(OTTAWA) The protest by truckers in Ottawa, opposed to compulsory vaccinations to cross the border, shows no signs of abating after a week of disruptions in the city center and near Parliament Hill.
Posted at 8:31 a.m.
The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) expects other protesters to take over this weekend with the arrival of some 400 trucks and 2,000 protesters on foot.
In solidarity, other truckers from one end of the country to the other have decided to organize similar demonstrations where the smell of diesel mixes with the sound of incessant horns, to the chagrin of the citizens who live in the surrounding area. These demonstrators opposed to the sanitary measures of their province targeted the cities of Quebec, Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina, Victoria and the small municipality of Coutts, in Alberta, located near a border crossing.
Police forces in these cities say they have learned lessons from what is described as an occupation by Ottawa citizens and elected municipal officials. They have developed strategies to protect their infrastructure and priority traffic corridors, such as those leading to hospitals, while focusing on the prevention of violent incidents.
The police are very numerous on the sites of the announced demonstrations, blocking several road accesses and applying to the letter the municipal regulations and those related to road safety.
Meanwhile, crowdfunding site GoFundMe now plans to refund or redirect to charities the vast majority of the $10 million raised by protesters in Ottawa, saying the event “has become an occupation, with police reports violence and other illegal activities”.
This decision was welcomed by the Ottawa Police Service and Mayor Jim Watson.
However, one of the protest organizers, Tamara Lich, reacted in a video on Friday to announce a new official donation site, the United States-based GiveSendGo.
Meanwhile, Ottawa lawyer Paul Champ has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of thousands of residents seeking millions of dollars in nuisance damages.