(Ottawa) “Free Pat King! ” ” Freedom ! A few hundred demonstrators gathered in front of the parliament set off on Friday afternoon. They march in the streets of the city center of the federal capital to oppose the mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 even though it was lifted by the Trudeau government two weeks ago.
Posted at 10:24 a.m.
Updated at 2:14 p.m.
“There were obligations that there should never have been,” said anti-vaccine activist François Amalega-Bitondo, known in Quebec for his arrests and imprisonment during the pandemic.
“When the cases go up, there will still be restrictions,” he added.
He arrived in Ottawa the day before to greet James Topp, a Canadian Armed Forces reservist, who marched more than 4,000 kilometers to oppose the mandatory vaccination policy for federal public servants and transport workers imposed during the pandemic by the government of Justin Trudeau.
The event is located a few kilometers from the main stage for the noon ceremony and the Canada Day evening show. The call was made by the group Stand 4 Thee wrote on its website to want to carry out a “citizen’s arrest” of the Prime Minister.
Another demonstration launched by the Freedom Fighters group is scheduled for mid-afternoon.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
A few hundred demonstrators gathered outside parliament to oppose compulsory vaccination against COVID-19.
“We are parents, we are grandparents and we don’t like the direction Canada is going. We have to fix that,” explained an elderly Franco-Ontarian woman to The Press who was present with her spouse. She refused to give us her name because she doesn’t trust mainstream media.
Protesters demand the release of Patrick King, one of the leading figures in the convoy of trucks that paralyzed the city center of the federal capital last winter. He is still incarcerated awaiting trial and faces several charges, including mischief.
Demonstrators are also demanding that Tamara Lich be released. She has been behind bars for a few days for breaching her conditions. His hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, a first event organized by sympathizers of the “freedom convoy” was canceled following Thursday’s overflows. Four people were arrested during a rally at the War Memorial to welcome James Topp.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Anti-vaccine activist François Amalega-Bitondo wrote on the floor “Give back our house” when speaking of parliament.
The group Police on Guard, which says it is made up of serving and retired police officers, said a family picnic it was planning in Strathcona Park a few miles from parliament has been canceled “due to a recent incident in Ottawa”. The statement was released Thursday evening after the first arrests.
The organizers were refused the permit they had requested from the city to hold the event and they feared a police intervention, according to the Twitter account Live From the Shed who is one of the voices of the movement against compulsory vaccination.
Overflows took place Thursday evening during the rally to mark the arrival of James Topp at the National War Memorial. The Canadian Armed Forces reservist, associated with radical right-wing groups, marched from Vancouver to Ottawa to oppose the imposition of COVID-19 vaccinations on federal public servants and employees in the transportation sector.
Videos published on social networks show muscular arrests. The Ottawa Police Service says it is investigating what happened. “The initial investigation reveals that an interaction with officers became confrontational and that an officer was strangled,” he said on his Twitter account.
Four people were arrested, bringing the total number to 5 since Wednesday. According to the latest report published Friday morning, municipal agents issued 275 parking tickets and towed 72 vehicles outside the city center.
The authorities have been multiplying warnings on social networks for several days to try to discourage the installation of a new convoy of trucks in the city center like that of last winter. Hundreds of trucks had blocked the streets around the parliament for three weeks, blaring their horns at all hours of the day or night for several consecutive days.
The Ottawa police remained powerless, which angered many citizens. At the height of the crisis, former Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly called for 1,800 additional officers to dislodge the hundreds of trucks and their blaring horns that had come to rest on the streets of downtown Ottawa. the federal capital. He resigned a week later.
The federal government subsequently invoked the Emergency Measures Act for the first time since its adoption in 1988. A few days later, a vast police operation spread over three days had made it possible to dislodge the demonstrators.