OTTAWA (Reuters) — Police and officials in Ottawa say some of the trucks blocking the city centre as part of an anti-vaccine demonstration should start leaving today, even as some protesters insist they will stay.
Dozens of trucks and other vehicles have been jamming up central Ottawa since Friday and thousands descended upon Parliament Hill to complain about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Parliament resumed today after a six-week winter break.
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“Demonstrations are expected to become smaller after today. However, it will take some time to clear vehicles from the downtown core,” Ottawa city council said Sunday.
There were few signs of activity among the protesters early today, with many huddling in their cabs as temperatures hovered around -16 C.
“This is still a very tenuous exercise, it’s fluid in nature. Negotiations are indicating that some people are leaving the city from a demonstrations standpoint, that’s a good thing,” police chief Peter Sloly said.
Canada Unity, one of the groups involved, said it wanted to gather 1,000 people to go into a mall and shop without masks. The Rideau Centre, a large nearby mall, said it would be shut for a second day today because protesters refused to wear masks.
Local residents have expressed frustration with what they called non-stop blaring of truck horns and demonstrators using the streets as an open-air toilet.
“Centretown residents have had enough. All-night honking; music; swastikas; public urination and defecation,” local councillor Catherine McKenney said on Twitter. “Residents deserve peace and relief from these disgusting acts.”
Ottawa mayor Jim Watson said some protesters had harassed a soup kitchen, demanding free meals because they were unable to order food in restaurants due to their refusal to wear masks.
Staff at three Ottawa hospitals said they had had trouble getting to and from work.
The demonstration had started as a protest against a vaccine requirement for cross-border drivers, but then developed into a demonstration against the Trudeau government with a strong anti-vaccination streak. Some participants, though, have appeared at the protest brandishing Nazi and American Confederate flags.
“Several criminal investigations are underway,” Ottawa police said on Twitter, including for the “desecration of the National War Memorial” and “threatening/illegal/intimidating behaviour to police/city workers and other individuals.”
One protester was filmed dancing on the war memorial — the tomb of the unknown soldier — and flags bearing swastikas were seen in the crowd.
Michael Cooper, a Conservative lawmaker who handed out coffee at the protest, was pictured standing near a Canadian flag bearing a Swastika during a TV interview. He later released a statement condemning the “reprehensible” protester on Twitter.
Canada’s top soldier, Chief of the Defence Staff General Wayne Eyre, denounced a woman filmed dancing on the tomb of the unknown soldier, saying he was “sickened”.
“We do not condone any disrespectful behavior,” the official Facebook page for the rally stated.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking at a rally in Texas on Jan. 29, praised the Canadian protesters for “resisting bravely these lawless mandates,” in a sign the politicization of the pandemic seen mostly south of the border has spread north.
In solidarity with the Ottawa rally, truckers and protesters have blocked a Canada-U.S. border crossing in southern Alberta, police said on Twitter.
