in Pat Sole Park and attacked vaccine mandates in Canada as well as the U.S. It was the second day of protests on both ends of the bridge, with truckers in larger numbers at the Fort Erie end.
It's part of an extended series of protests, which started with Canadian truckers fighting their government’s vaccine requirements to cross the border and eventually shut down traffic on Canadian prairie crossing and Detroit's Ambassador Bridge.
It showed up here on Thursday with a flood of Canada-bound trucks stalled crossing the Peace Bridge and on Sunday with a flood of trucks crossing from Canada to the U.S. on the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge.
The Ambassador Bridge lockdown had damaged the economy of both countries and crippled the auto industry, with its just-in-time system of production.
On Sunday, Canadian police used a court order to break open the blockade on the Ambassador Bridge.
Many of the Peace Bridge protestors gathered Sunday expressed solidarity with the Canadian truckers, but also attacked the whole mandate system, arguing it violated their constitutional rights.
“We have the right to liberty and freedom and those liberties are not curtailed because there has been an illness or a disease that has gone around,” said one of the protesters, Rick, who would not give his last name. “You can't just circumvent the Constitution of the United States just because of something. It does not negate the Constitution of the United States.”
Some legal experts argue the 1905 U.S. Supreme Court case Jacobson v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts sets a precedent for mandatory vaccine laws. However, last month the Supreme Court’s conservative majority blocked the Biden Administration's vaccine and testing rules for large employers, saying the rules exceeded the authority of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Other protesters were frustrated with the fact the border has been mostly closed for the better part of two years. Wayne, who would not give his last name, said he is American while his wife is Candida.
“We have not been able to cross this border because we do not have an experimental vaccine and we haven't seen our families for over two years,” he said.
Another protest, Jamie McGuire, was there from the Southern Tier and criticized requirements to be vaccinated to work in health care. He clarified he believes COVID is “real” and that people should stay home if they’re sick, but does not agree that people should lose their job over being unvaccinated.
“A lot of people used to go to work sick, a lot. I know I've done it in the past. I don't do it anymore,” he said. “If I find myself not feeling good, you should stay home. But to be out of a job for it?”
