Demonstrations against sanitary measures | A “plan” to move some 400 trucks

(Ottawa and Montreal) A day full of twists and turns on Sunday in Ottawa. Day 17 of the demonstrations started with a citizen mobilization under the sign of exasperation. It ended with a light at the end of the tunnel: the mayor of Ottawa reached an agreement with the trucking camp. And at the end of the evening, the Prime Minister summoned his cabinet against a background of crisis.

According to the agreement made public on Sunday between Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson and one of the leading figures of the protest movement, Tamara Lich, the trucks would free the streets of certain residential areas of the city in the 24 to 72 next hours. The exchange of letters is dated Saturday 12 February.

He adds that the departure of these approximately 400 trucks will constitute “a significant task in terms of logistics”.

Once the proof has been made, “I am ready to meet you in due time,” noted Mayor Watson in a missive addressed to the spokesperson for the convoy. In response to this letter, she claims to be “looking forward” to having an interview.

There is a but: it will be necessary to convince the convoy, indicates M^me lich.

“We will work very hard in the next 24 hours to get truckers on board,” she said, adding, however, that a “plan” to concentrate “protests around Parliament Hill” has been established.

If the Watson plan was quickly criticized – first because of the dialogue he accepted with the organizers, then because the problem is not settled, but moved -, it is nevertheless a progress, believes lawyer Paul Champ.

“At least he is trying to do something,” says the man behind the injunction granted to a citizen of the city center who silenced the incessant concert of horns for a while.

“This is the first concrete gesture that we see to put an end to the demonstration, or at the very least relieve the damage that is caused to the community”, adds the lawyer, who will be back in court on Wednesday in the hope of obtaining an extension of the injunction.

Cabinet meeting

For his part, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gathered his ministers on Sunday evening, after a meeting of the Prime Minister with members of the “Intervention group in the event of an incident on illegal dams in progress”.

According to comments made by the Minister of Emergency Preparedness, Bill Blair, the Emergency Measures Act were on the agenda.

Trudeau’s office would not confirm on Sunday what would be discussed at the table, but earlier on CBC, the minister and former Toronto police chief expressed his misunderstanding of the strategy of the Ottawa Police Service on Sunday. In an interview with CTV, he also said that Ottawa was “completely ready to use the additional powers available to the federal government”.

Given this “critical situation for the country”, the federal government is “ready to use all the tools at [sa] provision, including emergency powers,” said Minister Blair in this interview with CTV.

The Emergency Measures Act was adopted in 1988 by the Canadian Parliament. It has never been used since, but its previous incarnation, the War Measures Act was, during the October crisis, by Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

Fed up citizen

The city has been paralyzed by protests for more than two weeks.

At the start of the day, residents decided to mobilize near the Billings Bridge, to block the road to vehicles heading for the city center, where the party was still noisy on Friday and Saturday.

A line of vehicles was grounded on Riverside Drive for approximately six hours in freezing temperatures. Hundreds of people, many of whom were waving signs, were walking down the street, sometimes crowding around the vehicles. Some copiously insulted the passengers.

” Go home ! Shame on you ! Leave our city! “, we have heard in particular. Insults and insulting remarks were also hurled directly at immobilized motorists by more upset participants.

In their red van, Yvette and Michael, who had arrived from Toronto the day before, expressed disappointment at being insulted in this way. “In the city center, the demonstrators were peaceful, the atmosphere was festive. Here, what we see is the opposite. People are rude,” Michael lamented.

Police under fire

Police force crisis management was on everyone’s lips.

“There is a big credibility problem at the moment with the police. People do not understand how we could let the trucks settle in the city center, why we let people pass with cans of gasoline, and that nothing happens, ”explained Serge, who lives in Orleans.

The police force may not have had sufficient support from politicians, believes Stéphane Wall, ex-supervisor at the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) specializing in the judicious use of force.

“Before intervening and making arrests, we want to have political support. But what we have seen in Ottawa for three weeks is that the police did not perhaps feel free to take action. “We therefore let the situation deteriorate on the ground, judges the retired policeman.

The protesters have taken root. “It takes political leadership. Mr. Ford only came out on Friday to declare a state of emergency. “The laxity has ensured that the protesters took the police less and less seriously, judge Stéphane Wall.

With Mayssa FerahThe Press