Climate protesters shut down bridges across Canada

The latest of increasingly prominent global climate protests took place Monday morning across Canada.

Protesters shut down traffic on major bridges in Halifax, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver as part of an international day of action demanding governments take more urgent action on climate change.

I’m at the Walterdale Bridge in Edmonton where members of Extinction Rebellion have blockaded the bridge to demand climate action #yeg #yegtraffic #bridgeout pic.twitter.com/6JJQAbyfB4

— Hamdi Issawi (@hamdiissawi) October 7, 2019

Took a walk down to the MacDonald Bridge this morning while waiting for the bus to work to see the #bridgeout protest by @XRNovaScotia. What I saw was pretty standard protest fair, signs, speeches, police, etc... pic.twitter.com/fLmJNK9Hdw

— AddictedArtist (@AddctdArtist) October 7, 2019

Folks blocking either end of the bridge have converged in the middle & hunkering down for the day #BridgeOut #ExtinctionRebellion #ClimateEmergency pic.twitter.com/Rp5tmmESQp

— Wilderness Committee (@wildernews) October 7, 2019

Organized by environmental group Extinction Rebellion, the demonstrations caught the ire of many morning commuters, which the group argued is a necessary tactic.

“In a car-dependent city, interfering with traffic is one of the best ways of interfering with business as usual,” stated Extinction Rebellion’s Toronto chapter.

“We are not attempting to shame or blame drivers — we all live in a toxic system and have few good options in our daily lives without system change.”

Various numbers of protesters were arrested, with as many 18 people being taken into custody while demonstrating on Macdonald Bridge in Halifax.

Most bridges across the country had been reopened to vehicle traffic by noon.

With files from the Canadian Press.