Police regain control of most of Canada’s capital, say protesters will continue to be identified and charged as holdouts persist

But while the big rigs, barbecues, and bouncy castles were gone, major questions remained over how long the police would stay to prevent the possible return of demonstrators, and what consequences protesters, from participants up to its far-right organizers, would face for the three-week long illegal blockade.

Police prepared Sunday for the possible return of more demonstrators, as well as for satellite encampments to be set up in neighborhoods around Ottawa.

‘Freedom Convoy’ demonstrators admit protest is near the end after police clear out most of them, making arrests and towing vehicles

Tall fences have blocked off access to Wellington Street, the center of the encampments that clogged the thoroughfare running in front of parliament and the prime minister’s office. A small contingency of holdouts remained in downtown Ottawa Saturday night, holding a street party in open defiance of the police, who have repeatedly warned that those who remain risk arrest and fines.

“We continue to maintain a police presence in and around the area the unlawful protest occupied … to ensure the ground gained back is not lost,” the Ottawa police tweeted Sunday.

“If you are involved in this protest, we will actively look to identify you and follow up with financial sanctions and criminal charges,” they said.

Even as Ottawa residents celebrated the start of a return to normalcy, Canada’s parliament was set to meet Sunday to debate Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s invocation of the 1998 Emergencies Act. Members are set to vote Monday to accept or reject use of the special powers authorized under that law.

The act is expected to pass, though critics from both the left and the right have objected to its far-reaching use. Trudeau said he needed to take the emergency measure as no other efforts to quell the “illegal and dangerous activities” effecting the country’s economy and security were working.

Under the Emergencies Act, banks may freeze transactions suspected of funding the ‘Freedom Convoys’ that paralyzed Ottawa and clogged several U.S.-Canada borders, disrupting millions of dollars a day in trade. Drivers of vehicles documented at the demonstrations can also lose their corporate bank accounts, vehicle insurance, and driving licenses.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) that he wanted to use the Emergencies Act to seize and sell the impounded vehicles to pay some of the costs incurred by the city.

Trudeau said Saturday that the federal government would provide $20 million Canadian dollars ($15.7 million) to businesses affected by the protests, which authorities deemed illegal.

Police began to move in Friday, after 20 days of protesters having free-reign in the capital’s downtown. Despite tensions being high, the police response remained largely restrained, even by Canadian standards. Armed officers, some on horses and others in tactical gear, slowly moved truck-by-truck and block-by-block to push out demonstrators.

The police said they used pepper spray, stun grenades, and other anti-riot weapons. Some demonstrators arrested had body armor, smoke grenades and fireworks on them, the police said Saturday.

The police have faced heavy criticism for failing to enforce laws during in the convoy’s first three weeks. Critics noted that police have moved much more quickly and forcefully against other demonstrations, such as those held by indigenous communities. The majority of ‘Freedom Convoy’ attendees were White.

Peter Sloly resigned as Ottawa police chief Tuesday under fire for his department’s handling of what he called a “siege” of the capital.

Law enforcement has denied that race or politics influenced their response. Rather they have pointed to the tactical difficulties posed by the tightly packed rows of vehicles. They estimated about 100 trucks had children living in or associated with them. Highly combustible jerrycans of fuel were also in wide circulation across the encampments.

Authorities additionally did not know if protesters were armed — and feared that items like cooking knives, vehicles, and hockey sticks could be used against them in an escalation.

Fears rose Feb. 14, when authorities said they arrested 11 people and seized guns, body armor and a “large quantity of ammunition” in Coutts, Alberta, where another convoy had been trying to block the U.S.-Canada border.

Canada’s public safety minister said Wednesday that some of those arrested in Alberta had “strong ties” to a “far-right extreme organization” with a presence in Ottawa.

Elizabeth Simons, the deputy director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, said the group in question was Diagolon, an insurrectionist movement that’s called for creating a nation-state diagonally running from Alaska through Canada’s western provinces and down to Florida.

The arrests also underscored how the ‘Freedom Convoy,’ which focused from the outset on protesting health mandates and Trudeau’s government, was fueled in part by far-right organizers and influencers with a history of anti-government, anti-science and anti-media agendas.

Police arrested three key protest organizers — Tamara Lich, 49, Chris Barber, 46, and Patrick King, 44 — on Thursday and Friday. Barber, who was charged with mischief, obstructing police and disobeying a court order, was released on bail Friday. Under the conditions, he must leave Ottawa and cannot be in contact with or speak in support of any of the convoy’s participants or funders.

Both Lich and King remain in jail in Ottawa.

Lich, who is charged with mischief, appeared at a bail hearing Friday wearing a shirt in support of Canadian oil and gas and a court-mandated face mask. The session was adjourned until Tuesday morning, said Diane Magas, the Ottawa-based lawyer representing Lich and Barber.

Under Canada’s rules, Lich cannot fly back home to Alberta because she is unvaccinated. At the hearing, Lich’s husband, Dwayne Lich, told the court that he personally had little money but had flown to Ottawa on Feb. 2 via a private jet. He said the flight cost around $5,000 Canadian dollars ($3,900), but that a man named Joseph, whose last name he could not recall, covered his costs, Magas said.

Mischief is a wide-ranging charge that can include significant jail time. Magas said it was “too early” to say what Lich or Barber could face in terms of sentencing.

Lich, Barber and a third early-on organizer, Benjamin Dichter, who left Ottawa Friday, are named in a class-action lawsuit originally filed by an Ottawa resident asking for $360 million Canadian dollars ($280 million) in damages caused by the demonstrations.

Jeffrey Monaghan, an Associate Professor at Carleton University’s Institute for Criminology and Criminal Justice, said that the goal of these court cases should “be trying to take momentum out of these movements.”

From a deterrence perspective, he said that when courts decide how to punish the convoy’s organizers and participants, they should consider “a form of leniency” so at to “not make martyrs out of these individuals and feed a lot of animosity.”