Ottawa police trying to break the nearly three-week siege of the capital by truckers protesting Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions began handing out leaflets Wednesday …
Ottawa police trying to break the nearly three-week siege of the capital by truckers protesting Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions began handing out leaflets Wednesday warning drivers to leave immediately or risk arrest. Authorities in yellow “police liaison” vests went from rig to rig, knocking on the doors of the trucks parked outside Parliament, to inform truckers they could also lose their licenses and see their vehicles seized under Canada’s Emergencies Act. Police also began ticketing vehicles. Some truckers ripped up the order, and one protester shouted, “I will never go home!” At least one trucker pulled away from Parliament Hill. Marie Eye,43, of Victoriaville, Quebec, who has been making soup for the protesters, said she doubted police would be able to remove the trucks or the protesters. “Well, so far they are just a piece of paper,” she said of the printed warnings. “We will see what happens. I don’t think they have the manpower to do it.” The warnings came just days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the emergency law, which gave authorities power to ban the blockades and tow away the trucks.