Protesters in the city center shielded themselves with children to prevent the charge of the agents after the emergency powers invoked by President Trudeau
Three weeks after Canadian truckers’ anti-vaccine protest took over downtown Ottawa, police stepped in Friday to clear the area, thanks to emergency powers invoked Monday by President Justin Trudeau.
Paradoxically, the deployment of agents forced the national Parliament to interrupt the debate on the proclamation of the state of emergency, which the legislators could still refute at the last minute.
The Ottawa police had established more than a hundred controls the night before, preventing access to the security perimeter. Through it, a hundred agents were deployed on foot on the snow to charge against the protesters, who were reluctant to leave.
According to police sources, the truck drivers had surrounded themselves with children as human shields to prevent a load, so the operation had begun by removing the minors with the help of the Children’s Aid Society, which said it was waiting to assist them. In addition, the protesters would have collapsed the emergency services with a barrage of calls to prevent the coordination of police forces.
Before the judge
At press time, there had been barely a fortnight of arrests, with many participants voluntarily surrendering without needing to be detained, and others surrounded by children and bonfires to maintain the line of protest. The two leaders arrested the night before, Chris Barber and Tamara Lich, 46 and 49 years old respectively, appeared before the judge this Friday to face charges of inciting violence, disorderly public order and conspiring to obstruct the police.
The operation to end the occupation of the ‘Freedom Convoy’ has been carried out on several fronts. Thus, the justice had authorized the freezing of the accounts in cryptocurrencies that financially fed the protests. while the restaurants, businesses and residents of the center of the capital had sued the organizers and donors for more than 300 million dollars in damages.
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