Protesters shut down traffic on major bridges across Canada today as part of an international movement meant to galvanize governments into taking more urgent action against climate change.
Activists with the environmental group Extinction Rebellion blocked traffic on spans in Halifax, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver, with similar demonstrations planned for Calgary and Victoria later in the day.
The Canadian protests did not attract the same numbers seen in some European cities, where hundreds of activists turned out in force.
But they nonetheless sparked anger among people caught up in major traffic delays.
Extinction Rebellion’s Toronto chapter said disrupting traffic was a necessary, if inconvenient, tactic.
In a Facebook post the group wrote that “In a car-dependent city, interfering with traffic is one of the best ways of interfering with business as usual.”
Dozens of protesters showed up to block the Bloor Viaduct for between four and five hours.
Police said they made 20 arrests at the end, but said the protests were peaceful.
Organizer Kevin Imrie said the recent turnout for global climate change marches suggests Canadians recognize the need for urgent climate change action even if they disagree with the group’s approach.
In Edmonton, a handful of protesters linked arms to block traffic on the Walterdale Bridge connecting the city’s south side with the downtown core.
Police kept the peace between activists and angry drivers, some of whom got out of their cars to yell obscenities.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney criticized the protesters on Twitter, saying they were preventing workers from reaching their jobs and barring parents from taking kids to school.
The scene was more peaceful at Halifax’s Angus L. Macdonald Bridge, even when police moved in about four hours after the demonstration got underway.
Officers arrested 18 people positioned on the artery linking the city to nearby Dartmouth.
Early in the day, police said less than a hundred protesters, many of them waving flags and signs, had gathered near the toll plaza on the Dartmouth side.
The Macdonald bridge was reopened to traffic by mid-day.
A protest slated to take place in Montreal was postponed until Tuesday due to rain.
