| Translate This News In |
|---|
On Thursday, Canadian police began arresting leaders of the trucker-led protest that has clogged the capital’s streets for three weeks, prompting the government to employ rarely utilised emergency powers.
Tamara Lich, one of the organisers, was brought into police custody on Thursday night, according to a video provided to the so-called “Freedom Convoy” Twitter account.
A video from the arrest of another leader, Chris Barber, was also published on the same account.
The convoy began with truckers protesting mandatory Covid vaccines for crossing the US border, but its demands have since expanded to include the removal of all pandemic restrictions and, for many, a broader anti-establishment agenda.
Blockades of a half-dozen US-Canada border crossings, including the important route between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan, were also part of the movement at its apex.
Lich had already recorded an emotional video on Thursday, stating that she was anticipating to be jailed.
She urged supporters to descend on the capital, saying the truckers already here “are going to stay and fight for your freedom.”
However, municipal police chief Steve Bell said that entry to downtown Ottawa would be blocked to prevent people from joining the rally, and that “imminent” action would be taken against those who were already there.
“I beg everybody who is there to get in their truck… and get out of our city streets,” Bell told reporters.
‘They have to stop,’ says the author.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has been chastised for failing to act decisively, invoked the Emergencies Act this week, which gives the government broad powers to deal with grave crises.
It is only the second time in peacetime that such powers have been used.
Hundreds of huge rigs remained parked surrounding the Canadian parliament, prompting police to deploy in force.
“We’ve started hardening the cordon surrounding the protestors,” Bell explained.
Trudeau defended his use of the Emergencies Act, claiming that it was not being used to call in the military and that he was not constraining freedom of speech.
He told the House of Commons that the goal was to “deal with the current threat and bring the situation under full control.”
“Illegal blockades and occupations are not peaceful protests… They must be ended,” he stated.
Bell had given the demonstrators an ultimatum to leave or face arrest and vehicle seizures late Wednesday.
He promised in a statement to “reclaim the entire downtown core and every occupied location,” but warned that “some of the measures we are legally able and prepared to deploy are not what we are used to seeing in Ottawa.”
‘There is a significant risk of serious violence,’ according to the report.
Only Trudeau’s father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, used emergency powers in Canada once previously, in 1970, to put down Quebec separatists who kidnapped two officials and planted bombs in Montreal.
The government outlined its justification for activating the Emergencies Act in documents filed with the House of Commons, claiming that the trucking convoy has created a critical and urgent situation that cannot be addressed under existing Canadian rules.
Trudeau called the demonstrations “a threat to our democracy” in a letter to province premiers.
At a checkpoint between Coutts, Alberta, and Sweet Grass, Montana, police arrested dozens of demonstrators this week, including four persons accused of plotting to murder police officers.
They reportedly seized a cache of weaponry, including rifles, handguns, body armour, and ammo, in addition to dozens of cars.
Authorities have also taken steps to suspend bank accounts and stifle crowdfunding and bitcoin transactions that support the demonstrators.
