The latest developments on ongoing protests against COVID-19 restrictions and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government, in Ottawa and various locations across Canada. All times Eastern:
11:30 p.m.
An organizer with the Ottawa convoy says plans to relocate trucks tomorrow will, in fact, go ahead.
Tamara Lich tweeted the note hours after denying any deal and vowing to stay downtown until federal vaccine mandates are eliminated.
The mayor's office said earlier that Freedom Convoy organizers had agreed to the city's demands to confine their protest activities to an area around Parliament Hill in exchange for a meeting with Jim Watson.
The mayor said trucks had to be out of residential areas by noon Monday in order for the meeting to go ahead.
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10 p.m.
Organizers of the convoy protest in Ottawa are telling demonstrators to stay put despite a missive from the mayor's office suggesting they'd agreed to leave residential areas by noon Monday.
Jim Watson's office said this afternoon that Freedom Convoy organizers agreed to the city's demands to confine their protest activities to an area around Parliament Hill in exchange for a meeting with the mayor.
It released a letter it said was from convoy board president Tamara Lich, indicating protesters would comply and begin moving to their new locations on Monday.
But on Twitter, Lich now says there's "no deal" and prominent protester Pat King claims, without providing evidence, that the letter originated with counter-protesters.
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6:25 p.m.
Police say a blockade of a border crossing in southern Manitoba has grown.
RCMP estimated last week there were 50 semi-trailers, farm vehicles and passenger vehicles that had blocked off access to the border, expect for emergency vehicles and livestock trucks.
Today, they say there about 75 vehicles, although they note the number fluctuates as protesters arrive and depart.
Police say all four lanes of Highway 75 at Provincial Road 200 north of the border remain blocked.
They say emergency vehicles, including police vehicles, as well as some agriculture transports continue to have access through the blockade, but otherwise no traffic is flowing in the area.
Police are advising motorists to expect substantial delays, noting officers are also reporting blizzard conditions.
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6:20 p.m.
RCMP say police disabled three excavators they believe were on their way to a truck blockade that's shut down the U.S. border crossing at Coutts, Alta.
Cpl. Troy Savinkoff says police intercepted the heavy equipment on the highway north of the protest, and he says officers told them to turn back.
He says they did, but the excavators then parked on the side of the road and police suspected they planned to continue on to the protest.
Savinkoff says he doesn't know what police did to disable the vehicles.
He says police issued dozens of tickets yesterday to vehicles involved in the protest, most of which he says were issued under the province's Traffic Safety Act and other laws relating to road safety.
The Canada Border Services Agency said Saturday that services at the busy crossing were suspended, and Savinkoff said the status was the same on Sunday.
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5:40 p.m.
Four people have been arrested for mischief at the protest against COVID-19 mandates near the Pacific Highway Border Crossing in Surrey, B.C.
The highway remains blocked off by police on 176 Street and its feeder routes, but RCMP say some of the vehicles and protesters who stayed on the street overnight have now packed up and left the area.
Though the RCMP say in a release that the "border crossing remains closed," the Canadian Border Services Agency has confirmed it is still open, but suggests travellers use a different crossing if possible.
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5:35 p.m.
Two outgoing members of the special forces are facing a military investigation over their alleged involvement in the protest in Ottawa.
Maj.-Gen. Steve Boivin, commander of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, says the first case came to the attention of senior leaders on Feb. 1, and another case on Feb. 10.
In each case, Boivin says the member is in the process of being released from the Canadian Armed Forces.
He says disciplinary investigations have started for both.
A third soldier is also subject to allegations, but Boivin says that person is not a member of the special forces.
Boivin's statement says if the allegations are accurate, the soldiers' actions are wrong and go against the military's values and ethics.
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5:10 p.m.
More arrests have been made in connection to the days-long protest near the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont.
Windsor Police Chief Pamela Mizuno says officers have made between 25 and 30 arrests, seized five vehicles today and towed seven vehicles yesterday.
Mizuno says the police service's focus is to reopen roadways, but officers are trying to do so in a "safe and sustainable" way.
She says police are still working on their operational plans, but their main goals are to restore traffic flow in the area and reopen the bridge.
Mizuno says there will be criminal consequences for those who interfere with or interrupt traffic flow in the area by the bridge.
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3:45 p.m.
The mayor of Ottawa says the city has struck a deal with protesters who have jammed downtown streets for more than two weeks that will see them move out of residential areas in the next 24 hours.
