DETROIT — Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Monday announced the end of the province's COVID-19 vaccine passport system, effective March 1. The vaccine passport system required people to offer proof of vaccination for a multitude of activities, from shopping to the gym to restaurants.
Ford said the decision was in the works "long before" seven days of protests and a blockade of the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit. The protesting, spurred by COVID-19 restrictions and a trucker vaccine mandate, had threatened the economies of both nations.
Ford said the end of the vaccine passport system, whose federal version has inspired a weekslong trucker convoy in Canada's capital city, Ottawa, comes "not because of what's happening in Ottawa or Windsor, but despite it."
