Emergency Measures Act | The police have a “plan” to liberate the city center

(Ottawa) The Ottawa police assure that an intervention will take place “in the hours and days” to come to clear the city center using techniques that “are not commonly seen in Ottawa”. A warning issued earlier to the demonstrators did not have the desired effect; many swear to stay no matter what.

Mylene Crete
The Press

Melanie Marquis
The Press

Speaking to Ottawa City Council the day after Police Chief Peter Sloly resigned, Acting Chief Steve Bell assured elected officials that he had a “methodical plan” to end the occupation, which was in its 20^and day, Wednesday.

“We will take over the entire city center and each of the occupied spaces. We will remove this illegal demonstration. We will return our city to its normal state, he said. We know that our residents feel insecure and abandoned, and that our reputation, and that of our city, has suffered greatly. »

Cautioning that it would take “time to accomplish all of this properly”, he noted that the “execution of the plan will not be[it] not considered complete until the streets are fully cleared”.

In the morning, Ottawa police crisscrossed downtown’s busy thoroughfares – on Wellington Street, horns and music still blared, and meat still sizzled in barbecues, on Wednesday – to hand protesters a notice warning them to leave the premises.

“Anyone who blocks traffic lanes, or assists others to do so, is committing a criminal offense and may be arrested,” the notice reads. You must stop your illegal activities immediately or face charges. »

Imminent police intervention?

This is the first formal notice given by the police, who have struggled until now to enforce the law and municipal regulations. It occurs the day after the publication of the decree to apply the Emergency Measures Act and the two accompanying regulations. The document details the consequences for people who refuse to comply.

“I crunched it in the fire,” says a young man from a makeshift shelter at the foot of the West Block. Others threw the leaflets into a toilet on the street – the sheets ending up in a basin already containing tickets distributed by the police.

“It’s a fake says Paul Marginean, a British Columbia trucker whose truck is anchored on Wellington Street in the shadow of the hill. ” The Emergency Measures Act also is fake “Judges the man, adding that by his origins – he was born in Romania – he manages to “smell the smell of tyranny”.

Does the warning from the police mean that an intervention is imminent? Justin Trudeau did not want to come forward on this.

“Obviously, like all Ottawa residents, I hope it will be soon,” continued the Prime Minister before rushing into the House of Commons, where question period was extremely heated, Wednesday afternoon. .

The NDP will support

The government tabled a motion on Wednesday evening to maintain the state of emergency, which will have to be debated on Thursday in the Commons and the Senate.

It is already certain that it will be adopted, thanks to the New Democratic Party, and this, even if the leader Jagmeet Singh fears that this will have repercussions on other “legitimate” demonstrations. But in this case, the law is necessary, because “the purpose of the convoy is to attack democracy”, he explained.

The Conservatives do not intend to support the motion. They believe that Prime Minister Trudeau should have shown more flexibility by presenting a plan on the lifting of health measures and vaccination obligations.

The Bloc Québécois caucus said it was “fiercely hostile to the application” of the law in Quebec. Bloc MPs will also vote against the government motion.

The President of the Senate summoned the Upper House on Friday morning to debate it. Senators had no sitting days this week. The House of Commons, which is due to recess next week, will finally have to sit for the vote.

Concerns for children

The Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa, meanwhile, urged parents at the downtown protest on Wednesday to “make the necessary alternative childcare arrangements if they become unable to care for of their children following a possible police intervention”.

And if the children were separated from their parents “as a result of police efforts to end the protest in the city centre”, the child protection organization “will endeavor to reunite the families as soon as possible reads a statement posted on its website.

According to the decree published Tuesday by the Trudeau government, “it is prohibited to involve a person under the age of 18” in a “public meeting which it is reasonable to believe that it would have the effect of disturbing the peace”, in inter alia hindering trade or the movement of persons and goods.

Wednesday afternoon, children were still wandering down Wellington Street.

With or without the agreement of the provinces

With all due respect to the politicians who, like the Premier of Quebec, François Legault, and the elected members of the National Assembly, do not want the imposition of this law on their territory, it applies despite their opposition, have confirmed by senior federal officials during a technical briefing on Wednesday.

The decision to use its powers is entirely in the hands of the various police forces – and these are independent of politicians. “It’s really up to them,” said a senior Justice Canada official.

The National Assembly unanimously asked Ottawa on Tuesday “not to apply the Emergency Measures Act on Quebec territory. A Bloc Québécois motion calling for the same failed to win the consent of the House of Commons on Wednesday.

Kenney and Moe gang up on Americans

Meanwhile, Premiers Jason Kenney of Alberta and Scott Moe of Saskatchewan, along with the governors of 16 states, have come together to write a letter calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the President of the United States , Joe Biden, the cancellation of the compulsory vaccination for truckers as well as the obligation of quarantine.

Because we could not have chosen “worse time” to impose these restrictions, “while North America is already grappling with serious problems with its supply chains”, and “we cannot afford to lose money. ‘other truckers who move food and other essential supplies across borders,’ the leaders and their U.S. allies say in their missive.