![]() ![]() “We seem to have gotten over the hump,” Tim Abray told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC). “We’re not done with this operation yet,” Bell said, adding that over the “next several days” police will determine “how we maintain a presence and make sure that nobody returns to occupy our streets again”.įor the first time in weeks, there was only snow and silence downtown. Those arrested face 389 different criminal charges including obstructing police, disobeying a court order, assault, mischief, possessing a weapon and assaulting a police officer, Ottawa’s interim police chief, Steve Bell, told reporters. Other demonstrators abandoned positions in downtown during the night. On Saturday, police used pepper spray and stun grenades on protesters, clearing most of the area in front of parliament. “This was the base camp and we are cleaning up.“ “We were running support for the convoy and the people in the downtown core – food, fuel, basic necessities,” said Winton Marchant, a retired firefighter from Windsor, Ontario. Police handed out flyers, warning them to leave or risk arrest and a fine. Seventy-six vehicles had been towed, police said on Sunday, as stragglers packed up a logistics depot that the so-called “Freedom Convoy” had set up in a parking lot to supply protesters camped several kilometers away in front of parliament. The protesters initially wanted an end to cross-border Covid-19 vaccine mandates for truck drivers but the blockade turned into a demonstration against Trudeau. Take them home immediately.Demonstrators used hundreds of trucks and vehicles to block the city center since 28 January, prompting the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, to invoke rarely used emergency powers. As a showdown seemed to draw near, Canadian Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said: "To those who have children with them, this is no place for children. The presence of children also complicated the planning. looking at this and developing strategic plans and partnerships to manage a protest like this if it should occur in their cities." "I know there are police chiefs in the U.S. "There is not really a playbook," said David Carter, a professor at Michigan State University's School of Criminal Justice and a former police officer. Trucks were parked shoulder-to-shoulder downtown, some with tires removed to hamper towing. Some security experts said that dispersing the protest in Ottawa could be tricky and dangerous, with the potential for violence, and that a heavy-handed law enforcement response could be used as propaganda by antigovernment extremists. Trudeau complained on Thursday that "roughly half of the funding to the barricaders here is coming from the United States." ![]() conservatives such as Donald Trump have egged on the protests. The movement has drawn support from right-wing extremists and veterans, some of them armed - one reason authorities have hesitated to move against them.įox News personalities and U.S. The final blockade, in Manitoba, ended peacefully on Wednesday. Before authorities arrested dozens of protesters last weekend and lifted the siege, it disrupted the flow of auto parts between the two countries and forced the industry to curtail production. The biggest, most damaging of the blockades at the border took place at the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit. ![]() The protests by demonstrators in trucks, tractors and motor homes initially focused on Canada's vaccine requirement for truckers entering the country but soon morphed into a broader attack on COVID-19 precautions and Trudeau's government. Residents are terrorized," said Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino. We've seen apartment buildings that have been chained up. "We've seen people intimidated, harassed and threatened. The occupation has infuriated many Ottawa residents. Ottawa police likewise handed out leaflets for the second straight day demanding the truckers end the siege, and also helpfully placed notices on vehicles informing owners how and where to pick up their trucks if they are towed.ĭemonstrators and supporters of the protest movement gather on Thursday in downtown Ottawa. I do have the numbers in front of me," she said. On Thursday, Trudeau and some of his top ministers took turns warning the protesters to leave, in an apparent move by the government to avert a clash, or at least show it had gone the extra mile to avoid one.ĭeputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government began freezing truckers' accounts as threatened. Bell said police were working with child-welfare agencies to determine how to safely remove the youngsters before authorities move in.Įarly this week, the prime minister invoked Canada's Emergencies Act, empowering law enforcement authorities to declare the blockades illegal, tow away trucks, arrest the drivers, suspend their licenses and take other measures. Police were especially worried about the children among the protesters.
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