Link to article:https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/ottawa-protesters-vow-stay-canada-warns-extremists-2022-02-17/
After several weeks of truckers protesting Canadian police are finally threatening and taking forceful action against these truckers. Police made threats of hefty fines and jail time if the truckers did not stop blocking the roads in Ottawa. Bell told reporters. “To those engaged in the unlawful protests – if you want to leave under your own terms, now is the time to do it.” Bell warned the protesters before taking action. On Thursday night police were seen arresting several protesters. Many protesters continued to protest and claim that they are not going anywhere.
This article is important because these truckers needed to take their protesting somewhere else because it was disrupting travel and transportation along with trade between Canada and the United States. I am not at all against protesting but when your protests disrupt everyday things that need to happen there is a problem with that. Hopefully by police threatening to take forceful action it will convince these truckers to leave so we can continue travel and trade in Canada. Obviously the truck drivers were protesting vaccine mandates. It is crazy to think about how much chaos Corona Virus has caused and how much everyday life it has disrupted especially between countries.
This is related and relevant to international relations and what we have talked about in class because Canadian authorities are using police power to remove these protesters to ensure that there is no detrimental effect on their economy. The highway block is a key road for truckers to transport goods and it also had an effect on goods coming into the United States. From a geopolitical standpoint the protests were happening in a terrible geographical location to not only the Canadians economy but the United States Economy as well, this is why police had to intervene.