(Ottawa) Unable to put an end to the demonstration which has paralyzed its downtown area for 11 days, the mayor of Ottawa is asking for 1,800 police officers to deal with the crisis. A few hours earlier, the federal government proposed to create a federal, provincial and municipal roundtable to try to find a solution. An emergency debate was held in the House of Commons on Monday evening to debate solutions to the crisis.
Updated yesterday at 7:51 p.m.
“Given the scale of the armada of heavy trucks occupying our downtown core, we are writing to you today to ask you to help the City secure 1,800 officers to quell the insurgency that the police are unable to contain. wrote Mayor Jim Watson and Ottawa Police Services Board Chair Diane Deans in letters to Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau and Doug Ford. The day before, the mayor had declared a state of emergency.
Some 1,000 fines have already been given by municipal agents without putting an end to the “freedom convoy”. The city estimates that there are still between 400 and 500 trucks blocking streets in downtown Ottawa. “The demonstration has sadly become an aggressive and hateful occupation of our neighborhoods”, they denounce, comparing the sound of the horns to a “psychological war”.
On Monday afternoon, an Ontario Superior Court judge granted a 10-day injunction to stop truckers from constantly honking their horns while a multimillion-dollar class action claim on behalf of affected residents.
Besides noise, it is the non-compliance with the laws that worries some residents the most. Two men entered the lobby of an apartment building on Lisgar Street in the early hours of Sunday morning and started a fire there which, thankfully, did not spread. A few hours earlier, some residents had shouted at the demonstrators from their window, overwhelmed by the noise. The police have launched a wanted notice in an attempt to arrest these suspected arsonists.
“The demonstration created a certain anarchy that allowed this kind of thing to happen,” lamented Matias Muñoz, one of the tenants who posted images captured by a surveillance camera on social networks.
Consultation table
The federal government believes that the Ottawa police already have the appropriate tools and resources to intervene. “Let me be clear: it is not the role of any government to give directives to the police,” said Minister of Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair. The issue table convened by the federal government aims to ensure the fluidity of communications between the three levels of government and to respond quickly to the needs of the city.
Mr. Blair was among five federal ministers who gave an update on Monday afternoon at a lengthy press conference. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police provided 275 officers who work under the Ottawa police chief.
Transport Minister Omar Alghabra plans to meet with his Ontario counterpart shortly to ask him to enforce the Highway Code. The provincial government can suspend the business licenses of transportation companies and suspend the auto insurance of drivers who block Ottawa streets.
“I find that there is a step forward, except that this consultation table must have a very real dynamic,” reacted Bloc Québécois MP Alain Therrien.
There has to be an action plan. There must be wills from all sides for it to progress quickly.
Alain Therrien, Bloc Québécois MP
The Conservatives hounded the Liberals in Question Period to quickly end mandatory vaccinations for federal public servants and get on a plane or a train. “In Canada, to live means to live in freedom,” said interim Conservative Party leader Candice Bergen.
She sent a letter to Justin Trudeau on Monday asking for a meeting between all party leaders to resolve the impasse.
Emergency debate in the House of Commons
The House of Commons granted the New Democratic Party’s request and held an emergency debate on Monday evening. The Prime Minister, who had been conspicuous by his absence all day, once again denounced the excesses linked to the demonstration. “The federal government will provide the necessary resources that the province and the city need,” he said.
“People who yell at others for wearing a mask don’t define the majority of Canadians, the vast majority of our country,” he later added.
“The situation has reached a crisis point,” NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said earlier today.
PHOTO FRED CHARTRAND, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Jagmeet Singh
He believes the federal government must end the “foreign interference” that supports the “freedom convoy.” A portion of the $10.1 million raised by organizers on GoFundMe comes from the United States.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton complained on Twitter on Saturday that the crowdfunding platform decided to return their money to donors instead of giving it to protesters. “Patriotic Texans gave to the worthy cause of Canadian truckers using GoFundMe,” he wrote. […] Today I have assembled a team to investigate their potential fraud and deception. Justice will be served for donors in Texas. »
In an open letter published in the Globe and Mail, former Bank of Canada and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney is calling on authorities to enforce the law and trace the funds that support the “freedom convoy”. “It’s sedition,” he wrote. It’s a word I never thought I’d use in Canada. »
None of the federal ministers present at the press conference wanted to use this word to describe the demonstration.