Ottawans fed up with trucker blockade, blame police for inaction

By Julie Gordon

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Frustrations are boiling over in Canada’s capital as a protest by truckers against COVID-19 vaccine mandates has clogged downtown Ottawa for a week and shows no sign of ending, with many residents angry at police for not breaking it up.

Dozens of trucks in the so-called “Freedom Convoy” have been blocking streets since Friday, forcing the closure of the main shopping mall in the area and local businesses, and disturbed residents with constant horn honking. The city’s police force has stood idly by as protesters filled jugs of diesel to top up their rigs, which they keep running to provide heat in sub-zero temperatures, rather than cutting off the fuel supply. “For six days and nights, residents living in downtown Ottawa continue to experience unprecedented violence on their local streets,” said city councillor Catherine McKenney in a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday. “They are being … harassed and terrorized,” McKenney said, citing complaints of air horns, erratic driving, open fires and “widespread public urination and defecation,” while asking for more police support.

The government will not use troops against the truckers, Trudeau said on Thursday. Police chief Peter Sloly said his officers could neither deny the truckers their right to demonstrate, nor was he in a position to negotiate an end to the protest. “I do not have a mandate under the Police Services Act to negotiate with the tens of thousands of people who come to Ottawa to exercise their charter of rights to free speech,” he said.

The protesters have said they will not leave Ottawa until the federal government lifts COVID-19 vaccine mandates and all pandemic restrictions, even though most of those restrictions are controlled by provincial governments. Ottawa residents, meanwhile, say their rights are being trampled by the protesters. Some convoy participants have been photographed with racist flags and accused by residents of vandalizing pro-LGBTQ businesses.

Cornerstone Housing for Women, an emergency shelter, said in a statement that “Women and staff are scared to go outside of the shelter, especially women of color.” The Rideau Centre mall has been shuttered since last Saturday when hundreds of protesters not wearing masks as required indoors during the pandemic, swarmed the building. The closure has cost C$19.7 million ($15.6 million) in lost revenues, the Retail Council of Canada estimates.

As frustrations mount, citizens are confronting the protesters, and there is talk of a counter protest on Saturday. In a tense moment posted on social media on Thursday, a resident was seen yelling at protesters to leave. “What freedom have you lost?” he asked truckers, adding he was losing his mind from lack of sleep.

Earlier this week, three women were heralded as heroes in shawls after a photo of them blocking a truck on a residential street while giving a thumbs down sign went viral on social media. “That was the only way to communicate that we don’t want them to terrorize us and we don’t want them to occupy our streets,” Marika Morris told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

MORE PROTESTERS EXPECTED

“The protesters should now go home. This is a very disruptive situation for Ottawa citizens,” Trudeau said on Thursday. But organizers expect hundreds more to come over the weekend. Critics have said the response to the mostly white convoy participants is “soft” compared to how police deal with protests by Indigenous and Black Canadians.

“It’s OK if angry white men do it because they are politically aligned with you, but it’s not OK if Indigenous people peacefully protect their own rights,” Indigenous lawyer and professor Pam Palmater told APTN News. Canada’s national police force have repeatedly stepped in to remove Indigenous protesters blocking access to a gas pipeline project in northern British Columbia.