New Brunswick - this just in
From Macleans:
RCMP started issuing traffic tickets and warned they could be making arrests late Thursday in an effort to persuade truckers to end a protest that has clogged the highways in northern New Brunswick....
RCMP Sgt. Ron Gosselin said late Thursday that police had decided negotiations were going nowhere after three days of traffic slowdowns.
"We realized that negotiations weren't taking us anywhere . . . therefore we had to look at starting enforcement," he said.
Tickets were issued late in the evening in Grand Falls, and Gosselin said if there was no compliance it was possible there would be arrests or charges.
"It could be this evening. It all depends on the attitude and how they're going to make it . . . It's possible we'll be making arrests."
"Our goal is to open the highways," he said....
A protest organizer in Grand Falls said truckers were frustrated by the police actions.
Eric Bijeau said the RCMP had blocked the roads that would have allowed trucks from other parts of New Brunswick to come to his support.
Asked if the trucks in his area would move, he replied: "Will we comply? What do you think. We're truckers who go stateside. Can we afford a criminal record?"
"The only thing I can tell you is that hopefully it's not over. Guys are willing to stick together so we're planning on the next step."...
Police said that by 8 p.m., truckers had removed a barricade at Campbellton, N.B., but others were still up....
[O]rganizers of the protest say they had to do something to get the governments' attention.
"The key chain controls the food chain," Earl Germaine, a retired trucker participating as a spokesperson, told the Amherst News.
"When the grocery shelves start getting empty, hopefully the government will quit sitting on their hands and listen to some of the concerns people have."...
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