On February 18, police began making arrests in downtown Ottawa in the hopes of ending weeks of gridlock in Canada’s capital caused by protests over vaccination requirements and other grievances.
A long line of trucks, campers, and other parked vehicles clogged the streets of the city. The Associated Press reports police officers went from vehicle to vehicle, banging on windows and urging occupants to move immediately or face arrest.
Under police escort, tow truck drivers arrived to begin removing the parked vehicles near the Parliament building.
Some protesters surrendered and were taken into custody, according to the Ottawa Police Service. Other participants were handcuffed and led away. One of the protesters being taken away was carrying a sign that read “Mandate Freedom.”
The “Freedom Convoy” began nearly three weeks ago in Canada, following the announcement that truckers returning to Canada from the U.S. must be vaccinated or undergo testing as well as a week of quarantine. A week later, the U.S. enacted a similar policy, later overturned by the Supreme Court.
According to the New York Times., Tamara Lich, 47, one of the protests’ main organizers, was among those arrested Thursday night.
Lich, a member of the Maverick Party, said they are not directly involved with the protests, expressing they are not anti-vaccination but do support people’s freedom of choice.
Lich has emerged as the trucker convoy’s public face and a visible leader in the face of pandemic restrictions. She was a former fitness instructor who also worked in the energy sector and sang and played guitar in the Medicine Hat, Alberta-based band, “Blind Monday.” She was also a prominent member of a splinter group that advocated for the country’s Western provinces to secede from Canada.
According to the New York Times, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took the unprecedented step of declaring a national public order emergency to end the protests. The move rolled out tougher policing across the country, focusing on protesters’ fundraising, which has been labeled illegal, as well as their personal and business bank accounts.
According to NBC News, Ottawa police made it clear on February 17 that they intended to end the protest and remove the more than three hundred trucks, with Ottawa’s interim police chief declaring, “Action is imminent.”
The largest border blockade, which took place at the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, disrupted the flow of auto parts between the two countries, forcing the industry to reduce output.
The final blockade in Manitoba came to an end peacefully on February 14.
