(Quebec) Dozens of trucks were parked Saturday noon in front of the National Assembly, where demonstrators from all over Quebec are beginning to arrive to denounce the health measures.
Posted at 12:12 p.m.
Updated at 12:18 p.m.
The demonstration that the organizers presented as peaceful was taking place as such at the time of publishing these lines. The Quebec police, who closed several streets around the National Assembly, however announced that they had made three arrests around noon.
The Press however, noted several aggressive behaviors towards TV journalists. A TVA team even had to leave the front of the National Assembly, because a masked man was harassing and insulting him copiously. Several TV journalists are also accompanied by bodyguards.
Most demonstrators are expected in the early afternoon. The organizers must make speeches on a small stage erected near the Fontaine de Tourny. Then at the beginning of the afternoon, “family” animation and “universal meditation” are planned.
Several trucks began to block René-Lévesque, as they had done during the first “freedom convoy”, the weekend of February 5. The noise of the trucks resumed on Parliament Hill. The smell of diesel even mixes with that of spruce: two trucks loaded with wood made the trip.
The relaxation of health measures announced by the government of François Legault did not dampen the ardor of the demonstrators met on Saturday.
“We are here for the children who have to wear a mask at school,” said Sébastien Houde, a truck driver from the Drummondville region.
He and his friend Éric Leblanc made the trip in a school bus. “I saw children enter the bus and they had forgotten their mask and in their eyes there was terror. They live in fear,” explained Mr. Leblanc, himself a school bus driver.
Mr. Houde assures us that he is not anti-vaccine. But adds that he fears for the safety of the children who receive him. He also doubts the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In Africa they know what a pandemic is. A pandemic is when there are mass graves and piles of dead people. It’s just lies,” he said.
The organizers of the “freedom convoy” do not grant interviews and disapprove of the work of the media. Bernard Gauthier, crossed Saturday noon by The Presssimply ignored our interview requests.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Bernard Gauthier on February 4 during the first demonstration in Quebec against sanitary measures.
But according to publications by the organizers on social networks, the relaxations in the health measures announced by Quebec over the past two weeks are insufficient.
They are against the maintenance of the obligation for students to wear the mask at school and they fear that the vaccine passport, the use of which will be completely abandoned as of March 14, will be imposed again. They demand an end to the health emergency. Above all, they have challenged the leadership of Prime Minister François Legault since the start of the pandemic.