OTA wants government to protect traffic from blockades

TORONTO — Ontario’s government should take measures to ensure highway protests do not interrupt truck flow on highways and key border crossings, Ontario Trucking Association President David Bradley wrote in a letter to Ontario Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Monte Kwinter last week.

The letter came as a group of protesting farmers and property rights advocates threatened to block Highway 402, cutting off access to the Bluewater Bridge border crossing. The March 17 protest was subsequently prevented by OPP from deteriorating into a full scale blockade, says OTA.

“…while I can appreciate that people in a democracy have the right to express their discontent and their political views, once these protests threaten the legitimate businesses dependent upon the movement of goods across the border to make their point I feel that the government must step in protect the rights of those legitimate businesses,” Bradley wrote.

“…If we continue to accept these disruptions in the flow of goods to the US market by those who would hold the rest of economy hostage in order to make their political point, we will be allowing them to create the kind of border problems we have all been working so hard to avoid.”


Have your say


This is a moderated forum. Comments will no longer be published unless they are accompanied by a first and last name and a verifiable email address. (Today's Trucking will not publish or share the email address.) Profane language and content deemed to be libelous, racist, or threatening in nature will not be published under any circumstances.

*