Biden discusses bridge blockade crisis with Trudeau after Ontario declares emergency

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he is declaring a state of emergency in response to ongoing blockades in Ottawa and Windsor as protesters reportedly began to allow traffic to cross on the bridge from Canada into the U.S.

Ford said he will use legal measures to enact orders making it "crystal clear" that it is illegal and punishable to block and impede the movement of goods, people and services along critical infrastructure. Ford said that includes protecting international border crossings, 400-series highways, airports, ports, bridges and railways.

Fines for non-compliance will be up to $100,000 and up to a year imprisonment, Ford said.

Later Friday an Ontario court granted an injunction filed by the city of Windsor and the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association to end the blockade at the Ambassador Bridge. The injunction takes effect at 7 p.m. EST.

The White House said it is in “very close contact” with Canadian officials regarding the ongoing blockade of key passageways between the two countries.

“We've also taken steps to help detour routes, so that a number of these trucks can move in different routes and be able to cross the border,” Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a briefing Thursday. “For example, while the Windsor-Detroit Ambassador Bridge continues to remain closed, Port Huron is fully operational.”

Psaki said Customs and Border Patrol is rerouting traffic to Port Huron and that all nine commercial lanes are open. The Detroit-Windsor tunnel also is open.

President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke by phone earlier today to discuss the situation.

“The two leaders agreed that the actions of the individuals who are obstructing travel and commerce between our two countries are having significant direct impacts on citizens’ lives and livelihoods,” a White House readout of the call states. “The president expressed his concern that U.S. companies and workers are experiencing serious effects, including slowdowns in production, shortened work hours and plant closures.”

Trudeau has promised “quick action in enforcing the law,” according to the readout.

Trudeau later Friday said everything is on the table to bring illegal blockades to an end, but couldn't say when that will happen because of fears of violence, the Canadian Press reported.

Trudeau said the people still illegally blocking streets in Ottawa and border crossings to the United States must go home or face increasingly severe consequences that could ruin their lives, the CP said.

Earlier, the CBC reported that protesters blocking traffic at the Ambassador Bridge border crossing between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, had opened one lane of traffic from the bridge into Canada. The Windsor police, however, said in an email to Automotive News Canada that the bridge was still closed as of 11 a.m. EST.

"Even if you heard that there is a lane open doesn’t mean traffic is flowing," a police spokeswoman said in the email.

The bridge blockade continued to cause nightmares for automakers and suppliers on Friday.

General Motors, which halted work at a Michigan auto plant on Thursday because of the border issues, said it trimmed production at auto plants in Michigan and Ontario Friday.

GM said production was cut during the first shift at its Flint Assembly plant where it builds pickup trucks and its CAMI Assembly in Ontario where it builds the Chevrolet Equinox. Production was scheduled to resume normally during the second shift.

Four trucks containing parts for GM's Spring Hill Assembly in Tennessee crossed the Ambassador Bridge on Thursday, according to a person familiar with production plans. The parts will support production at the plant Friday.

“We’re in good shape,” the person said.

Employees at Spring Hill worked an eight-hour shift Thursday compared with their typical 10-12 hour shift.
The plant, which builds the Cadillac XT5 and XT6 and the GMC Acadia crossovers, gets door handles and other small parts from suppliers in Canada, the person said.

Honda Motor Co. said it will suspend output from one production line on Friday at its plant in Alliston, Ontario, joining Toyota Motor Corp. and the Detroit 3 automakers in announcing various production losses stemming from the weeklong bridge blockade by protesters at the U.S.-Canada border.

The Japanese automaker said late Thursday that the temporary halt comes as it monitors “the disruption of transportation between Canada and the U.S.”

Honda described the situation as “fluid” but that it has no plans to curtail output at any of its U.S. auto plants.

The company builds its Civic compact sedan and CR-V compact crossover at its plant in Alliston, Ontario. Honda earlier confirmed the plant also temporarily suspended manufacturing on Wednesday evening due to border delays.

Ford Motor Co. said its Canadian plants in Oakville and Windsor are running at reduced capacity. The company's Ohio Assembly Plant is "down as a result of a part shortage associated with this situation.”

“This interruption on the Detroit/Windsor bridge hurts customers, auto workers, suppliers, communities and companies on both sides of the border that are already two years into parts shortages resulting from the global semiconductor issue, COVID and more," the company said in a statement. "We hope this situation is resolved quickly because it could have widespread impact on all automakers in the U.S. and Canada."

Toyota on Friday said its North American plants continue to face "shortages affecting production."

"Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia have recently been impacted by issues related to the Ambassador Bridge blockade. We expect disruptions through the weekend, and we’ll continue to make adjustments as needed. While the situation is fluid and changes frequently, we do not anticipate any impact to employment at this time.”

The automaker said its teams are "closely monitoring the situation and working diligently to minimize the impact on production."

