Ottawa police arrested at least 70 people as of this writing and towed various vehicles Friday in a bid to break a three-week siege of the Canadian capital by hundreds of truck drivers angry about the country’s COVID-19 containment policies.
Trucks started leaving Canada’s parliamentary area (Parliament Hill) on Friday afternoon as lines of officers plowed through the streets.
Hundreds of police, some wearing riot gear and others carrying automatic weapons, descended into the demonstration zone in the morning and carried demonstrators away in handcuffs through Ottawa’s freshly snow-covered streets, as protesters held on to locations honk their horns as a form of resistance.
One of the protesters, Mark, accused the police of breaking the agreement between the demonstrators and the police.
“I negotiated, on behalf of the truckers, to withdraw regularly. The police promised not to attack. The police will let them retreat in peace. (But) the police broke the agreement because of a lack of leadership or because they intended to use violence,” Mark said.
Police broke down the door of at least one camper van before towing it. [rd/pp]