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A whole lot of truckers clogging the streets of Canada’s capital stood their floor and defiantly blasted their horns on Thursday as police poured in, threatening to interrupt up the practically three-week protest towards the nation’s Covid-19 restrictions.
Busloads of police arrived close to Ottawa’s Parliament Hill, and staff put up additional fences round authorities buildings. Police additionally primarily started sealing off a lot of the downtown space to outsiders to forestall them from coming to assistance from the protesters.
“The motion is imminent,” mentioned interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell. “We completely are dedicated to finish this illegal demonstration.” Police made no less than three arrests simply earlier than dusk on Thursday round Parliament Hill, however officers weren’t transferring in pressure on the demonstrators. One of many organisers was seen in handcuffs between two law enforcement officials.
Negotiation continues
Police continued negotiating with the protesters and attempting to influence them to go residence, Bell mentioned. “We wish this demonstration to finish peacefully,” he mentioned, however added: “If they don’t peacefully depart, we’ve got plans.” Lots of the truckers within the self-styled Freedom Convoy appeared unmoved by days of warnings from police and the federal government that they had been risking arrest and will see their rigs seized and financial institution accounts frozen.
“I am ready to take a seat on my ass and watch them hit me with pepper spray,” mentioned one in every of their leaders, Pat King. As for the vans parked bumper-to-bumper, he mentioned: “There isn’t any tow vans in Canada that can contact them.” Amid the rising tensions, truckers outdoors Parliament blared their horns in defiance of a courtroom injunction towards honking, issued for the advantage of neighbourhood residents.
Ottawa represented the motion’s final stronghold after weeks of demonstrations and blockades that shut down border crossings into the US, inflicted financial harm on each international locations and created a political disaster for Trudeau.
The protests have shaken Canada’s status for civility and rule-following and impressed related convoys in France, New Zealand and the Netherlands.
“It is excessive time that these unlawful and harmful actions cease,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared in Parliament, not removed from the place the greater than 300 vans had been parked.
“They’re a menace to our economic system and our relationship with buying and selling companions,” he mentioned. “They’re a menace to public security.” Ottawa police started locking down a large swath of the downtown space, permitting in solely those that stay or work there after they go via one in every of greater than 100 checkpoints, the interim chief mentioned.
Police had been particularly frightened in regards to the kids among the many protesters. Bell mentioned police had been working with child-welfare companies to find out learn how to safely take away the children earlier than authorities transfer in.
Early this week, the prime minister invoked Canada’s Emergencies Act, empowering legislation enforcement authorities to declare the blockades unlawful, tow away vans, arrest the drivers, droop their licenses and take different measures.
Govt’s warning
On Thursday, Trudeau and a few of his high ministers took turns warning the protesters to depart, in an obvious transfer by the federal government to avert a conflict, or no less than present it had gone the additional mile to keep away from one.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland mentioned the federal government started freezing truckers’ accounts as threatened. “It’s occurring. I do have the numbers in entrance of me,” she mentioned.
Ottawa police likewise handed out leaflets for the second straight day demanding the truckers finish the siege, and in addition helpfully positioned notices on autos informing house owners how and the place to select up their vans if they’re towed.
The occupation has infuriated many Ottawa residents.
“We have seen folks intimidated, harassed and threatened. We have seen condominium buildings which have been chained up. We’ve seen fires set within the corridors. Residents are terrorized,” mentioned Canadian Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino.
The protests by demonstrators in vans, tractors and motor properties initially centered on Canada’s vaccine requirement for truckers getting into the nation however quickly morphed right into a broader assault on Covid-19 precautions and Trudeau’s authorities.
The largest, most damaging of the blockades on the border occurred on the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit. Earlier than authorities arrested dozens of protesters final weekend and lifted the siege, it disrupted the circulation of auto elements between the 2 international locations and compelled the trade to curtail manufacturing.
The ultimate blockade, in Manitoba, ended peacefully on Wednesday.
The motion has drawn help from right-wing extremists and veterans, a few of them armed — one motive authorities have hesitated to maneuver towards them.
Fox Information personalities and US conservatives akin to Donald Trump have egged on the protests. Trudeau complained on Thursday that “roughly half of the funding to the barricaders right here is coming from the USA.” Some safety specialists mentioned that dispersing the protest in Ottawa may very well be difficult and harmful, with the potential for violence, and {that a} heavy-handed legislation enforcement response may very well be used as propaganda by anti-government extremists.
Vans had been parked shoulder-to-shoulder downtown, some with tires eliminated to hamper towing.
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February 18, 2022
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