OTTAWA, ONTARIO — More than 100 protesters, including four organizers of the Freedom Convoy, have been arrested as law enforcement and tactical teams from multiple Canadian jurisdictions worked Friday to clear demonstrations in the capital city.
Hundreds of truckers and thousands of protesters have flocked to Ottawa over the past 22 days to protest COVID-19 restrictions.
Some convoy organizers issued calls to retreat and told parents to keep their children at home. Others dug in, refusing to move and yelling at the police officers tasked with getting them to leave.
Ottawa police said protesters had assaulted officers and attempted to take their weapons, according to two tweets posted Friday evening.
As the “assaultive behaviour” continued, police sent in officers on horseback to separate protesters from a police line.
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“As this was happening a bicycle was thrown at the feet of one of the horses in an attempt to injure it,” the tweet reads. “One person was arrested for intentionally harming a police service animal.”
Another officer suffered a minor injury, but no protesters were hurt, interim Police Chief Steve Bell said earlier in the day. He added that authorities will “continue to push forward to take control of our streets” and will work “day and night until this is completed.”
The crackdown against protesters began late Thursday with the arrests of organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber.
Barber, 46, of Swift Current, Saskatchewan, has been charged with counseling to commit the offense of mischief, counseling to commit the offense of disobeying a court order, and counseling to commit the offense of obstructing police. Lich, 49, of Medicine Hat, Alberta, was also charged with counseling to commit the offense of mischief.
Key convoy figures Pat King and Daniel Bulford have also been arrested.
In downtown Ottawa, police, some dressed in riot gear and others armed with automatic weapons, marched into the protest zone around Parliament Hill. Throughout the day, they arrested protesters who refused to leave. They also began towing large trucks that had been parked in the downtown core for three weeks.
Many convoy supporters showed up, carrying flags and yelling at officers.
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“This is a sad day for Canada,” Marie Saunders told the Washington Examiner.
A few counterprotesters also appeared, thanking officers for “doing their job” and “keeping the peace.”
Promising a very different weekend from the last three, Bell said Thursday that police would take a much stronger approach to the demonstrations that began after a group of Canadian truckers and their supporters drove from Western Canada to Ottawa to challenge a regulation that requires truckers returning from the United States to show proof of vaccination.
If the truckers are not fully vaccinated, they will be subjected to COVID-19 testing and quarantine requirements. Those same requirements exist on the U.S. side of the border.
Since the protests began, the message has widened to dissatisfaction with all government mandates involving COVID-19.
In the weeks since the truckers made their way to Ottawa, thousands of supporters have shown up, bringing the truckers fuel, supplies, hot meals, and, in some cases, even entertainment — protesters played street hockey, gave anti-government speeches, blasted music, and formed multiple conga lines. Bouncy castles were provided for protesters’ children, and at one point, a pig was roasted on the street, and a hot tub was installed.
But the mood changed this week after residents renewed their complaints, the chief of police resigned, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the never-before-used Emergencies Act.
Trudeau, who has been the target of protesters’ ire, has refused to meet with truckers. Instead, he’s mocked them, calling them “a fringe minority” and accusing them of being racist, homophobic goons bent on creating havoc.
Trudeau has faced widespread resistance from his political rivals, members of his own party, and civil liberties groups who claim he went too far by invoking the Emergencies Act to end the largely peaceful protests in his country.
“Peaceful protesters who feed the homeless, shovel snow, pick up garbage, dance in the streets, play street hockey, wave Canadian flags, sing the national anthem, and set up bouncy castles for children do not ‘seriously endanger the lives, health, or safety of Canadians’ nor are these peaceful activities ‘of such proportions or nature as to exceed the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it,’” said Jay Cameron, litigation director at the Justice Centre.
The Emergencies Act gives the government the power to arrest and freeze Canadian residents’ assets and prohibit public assembly. It also allows them to seize protesters’ trucks, cancel their insurance, and take other extreme measures to break up the demonstrations.
Even though the powers given to the government went into effect immediately, lawmakers have seven days to vote in favor of or against using the Emergencies Act, which will otherwise last 30 days.
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Lawmakers had been scheduled to debate the measure Friday but canceled on the advice of security officials in anticipation that authorities will continue their aggressive push to remove protesters from the downtown core.
A vote on the matter is still slated for Monday night.
