Police in Canada on Friday moved to dislodge the final truckers and protesters from downtown Ottawa, in a mostly peaceful operation aimed at bringing an end to three weeks of demonstrations over COVID-19 rules.
Late Friday night, Ottawa police, who pledged the operation would push ahead “until residents and citizens have their city back,” were still working to clear the capital’s streets.
Deployed by the hundreds, police said they made more than 100 arrests and towed about 20 vehicles.
Photo: Reuters
No one was seriously hurt, they added, with Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell saying that the operation was going as planned, but would take time.
Some truckers, who had led the protests that started three weeks ago, and choked Ottawa’s streets with big rigs and demonstrators by the hundreds, chose to leave on their own, removing their 18-wheelers from the streets surrounding parliament.
Authorities continued to warn demonstrators to go.
“You must leave. You must cease further unlawful activity and immediately remove your vehicle and/or property from all unlawful protest sites,” Ottawa police repeatedly wrote on Twitter, warning of possible arrests.
Throughout the day, heavily armed officers — including on horseback — lined up against protesters who locked arms, advancing slowly and methodically to push back the spirited crowd.
An Agence France-Presse journalist saw several demonstrators led away in handcuffs as police and tow trucks moved in, although most simply surrendered.
A few demonstrators were wrestled to the ground, and at least one who refused to exit his truck had his windows smashed and was dragged out by police.
Far-right campaigner Pat King was taken into custody early on Friday afternoon as he left the capital, livestreaming his arrest on Facebook.
Two other leaders, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, were arrested on Thursday evening. Lich, 49, was heard telling truckers as she was being led away by police to “hold the line.”
The so-called “freedom convoy” began with truckers rallying against mandatory COVID-19 vaccines.
Its demands grew to include an end to all COVID-19 rules and, for many, a wider anti-establishment agenda.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
RSS