The police, better equipped and less patient than in the past few days, continued to gain ground in Ottawa on Saturday, forcing trucks to move further from the parliament, in neighboring streets. The Ottawa Police Service says it made 170 arrests of protesters during the downtown response that began on Friday.
The demonstrators met on the spot, among whom we find several children, do not seem ready to give up.
Law enforcement, which includes members of the Ottawa Police Service and the Sûreté du Québec, managed to clear most of the section of Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill, where barely a few trucks were still visible in the early afternoon. Further back, a thousand demonstrators were still present on this lane and near Sparks Street, while the police, several of them on horseback, groped their way every 30 minutes, forcing the demonstrators to gradually move away from the hill. parliamentary.
Shortly before 1 p.m., Ottawa police reported the arrest of 47 people since the start of the day and 38 vehicles towed since yesterday. Those arrested, including some organizers of this mobilization, face fines of up to $5,000 and could even receive a prison sentence.
I admit that I didn’t think I saw children & teenagers being taken to the demonstration today, especially not just in front of the police cordon. This after numerous police warnings & use of chemical irritants #Ottawa pic.twitter.com/j9q3ALwMEw
—Boris Proulx (@borisproulx) February 19, 2022
Presence of children
On Twitter, the police force also expressed concern for the safety of the children present among the small crowd of demonstrators. “It’s dangerous and it puts children at risk. The children could be taken to a safe place,” the police force wrote.
The duty was also able to see firsthand the presence of children on Wellington Street, close to the line of police, who had to use irritating gas against some aggressive demonstrators in the last hours. However, this security issue did not deter Katherine from traveling from Hamilton with her young daughter to take part in this demonstration since yesterday.
“I’m here because my parents grew up in the former Soviet Union and they see similarities to what we’re going through right now, so I’m here to make sure my daughter has a future,” she said. mother, smiling despite the biting cold.
A few Quebec flags continue to fly among the crowd, which brandishes posters inveighing against both the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, and that of Quebec, François Legault, whom the demonstrators blame for the health measures put in place to counter the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are here for our children, for the future and to regain our rights and freedoms […] That’s why it’s very important for me to come and demonstrate peacefully, ”argued Roger Lambert, while brandishing a huge flag adorned with the fleur-de-lis. The demonstrator, who is a truck driver, makes the round trip every weekend from Quebec City with his children to support the “Freedom Convoy”, which has paralyzed part of Ottawa for 23 days.
Despite the erosion of the demonstration since yesterday, the Quebecer does not give up.
“We’re going to settle down [plus loin], but we won’t stop. We will continue until we regain our freedom, ”he insisted. The demonstrators also continued to repeatedly chant “Freedom” while watching the police who forced them to move further and further away from parliament on Saturday afternoon.
“I don’t think the protest is going to end. I think they will free the roads, but this mobilization will continue until all the sanitary measures have been lifted, ”also hammered Amanda, a demonstrator.
“Aggressive” protesters
Ottawa police, who lamented on Saturday that protesters “continued to be aggressive and attack officers”, will hold a press briefing at 3:30 p.m. in the capital to provide an update “on the application continuation of the law to put an end to the illegal demonstration”.
The police force also indicated in the middle of the afternoon that they found a dog that had been abandoned on a vehicle left on Wellington Street. The police had to break a window to rescue him.
The police operation also convinced several truckers to leave Ottawa or to move further back from Parliament Hill. A few heavy goods vehicles were notably visible on Kent Street on Saturday afternoon, but these were becoming increasingly rare. “We are in the home stretch” (the last push), launched a police officer at Le Devoir, around 1 p.m., while some demonstrators retreated, their heads bowed or even while singing the national anthem.
Federal elected officials, meanwhile, were debating the implementation of the Emergencies Act. This has also allowed the freezing of 76 bank accounts representing $ 3.2 million attributed to the illegal blockades that have hit the country in recent weeks, announced Saturday morning the Federal Minister of Public Security, Marco Mendicino.
With Boris Proulx and The Canadian Press
More details will follow.