Canadian police on Thursday began arresting leaders of a trucker-led protest that has choked Ottawa’s streets for three weeks and provoked the Canadian government into calling on rarely used emergency powers.
A video posted to the Twitter account of the so-called “freedom convoy” showed Tamara Lich, one of the organizers, being taken into police custody on Thursday night.
The earlier arrest of another leader, Chris Barber, was also captured in a video shared on the same account.
Photo: AFP
The convoy had started with truckers protesting against mandatory COVID-19 vaccines, but its demands have grown to include an end to all pandemic restrictions and, for many, a wider anti-establishment agenda.
At its peak, the movement also included blockades of half-a-dozen US-Canada border crossings — including the key route between Windsor, Canada, and Detroit, Michigan.
Earlier on Thursday, Lich posted a tearful video in which she said that she was expecting to be arrested.
She called on supporters to flood Ottawa, saying that truckers in the capital “are gonna stay and fight for your freedom.”
“If you can come to Ottawa and stand with us, that would be fantastic,” she said.
However, Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell said that access to downtown Ottawa would be restricted to prevent people joining the demonstration, and he warned of “imminent” action against those already there.
“I implore anyone that’s there: Get in your truck ... and leave our city streets,” Bell told reporters.
Criticized for failing to act decisively, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week invoked the Emergencies Act, which gives the government sweeping powers to deal with a major crisis.
It is only the second time such powers have been invoked in peacetime.
Police were deployed in force into the area around the Canadian parliament, where hundreds of big rigs remained parked.
“We’ve begun to harden the perimeter around the protests,” Bell said. “What I can tell you is this weekend will look very different than the past three weekends.”
Trudeau defended his decision to resort to the Emergencies Act, saying that the act was not being used to call in the military and denied restricting freedom of expression.
The objective was simply to “deal with the current threat and to get the situation fully under control,” he told the Canadian House of Commons. “Illegal blockades and occupations are not peaceful protests... They have to stop.”
Canadian Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino said the situation in Ottawa was “precarious.”
The demonstrators were late on Wednesday given an ultimatum to leave or risk arrest and truck seizures.
In a statement, Bell pledged “to take back the entirety of the downtown core and every occupied space,” while warning that “some of the techniques we are lawfully able and prepared to use are not what we are used to seeing in Ottawa.”
Truckers responded by blaring horns, waving Canadian national flags on the ends of hockey sticks, and chanting “Freedom.”
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