OTTAWA —
Police started arresting protesters Friday in a bid to interrupt the three-week, traffic-snarling siege of Canada’s capital by a whole bunch of truckers indignant over the nation’s COVID-19 restrictions.
Officers have been seen going door to door alongside a line of vans, campers and different autos parked on Ottawa’s snow-covered streets. Some protesters surrendered and have been taken into custody, police stated. Some have been seen being led away in handcuffs. One particular person carried an indication that stated: “Mandate Freedom.”
Most of the truckers remained defiant.
“Freedom was by no means free,” stated trucker Kevin Homaund of Montreal. “So what in the event that they put the handcuffs on us and so they put us in jail?”
Police made their first transfer to finish the occupation late Thursday with the arrest of two key protest leaders. Additionally they sealed off a lot of the downtown space to outsiders to stop them from coming to assistance from the self-styled Freedom Convoy protesters.
The capital represented the motion’s final stronghold after three weeks of demonstrations and blockades that shut down border crossings into the U.S., induced financial harm to each international locations and created a political disaster for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Over the previous weeks, authorities had hesitated to maneuver towards lots of the protesters across the nation, partially for worry of violence. The demonstrations have drawn right-wing extremists and veterans, a few of them armed.
With police and the federal government dealing with accusations that they let the protests achieve power and unfold, Trudeau on Monday invoked Canada’s Emergencies Act, empowering legislation enforcement authorities to declare the blockades unlawful, tow away vans, arrest the drivers, droop their licenses and freeze their financial institution accounts.
Ottawa police made it clear Thursday that they have been making ready to finish the protest and take away the greater than 300 vans, with Ottawa’s interim police chief warning: “Motion is imminent.”
The operation Friday started within the morning with police methodically arresting protesters a number of blocks from Parliament Hill, the center of the protest zone, the place vans have been parked shoulder to shoulder. Some officers carried automated weapons and wore tactical-unit uniforms.
The 2 protest leaders arrested late Thursday have been due in courtroom Friday. Among the many fees towards them are mischief and obstructing police.
The bumper-to-bumper occupation infuriated many Ottawa residents, who complained of being harassed and intimidated on the streets.
The demonstrations across the nation by protesters in vans, tractors and motor houses initially centered on Canada’s vaccine requirement for truckers getting into the nation however quickly morphed right into a broader assault on COVID-19 precautions and Trudeau’s authorities.
The most important border blockade — on the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit — disrupted the move of auto elements between the 2 international locations and compelled the business to curtail manufacturing. Authorities reopened the bridge final weekend after arresting dozens of protesters.
The ultimate blockade, in Manitoba, ended peacefully Wednesday.
The protests have been cheered on and obtained donations from conservatives within the U.S.
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