‘Freedom Convoy’ demonstrators admit protest is near end but vow to reorganize: ‘We are going to win’

Defiant demonstrators, draped in Canadian flags, acknowledged the protest’s end was near on Saturday and that they were making a last stand, but several told The Washington Post that they planned to regroup or join future anti-government demonstrations.

“We are going to win,” people shouted at police as they were forced to retreat following three-weeks of protests in Canada’s capital.

Police arrested more than 140 protesters Friday, but standoffs remained in the freezing weather Saturday as law enforcement officers pushed on to disperse straggling demonstrators and tow trucks slowly pulled away the parked big rigs that have paralyzed the city.

As protester numbers dwindled, law enforcement officers armed with batons and guns, some on horseback, appeared to advance at a faster and more forceful pace than the day before as a drone hovered above. Though largely restrained, tensions remained high, as protesters, facing hefty fines or prison time, continued to gather by the remaining front lines, some bringing with them children and dogs.

At midday, organizers of one key group, Freedom Convoy 2022, much of whose leadership has been arrested or left Ottawa, issued a call for truckers to move from a central encampment in front of Canada’s parliament “to avoid further [police] brutality.” They asked for police to give time for vehicles to move.

With so many moving parts — the presence of children, the possibility of violence, the tightly packed vehicles and combustible fuel — the police have taken a largely restrained approach, even by Canadian standards. Police officers, some in tactical gear, have continued to leave open exits for demonstrators and drivers who decide to leave.

Alongside arrests, police said they used a “chemical irritant,” described by protests as pepper spray, against some demonstrators. Police said in a tweet Saturday that some of the arrested had body armor, smoke grenades and other fireworks on them.

Rumors about law enforcement have circulated, such as that a protester had been trampled and killed by a horse — which police and video accounts contradict — and that police had fired tear gas against demonstrators — though The Post witnessed no tear gas and police said protesters had launched an unspecific gas at them.

“We told you to leave,” the Ottawa police said in a tweet Saturday. “We gave you time to leave. We were slow and methodical, yet you were assaultive and aggressive with officers and the horses.”

As conditions unfolded on the ground, Canadian Parliament resumed debate Saturday over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s controversial invocation Monday of the never-before-used 1988 Emergencies Act, which gives the government broad powers for up to 30 days. Parliament must vote within seven days of the act’s invocation to approve or reject it.

Under the Emergencies Act, banks must freeze assets suspected of being used to fund the protest and can suspend the insurance and business accounts connected to vehicles found here. Police have distributed thousands of dollars worth of fines to drivers, several of whom told The Post they did not expect to pay and would litigate in court.

Policy say they can retroactively fine or charge people documented to be violating laws.

Use of the act is expected to be approved, though the move has drawn criticism from both the left and the right.

On Thursday, police set up about a hundred checkpoints and other road closures in Ottawa’s downtown to keep out protester reinforcements.

Police close in on Ottawa ‘Freedom Convoy,’ make at least 100 arrests

“We will run this operation 24 hours a day until the residents and community have their entire city back,” interim Ottawa police chief Steve Bell said Friday.

Among those arrested are three key protest organizers — Alberta separatist Tamara Lich, far-right agitator Chris Barber, and Pat King, who said “bullets” were the only way to end health mandates. Another key influencer, former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer Daniel Bulford, turned himself in Friday.

Barber was released on bail late Friday on the condition he leave Ottawa and not contact or finance the protest, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Lich is set to appear in court Saturday on charges of counseling to promote mischief.

Lich, Barber, and a third organizer, Benjamin Dichter, who left Ottawa Friday, are named in a class-action lawsuit filed by Ottawa resident Zexi Li, 21, over damages caused by the demonstrations.

Beleaguered Ottawans losing faith in leaders, want ‘siege’ to end

While protesters held block parties the past three weekends as police stood by, many Ottawa residents complained of being harassed and intimidated by some demonstrators and being unable to sleep or work amid incessant honking and blocked streets.

Peter Sloly resigned as Ottawa’s police chief on Tuesday after heavy criticism of his department’s handling of the unrest.

Some protesters have demanded an end to all pandemic-related mandates. Others said they wanted Trudeau ousted or tried in court. The protests in Canada, which have also targeted and shut down border crossings, have inspired copycats in European capitals.

But Stephanie Carvin, an associate professor of international relations at Carleton University in Ottawa, said it was not “a movement driven by truckers frustrated by mandates.”

“It is a movement of anti-government extremists that have successfully tapped into the exhaustion of a lot of Canadians who are frustrated after four lockdowns and going onto year three of this [pandemic],” she said. “They were able to frame their grievances around this issue.”

“The success of this movement will depend on its ability to frame itself around the new issue that attracts a lot of support,” she added.

The children of the ‘Freedom Convoy’: Kids with protesting parents complicate police response

Police on Friday afternoon said that one officer had been lightly injured.

After days of defiance, protesters have largely not prevented people from leaving. Though the message is: We will be back.

Patrick Philon, 33, from Spanish, Ontario, said Saturday that he had all the respect for the truckers, even those who left.

“They did their part to start a worldwide movement,” he said by a police standoff next to the prime minister’s office. “We will stand here and hold the line.”

He said he wasn’t taking direction from anyone but himself today. Neither did he feel abandoned by the protest’s public-facing organizers as he faced the specter of arrest in the cold.

“No disrespect,” he said about those who called for people to stand down or who left Ottawa. “Everyone has their own families and responsibilities.”

Philon was gearing up for what was next for him: Joining another protest or satellite demonstrator camp around Ottawa.

Michael, a 66-year-old from Hamilton, Toronto, who declined to give his last name as he said he feared his neighbors finding out he was here, grew emotional as he contemplated the end.

“I’m so moved by what these guys [the truckers] are doing and I’ve been doing nothing,” Michael said.

He acknowledged that what in part drew him out some would acknowledge as a “conspiracy” — the false claim that Trudeau was controlled by “globalists” and “the World Economic Forum,” a sentiment shared by several protesters interviewed by The Post.

Michael said that on Monday he had given to the protest’s two now frozen online fundraisers on GoFundMe and GiveSendGo, as well as over 500 Canadian dollars in person.

He claimed that he tried to get arrested Saturday, but the police officer he faced off with did not detain him.

“It’s over,” he said. “But just wait until the summer. … There will be something else like this that we didn’t expect.”