TORONTO – The watchword is “don’t let your guard down”. Despite the removal of trucks and protesters from the streets of Ottawa over the weekend, a large police presence still remains in the capital. “This is not a normal situation for our city – said interim police chief Steve Bell – despite the successes of recent days, we still need these measures to prevent the return of illegal protesters. We promised earlier last week that we would clear our streets and return them to our residents, we promised that we would return our city to a state of normality and we are getting closer and closer to this goal.”
In Ottawa, in essence, tranquility has returned after three weeks in which hundreds of truck drivers and no vax and no mask sympathizers invaded the streets of the center in protest against the government’s measures to contain the spread of Covid-19.
The non-stop operation to clear the streets near Parliament Hill continued from Friday to Sunday: 191 people arrested of which 107 have to answer for almost 400 counts including obstruction of the police, disobedience to a court order, possession of a weapon and, in one case, attempt to disarm a police officer. “A protester attempted to disarm an officer of his taser – said Bell – another policeman intervened quickly to prevent this from happening.”
Chris Harkins, deputy commissioner of Ontario Provincial Police, said commercial and private vehicle driver’s licenses were suspended, while 76 vehicles were seized. RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mike Duheme added that law enforcement, federal partners and financial institutions “froze” 206 financial accounts and proactively “blocked” the account of a payment processor worth $3.8 million.
There were no serious incidents during the action of dismantling the tents and removing the trucks from downtown Ottawa: after various social media reported that someone had died, the Ottawa police denied the news with a tweet.
On Sunday in Toronto there was a demonstration in support of the residents of Ottawa: it was organized by the group Community Solidarity Toronto which describes itself as a “new coalition of trade union, anti-racist and social organizations”. “Ottawa’s neighborhoods have been subjected to nearly three weeks of racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny and homophobic harassment, bullying and intimidation, and bullying , they have had to live with the noise and toxic fumes of diesel engines and, at times, with the sound of truck horns. We march to ensure that this does not happen in the streets and neighborhoods of Toronto.”
