How The Trucker Protests Are Snarling the Auto Business

A bigger worry for a lot of elected officers and enterprise executives is that the scene on the Ambassador Bridge might encourage different protests. The Division of Homeland Safety warned in an inner memo {that a} convoy of protesting truckers was planning to journey from California to Washington, D.C., probably disrupting the Tremendous Bowl and President Biden’s State of the Union tackle on March 1.

“Whereas there are presently no indications of deliberate violence,” the memo, which was dated Tuesday, mentioned, “if tons of of vehicles converge in a serious metropolitan metropolis, the potential exists to severely disrupt transportation, federal authorities operations, business amenities and emergency providers by gridlock and potential counter protests.”

Mr. Chiodo, the Canadian union chief, mentioned that “the people who find themselves demonstrating are doing it for the improper causes. They wish to get again to the best way issues had been earlier than the pandemic, and in actuality they’re shutting issues down.”

The scene in Ottawa remained a raucous occasion Thursday, with tons of of individuals on the road, many sporting Canadian flags like capes. The track “Life Is a Freeway,” by the Canadian musician Tom Cochrane, pumped from loudspeakers arrange on the again of an empty trailer that had been transformed right into a stage.

However there was a scaling down of protesters — with some empty areas the place vehicles had been the day earlier than.

Johnny Neufeld, 39, a long-haul trucker from Windsor, Ontario, mentioned the vaccine mandate would spell the tip of his job transporting molds into america since he had chosen to not be inoculated out of worry the photographs had been developed too shortly. He obtained his first ticket from the police Thursday morning, a positive of 130 Canadian {dollars} (about $100) for being in a no-stopping zone.

“This can be a memento,” he mentioned.

Dan Bilefsky, Neal E. Boudette, Vjosa Isai, Catherine Porter and Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting.