While Ottawans are still shaken by the long occupation of downtown last winter, a new convoy, this time of bikers, will land in the capital on Friday to demonstrate.
According to the Ottawa Police Service, there will be between 500 and 1,000 motorcyclists. According to rumors circulating on the web, this number is more likely to be 8,000. A major difference, a bit like the one that took the capital by surprise last February, when thousands of additional truckers were added to the estimates. , creating a bigger ruckus than anticipated.
And what motivates so many people to hit the road? On paper, the Rolling Thunder group indicates that it wants to demonstrate for the “reopening” of the National War Memorial, which has been closed for a few months due to the misdeeds committed by members of the “freedom convoy”. The group of Veterans for Peace (V4F) is one of the main contributors to the rally.
The Ottawa Police Service, however, announced at a press conference Thursday morning that it has set up a vehicle exclusion zone near the parliamentary buildings for the coming weekend. The monument is right in the center of this space which will be surrounded by police. This decision therefore complicates the plans of the demonstrators who intended to go there on Saturday at the end of the morning.
The police also announced that they will respect the conditions established by the court for anyone who has been denied access to Ottawa after “the illegal demonstration last February. Tickets, towing and arrests will be required to maintain order.
In addition to the reopening of the memorial, organizations linked to Rolling Thunder have stated the reasons for their participation on their websites. V4F says it wants to restore the fundamental freedoms of all Canadians, while the group Freedom Fighters Canada demands “an end to all government mandates” and “tyrannical legislation”.
The Rolling Thunder site also invites people to donate to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, the very organization that raises funds for childhood oncology care, research and equipment.
In a communication with The dutythe CHEO Foundation’s communications manager, Jayne O’Brien, insisted that their organization “has absolutely no connection with this event”.
The return of worries
The memory of the rumbling engines and the horns still echoes in the minds of many Ottawa residents who are apprehensive of the arrival of the biker convoy. An email sent to Horizon Ottawa, a local progressive organization, and which was relayed on Twitter testifies to this.
This is a request for help from an employee of the Saint-Laurent shopping center, the place where the Rolling Thunder participants plan to stop. “I’m employed at the mall and most of my co-workers are LGBTQ+ and/or people of color. I’m incredibly anxious about the type of crowd that will be drawn to guest speaker Chris Sky, an outspoken Holocaust denier and white supremacist. […] My colleagues and I are uncomfortable working that day knowing the kind of people we will be serving, but neither of us can afford to miss a shift. »
We received this email from an employee at the St. Laurent Mall.
The people who the February convoy and “Rolling Thunder” convoy claim to support are the exact people they are hurting.
This weekend we need to support and protect front line workers like those at St Laurent Mall. pic.twitter.com/O6Mn4oHaBC
— Horizon Ottawa (@HorizonOttawa) April 27, 2022
This employee is not the only person to worry about the arrival of the group. Community Solidarity Ottawa plans to organize an “unwelcoming party”, an unwelcoming party against the biker convoy. The coalition of community organizers, residents and unions wishes to show, with this initiative, the dissatisfaction of the Ottawans vis-à-vis this demonstration which risks, once again, to disrupt the daily lives of the residents.
Although the number of motorcycles and the course of the weekend are uncertain, the cleavage caused by these demonstrations within the population is clearly visible.
With Boris Proulx