Canada Puts It To Whitmer

OTTAWA – Canada is formally invoking a 1977 pipeline treaty with the United States in a bid to prevent Michigan from turning off the taps to Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline.

The dispute stems from a nearly year-old decision by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to revoke a 1953 easement to allow the pipeline to cross the Straits of Mackinac connecting Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

Whitmer cited environmental concerns about the impact a breach from the aging pipeline would have in the area and gave Enbridge six months to close it.

A U.S. federal court ordered the two sides to negotiate, but Michigan stopped participating in those talks in early September.

Canada's lawyer Gordon Giffin says in a letter to a Michigan judge Monday that further proceedings in the case should be halted because Canada is invoking the dispute mechanism of the pipeline transit treaty.

The treaty is meant to prevent either country from unilaterally preventing or disrupting the transport of fossil fuels through pipelines that cross the U.S.-Canada border.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2021.

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Line 5 link… https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/canada-invokes-pipeline-treaty-with-u-s-in-dispute-over-line-5-pipeline-1.5610603

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Potential explosives found in a vehicle, affected some Ontario-Michigan crossings for a few hours

CBC News · Posted: Oct 04, 2021 10:30 AM ET | Last Updated: October 4

Traffic along the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ont., and Detroit was affected Monday morning as police responded to 'possible explosives' near the border crossing. (Darrin Di Carlo/CBC)

The Ambassador Bridge connecting Ontario and Detroit, Mich., has reopened fully after being partially closed for several hours Monday afternoon as police checked the area for "possible explosives," Windsor police said.

At 2:32 ET, police tweeted the "driver of the involved vehicle" was being detained pending further investigation.

The CBSA alerted Windsor Police Service (WPS) after the possible explosives were found inside a vehicle in the secondary inspection area at the border crossing.

"No threat was associated to this [and] this is believed to be an isolated incident," police said on Twitter just after noon ET.

Earlier Monday, the WPS said officers, including the explosive disposal unit, were on scene and the area was evacuated.

Traffic was rerouted to the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel and Bluewater Bridge near Sarnia, Ont.

"Local CBSA management is working closely with emergency officials on both sides of the border monitoring the situation and acting to minimize traffic disruptions," CBSA said in a statement to CBC News.

As of early afternoon, the international crossing remained closed to incoming travellers, but open to U.S.-bound traffic. The crossing was fully opened both ways later in the afternoon.

Windsor's ports of entry, which include the bridge and the tunnel, make up the busiest land border crossing in Canada.

A bomb threat in 2012 caused a five-hour closure of the bridge that halted cross-border trucking.

Joe Abramuk, dispatch supervisor for OnFreight Logistics, said the closure was slowing things down for truckers as they were "waiting for something to clear up so we can start bringing the product over,".

The company has 15 to 30 trucks using the border crossing daily. Shutdowns affect "everything from the bottom line to drivers' hours," he said.

Clarifications

An earlier version of this story included Windsor police saying the Ambassador Bridge from Canada to the U.S. was closed. Police have since corrected their report, saying that at no time was traffic flow completely closed to the U.S., and the story has been updated to include the right information.

Oct 04, 2021 4:27 PM ET