After three weeks of protests that have put Ottawa on fire and paralyzed trade with the United States, creating billions of dollars in losses, the Canadian no vaxes take their first victory.
The premier of Ontario has announced that vaccination passes will be abolished from March 1. The decision bypasses the central government and ignores Justin Trudeau's call to use "a hard fist" against "ideal occupations" against the self-proclaimed "Convoys of freedom".
The decision of the province most damaged by the protests against the anti-Covid measures comes at the end of a busy day, which began with the eviction of the demonstrators from the Ambassador Bridge, the main connection bridge with the United States on which 25% of trade passes between the two countries.
Provincial Premier Doug Ford explained that the easing of health measures is possible because the vast majority of the population is vaccinated and the peak of cases caused by the variant is Omicron has passed. "We are not out of the tunnel yet but we are heading in the right direction," he said.
It is still too early to say what the effects of his decision will be on the progress of the protests. In Ottawa the situation remains critical, for three weeks truckers and demonstrators have paralyzed the streets of the center making life impossible for the inhabitants.
High tension also at the Coutts crossing, between Alberta and Montana, where police arrested 11 people and confiscated rifles, pistols, a machete, bulletproof vests and "a large amount of ammunition"
Trudeau could invoke the Emergencies Act in the next few hours, a special law to grant more powers to his government. The measure was used only once in peacetime by the premier's father, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, in October 1970, to send the army to Quebec where the Liberation Front had kidnapped a British embassy attaché and a minister. of the province, Pierre Laporte, who was later found dead.
