(Quebec) It is dead calm on Parliament Hill in Quebec, while one of the representatives of the “convoy of freedom” maintained that the kickoff of the demonstration Friday evening is canceled. The demonstrators meet on Saturday at 11 a.m. to protest against the health measures of the Legault government, despite the relaxations announced over the past two weeks.
Posted at 4:25 p.m.
Updated at 6:13 p.m.
The organizers plan a series of shows all weekend, but they have not made an official request for the holding of a “festive event” of this kind, indicated the City of Quebec. The event is therefore always considered as a demonstration, during which a scene is tolerated only to make speeches and play a little music.
The Quebec City Police Service (SPVQ) is having discussions with the organizers on the content of the weekend program which, for example, provided for the performance of a DJ starting at 7 p.m. Friday.
We are in constant communication with the organizers, as we were during the last event. This subject has been discussed with them, and we are in the process of finding a way through.
David Pelletier, spokesperson for the SPVQ
The demonstration was to start at 5 p.m. but barely a dozen people were there at that time.
During the afternoon, organizers set up a scene made from a trailer. The section of Avenue Honoré-Mercier in front of the parliament has been closed to traffic.
A source well acquainted with the exchanges between the police forces and the government testifies that the police perceive so far that the mobilization is less important than during the first demonstration of the “freedom convoy” two weeks ago.
The organizers are against maintaining the obligation for students to wear the mask at school and they fear that the vaccine passport, the use of which will be completely abandoned from March 14, will be imposed again. Above all, they have challenged the leadership of Prime Minister François Legault since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The demonstration will therefore begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday – in particular with a speech by Amélie Paul, a well-known figure in the conspiracy movement – and end on Sunday at 5 p.m. Convoys of trucks — from the North Shore, Saguenay and Beauce in particular — are expected.
“It will be a great weekend here in parliament. It’s going to be friendly, family-friendly,” says one of the organizers, Keven Bilodeau, in a video posted on Facebook on Friday where we see him wearing a “F*ck Legault” toque.
“If you can’t go to parliament, go to Ottawa! Ottawa is also important, ”he adds as a police intervention is underway in the city center of the federal capital, which has been besieged by demonstrators and truckers for 22 days.
This leader of the “Convoy de la Beauce” launched a fundraising campaign and promised $250 in gas coupons to truckers going to Quebec City this weekend.
Anxious to avoid a siege like in Ottawa, the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, amended municipal regulations to give more powers to the police in anticipation of this second demonstration in two weeks.
The Service de police de la Ville de Québec (SPVQ) can now “make all decisions regarding traffic, parking and street closures”, without the imprimatur of the city hall. This change is intended to be “permanent”. It allows the chief of police to make decisions in the heat of the moment, according to the evolution of the demonstration, but also to decree “preventive” closures.
The City has also decided to suspend the right to cook outdoors and consume alcohol in public places. The consumption of alcohol in parks had been authorized in Quebec at the start of the pandemic by Régis Labeaume. This right will be restored, possibly next spring, according to the mayor.
Even if Bruno Marchand pleaded that the right to demonstrate is respected, the organizers of the “freedom convoy” condemned these new measures.
Two weeks ago, they held a first demonstration which, on the whole, went well.
During a weekend, a few dozen trucks had blocked the lanes of René-Lévesque Boulevard eastbound. The plan of the Service de la Ville de Québec (SPVQ) was intended to ensure that the demonstrators did not further obstruct traffic. The police force had warned that its tolerance has a limit and that the heavy goods vehicles had to leave at 5 p.m. on Sunday. The truckers had left the scene uneventfully, meeting for a second demonstration.
The SPVQ had made three arrests and distributed around a hundred statements of offense related to municipal by-laws and the Highway Safety Code. A vehicle had been towed.
The director of the SPVQ, Denis Turcotte, had underlined the “good collaboration” between police and demonstrators. They have once again exchanges about the demonstration of this weekend.
The organizers of the “freedom convoy”, whose best-known figure is Bernard Gauthier, do not grant interviews and disapprove of the work of the media.
With the collaboration of Gabriel Béland, The Press