ALBERTA
Protest continues at Coutts on 7th day as traffic flows slowly to U.S. border
Mayor Willett says protesters have made their point and
need to leave his village soon
Lanes to the U.S. border near Coutts, Alta., opened and closed intermittently Friday as an ongoing protest continued to affect traffic in the area.
Early Friday afternoon, protesters moved in to block southbound traffic on Highway 4 leading to the border. One protester at the blockade told CBC News that the latest move was a result of not enough progress being made on the group's goal to lift pandemic mandates.
RCMP previously confirmed the blockade on one side of the highway. For a while, traffic was being stopped at Milk River, Alta.
On Thursday, protesters had said they planned to vacate the border and move north to Edmonton, but that night they reversed the decision and stayed put.
The demonstration is tied to an ongoing protest over federal rules for unvaccinated or partially vaccinated truckers, which took effect Jan. 15.
The Alberta blockade is being held in solidarity with similar protests in Ottawa and other locations.
Jim Willett, the mayor of Coutts, said he has met with truckers who have been there for almost a week.
He said he paid a visit Thursday — and again Friday — to a former saloon in the village where protest leaders have gathered.
He said he expected to find a room of angry people but instead found they were just waiting.
He said protesters have made their point and need to leave his village soon.
Premier's Facebook live
Speaking during a Facebook live broadcast held late Thursday, Premier Jason Kenney said he did not say that truckers assaulted RCMP officers during a news conference held earlier in the week.
The premier added he had received a situation report from the Alberta Ministry of Justice and Solicitor General on Tuesday afternoon, produced by RCMP officers in the field, who testified to being swarmed by protest sympathizers.
Those officers, the premier said, had threats made against them by protesters and had their barricades charged by vehicles. There was also an attempt to ram officers on the scene, which was narrowly avoided.
In addition, the same protesters collided with other motorists on the highway, with assault ensuing from that, Kenney said.
"I absolutely characterized what happened there, at that barricade, accurately," Kenney said. "All I can say is, shame on those responsible. You shouldn't blame me, or the RCMP, or anyone else, for the dangerous and unlawful conduct of these individuals."
During Tuesday's press conference, Kenney did refer to an instance of assault of an RCMP officer alongside the attempted ramming of a police vehicle and the collision with a civilian vehicle.
"I have also received reports in the last hour of people allied with the protesters assaulting RCMP officers," he said at the time.
Meanwhile, Alberta NDP justice critic Irfan Sabir attacked the premier Friday and said he appears to be pandering to the protesters by saying he has a plan to ease restrictions to be announced next week.
"There was no action taken by this government … go to the court, get the injunction and let RCMP do their thing," Sabir said.
With files from Carolyn Dunn, Colleen Underwood and The Canadian Press
Mystery shrouds ‘backchannel’ discussions with MLAs over blockade in Alberta near US border
04/02/2022
Anti-mandate demonstrators gather as a truck convoy blocks the highway the busy US border crossing in Coutts, Alta., on Jan. 31, 2022.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Inside the Smugglers Saloon, a roadside tavern around the bend from the US-Canada border, blocking Alberta’s Highway 4 thought they had a deal with provincial legislators representing rural areas.
The group, who were assembled on Wednesday afternoon, voted by a show of hands to move their campers, tractors, semis and other vehicles so traffic could flow in one lane in each direction. The group had been blocking north and southbound traffic at Coutts, a village of about 250 people, since last Saturday, shuttering an important Alberta border crossing.
“They said, if we open that lane of traffic, they will drop … the [vaccination passport system],” one of the protesters said in a video posted online from inside the bar. “If they do not meet our requests, that border is shut again immediately.”
The group’s lawyer Martin Rejman told The Globe and Mail that there were “backchannel” discussions with members of the legislature, but would not reveal who was involved.
The protesters scurried about in -20 weather to clear the way, with some leaving the protest entirely.
In Ottawa, site of the original protest, trucks remain parked across from Parliament Hill, without any hint the impasse may soon end.
There was, however, no deal in Alberta – at least not with anyone who had the power to authorize the province to drop its coronavirus restrictions to appease a group of disgruntled citizens protesting illegally. Once that was clear, a secondary protest, clogging but not blocking the highway, popped up at a police barricade 14 kilometers north of the original Coutts camp.
Jason Kenney says truckers’ Coutts border blockade violates traffic laws and must end
But a day after the phantom deal, Premier Jason Kenney accelerated the timeline for lifting Alberta’s COVID-19 protocols. Meanwhile, scores of United Conservative Party caucus members issued statements denouncing the pandemic policies.
In an unannounced Facebook Live broadcast on Thursday evening, Mr. Kenney said that, because of widespread vaccination rates and protection from prior COVID-19 infections, the rationale for Alberta’s restrictions exemption program (REP) – code for a vaccination passport system – is not as strong as it was when it was introduced in September.
“That is why, early next week, Alberta will announce a firm date to end the REP and do so in the very near future,” he said. “We will also lay out a simple, phased plan to remove almost all public-health restrictions later this month, as long as we see a trend of decreasing pressure on our hospitals.”
But no downward trend in hospital admissions has started. Alberta counted 1,584 people with COVID-19 in hospital when Mr. Kenny made his comments on Thursday. On Jan. 27 – as a convoy of truckers and motorists was converging on Ottawa, but before the protest emerged at Coutts – Alberta’s hospitals had 1,570 people with COVID-19.
“We are continuing to see upward movement in our inpatient beds, hospitalization pressure, from COVID-19, and we’re at, in fact, the highest point in the two years in terms of people in hospital with COVID,” Mr. Kenny said at the Jan. 27 media conference. “Now is not the right time to be relaxing measures when the hospitals are under so much pressure.”
If Alberta moved too quickly, Mr. Kenny warned, the situation could get worse.
“Let’s just keep our eye on the ball, have the backs of the people in our hospitals. Let’s not start removing measures that could trip us back into higher transmissions and hospitalizations when the hospitals are already under so much pressure,” he said. “That day … is coming. I’m pretty confident it will come before the end of March.”
A record 1,648 COVID-19 patients were in hospital as of Feb. 1, the day before demonstrators in Coutts dismantled their blockade.
However, the protest is not over.
Disaffected Albertans remain parked on the sides of the highway in Coutts. The allied protest at the police barricade to the north continues. That crowd is likely to swell with supporters over the weekend as protests spread across Southern Alberta.
Jarrad McCoy, a carpenter from the town of Milk River, was among those inside Smugglers Saloon when some in the group believed they had a deal with the government. He said he is protesting not because of his family’s circumstances, but to alleviate the suffering of others and to build a better future for his six kids.
“Every generation has a fight or a battle, or has to be courageous in some way. And I think this is a moment of courage and love for these guys,” Mr. McCoy said on Wednesday, noting that many of the participants are “men of faith.”
While his own contracting business has prospered through the pandemic, he said he’s seen provincial health restrictions hit the finances of neighbors and friends. “I’ve seen God provide for my family through all of this. But I’ve seen other people suffer. And it’s broken my heart.”
Mr. McCoy said the clearing of one lane in each direction so that the flow of cross-border traffic and trade could resume was a good thing.
“None of the guys here want to be affecting anyone’s livelihood either,” he said. “We don’t want anyone suffering.”
With a report from Kelly Cryderman