New fencing was erected on the Parliament Hill side of Wellington Street, next to the demonstrators’ encampments. The University of Ottawa moved academic activities online until Monday and said it planned to increase campus security.
As police continued to warn protesters that the encampments in downtown Ottawa are illegal, municipal law enforcement officials said that if protesters accompanied by animals in the encampments are unable to care for their pets because of police enforcement, the animal will be placed into protective care for eight days at the owner’s cost.
Police in Canada’s capital pledged to clamp down “in the coming days” on the self-styled “Freedom Convoy” protesters who have dug in despite warnings of arrests.
The blockades at the U.S.-Canada border crossings that disrupted traffic and trade have been cleared. But in Ottawa, demonstrators protesting vaccine mandates and the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continue to jam city streets.
Official urgency is growing to forestall a fourth weekend of raucous protests that authorities have called an illegal occupation.
“We are going to take back the entirety of the downtown core and every occupied space,” Ottawa Interim Police Chief Steve Bell told the city council late Wednesday.
Officers will enforce a plan to remove anyone who refuses to leave, Bell said. “You will be hearing and seeing these actions in the coming days.”
Police on Wednesday handed demonstrators fliers in English and French telling them to leave or face arrest. They warned that participants who are convicted of crimes could be barred from entering the United States. They handed out leaflets to protesters again Thursday morning.
“Today’s the day we are all under the impression we are going to get arrested,” said 23-year-old Justin Aiello. “We are okay with that, as it’s for a good cause. … We are going to have a good time in prison.”
Aiello, who drove in from Montreal 20 days ago, was sitting in the truck of his area’s “block captain,” who was out at an organizing meeting, he said. Nearby, a young man walked around with a walkie-talkie, part of a watch team to monitor who came into their area and prevent instigators from planting anything to make them look bad, Aiello said.
Dave Langille, 40, a farmer from Toronto, said police left him a ticket for 79 dollars, tucked beside a jerrycan on his vehicle, which has been illegally parked in Ottawa since Friday.
He said someone offered him several times the ticket’s price to buy it as memorabilia, but he declined, saying he wanted to keep it “as ammo” and planned to litigate it alongside other ticketed drivers to keep the government “in court for years.”
“Everybody’s already broke,” he said, rejecting the idea his actions were illegal.
Trudeau on Monday became the first Canadian leader to invoke the country’s Emergencies Act, giving authorities more power to regulate the protests and track their financing. The moves could set the stage for tougher action to quell the standoff gripping the city.
In a letter to the country’s provincial premiers, Trudeau wrote that “we are seeing activity that is a threat to our democracy and that is undermining the public’s trust in our institutions,” Canadian media reported.
He said his application of the law would be limited in time and targeted to specific locations. Some premiers and civil liberties advocates opposed the move.
Officials say the Emergencies Act gives police the authority to declare areas including Parliament and critical infrastructure off-limits for protests that “breach the peace.” Banks may freeze accounts without a court order, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police may enforce local laws and tow truck firms may be compelled to haul vehicles out.
Tow truck operators have been worried about the risks to their safety and future employment if the government asks them to remove the big rigs jamming downtown Ottawa, an industry leader told Canada’s public radio broadcaster Wednesday.
The country’s public safety minister warned of protester links to far-right groups. Police arrested 11 people and seized guns and ammunition Monday at a border blockade in Coutts, Alberta. Four people were charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Some protesters left the site after the arrests to avoid violence.
The fliers that police distributed in Ottawa did not seem to faze demonstrators Wednesday. They continued to blare horns and music; many vowed to stay until their demands were met. Those demands have ranged from the end of vaccine mandates and other public health restrictions to the removal of Trudeau and his government.
In a tearful video posted on social media, convoy organizer Tamara Lich indicated it was “inevitable at this point” that she would face arrest and possible prison time. But she urged people to join them in Ottawa.
“You have to know that they’re trying to provoke us. … Tomorrow is a new day, and I’m ready. I am not afraid, and we’re going to hold the line,” she said. “This has been a really crazy ride. … I just want you to stay strong,”
“I pray that you all find forgiveness in your hearts … even when we don’t understand it.”