Convoy arrives in Ottawa
OTTAWA
The big rigs began rolling into downtown Ottawa midday Friday, as a planned anti-vaccine mandate protest began to swell in number and energy, with some in attendance promising to stay put until Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is forced out.
The Ottawa Police Service said it was calling in reinforcements to help keep the peace as hundreds of vehicles and long-haul trucks continued their trek toward the nation’s capital to demand an end to all COVID-19 restrictions, including vaccine passports, from every level of government.
Robyn May, a business owner from Long Point, Ont., was there with her husband in hockey jerseys and maple leaf hats, toting anti-Trudeau signs.
“We are not a free country,” May said, adding government mandates forced her business to close at times during the pandemic.
When asked how long she thinks the protest will last, she said she plans to stay until “Justin Trudeau is no longer our prime minister.”
Thus far the atmosphere has been generally party-like with some setting up barbecues on the sidewalk, and many honking horns, playing instruments and blaring music.
Still downtown Ottawa was locked down as some associated with the convoy threatened violence and police said they were getting intelligence on threats being made.
“Even during the course of this conference call we’ve had new intelligence coming in, in regards to local threats,” Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly said during a briefing Friday.
He said Ottawa police are working with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, RCMP and other agencies to identify any potential threats to public safety.
“That will continue and we will be as prepared as possible to identify those individuals or groups that may seek to come here physically to cause harm to the city, to disrupt lawful demonstrations, or that may be inciting hate and/or criminal violence online,” he said.
While the protest has largely been billed as being against a new vaccine mandate for commercial truck drivers at the border, its origins go back long before that policy was conceived.
The memorandum of understanding being pushed by organizer Canada Unity demands, despite lacking any legal or Constitutional authority, that Gov. Gen. Mary Simon and the Senate force Trudeau and all provincial governments to eliminate all COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates. The document fails to mention truckers at all.
Through the morning about 100 people lined the sidewalk outside the gates to Parliament Hill. Cars and pickup trucks lined the north side of Wellington Street, far past the Parliament buildings.
By late afternoon at least 1,000 people were on hand, as the convoy from southern Ontario began to show up. More convoys from Western Canada, Quebec and the Maritimes are expected before Saturday.
Police blocked part of the road in front of the Parliament buildings for emergency vehicles.
Around a core of truckers, including a big rig with an anti-Trudeau slogan, were supporters with banners protesting the prime minister and QR codes, which are needed to access restaurants and bars and, in Quebec, some big supermarkets.
Jay Koster made the trip from Fergus, Ont., to watch the protest and said he was “frustrated” with Trudeau and the Liberal government when it comes to vaccine mandates.
“People who choose not to get a vaccine, they’re Canadians,” he said. “We’re Canadians and we appreciate our freedom.”
Fran Adair, who travelled with her family to the protest from Sarnia, was sleeping in her van, parked outside the Parliament buildings. She said she wanted the situation to “go back to the way it was” and was opposed to vaccine mandates. “Vaccines are not working. It’s a joke,” she said.
Two doses of an mRNA vaccine are 75 to 80 per cent effective against severe illness from Omicron, according to Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization. A booster shot reduces the risk further, with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reporting that a third dose is at least 90 per cent effective at preventing hospitalization, including for the variant.
Sloly confirmed his officers had already dealt with some of the protesters, peacefully.