Frustration mounts as blockade snarling access to U.S. border continues at Alberta port of entry

Frustration is mounting as motorists remain stranded at a Canada-U.S. border crossing in a southern Alberta village, where traffic has been snarled and services disrupted by a protest against COVID-19 public health measures.

Since Saturday afternoon, motorists travelling to and from the United States have been caught in a large blockade of vehicles that choked off the highway from south of Lethbridge to the Canada-U.S. border crossing at Coutts.

The demonstration is tied to an ongoing nationwide protest over federal rules for unvaccinated or partially vaccinated Canadian truckers entering Canada from the U.S., which took effect earlier this month. It mandates that truckers who are not fully vaccinated must get a PCR test and quarantine.

The blockade of vehicles has disrupted services and halted traffic at one of the busiest ports of entry in Canada.

And Canadian trucker John Schwarz has been caught up in it for 40 hours while coming back from Idaho. 

"These guys are basically holding us hostage, and nobody's doing anything about it," Schwarz told CBC News on Monday.

"The RCMP are here, they're saying their hands are tied."

Coutts Mayor Jim Willett told The Canadian Press on Monday that he's angry and frustrated because about 100 trucks lined up on Highway 4 are preventing a mail truck from entering Coutts and a school bus from leaving the village for the nearest school.

Willett also said the roughly 250 residents of Coutts haven't been able to use the blocked road to get to the nearest grocery store, gas station and pharmacy.

"I'm disappointed, I think is the main thing," Willett said on the Monday edition of the Calgary Eyeopener.

"Not impressed, I guess, with the fact that they blocked off the highway."

The standstill comes after organizers of the protest convoy reached out to Willett last week to let his office know the convoy would not block entrances to the village.

The original plan relayed by the protestors involved delaying traffic by travelling in one lane and making a loop when they were refused at the border, Willett said.

It would slow things down but still allow access.