Don Newman

February 11, 2022

Did it take Joe Biden and Gretchen Witmer? Is there now enough international embarrassment – particularly in the United States?

Is that what has prompted the prime minister of Canada and the premier of Ontario to finally act to end the protests that have paralyzed downtown Ottawa and stopped any traffic crossing between Canada and the United States on the Ambassador Bridge linking Windsor and Detroit?

Both President Biden and Michigan Governor Witmer have been increasingly outspoken about the shutdown of the bridge, It is the busiest border crossing linking Canada and the United States, and the thoroughfare of the North American auto industry that enables just-in- time delivery between auto plants in Ontario and the United States mid-west. Car plants on both sides of the border are having to shut down.

Or was the reason domestic? Was it the sense amongst a growing number of Canadians that the protesters are winning? That the federal government and the government of the largest province were unable to bring the people who had brought large highway transport trucks to clog streets around Parliament and the access roads to the most important bridge in the country to heel.

The fact that Ontario Premier Doug Ford had not been seen publicly in a week, and that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared daily in the House of Commons but only repeated his mantra that the protesters should just go home, seemed to reinforce the view that authorities were non plussed by the surge of anti-vaxxers, anarchists and ordinary garden variety yahoos who have plugged the streets of the National Capital and access roads to the Ambassador Bridge.

But Friday was different. Premier Ford went first, to announce a decision he said that no one wanted to make:

“I am declaring a state of emergency in Ontario.”

The state of emergency comes with a third tranche of reinforcements from the RCMP.  And with severe penalties for convictions breaking laws to end the blockades. Fines of up to $100,000  and up to a year in jail are also part of enhanced penalties if protesters persist.

Prime Minister Trudeau followed an hour and a half later from Ottawa: “The Ontario action is both responsible and necessary,” he said, “the border cannot and will not remain closed. Everything is on the table.”

Increasingly as the protests have expanded and dragged on, there has been increased discussion about whether it might become necessary to bring in the military to end the paralyzing protests. Only twice in modern history have the Army been mobilized to deal with situations perceived to be “insurrections.”  In October 1970, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau — the current PM’s father – invoked the War Measures Act to deal with the violent Front de Libération du Quebec who had kidnapped  British diplomat James Cross and  Québec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte, and subsequently murdered the minister.

Twenty years later, in 1990, the Army was brought in to quell a stand-off between the Quebec Provincial Police and Mohawks at Oka, Quebec.

On Friday afternoon Trudeau said using the military to confront civilians is something to avoid at all costs. He added: “We’re not there yet,” leaving opened in some people’s minds that the Army is the ultimate solution.

At the White House in Washington at her daily briefing Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that in their telephone conversation today Trudeau promised  Biden “quick action” to get the Ambassador Bridge open and the $700 million of two way trade daily that usually crosses the bridge flowing again.

So as the occupation of Ottawa begins its third week and the blocking of the Ambassador Bridge will soon start the second week shut down, it appears that enhanced police forces at each location will attempt to move out the protesters. And increased and severe penalties will convince those who have caused so much disruption it is time to end the blockades.

But if that doesn’t work then the idea no one wants to think about – using the Army to end the demonstrations – may have to come back on the table again.

Contributing Writer and columnist Don Newman, an Officer of the Order of Canada and Lifetime Member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, is Executive Vice President of Rubicon Strategy, based in Ottawa.