The trucker blockade protest at the Canada-U.S. border continues to grow, and local government is reportedly discussing a response to organizers who are asking officials to lift Alberta’s COVID-19 mandates.
Rebel News reporter Kian Simone reported Tuesday evening that Royal Canadian Mounted Police and protestors were involved in hours of tense negotiations as police attempted to get protestors to open the border crossing in the village of Coutts. Police allowed the truckers to bring supplies into the site of the protest, without being forced to open a lane of traffic. Chad Williamson, a crowdfunded lawyer provided to the truckers, was also brought in.
Police then approached the truckers with a final warning: leave or be arrested. RCMP then cut off negotiations and moved to arrest the truckers, but more truckers filled in the gaps left behind by RCMP abandoning its checkpoint. The truckers then moved to the rear of the blockade, where a brief standoff ensued. However, the police line retreated, and more trucks joined the protest, filling the gap where police had retreated.
Late Tuesday evening, Williamson informed Simone that police had retreated and that he wanted RCMP to come back to the negotiating table.
“The biggest problem, I think that they face now is, how the heck are they gonna remove these hundreds of rigs and pieces of…farm equipment, passenger vehicles,” Williamson said. “This is a problem that seems to be spreading as well across the country, with other blockades at other locations. And while the RCMP have shut down negotiations, at least with my team, we think it would be incumbent upon them to come back to the negotiating table, as I think that this isn’t going to wrap up as quickly as people may have expected.”