OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — The police chief of Canada’s capital said Wednesday there is likely no policing solution to end a protest against vaccine mandates and other pandemic restrictions that has snarled traffic around Parliament.
He also said there is a “significant element” of the protest’s funding and organization coming from the United States.
Thousands of protesters descended on Ottawa over the weekend, deliberately blocking traffic around Parliament Hill. Police estimate the protest involved 8,000 to 15,000 people Saturday, but has since dwindled to several hundred. But trucks were still blocking traffic.
“We are now aware of a significant element from the United States that have been involved in the funding, the organizing and the demonstrating. They have converged on our city and there are plans for more to come,” Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly said.
Organizers, including one who has espoused white supremacist views, raised millions for the cross-Canada “freedom truck convoy” against vaccine mandates. There was a public GoFundMe page.
The protesting truckers also have received praise from former U.S. President Donald Trump and tweets of support from Tesla billionaire Elon Musk.
Ottawa residents frustrated with the incessant blare of truck horns and traffic gridlock are questioning how police have handled the demonstration.
“There is likely no policing solution to this,” Sloly said.
Many Canadians have been angered by some of the crude behavior of the protesters. Some urinated or parked on the National War Memorial. One danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A number carried signs and flags with swastikas.
The most visible contingent of protesters were truck drivers who parked their big rigs on Parliament Hill. Some of them were protesting a rule that took effect Jan. 15 requiring truckers entering Canada to be fully immunized against the coronavirus. The Canadian Trucking Alliance has estimated that 85% of truckers in Canada are vaccinated.
Meanwhile, officials said there had been some movement toward resolving a protest blockade at the United States border in southern Alberta.
Chad Williamson, a lawyer representing truckers blocking access to the crossing at Coutts, Alberta, said they spoke with police and agreed to open some blocked lanes. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Corporal Curtis Peters said there were indications that the lane openings might only be temporary.
Demonstrators began parking their trucks and other vehicles near the crossing Saturday in solidarity with the protest in Ottawa.
The tie-up stranded travelers and cross-border truckers for days. Police tried to peacefully break up the demonstration Tuesday, but demonstrators breached a nearby checkpoint.
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There is a huge difference between this and BLM or Antifa. These people are not out to wreak havoc and destruction in the name of some illegitimate “cause”. They are fighting for individual liberty and freedom and relief from government overreach.
AND since several groups in canada, iirc helped FUND blm, WHY SHOULDN’T AMERICANS help fund THIS protest!
Tesla billionaire Elon Musk supports this??? I would guess that the sooner he can get human driven Trucks replaced with computer driven trucks manufactured and made by him, the better for Elon Musk and the worse for Human Truck Drivers. The shelf shortages alone one would think would be driving the technology more for the brave new world of more unemployed truck drivers replaced by robots? This does not compute.
When you step outside of the mainstream media the story changes quite significantly. There is video of the crowd running off the person (fully masked so as not to be able to be identified) waving a confederate flag; the stories of ‘abuses’ of homeless and public urination, etc. become what they were…a few individuals making things look bad for everyone.
The photos that say it all are the ones with the happy, cheering, law abiding Canadians smiling and holding signs. Juxtapositition those against the photos of BLM and Antifa violence, looting, and burning. The press has clearly fallen into the ‘call good evil and evil good’.
They’ve unfortunately, been that way for years.
“Organizers, including one who has espoused white supremacist views, raised millions for the cross-Canada “freedom truck convoy” against vaccine mandates. There was a public GoFundMe page”. The propaganda of the AP (fake news). Isn’t it funny, the AP and the rest of the Pravda MSM said nothing when blm and antifa were rioting? All of the people affiliated with blm and antifa were calling for the murder of the police. The silence of the MSM, when it comes to the truth, is so deafening it is disgusting.
Speaking out against ANYTHING LEFTIST, gets you labeled a ‘white supremacist…