The call underscores the gravity of the crisis, which began almost two weeks ago when a convoy of anti-vaccination truckers invaded downtown Ottawa.

On Thursday night, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau summoned a crisis cabinet made up of numerous ministers and senior officials to cope with anti-vaccine protests that have shut down the city and the border with the United States.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Trudeau convened the meeting of the so-called Incident Response Group, which was established in 2018 to deal with national and international emergencies, to review the situation caused by “illegal blockades” in various parts of the country.

The group examined the situation and recommended “the deployment of all necessary federal resources” to assist local authorities in regaining control of the situation.

Trudeau’s summoning of the crisis cabinet reflects the gravity of the problem, which began over two weeks ago when a caravan of truckers protested the vaccination of commercial drivers crossing the border with the United States.

Since then, more than 400 trucks and hundreds of demonstrators have blocked the streets surrounding the Canadian Parliament, preventing officials from evicting them.

Furthermore, dozens of truckers blocked the Ambassador Bridge, which connects the cities of Windsor (Canada) and Detroit (USA), for the fourth day in a row on Thursday.

The bridge serves as the principal land link between the two countries, with 400 million dollars in commodities passing through it every day. The US government has offered assistance to Canada in order to relieve the border post blockade, which is causing economic damage.

In addition to forming the Incident Response Group, Trudeau said on Twitter that he spoke with Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens and promised to help resolve the blockade, which he said is “causing significant harm to workers and economy on both sides of the border.”

Some other groups of truckers and farmers are also blocking two additional border crossings in Central and Western Canada.

Trudeau acknowledged that his administration is working with the White House to resolve the crisis, and that he has briefed the leaders of the political parties with parliamentary representation on the situation at the last minute.

Image Credit: Getty

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