Canada Protesters Vow to Keep Pressuring Cause

Date: 21 February 2022 - 22:13

News ID: ۱۰۰۲۵۸

OTTAWA (Dispatches) -- Canadian police claimed Monday to have retaken the capital which has been hit along with other cities by weeks-long demonstrations and seen the Emergency Act imposed for the second time in the country’s history.
Police on Sunday smashed the windows of vehicles parked in the downtown core of the capital to search and tow them away after the city witnessed two days of tense standoffs.
Security forces also manned checkpoints restricting access to a 200-hectare downtown area, and put a sizable force on standby to disperse protesters. They took down tents, food stands and other makeshift structures erected by the demonstrators.
“It’s pretty locked down, all I see is cops everywhere,” said a protester who was holding a Canadian flag in hand.
Ottawa interim police chief Steve Bell told a news conference: “We’re not done with this operation yet.”
The sweep comes on the heels of violent crackdowns by police, deploying chemical irritants, pepper spray and stun grenades against protesters and detaining hundreds of people in several cities.
Quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP), many protesters said they would keep pressing their cause and call for a full lifting of coronavirus restrictions.
“The protest will go on forever in my heart,” Nicole Craig said.
The ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests initially started in Ottawa on January 29 by Canadian truckers opposing a vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border drivers. They soon morphed into a wider protest, with people joining in with smaller vehicles, including cars, vans and pick-up trucks.
The massive crackdowns came after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau termed the peaceful protests as “illegal blockades and occupations”. He told reporters Wednesday that the police should now “be able to begin their actions,” and “it’s time for this to end.”
Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for only the second time in Canadian history, in spite of critics saying it restricts freedom of expression. Ironically, his father Pierre Trudeau was the first Canadian leader who put troops on the streets to crush Quebec separatists 50 years ago.