(Ottawa) Barricades have sprung up like mushrooms in downtown Ottawa. Protesters against compulsory vaccination and against the Trudeau government are expected for Canada Day. Criticized for their laxity last winter, the police do not want to let trucks get stuck a second time.
Posted at 2:53 p.m.
“We learned from what happened in January and February,” admits the inspector, Frank D’Aoust, in an interview.
Truck-trailers have been parked since Wednesday evening on the portion of Wellington Street still accessible to vehicles. From the “freedom convoy”, the 500 meters of the Parliamentary Precinct are only passable on foot or by bicycle except for emergency vehicles.
“We make sure we have enough manpower before the convoy arrives in town to take the situation in hand,” he adds. Unfortunately, in January and February we were not ready for what was to come. »
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 taken up residence on the streets of downtown federal capital. He resigned a week later.
The federal government subsequently invoked the Emergency Measures Act. A few days later, a vast police operation spread over three days succeeded in dislodging the demonstrators.
The Sûreté du Québec took part and will be present again in Ottawa on Friday. Inspector D’Aoust wouldn’t reveal the total number of officers who will be on duty, but he said Ottawa has gotten help from other police forces to swell its numbers. The Montreal Police Service will also lend a hand, as will the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Ontario Provincial Police and other municipal police forces in Ontario.
PHOTO SEAN KILPATRICK, THE CANADIAN PRESS
A tractor-trailer is waiting on Wellington Street a few hundred meters from Parliament.
Protesters are expected late Thursday and Friday afternoon. Canadian Armed Forces Reservist James Topp is due to arrive at the National War Memorial late Thursday after marching more than 4,000 kilometers from Vancouver to Ottawa.
He believes that the federal government has gone too far by imposing compulsory vaccination in the public service and in transport. This requirement was lifted on June 14, but remains in place in the Canadian Armed Forces.
“The march was a way of attracting the attention of our elected officials to make them understand the damage caused not only to federal public servants, but also to the private sector,” he explains. There are people who have lost their jobs or no longer have a paycheque. »
He asks that vaccination not simply be lifted, but repealed; that people who have been suspended can return to work and that we give them financial compensation.
Conservative Party leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre walked alongside him on Thursday. “I think he’s fighting for the right to choose,” he told a CTV reporter. People should have the right to make their own decisions about their own bodies. »
The Canadian Anti-Hate Network associates Mr. Topp with radical right-wing groups. Mr. Topp rather claims to have been inspired by the “freedom convoy”, but distances himself from the organizers. “I don’t plan to occupy the city,” he said.
The reservist, however, met a group of Conservative MPs last week in the company of one of Donald Trump’s former advisers and one of the volunteers of the “freedom convoy”, Tom Marazzo.
Mr. Topp is due to speak at noon on Friday at a picnic in a park a few miles from Parliament. A walk is then planned in the middle of the afternoon. Police confirm that some protesters have expressed on social media their intention to settle downtown until Labor Day.
The city has established a “control zone” in the city center of the federal capital where illegally parked vehicles are not tolerated. Fines have been increased to $1,000. According to the latest update, city officers issued 154 parking tickets and towed 44 vehicles located in this control zone. People are invited to travel by public transport, which is free for the occasion.
The Parliamentary Protective Service has also taken action. Families should go through a metal detector if they want to approach Center Block even to take a picture. All bags are searched and a long list of prohibited items is posted on the wrought iron fence surrounding Parliament. No tents, tables or cooking equipment are permitted.