Jim Watson's office says Freedom Convoy organizers have agreed to the city's demands to confine their protest activities to an area around Parliament Hill.
A letter to convoy board president Tamara Lich says Watson will agree to meet with demonstrators if trucks and other vehicles taking part in the ongoing protests are out of residential neighbourhoods by noon on Monday.
A response from Lich indicates protesters will comply and begin moving to their new locations on Monday.
The letter says organizers will spend the next 24 hours "working hard ... to get buy-in from the truckers" who flooded the capital to voice their opposition to public health measures put in place to combat COVID-19.
Watson's letter to protesters says residents are "exhausted" and "on edge" due to the demonstrations and warns that some businesses teetering on the brink of permanent closure because of the disruptions.
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2:50 p.m.
Surrey RCMP says drivers should expect traffic congestion as the main route to the Pacific Highway crossing over the Canada-U.S. border remains closed.
Police say there is no access to 176 Street from 8th Avenue, 0 Avenue is blocked at 184 Street to westbound traffic and 172 Street is blocked at 8th Avenue to southbound traffic.
They're advising drivers and pedestrians to avoid the area and use other border crossings, but say officers are working with residents to keep the neighbourhood near the border accessible for local traffic only.
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2:30 p.m.
Police are starting to march down Tecumseh Road in Windsor in an attempt to move protesters out of the area near the Ambassador Bridge.
Protesters are confronting police, shouting the words “Shame on you!” and honking from their vehicles.
Police have made some arrests, though there was no immediate word on how many people were taken into custody.
Some are also singing O’ Canada.
Police officers on foot and in cruisers are still blocking access to Huron Church Road, where a stretch of the roadway was the site of a protest that shuttered the U.S.-Canada border crossing for nearly a week.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens has indicatd the border will reopen to traffic when police and border officials decide it's safe to do so.
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12:45 p.m.
The main route to the Pacific Highway border crossing in Surrey, B.C., remains closed following Saturday's protest against COVID-19 mandates.
Saturday's demonstration saw some vehicles break through RCMP barricades and begin driving the wrong way down the road.
Highway cameras showed a line of RCMP vehicles blocking the highway near the border today, though protesters appear to have dispersed for now.
The Canadian Border Services Agency says the Pacific Highway port of entry remains open, but travellers are being advised there may be delays due to blockades in the area.
It is encouraging people to use other border crossings if possible.
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12 p.m.
Police in Fredericton say they dealt with a few minor offences as the protest near the provincial legislature moved into a third day, though things were largely uneventful.
Public Information Officer Alycia Bartlett issued a statement this morning saying police made one arrest for breach of the peace and issued a by-law ticket for fireworks.
She says police also intervened with a personal drone flying around the protest site yesterday.
At 10:30 pm local time last night, Transport Canada issued a notice for a 4.8-kilometre radius around the area, restricting personal, remotely piloted aircraft from flying around the protest site.
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11:20 a.m.
The mayor of Windsor says the blockade that shuttered the Ambassador Bridge border crossing for nearly a week is over.
Drew Dilkens issued a statement saying the crossing that links Windsor and Detroit will reopen as soon as it's safe to do so, noting police and border agencies will be tasked with making that call.
Police cleared several protesters from the site earlier in the morning.
They say they arrested nearly a dozen people and laid several charges, mostly on counts of mischief.
Dilkens offered thanks to law enforcement officials for their help in ending what he described as a "national economic crisis" caused by the border closure.
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9:40 a.m.
Police are telling people gathered in a gas station parking lot near the intersection of Huron Church Road and Tecumseh Road to leave or they will be arrested and ticketed for trespassing.
The intersection is currently blocked off by several officers, two armoured vehicles, a transit bus and City of Windsor vehicles as police respond to the so-called freedom convoy protest near the Ambassador Bridge border crossing between Canada and the U.S.
This comes after police made some arrests in relation to the protest, though details were not immediately available.
Police are telling the public to avoid the area.
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8:30 a.m.
Windsor police say enforcement actions are underway once again at the site of an ongoing protest against COVID-19 public health measures at the Ambassador Bridge, where traffic between Canada and the U.S. has been halted for days.
There is a heavy police presence on Huron Church Road, near the entrance to the bridge.
Police are not letting anyone else near the stretch of the road where the protest was taking place.
They say vehicles are being towed.
A drone is rapidly flying above and honking horns can be heard in the distance.
Police have started marching down Huron Church Road away from the protest site, with two armoured vehicles and some other vehicles behind them.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2022
The Canadian Press
