More than 100 police have assembled in a staging area with heavy equipment and Ottawa police have issued a new warning that protesters must immediately leave or face arrest.
Twenty-two days after a trucker convoy rumbled into the nation’s capital to protest pandemic restrictions, the police moved in to clamp down on protesters in downtown Ottawa Friday morning, hoping to end weeks of gridlock that have roiled the city, infuriated local residents and shaken the country. After a night of unusually heavy snowfall, during which police made several arrests, at least 100 police had assembled in the city center Friday morning. Several heavy tow trucks whose license plates had been removed and company names covered with Ottawa police stickers were beginning to tow protesters’ trucks away. The police were seen arresting three protesters. Among those arrested on Thursday night was Tamara Lich, a leading activist, fund-raiser and singer who in the past has advocated the secession of Canada’s western provinces. She has become one of the main voices of the protest movement. The police mobilization comes after mounting criticism that law enforcement has moved too slowly to end the protests, permitting protesters to taunt local residents for wearing masks, honk their horns in quiet residential neighborhoods and undermine local businesses. About two dozen police vehicles, including an armored one, were at the ready, along with vans for transporting those detained, and a convoy of tow trucks, escorted by the police. Two motor coaches full of police officers were idling on a street in the city center. The buzzing of a police drone could be heard overhead. The House of Commons also canceled a planned debate on Friday, citing the police operation. On Thursday, law enforcement created a perimeter with about 100 checkpoints in Ottawa’s downtown core, to keep anyone but residents from entering, and declared the downtown a secure zone closed to outsiders.
