Police are clamping down on self-described “Freedom Convoy” anti-vaccine-mandate demonstrations in Canada’s capital, making multiple arrests, issuing hundreds of tickets, and seizing vehicles and fuel as Ottawa’s mayor declared a state of emergency.
The emergency declaration was designed to give officers more “flexibility” to respond to the hundreds and sometimes thousands of truckers and their supporters who are gathered in the streets to denounce coronavirus measures, Mayor Jim Watson said Sunday.
And, he said, the declaration reflects the “serious danger and threat to the safety and security of residents.” Fireworks were shot off, drivers blared their horns, and streets remained blocked for the second weekend in a row, and Watson admitted Sunday that authorities were “outnumbered” and “losing this battle” against groups who were “calling the shots.”
According to Fox News, more than 100 have been issued tickets in connection to “demonstration-related enforcement” in Ottawa. This comes after Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency Sunday afternoon as approximately 500 trucks and vehicles with the “Freedom Convoy” continued to linger in the streets of the Canadian capital to protest vaccine mandates and other coronavirus-related restrictions.
Ottawa Police Service issued a warning earlier Monday that “anyone found bringing fuel to the demonstration trucks in the red zone could be subject to arrest and charges.” Multiple vehicles and fuel have been seized. Five of the seven arrests were for unspecified mischief. A sixth person was charged for driving while prohibited and a seventh for mischief “relating to property damage of a downtown business,” police said in a press release.
