Ottawa police push ahead to end protest as bail hearings for organizers move forward

Interim police chief said officers had little choice but to use greater force

Police officers donned helmets, wielded batons and deployed pepper spray in downtown Ottawa on Saturday as they tried to clear out protesters putting up what the city’s interim police chief described as a “barrage of resistance” to ending their illegal occupation of the national capital.

Steve Bell said officers had little choice but to use greater force in the face of demonstrators who refused to heed repeated requests to clear the area they’ve occupied for nearly four weeks, adding protest participants have been aggressive toward police and assaulted them on multiple occasions. 

“I have been at this podium for the last five days, imploring people to leave, asking them to get out of our streets,” Bell said at an afternoon news conference. “This occupation is over.”

The second, more acrimonious day of police enforcement operations came as members of parliament resumed debating the government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act in an effort to quell the demonstrations, which persisted in cities beyond Ottawa’s borders. At the same time, an Ontario judge reserved a bail decision for one of the protest movement’s key organizers, while another saw his case postponed to early next week.

In downtown Ottawa, lines of officers clad in riot gear massed along Wellington Street near the Prime Minister’s Office. Officers moved toward the protesters swinging batons at them, while the crowd pushed back amid shouts of “shame” and “freedom.”

Bell said the extra equipment was deemed necessary after protesters assaulted officers a day before and once tried to trip up a police horse. Pepper spray was also used to control the crowd and to ensure officer safety, he added.

Bell said police had made 47 arrests as of Saturday afternoon. Those included protesters wearing body armour and carrying “smoke grenades and miscellaneous fireworks,” according to a previous tweet from the Ottawa force.

By early afternoon, police said they had largely cleared part of Wellington Street of the protesters and trucks that had jammed the roadway for weeks. 

Tom Marazzo, a self-declared spokesperson for the Ottawa protest, told a news conference that truckers were prepared to leave if police would remove barriers that would allow them to refuel their rigs. He said police hadn’t responded to the request. 

Speaking from an Ottawa hotel, Marazzo said truckers would “withdraw, regroup and decide the next course of action,” insisting protesters have been peaceful and accusing officers of violent conduct.

“As a movement, we’ve chosen to peacefully withdraw from the streets of Ottawa,” he said. “There is nothing to be gained by being brutalized by police, we will simply regroup as a grassroots movement.”

But that withdrawal did not appear to have taken effect by late afternoon when hundreds of protesters faced off against rows of armed officers south of Wellington Street. The crowd of drum-beating, flag-waving demonstrators were packed tightly against the police line.

The ongoing police operation prompted Parliamentary Protective Services to place the precinct under a hold and secure order on Saturday, limiting movement between buildings. The service noted the area is not under lockdown and staff are on hand to manage the situation.

In the West Block, where the House of Commons was up and running, MPs resumed their debate on the government’s historic invocation of the Emergencies Act that had to be paused Friday because of security concerns.

“I talked earlier about my frustration with the failure of Ottawa police, but what we saw yesterday was policing at its best in this country,” NDP MP Charlie Angus told the Commons on Saturday to a light smattering of applause.

Angus called for a public inquiry, saying it was needed to determine why Ottawa police let large trucks enter the national capital and set up a blockade that included bouncy castles while members of the freedom convoy harassed local residents and forced businesses to close.

He has also called for an inquiry into foreign funding of the so-called freedom convoy.

“We cannot be made to look like a failed state to the world,” he added.

Government House Leader Mark Holland has said MPs will vote early next week on the Emergencies Act motion.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, meanwhile, said the government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act is giving police additional tools to restore order in downtown Ottawa.

“We will only use the Emergencies Act as long as it is necessary,” he told a virtual news conference.

Mendicino noted that authorities used the measure to freeze 76 bank accounts with $3.2 million attributed to the illegal blockades.

The federal government announced Saturday that $20 million will be made available to downtown Ottawa businesses to help recover from the occupation, with individual eligible businesses able to get a maximum of $10,000.

Elsewhere Tamara Lich, one of the convoy organizers, appeared for a bail hearing in an Ottawa courtroom before Ontario Court Justice Julie Bourgeois. She faces a charge of counselling to commit mischief.

Lich promised to give up her advocacy of the protest and return to Alberta, leaving Ottawa by vehicle. She told the judge she doesn’t have the required vaccine passport to travel by commercial air and her bank accounts are now frozen.

She pledged a $5,000 bond, saying that was all she could afford, while her husband, Wayne, pledged the same amount.

Under cross examination, Wayne Lich told the court that he flew to Ottawa on a private jet to meet his wife in early February. The $5,000 bill was paid for by a man he hardly knew.

He also questioned whether the Emergencies Act was invoked unlawfully by the current Liberal government, saying that people’s right to protest in Canada “was part of our first amendments.”

Bourgeois interjected: “First amendment? What’s that?”

Lich said he didn’t follow politics, and just wanted to make sure his wife was safe.

The judge reserved her bail decision on Lich. She will return to jail until a court appearance on Tuesday morning.

On Friday night, Bourgeois released another protest organizer, Chris Barber, on a $100,000 bond and conditions he leave Ontario by next Wednesday and not publicly endorse the convoy or have any contact with the other major protest organizers.

Another prominent protest organizer, Patrick King of Alberta, is expected to appear at a bail hearing early next week after he was arrested by police on Friday. 

As in previous weeks, some protests in solidarity with the Ottawa demonstrators unfolded in other parts of the country.

In British Columbia, the Canada Border Services Agency announced the busiest Canada-U.S. border crossing used by the province’s truckers was experiencing a service disruption due to protest activity in the area. 

It said the Pacific Highway port of entry remains open, but advised travelers to use an alternative route. RCMP said an arterial road near the border crossing had been closed and access to the border was blocked as a preventative measure to help ensure public safety.

In Quebec, thousands of protesters converged on the provincial legislature to take part in a rally inspired by the Freedom Convoy protest. Horns could be heard as a convoy of vans and cars circled near the legislature. Quebec’s government has already announced its phasing out use of its vaccine passport and intends to withdraw most COVID-19 health measures by March 14.

Protestors in Fredericton, N.B. also staged another anti-mandate rally, in the city with police saying the crowd reached about 100 people at the peak of the protest.

Organizer Adie Pearson of Hampton, N.B., said the demonstration was an effort to maintain momentum.

“We had a rally here last weekend and it was supposed to go non-stop but it petered-off through the week, so we decided to rally some more people up here today,” she said. “We are all here with the common goal of standing up for our human rights. We are all here to end mandates.”

Pearson told the crowd she is planning to head to Ottawa next week and encouraged others to do the same.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 19, 2022.

— With files from Sidhartha Banerjee in Montreal, Kevin Bissett in Fredericton and Amy Smart in Vancouver

Stephanie Taylor, Mike Blanchfield and Erika Ibrahim

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