Photo: Google Creative Commons (Inner Image)/ Stellantis (Outer Image)
For all of the convoluted scenarios the North American auto industry could have faced in the year of our lord 2022, at the hands of their very own citizens probably wasn't high on people's radar. But that's just the scenario playing out at the American-Canadian border. It's a crisis that automakers on both sides of the border are desperate to be rid of.
The US-Canadian automotive collective had already taken a pummeling in the months before the first whispers of a Canadian trucker strike. One focused on ending new health code-related regulations in the trucking industry drivers claim are infringing on their civil liberties. But beginning late last month, trucker protests have had ramifications that are now directly impacting the auto industry in a tremendous way.
A slew of manufacturers ranging from Toyota and Lexus, Honda, GM, Ford, and Stellantis Group maintains a heavy and prominent presence in the Southern Ontario industrial sector so tantalizingly close to Detroit. Much of these manufactured automobiles rely on the famed Ambassador Bridge from Detroit to Windsor, Ontario, to get from one country to the other.
When this bridge was closed to traffic thanks to the efforts of protestors, it put another stranglehold on the industry. Compounding the issues of the health crisis and the global chip shortage to such a high degree that has lawmakers on both the American and Canadian sides scrambling for a solution. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, brother of the late former Mayor of Toronto Rob Ford, declared a state of emergency in response to blockades in Windsor and Ottawa.
Heavy fines of up to $100,000 and up to a year's imprisonment are to be implemented under these orders for protestors who do not comply with orders to leave and return peacefully to their homes. Meanwhile, five of the country's leading automakers sit in waiting, and their factories workers go without a paycheck. Check back for updates from the situation as we get them here on autoevolution.
A slew of manufacturers ranging from Toyota and Lexus, Honda, GM, Ford, and Stellantis Group maintains a heavy and prominent presence in the Southern Ontario industrial sector so tantalizingly close to Detroit. Much of these manufactured automobiles rely on the famed Ambassador Bridge from Detroit to Windsor, Ontario, to get from one country to the other.
When this bridge was closed to traffic thanks to the efforts of protestors, it put another stranglehold on the industry. Compounding the issues of the health crisis and the global chip shortage to such a high degree that has lawmakers on both the American and Canadian sides scrambling for a solution. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, brother of the late former Mayor of Toronto Rob Ford, declared a state of emergency in response to blockades in Windsor and Ottawa.
Heavy fines of up to $100,000 and up to a year's imprisonment are to be implemented under these orders for protestors who do not comply with orders to leave and return peacefully to their homes. Meanwhile, five of the country's leading automakers sit in waiting, and their factories workers go without a paycheck. Check back for updates from the situation as we get them here on autoevolution.
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