OTTAWA (Dispatches) – Police in Ottawa have escalated their actions against protests against Covid-related restrictions in the country, arresting over a hundred protesters on Friday, even as the country’s leading civil liberties organization filed an application in a federal court seeking the emergency imposed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau be quashed.
Canada’s capital looked like a war zone as riot police armed with batons along with armed and mounted units faced off against truckers who have been protesting in the city for the past three weeks.
The confrontation was largely peaceful, but the Ottawa police accused the “Freedom Convoy” protesters of “assaulting officers” and attempting to “remove officers’ weapons”, while protesters accused mounted police horses of trampling some of them with videos of mounted police charging at protesters going viral on social media.
The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) refuted the accusation, saying, “Anyone who fell got up and walked away. We’re unaware of any injuries.”
Even as ranks of police, along with specialized units, flooded the city’s downtown area -- with reinforcements arriving even late into the evening -- the OPS continually urged protesters to clear the area, warning that “anyone within the unlawful protest site may be arrested”. This led some protesters to disperse on their own.
Interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell had declared earlier that authorities would work all day and all night to move protesters out.
Local media outlets showed live pictures of several arrests made without incident as police searches and arrests continued at a location less than a half-mile from the main protest site at Parliament Hill.
The convoy first arrived in Ottawa on January 29 to express their disapproval of a vaccine mandate to enter the country or face testing requirements. Over the course of more than two weeks, the protest has spiraled into a wider grievance against all Covid-19 restrictions, including mandatory mask-wearing and vaccinations.
Ottawa police began erecting barriers and fencing throughout the downtown core on Thursday in an effort to clear the area of demonstrators, who have used trucks to block city roads and remained defiant amid calls by police to disperse.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended his decision to invoke emergency powers to put an end to the demonstrations during an address to legislators amid opposition in Parliament.
Slamming Trudeau’s call to invoke emergency powers, interim leader of the Conservative Party Candice Bergen emphasized that the party won’t be supporting a motion by the federal government to fully use those powers.
Canada’s Freedom Convoy protest movement has sparked several similar protests across the globe, including in France and other European countries.