(Ottawa) Police are beginning to close in on anti-government protesters who have occupied and immobilized much of the parliamentary precinct for nearly three weeks.
Posted at 6:26
Updated at 10:11 a.m.
New fencing surrounds Parliament Hill and other downtown buildings, further barricading the area against a possible push up the hill by protesters who are on the streets opposite.
Several city buses with police wearing yellow bibs are parked on the edge of the neighborhood, which includes Parliament Hill and several blocks south of it.
The weather is difficult, with rain and sleet falling and snow expected later in the day.
Ottawa Deputy Police Chief Steve Bell said on Wednesday that police were ready to use methods people are not used to seeing in the capital and that efforts to clean up the streets were imminent. .
Police handed out notices to protesters, warning them of impending arrests and criminal charges against those sitting downtown and in a parking lot east of downtown, which has become a supply yard for protesters .
The Liberal government has described the blockades at the borders and in Ottawa as being linked to a highly coordinated, targeted and partly foreign-funded criminal attack on Canadian interests.
They point to the arrest of 13 people and the seizure of several weapons from a convoy in Coutts, Alberta earlier this week as evidence of a dangerous criminal element involved. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said Wednesday that some of those arrested had ties to people involved in the occupation in Ottawa.