Canada’s ‘Freedom Convoy’ protesters dig in amid Ottawa police warnings

Police on Wednesday handed demonstrators in Ottawa fliers in English and French with a message: It’s time to leave or face arrest, also warning that participants who are convicted of crimes could be barred from entering the United States.

The move could set the stage for tougher action from law enforcement agencies to quell the standoff that rippled across the country and prompted Trudeau this week to become the first Canadian leader to invoke the country’s Emergencies Act.

In a letter to the country’s premiers justifying the emergency powers, which was shared with Canadian media outlets, Trudeau wrote that within the protests that started with frustration over vaccine mandates, “we are seeing activity that is a threat to our democracy and that is undermining the public’s trust in our institutions.”

Ottawa police warn ‘Freedom Convoy’ protesters to ‘leave the area now’

He maintained that his invocation of the law — which the premiers of some provinces opposed and which a rights group criticized as a threat to civil liberties — would be time-limited and geographically targeted.

Canadian officials have said the Emergencies Act gives police the authority to declare certain zones, including Parliament and critical infrastructure, off-limits for protests that “breach the peace.” Banks may freeze accounts of participants without a court order, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police could help enforce local laws, and tow truck firms may be compelled to haul vehicles out.

Tow truck operators were worried about the risks to their safety and future employment if the government asked them to remove the big rigs jamming streets in downtown Ottawa, an industry leader told Canada’s public radio broadcaster Wednesday.

Some government officials warned of links to far-right groups after police announced they found weapons and charged four people with conspiracy to commit murder at a blockade near the now open Coutts border crossing in Alberta, where some protesters said they had left to avoid violence.

The latest warning in Ottawa, after dozens of arrests and thousands of tickets in recent days, did not seem to faze the demonstrators who remained downtown Wednesday, with few showing signs of packing up. In the streets around Canada’s Parliament, truckers and their supporters blared horns and music.

What is the Emergencies Act, which Trudeau invoked against Canada’s trucker protests?

In a tearful video posted on social media, Tamara Lich, a convoy organizer who had earlier pledged that protesters would remain on Parliament Hill until mandates are lifted, indicated it was “inevitable at this point” that she would face arrest and possible prison time but urged people to join them in Ottawa.

“You have to know that they’re trying to provoke us. … Tomorrow is a new day, and I’m ready. I am not afraid, and we’re gonna hold the line,” she said. “This has been a really crazy ride. … I just want you to stay strong.”

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