On Thursday, a Toyota spokesman told Reuters the automaker was suspending production through Saturday at plants on both sides of the border, in Ontario and Kentucky. The largest Japanese automaker said it was "experiencing multiple dropped logistics routes" and it is "not isolated to only one or two parts at this point."

The shortages affected Toyota's production of the RAV4 -- the best-selling non-truck vehicle in the U.S., Camry, Avalon, Lexus RX and Lexus ES, the automaker said.

Chrysler parent Stellantis, in a Friday statement, said all its North America plants started production Friday morning, "but this remains an incredibly fluid situation. We continue to work closely with our carriers to get parts into the plants to mitigate further disruptions."

Also Thursday, General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis said they had been forced to cancel or scale back some production at North American plants because of parts shortages stemming from Canadian trucker protests against pandemic mandates.

The demonstrators, who oppose, among other things, a vaccinate-or-quarantine requirement for cross-border truck drivers, have used big rigs and other vehicles to snarl traffic at the entrance of the Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit and Windsor -- which accounts for about 25 percent of U.S.-Canadian trade.

Ford said it was running its plants in Windsor and Oakville, another Canadian city, at reduced capacity. It added that it hoped for a quick resolution "because it could have widespread impact on all automakers in the U.S. and Canada."

Stellantis said some U.S. and Canadian plants cut short shifts on Thursday after many shortened shifts Wednesday night "due to parts shortages caused by the closure of the Detroit/Windsor bridge."

GM said it was forced to halt production Thursday at a Michigan plant where it builds crossovers after the protests. The automaker said it had canceled a shift on Wednesday and two shifts Thursday at its Lansing Delta Township plant.

Shilpan Amin, GM's vice president for global purchasing and supply chain, told suppliers on Thursday in a message seen by Reuters that "although we may have intermittent stoppages, we intend to keep production running and meet current schedules at all of our manufacturing operations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico."

The company added it was "encouraging suppliers to evaluate alternative options in order to sustain your operations to meet our production schedules."

Meanwhile, protestors blockading the busiest land border crossing between Canada and the U.S. may soon be removed by force, as growing ranks of Ontario Provincial Police arrive in Windsor and Michigan’s governor offers to provide heavy equipment to assist with the removal of vehicles.

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said the city, backed by auto industry groups, is seeking an injunction that will give police the authority to clear protestors that have halted truck traffic at the Ambassador Bridge since Monday, resulting slowdowns at auto assembly plants in both Ontario and Michigan.

The main applicants for the injunction are the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association and Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, along with the City of Windsor and the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce "as supportive interveners."

“The individuals on-site are trespassing on municipal property and if need be, will be removed to allow for the safe and efficient movement of goods across the border,” Dilkens said at a press conference Thursday.

The city expected to be before a judge Thursday and hopes “to have an answer soon thereafter,” Dilkens added.

However, The Windsor Star reported that a court hearing for an injunction was adjourned until noon Friday to allow "for any concerned defendants a chance to be notified."

“We hope not to have to move in. We hope we can get the protestors to see the light of day and recognize that the easiest way out of this is for them to voluntarily get in their cars are drive away," Dilkens said.

If the peaceful approach fails, Dilkens said the city will have the resources to remove the protestors and their vehicles, drawing on assistance from the Ontario, and perhaps Michigan, governments. The city also has requested help from the RCMP.

Shane Wark, assistant to Unifor President Jerry Dias, said the blockade is just the latest issue in a tough couple years for Ontario’s auto workers.

“There’s been a whole, just relentless amount of layoff weeks that have occurred across the auto parts and the OEM assembly plants,” Wark told Automotive News Canada.

Wark said Unifor does not question the right to protest, but the blockade has “gone beyond that” and is harming workers and their families.

Parts suppliers have also been feeling the impacts.

Linamar Corp. CEO Linda Hasenfratz said the Guelph, Ont. supplier has been watching the border situation with concern.

“The last thing any business needs right now is to be shut down yet again,” she said in a statement, while also urging protestors to let the industry get back to work.

The industry has been waiting for days for the authorities to retake control of the situation.

“We just want somebody to take control, and right now there seems to be a fair amount of finger-pointing going back and forth between the different levels of government,” said David Adams, president of the Global Automakers of Canada.

Dennis Darby, CEO of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, which represents goods produced across all sectors of the economy, said a solution cannot come quickly enough.

“It should be yesterday. It’s just unfathomable that we're letting this persist for days. This is totally separate from political demonstrations in Ottawa or anywhere else. This is about Canadians getting in the way of their own economy.”

Meanwhile, there is mounting concern that the blockade will damage Canada’s reputation as a reliable trading partner as well as the competitiveness of its auto industry.

Competition for auto investment especially as the industry moves toward electrification is intense, Brian Kingston, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, said at the Windsor press conference. “When issues like blockades arise, it is a worry.”

Reuters, Bloomberg and David Kennedy of Automotive News Canada contributed to this report.