Police Arrests 100, Tow Vehicles During Ottawa Protest
Ottawa, Feb 19: Police in Canada’s Ottawa have begun arresting protesters and towing away vehicles in a move to end a three-week anti-vaccine mandate protest.
By Friday evening, at least 100 people had been arrested, mostly on mischief charges, and at least 21 vehicles had been towed, including all of those blocking one of the city’s major streets, as police exercised emergency powers that Trudeau invoked earlier this week, reports The Guardian. “Police have towed 21 vehicles as part of the operation. No protesters were injured during the operation and those arrested face various charges including mischief,” the city’s interim police chief, Steve Bell, said.
“Officers continue to push forward to take control of our streets…we will work day and night until this is completed,” added Bell.
According to local media reports demonstrators and officers engaged in physical clashes that left one officer with minor injury. Protesters also assaulted officers and tried to take their weapons.
Police said they set up a “red zone’ in the city’s downtown core on Thursday evening with 100 checkpoints to prevent more protesters from entering the area. For the first time since the protests began, police vastly outnumbered the demonstrators, allowing officers to take control of sections of the protest camps.
Canada’s House of Commons canceled its work on Friday, with the speaker, Anthony Rota, warning lawmakers to “stay away from the downtown core until further notice” because of the expected police operation.
Parliamentarians were scheduled to debate the decision by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to invoke the never-before-used emergencies law, reports BBC.
The law grants government added powers in times of crisis and has been used to impose bans on public assembly in some areas of Ottawa and has prohibited travel to the protest zone, and bringing children to the area among other measures.
