Laura Osman and Sarah Richie, Canadian Press Published Saturday, April 30, 2022, 6:39 AM EDT Last Updated on Saturday, April 30, 2022, 6:56 PM EDT
OTTAWA – Former Convoy of Freedom protesters returned to the Canadian capital with hundreds on Saturday to enjoy Parliament Hill and condemn COVID-19 mandates as police staged a large-scale operation to keep the peace and peace. assured that the demonstrators were indeed returning home.
Protesters hugged, many of whom have not seen each other since police cleared the camps of convoys that stalled Ottawa for three weeks in February.
Crowds of people danced in the street in front of the parliament, shouting “Freedom! Freedom!” while others stretched out on the lawn in front of the Central Block.
Freedom Fighters Canada spokesman Bethan Nodwell, who helped organize the Rolling Thunder rally on Parliament Hill on Saturday, said no activities other than Sunday’s church service were planned.
But Centretown Community Association President Mary Huang said residents in the area were still waiting to see if the protests would run away as expected and not drag on as before.
“Especially some elderly people in Centertown, they were actually held hostage in their homes for two, three and a half weeks. So they are still a little injured, “Huang said.
“The real test is whether (the protesters) will leave as they say they will, or if they try something else.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said police had taken a “firm stand” to prevent the type of prolonged demonstration that engulfed Ottawa over the winter.
“Obviously, what happened in February did a lot of damage to a lot of people,” Watson said.
Ottawa police have called in more than 800 reinforcements from the RCMP and other police services, which have blocked highway exits and every street in the core to prevent the formation of a new camp.
However, this does not mean that Ottawa has seen the end of the protesters in the convoy.
“We never left,” Nodwell said. Small groups of five to 10 protesters have been visiting the parliament building since February to continue calling for an end to restrictions on COVID-19, she said.
Police made several arrests Saturday, including a driver who allegedly tried to jump on the sidewalk to get around officers. Police arrested the person for dangerous driving and found him in violation of the warranty conditions related to the previous protest when they were ordered not to return to Ottawa.
Ottawa’s statutes and regulatory services say more than 560 parking, smoking, noise and highway congestion slips have been handed out, and 39 vehicles have been towed since Friday morning.
Saturday’s events were relatively peaceful compared to a quarrel between police and protesters on Friday night, when officers arrested seven people and confronted what they described as an “aggressive mob” right in front of the parliamentary section.
Protesters kicked off Saturday’s events by promising to reclaim the National War Memorial with a morning ceremony in a cenotaph.
Speakers described police removing protesters from the area after a three-week demonstration on Parliament Hill as hundreds of supporters gathered around the monument to listen.
Hundreds of supporters watched retired Afghan veteran Christopher Deering lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in an almost commemorative ceremony.
Deering said he was detained by police as part of their efforts to remove Freedom Convoy protesters from the core in February.
“After that, I and the other civilians were thrown out of the city like garbage and told not to return to the capital of our country,” Deering told the audience on Saturday.
The group also objected to police, who erected a fence around the monument in February after a woman desecrated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by standing on it during a protest. Protesters, posing as veterans, later dismantled the fence and hired to guard the tomb.
Speakers at Saturday’s event also voiced opposition to vaccine mandates, restrictions on COVID-19 and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, although supporters were asked to remove slogans swearing at the prime minister.
At the ceremony, the majority raised their hands when a spokesman asked who was at the convoy’s protest in February.
Officials described the Ottawa center as outlawed during the demonstrations, and the federal government cited the Emergency Act in an attempt to oust participants and similar protesters who blocked border crossings across the country.
Eventually, with the help of hundreds of police officers from other parts of the country, Ottawa police removed them from the streets of the capital.
Shortly before Saturday’s ceremony, a small group of counter-protesters gathered across the street from the memorial, chanting “go home” to say protesters were not welcome back in the city.
“The tomb of the unknown soldier is not a suitable place to express party political views, it is simply wrong. That’s not what we stand for, “said Chris Anderson, a counter-protester.
Anderson said he is a veteran himself after serving seven years as a medical worker.
“Somehow, for me, they are poisoning the monument,” said Anderson, who wore a rainbow T-shirt in support of some of the city’s residents, who felt insecure about the demonstrations.
After the ceremony, the crowd moved south to Elgin Street to watch a motorcade parade as police kept people out of the way.
Motorcycles were originally planned to pass Parliament Hill and park near the war memorial, but police banned vehicles in the area.
The afternoon rally on Parliament Hill included controversial spokesman Chris Skye, whose real name is Chris Sacocha.
Skye, a figure in the anti-mask movement, has been spotted making anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and racist comments, according to the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
“With files from Sarah Brave in St. John’s.”
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on April 30, 2022.
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