Trudeau decides it’s time to get the truck out of Ottawa
OTTAWA: Police action to end a three-week truckerled protest blockading the Canadian capital is “imminent,” according to Ottawa’s interim police chief Steve Bell.
Mr Bell said authorities had “begun to harden the perimeter around the protests”, including installing security barriers and restricting access to the downtown area occupied by protesters.
But the protesters are not going to go peacefully.
It comes as “Trump 2024” posters are joining those against vaccines and the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.
What started as a group of drivers who were furious about a cross-border vaccine mandate has become a wider anti-government movement, fuelled by rightwing political groups and funded by American money.
While announcing this week that he was invoking the rarely used Emergencies Act to bring the protests to an end, Mr Trudeau revealed that Canadian border agents were turning back American Trump supporters who are seeking to join the protest.
Ottawa police said last week that a “concerted effort” to jam up their emergency lines originated in the US.
Two-thirds of Canada’s 38 million citizens live within 100km of the US border and the countries are each other’s main trading partners.
The truckers have been praised by Fox News hosts who back Mr Trump, and in a speech supporting the lorry drivers, Mr Trump called Mr Trudeau a “far-left lunatic”.
While border blockades are slowly being cleared, Ottawa remains gridlocked by almost 400 lorries. The protesters have set up food tents, bouncy castles, dance floors, a big screen and a stage.
With zero enforcement by police, residents have been subjected to harassment, car horns and abuse. Some have been too afraid to leave their homes, while others have started blocking lorries. On Tuesday, Peter Sloly resigned as the police chief.
The Emergencies Act, which is seen as heavy-handed by Mr Trudeau’s opponents, gives the government sweeping powers for 30 days to restrict public assembly, beef up police enforcement, freeze protesters’ corporate bank accounts and seize funds.
Crowdfunding sites have already refused to or have been prevented from releasing their cash.
However, the so-called “Freedom Convoy” participants say they would stay even after police handed out notices threatening prosecution. Wayne Narvey, from New Brunswick, has used his camper van to block a street. He said that police served him the notice but that he was not moving. He said it was “a war for our rights”.