‘This is a siege,’ says Ottawa police chief as blockades and protests against covid measures enter second weekend

While the crowds are expected to thin during the coming week, Toronto was taking no chances. Police in Canada’s largest city announced Sunday they would continue road closures in the downtown core into the week “to keep access routes clear, protect our healthcare workers, patients, and their families, and maintain public safety.”

In Alberta, the blockade of an important U.S.-Canada border crossing also continued. Some protests drew counterprotests.

In Canada’s capital, big rigs and other vehicles — emblazoned with signs blasting Trudeau in obscene language and reading “Mandate Freedom” — blocked main arteries and intersections. Several demonstrators, who included families with children, waved Canadian flags affixed to hockey sticks.

As of midday Saturday, Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly reported a thousand vehicles, roughly 5,000 protesters and at least 300 counterprotesters in his city’s streets. That was fewer people than there were in last weekend’s protests but a large increase since Friday.

“This is a siege,” Sloly said. “It is something that is different in our democracy than I’ve ever experienced in my life.”

One man rode a horse down Wellington Street, the main road in front of Parliament, waving a “Trump 2024” flag, while diesel fumes and the soundtrack of the protests — a cacophony of deafening horns, revving engines and chants of “Freedom!” — filled the air on a sunny and chilly afternoon.

The convoy was initially started in response to U.S. and Canadian rules requiring cross-border truckers to be fully vaccinated to enter either country. But they have ballooned into a movement against all public health measures, which are mostly imposed by the provinces, and Trudeau, who was reelected in September.

In a “memorandum of understanding,” Canada Unity, one of the main groups behind the convoy, called for the governor general, Queen Elizabeth II’s representative in Canada, and the Senate to override the public health measures or to topple the government — measures far outside their constitutional powers.

“Let me assure the people of Ottawa that we have no intent to stay one day longer than necessary,” Tamara Lich, one of the convoy’s organizers, told reporters this week. “Our departure will be based on the prime minister doing what is right: ending all mandates and restrictions on our freedoms.”

Robert Torteous arrived in Ottawa on Friday from Flesherton, Ontario, a community some 322 miles away. He said he planned to stay for the weekend. He declined to say if he was vaccinated, characterizing the question as “discrimination,” and said he was opposed to mandates.

“When you don’t give people choices about what they do with their own bodies, it’s a big problem,” he said.

Jeff, a truck driver in Toronto who does not drive cross-border routes, said he has been out of work since October because he is not vaccinated.

“There’s no reason for them to force this inoculation on me,” he said, declining to give his last name.

The demonstrations — which have drawn praise from Fox News personalities, Donald Trump and Tesla founder Elon Musk — have left residents on edge.

The deafening sound of horns is almost constant . Police say residents have been the targets of intimidation and racist vitriol.

As Ontario began a planned loosening of coronavirus restrictions this week, many businesses shut down or delayed reopening, citing safety concerns. The Rideau Center, a major downtown shopping mall, has been closed for the past week after it was swarmed by protesters who refused to comply with a provincial mask mandate.

The impacts have been acutely felt in areas such as Centretown, a diverse and normally bustling residential neighborhood just south of Parliament Hill, where many streets are blockaded with vehicles.

“It’s been hell,” said Karen Nielsen, the co-owner of highJinx, a local social enterprise that runs a food bank and furniture bank. “It has been so loud. Our living rooms are full of exhaust fumes and our dogs are scared. But we also can’t go outside without someone saying something to us. We can’t be masked without being harassed.”

“It’s not a protest anymore,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said this week. “It’s become an occupation.”

Catherine McKenney, the local councilor for the area, had planned a community safety walk for Saturday afternoon in Centretown, an initiative designed “to give people their neighborhood streets back in a small, small way.”

It was canceled due to security concerns. Other community safety walks went ahead as planned.

“We’ve been under siege. We’ve been abandoned,” McKenney said. “I’m horribly worried that somebody’s going to get hurt. It’s been crime and harassment and it’s been able to take place with complete impunity. … This noise is meant to terrorize people and they’re succeeding.”

The organizers are digging in, vowing to remain until their demands have been met. They’ve erected tents, makeshift kitchens and bouncy castles. They’ve brought in saunas. Several protesters carried jerrycans of fuel down main roads near Parliament or filled their vehicles with them.

Sloly, under fire for what critics have called a lenient response to the blockades, said police would be “hardening” the perimeter around the protests and deploying 150 more officers to “deliver a clear message” that “the lawlessness must end.”

“The demonstrators … remain highly organized, well-funded, extremely committed to resisting all attempts to end the demonstrations safely,” Sloly told reporters Friday. “This remains, as it was from the beginning, an increasingly volatile and increasingly dangerous demonstration.”

He said police are worried protesters will use vehicles against them and that there might not be a “policing solution” to the blockades. Trudeau has said that deploying the military is “not in the cards right now.”

Police have charged at least four people in connection with the demonstrations. They’ve opened a hate crimes tip line, and said that dozens of investigations are underway, including into the desecration of the National War Memorial, whichis now fenced off.

Vaccine mandates have been popular in Canada, according to public opinion polls, and Canada has one of the world’s highest vaccination rates. The Canadian Trucking Association, an industry group, has distanced itself from the demonstrations, noting that the vast majority of its truckers have been vaccinated.

Ottawa police have said the convoy is benefiting from national and international logistical and financial support, including from a “significant element” in the United States.

GoFundMe, the crowdfunding site, said Friday that it had removed a fundraiser for the convoy that had raised more than $8 million because it violated its terms of service, citing evidence from law enforcement “that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation.”

Ottawa police thanked GoFundMe for listening to its concerns, saying that withholding funding for “these unlawful demonstrations is an important step.” It called on all crowdfunding sites to do the same.

On Saturday afternoon, a new fundraiser for the convoy on another site had raised more than $1.3 million.

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