(Ottawa) At the instigation of MP Pierre Paul-Hus, the Conservative Party is toughening its tone against the demonstrators who have been paralyzing downtown Ottawa for a week and who are poisoning the lives of residents of the federal capital. A turn that is not unanimous.
Posted at 9:49
Updated at 2:27 p.m.
After seeing some influential party members take on the protesters’ grievances, Mr. Paul-Hus put his fist to the table on Thursday evening as he asked interim leader Candice Bergen to correct the situation, according to information obtained by The Press.
He announced this change in tone by posting a message on his Twitter account on Friday morning.
“I spent the week undergoing the Siege of Ottawa. If truckers’ motivation could be [compréhensible], the current situation is quite different. I demand that the streets be cleared and that this occupation controlled by radicals and anarchist groups be stopped,” Mr. Paul-Hus wrote.
The Conservative Party’s change in tone was also evident during Question Period in the House of Commons on Friday.
PHOTO BY BLAIR GABLE, REUTERS
Pierre Paul Hus
Speaking at the start of the session, curator Luc Berthold pleaded that after a week, it was “time to end the protest in Ottawa and end the restrictions that caused it.” The training asks for the lifting of the compulsory vaccination for truckers.
“The demonstrations of hatred and racism that we have seen are unacceptable. We are currently witnessing a flagrant lack of leadership. The mayor of Ottawa, the police forces, all are asking that someone, somewhere, stand up to put an end to it. The Prime Minister has so far preferred to add fuel to the fire and maintain the restrictions rather than listen to the protesters,” he said.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told him that he had responded to a request from the City of Ottawa for reinforcements and that RCMP officers would be deployed. “We have to respect the laws. […] The RCMP will be there to support the Ottawa police who have jurisdiction in this file, ”he explained to his interlocutor.
A tone that does not please everyone
However, the change of direction is not unanimous. Niagara Falls Conservative MP Dean Allison, who has given a platform to anti-vaccines in the past, said he disagreed with his colleague Pierre Paul-Hus’ comments on social media.
This shift also occurs the day after the publication, in the Globe and Mailof an email that the new interim leader, Candice Bergen, had sent to the leader dismissed earlier this week, Erin O’Toole, about the strategy to adopt in relation to the truckers.
“I don’t think we should ask them to go home,” she recommended to this message also sent to the entourage of the former leader. “I understand that the mood could soon change. So we have to turn this into a problem for the prime minister, ”added the acting chief.
She did not participate in question period on Friday. In a statement, she said that “regardless of political stripe, we all want an end to the protests and an end to the restrictions”, and urged truckers to “stay[r] peaceful”.
Several conservatives went to meet the truckers and demonstrators who paralyze the streets of the capital. On Wednesday evening, elected officials and a senator from Saskatchewan went to be photographed in front of a heavyweight, which outraged the mayor of Ottawa. “It’s an absolute shame,” reacted Jim Watson.
The MP on the right in the group photo, Rosemarie Falk, said she had no regrets on Thursday.
“I reject the assertion that elected officials should not meet, for example in my case, Saskatchewan people who have crossed the country to be here in order to send the message that they want to work”, she argued. in a press scrum.
Blanchet demands action
Before the session, the leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, also expressed in a scrum to the press his fed up with this crisis which has become “national”. He urged Justin Trudeau to find a solution, because the “surroundings of the hill have more and more appearances of a state of siege”.
BLAIR GABLE PHOTO, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet
The Bloc leader believes that a crisis unit must be set up to resolve the impasse, and that talks must be held with spokespersons for the trucking movement, who granted a press conference for the first time in a downtown hotel.
“By doing nothing, the Prime Minister endorses and sends the message to the occupants that they can stay there as long as they want,” argued Chief Blanchet in front of the West Block, where the cacophony of horns sounded for an eighth consecutive day.
And it is “revealing that the mayor of Ottawa raises his voice and evokes the possibility of the army”, an avenue which appears to him “intense”, but which testifies to a “distress which settles”, in the capital where we detect a “loss of patience of the citizens, a loss of enjoyment of the right to live in peace”.
Prime Minister Trudeau argued Thursday that a call for the military is not in the cards, at least not yet.
An injunction?
According to the former federal Minister of Justice, Allan Rock, the City of Ottawa should consider the legal avenue.
“Memo to the City of Ottawa Legal Department: There is sufficient evidence that would warrant filing a motion in Superior Court for an injunction prohibiting the incessant truck horns that constitute a nuisance. The order could also force them to leave. Take care of it! “, he wrote on Twitter.
Ottawa police announced Friday that they will be deploying about 150 additional officers to areas of the city most affected by the protest against COVID-19 health measures, which has been going on for days.
Police Chief Peter Sloly said patrol officers would focus on dealing with mischief, hate, harassment, threats and other intimidating behavior.
With The Canadian Press