Convoy of motorcyclists | A large crowd continues to demonstrate in Ottawa against sanitary measures

(Ottawa) A large crowd of opponents of mandatory vaccinations and other public health measures gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

The protest, which passed off peacefully, ended around 4:30 p.m., but hundreds of people did not leave the scene.

Many chanted the word “Freedom” as speakers thanked those who supported the Occupy Ottawa movement in February and called for an end to mandatory vaccinations. Some waved large Canadian flags and others greeted the February protesters by carrying gas cans.

Organizers wanted to march protesters through downtown Ottawa before heading to a rural area outside the capital for a “party.”

Asked about the demonstrators’ intentions to return home, a spokeswoman for the group Freedom Fighters Canada, Bethan Nodwell, said that no other event was planned, except a mass, Sunday morning.

At the National War Memorial

Earlier, protesters had taken part in a sort of ceremony at the National War Memorial.

Spokespersons spoke of how the police allegedly cleared the protesters from this area.

These protesters were gathering at the monument which had become a gathering point during the early days of the protests that effectively paralyzed downtown Ottawa for weeks in February.

They also watched retired Afghanistan War veteran Christopher Deering lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in a quasi-memorial ceremony.

Mr Deering said he was arrested by police in February.

“Afterwards, I and the other peaceful citizens were thrown out of town like trash and told not to return to our nation’s capital,” Deering told the crowd on Saturday.

The group also disputed that police erected a fence around the monument in February after a woman desecrated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during the “Freedom Convoy” protest. Members of the protest who identified themselves as veterans then dismantled the fence and took it upon themselves to guard the grave.

This weekend’s event is dubbed “Rolling Thunder” by its organizers, including Freedom Fighters Canada. Protesters were asked to remove slogans with profanity aimed at the Prime Minister for the event.

At the ceremony, the majority raised their hands when a spokesperson asked who was at the “Convoy” protest in February.

A few dozen counter-protesters were on the other side of the street yelling at them to go home. The police separated the two groups.

“The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is not an appropriate place to express partisan political views, it is simply unacceptable. That’s not what we stand for,” counter-protester Chris Anderson said in an interview. He described himself as a veteran, having served seven years as a medical worker.

By late afternoon, Ottawa police said they had issued 560 parking tickets and eight provincial offenses since Friday. It had 39 vehicles towed.

A new arrest is added to the seven others made on Friday. An individual driving a vehicle refused to obey the police and tried to drive on the sidewalk. The man was arrested for dangerous driving and identified as someone arrested in February whose release conditions prohibited him from coming to Ottawa.