Ottawa police have vowed to crack down on an “increasingly dangerous” protest by hundreds of truckers who have shut down the centre of the Canadian capital for eight days to demand an end to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
The well-organised blockade, which police say has relied partly on funding from sympathisers in the United States, is unprecedented by Canadian standards. Hundreds more truckers planned to enter the city this weekend, Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly said.
“This remains … an increasingly volatile and increasingly dangerous demonstration,” he told reporters on Friday.
Protesters in the downtown core “remain highly organised, well funded, extremely committed to resisting all attempts to end the demonstration safely”.
Some want an end to a federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers while others insist Prime Minister Justin Trudeau be deposed on the grounds he exceeded his authority by imposing restrictions to tackle the pandemic.
GoFundMe took down the Freedom Convoy’s donation page on Friday, saying it was in violation of its terms of service.
In the western province of Alberta, where truckers have been blocking a major border crossing with the United States, Premier Jason Kenney said ministers would meet early next week to start lifting restrictions.
“We can, and must, get on with our lives, restore our freedoms, and live with joy, not fear,” he wrote on Twitter.
Sloly likened the protest to the January 6, 2021, riot in Washington when thousands of supporters of former president Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol in a bid to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory.
Trump said the truckers were “peacefully protesting the harsh policies of far left lunatic Justin Trudeau who has destroyed Canada with insane COVID mandates”.
Trudeau labelled the protests as anti-black and racist among other things on Twitter earlier this week. Trudeau himself was embroiled in a ‘brownface’ scandal in 2019 after an old image of him surfaced at an ‘Arabian Nights’ party.
To the increasing fury of residents, Ottawa police have largely stood by and watched as some protesters smashed windows and threatened reporters and healthcare workers.
Sloly said police would put in place a “surge and contain” strategy, including reinforcements of 150 officers deployed downtown, to restore order.
“The hatred, the violence, the illegal acts that Ottawa residences and businesses have endured over the last week are unacceptable,” he said.
Blockades are also planned in Quebec City and Toronto, where authorities closed off access to the city centres.
The protest is dividing the official opposition Conservative Party, which this week ousted its leader amid complaints he had not sufficiently backed the truckers.
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