Three people have been charged in connection with the protest, while investigations into 25 are on. (file)
Ottawa:
Most of the protesters who recently packed the streets of Canada’s capital left locals with trucks honking loudly horns, but stragglers are “resolute” and “unsettled”, police warned on Wednesday.
Their numbers are expected to rise again, possibly into the thousands later this week, as well as spread to other parts of the country.
“Most of the protesters are gone. What’s left is a highly determined and highly volatile group of outlaws,” Ottawa Deputy Police Chief Trish Ferguson told a briefing.
Police estimate that 15,000 rowdy protesters protesting Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate and other public health measures entered the city of Ottawa over the weekend, bringing the city to a virtual standstill.
Three people have been charged in connection with the protest, while investigations into 25 are on.
By Wednesday, after forcing most downtown businesses – including a major mall, schools and COVID vaccine clinics – to shutter, the number of protesters had dwindled to a few hundred, and they were mostly contained in the parliamentary complex.
But a blockade of solidarity was raging in the western Alberta province of Highway 4, which borders the US. Roads are a major route for commercial goods between nations.
Police moved to the Alberta-Montana border on Tuesday evening to try to remove 100 or more truck drivers, but as few survived, more arrived.
“We had three or four vehicles volunteering, ‘Yeah, well, I’ve had enough and I’m out of here,’ and they started going. Then several vehicles … broke through a checkpoint we had set up . above,” RCMP Corporal Curtis Peters told AFP.
Some of them, he said, drove tractors and other agricultural vehicles through the fields to get around the police post.
Meanwhile, another protest is planned for Quebec City in the coming days.
Ottawa Police Chief Peter Slowley said officers are “now aware of a significant element of the United States’ involvement in funding, organizing and demonstrating.”
“They have gathered in our city, and there are plans to come forward,” he said without giving details.
An online GoFundMe campaign has raised more than Cain$10 million (US$8 million) in support of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” protest.
Several American celebrities, including Donald Trump Jr. and Elon Musk, have also tweeted their support for the protesters.
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