The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) shut down a road leading to the Pacific Highway border crossing — which connects Canada and the U.S. via their respective towns of Surrey and Blaine — on Monday in an effort to block anti-coronavirus vaccine mandate protesters from walking toward the U.S. border on foot, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported.
“As of 9 a.m. PT on Monday, the road leading to the crossing remains closed and police are still on-site,” the RCMP said on February 14.
“The [Pacific Highway] border crossing itself remains open,” the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said on Monday.
The RCMP said it arrested four people on February 13 for alleged acts of “mischief” on the thoroughfare leading to the Pacific Highway border crossing.
“On Saturday [February 12], the force said protests in Surrey had been mainly peaceful, but some people breached police barricades and drove in the opposite direction along 176 Street,” the CBC relayed.
“Police did not immediately provide details on Sunday [February 13] about who was arrested for mischief and if those arrested were still in custody or had been released,” the public broadcaster noted.
Activists against Chinese coronavirus vaccine mandates and restrictions have purposefully blocked the Pacific Highway border crossing since the morning of February 12 as part of their demonstration. The “Freedom Convoy” protesters were forced to proceed on foot by Saturday afternoon after the RCMP cracked down on the largely vehicle-based rally.
“A large RCMP presence had greeted ‘Freedom Convoy’ supporters who arrived at the Pacific Highway truck crossing Saturday morning [February 12], screening motorists and commercial trucks,” CTV News reported. “A few hours later, police resorted to blocking the route with police cruisers as protesters made it to closer to the border crossing on foot.”
The news outlet described witnessing the RCMP following “hundreds of protesters” as they marched on foot towards the U.S. border at approximately 2:00 pm local time on February 12.
“Around 2:15 p.m. [on February 12], most of the demonstrators walked to the border along 176 Street as a handful of commercial vehicles made their way through,” CTV News detailed. “Initially, the RCMP had tried to keep them from continuing on, but then backed off after a military-style vehicle with the truckers broke through the barricade.”
“We don’t want any vehicles, either protest or counter-protest, coming in areas where there are significant amounts of people,” Surrey RCMP Sgt. Elenore Sturko told reporters on Saturday, suggesting a reason for the RCMP’s shut down of the road 24 hours later.
“We’ve had on and off closures with people linking arms,” Sturko said on February 12, revealing the RCMP had already begun shutting down the road leading to the Pacific Highway border crossing on Saturday.
Surrey’s ongoing border demonstration is an offshoot of a greater “Freedom Convoy” protest against Chinese coronavirus vaccine mandates and other pandemic policies that have significantly infringed on Canadians’ medical autonomy and other civil liberties. The protest movement began in late January and consists mainly of commercial truckers and motorists who form convoys to block strategic trade routes throughout Canada and along the country’s border with the U.S. The Freedom Convoy has been largely successful in its goal of drawing global attention to Canada’s unjust vaccine mandates, with some individual provinces — such as Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario — agreeing to reverse the oppressive policy in recent days.
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