Biden administration urges Trudeau to use federal powers to shut down bridge blockade

The Biden administration is urging Canadian authorities to use their federal powers to bring an end to the trucker bridge protest that has shut down a major U.S.-Canada thoroughfare and temporarily closed or disrupted multiple manufacturing plants in the former country.

Truckers opposed to Canada’s strict vaccine mandate rules have been gridlocking the city of Ottawa in a prolonged demonstration in recent days. That protest has also been extended to the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit. 

The girdlocking of the bridge has resulted in multiple U.S. manufacturing plant closures and delays as supplies have been prevented from getting through. Biden administration officials, meanwhile, have reportedly asked their Canadian counterparts to swiftly bring an end to the demonstration. 

The White House said that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg each urged their respective counterparts in Canada to clamp down on the protests, according to the Associated Press.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers, meanwhile, released a joint statement “urg[ing] the Canadian government to act swiftly to address the disruption to the flow of trade and its impact on manufacturers and other businesses on both sides of the border.”