I did some digging about the Ambassador Bridge, since it’s privately owned and that has some interesting implications.
First, if you want to check the status of the borders for yourselves at any time (and see a little piece of live history), the Ambassador Bridge’s website has livestreams of the the now empty toll plazas on both the US and Canadian side:
Into Canada – Ambassador Bridge
Into the United States – Ambassador Bridge
A key point here is that the truckers are not technically camped on the publicly owned border crossings, but in the privately owned bridge. The chair of the company that owns the bridge recently made a statement saying that Trudeau has “three options”; rescind the mandate, clear the bridge, or do nothing and wait for it to resolve itself.
Moroun to Trudeau: Concede vaccine mandate or clear trucks at bridge blockade | Crain's Detroit Business
archive.is/wW5wJ
This man is speaking as an agent of the corporation that owns the bridge, and, ironically, has declined to outright state that the truckers are trespassing, which would give immediate legal standing to law enforcement to remove them. He’s criticizing Trudeau for kicking the can, but if he were serious about getting the truckers removed, stating that they are unlawfully on the property of the Detroit International Bridge Co. would be a huge step in making that happen. He is likely also covering his ass, because as frustrated as shipping companies may be at the delays, they’d probably be less enthused about the precedent of private toll road and bridge owners being able to declare them trespassers on a whim.
My understanding is that the police don’t need the owner’s comment to arrest on trespassing charges if the property is clearly marked, but a statement from the property owner is still key when trying to get a conviction. They are likely more interested in arrest and removal at this point anyway regardless. I don’t even know how you would properly mark a bridge to indicate “stopping is trespassing”, and I’m unsure of whether there are any traffic laws that could be used as a pretext for arrest. Even if there are, this is still a delicate situation for many reasons already discussed here.
There is probably a whole universe of property, transportation and international law that I’m ignorant of, but I figured I’d share what I found anyway.
Either way, do yourself a favor and look at those live camera links because they are truly surreal.