Plenty of Tantramar-area residents were stuck waiting for hours last week while an ongoing protest blocked the TransCanada highway.
Some people never made it to work that day, including Amherst Hospital staff and nearly 80 teachers, while others had a hard time getting home.
One of those people is Rory Fraser, an arborist with Woodpecker Tree Care.
Fraser left his home early enough to get into Nova Scotia without trouble, but as the situation developed it became clear that he was going to have to get creative if he was going to help his wife tuck their two young kids into bed that night.
With the help of his employer (Kevin Anderson) and his sturdy work shoes, Fraser managed to hike across the border and make it home in time for dinner.
Here’s Fraser recounting the adventure…
Fraser says he witnessed an altercation between a healthcare worker and the protestors early on his way to Amherst.
“There was a number of of cars and big trucks kind of backed up and it was starting to get kind of busy there. Some people were irate. It was interesting to see that starting already…I also had to stop for a moment while there was traffic there, and the person in front of me got out and was talking to the protesters when I first arrived, and she came right back to the car. And so I sort of motion, ‘What’s going on?’ and she said she was a nurse, she worked in a hospice or some sort of care home in Nova Scotia, and was just trying to get home to PEI. And so she was visibly shaken. She was very upset with how she was spoken to and the situation she was in. She seemed quite shaken.”
He spent the rest of the day tuned in to the radio, wondering how he would get home if the blockade didn’t clear by the evening.
By 5PM, all of the highway exits he passed were closed and there was a heavy police presence along the highway. He knew he would have to find another way home, or sleep in his car.
“He’s [Kevin Anderson, Fraser’s employer] been going on a route to skate on the dikes out there. So he walked me down walked me, he directed me by phone, down to where I could stop and and get out. It was about a kilometer walk, maybe a little little bit more. But it was kind of nice, it was it was almost six o’clock at this point. It was a nice evening and I was on my own. It was it was fun, it was definitely the one of the more interesting commutes home that I’ve ever had to do.”
Fraser walked for a total of 15 minutes at the end of his long day.
“I’d been driving around all day long and looking at properties and talking to people and I was ready to be home. It was it was definitely not something I wanted to do.”
Finding a place to sleep in Amherst was looking unlikely, since so many were stuck at the border, so Fraser is glad he made it home that evening.
The blockade was dispersed by police the evening of June 23rd. Three people were arrested for refusing to comply.
As of today (June 30) New Brunswick is officially back in the the Atlantic Bubble, one week after the planned date.
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