The latest on protests against COVID-19 measures in Ottawa and beyond

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This article was published 15/02/2022 (1696 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The latest developments on ongoing protests against COVID-19 restrictions and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, in Ottawa and various locations across Canada, on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. All times eastern:

8 p.m.

Bringing children to the blockades that have immobilized downtown Ottawa and shuttered border crossings could net protesters a $5,000 fine or five years in prison while Canada is under the national Emergencies Act.

So could participating in the blockades or bringing aid, such as food or fuel, to people involved.

Federal government and RCMP officials provided reporters with the details at a briefing provided on the condition they not be named.

Officials say the details will be published in two cabinet orders that will enact temporary but extraordinary powers under the Emergencies Act.

They say the orders will list the places blockades are not allowed, including Parliament Hill and the streets around it known as the parliamentary precinct, where many federal buildings are found.

The orders will also apply to airports, harbours, border crossings, piers, lighthouses, canals, interprovincial and international bridges, hospitals, trade corridors and infrastructure needed for the supply of utilities including power generation and transmission.

Officials say one order will give special powers to police, banks and insurance companies to freeze accounts and cancel vehicle insurance belonging to people participating in “illegal assemblies.”

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6:30 p.m.

Ottawa Police Association president Matt Skof says officers have been frustrated with a lack of direction on protests that have seized the downtown core.

Skof made the remarks after police Chief Peter Sloly abruptly resigned today.

Skof says there were long-standing personality conflicts between the chief and his membership, but he believes that has little to do with the police response to the demonstration.

He says the middle of the conflict is not the time to point the finger about who is responsible for how the demonstration has played out but, when that time comes, the police board should also take responsibility.

He says there is a “vacuum of leadership” and members are likely feeling anxious about the instability.

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5 p.m.

NDP MP Heather McPherson says there needs to be “a very serious conversation about policing in our country” following the policing of anti-vaccine mandate protests.

Speaking at a virtual news conference, the MP says she’s concerned that environmental and Indigenous protests have been policed more heavily than these demonstrations.

Fellow NDP MP Blake Desjarlais adds although the New Democrats support invoking the Emergencies Act, there are “reasonable limits” and the party would hold the government to account over use of these unprecedented powers.

He warned against “overreach that could harm Canadians,” saying “Canadians should rightfully be questioning the limits of authority.”

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3:45 p.m.

Manitoba RCMP say they expect protesters blockading access to the Canada-U.S. border in that province will be gone as of tomorrow.

Chief Supt. Rob Hill says in a statement officers are confident that a resolution has been reached and demonstrators will soon be leaving the area.

Dozens of protesters have been blocking access to the Emerson port of entry since early Thursday morning.

The only traffic able to get through was emergency vehicles or some trucks transporting livestock.

Police have been on the scene since the blockade started. There have been no arrests or tickets issued.

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3:10 p.m.

Protesters in Ottawa reacted with a mixture of dismay and defiance that the Emergencies Act gives the federal government the power to freeze bank accounts.

Joseph Michel, a former federal contractor from the Ottawa-Gatineau region who is collecting money to help pay for food and fuel for truckers, says it is concerning that the government would go to such lengths.

He says protesters have families and are being treated as “prisoners” in their own country.

But he says he will stay until vaccine mandates end and people who have lost their jobs over their vaccination status get them back.

Supporters are handing out cash, including $50 bills, and hot food to truckers through their cab windows.

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3 p.m.

Crowds of protesters outside Parliament cheered in appreciation of Joël Lightbound, a Liberal MP who Monday broke party ranks to vote for a Tory motion calling for a plan to lift COVID-19 restrictions.

A few truckers honked their horns in appreciation of Lightbound, the Tories and the Bloc Québécois, who also backed the motion.

A speaker on a stage, who identified themselves as a Conservative from Alberta, proclaimed, “Let’s hear it for Lightbound.”

The truckers also cheered at the news that vaccine mandates were to be lifted in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Quebec.

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2:20 p.m.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says strong enforcement at the United States border crossing in southern Alberta sent a clear message to protesters who ended a weeks-long blockade this morning.

Trucks and other vehicles with horns blaring rolled out of the small border village of Coutts, Alta., after paralyzing the border since the end of January to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates and broader public health restrictions.

Kenney says it’s great news for the hundreds of truckers who cross the border every day.

The exodus of commercial and personal vehicles came one day after RCMP arrested 13 people and seized a cache of firearms and ammunition.

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2 p.m.

Trucks and other vehicles with horns blaring have rolled out of a southern Alberta town, ending a blockade that paralyzed a United States border crossing for more than two weeks.

Protesters had been restricting access to the main Alberta border crossing in Coutts since Jan. 29 to rally against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and broader health restrictions.

The convoy left one day after RCMP arrested 13 people and seized a cache of firearms and ammunition.

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1:45 p.m.

The RCMP and Ontario Provincial Police are working with Ottawa police amid sustained criticism of the local force’s handling of a chaotic antigovernment protest.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says an integrated command centre has been set up so the RCMP and OPP can share and assume command over the enforcement necessary to bring about public order in Ottawa.

The Ottawa police say they remain in control of the centre as they work with the other two forces.

Mendicino spoke hours after the news that Peter Sloly had abruptly resigned as Ottawa police chief, while the protest that has paralyzed the downtown core stretches into its third week.

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1 p.m.

Truckers protesting outside Parliament estimate that around 20 rigs have moved into the core demonstration zone outside the House of Commons since Monday.

The move follows an agreement with Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson to relocate trucks away from residential neighbourhoods.

Jack Van Rootselaar, a trucker from Dunnville, Ont., is one of those to have moved and is now sitting in a white big rig facing Parliament Hill in a row of other trucks tightly packed to fill the space.

Van Rootselaar dismissed the emergency powers invoked by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Monday as a “scare tactic.”

He says truckers plan to stay until all vaccine mandates are lifted.

Harold Jonker, from Niagara Region, who says he has 10 trucks involved, is calling the demonstration a “legal protest” and the Emergencies Act was unjustified.

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12:55 p.m.

New Brunswick’s commissioner on systemic racism is calling the so-called “Freedom Convoy” protest in Fredericton last weekend a cover for “a maturing antigovernment, anti-pluralist, right-wing movement.”

Dr. Manju Varma says she reviewed materials from social media for the event and found racist symbolism and imagery referencing white supremacy, antisemitism, anti-refugee hate, and far-right extremism.

The protest started on Friday and was inspired by the antigovernment blockades in Ottawa.

By Monday, only a handful of protesters remained in front of New Brunswick’s legislature.

Varma says she is disappointed the New Brunswick and Canada flags were flown alongside the flags of right-wing and extremist groups.

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12:25 p.m.

The cabinet order invoking the Emergencies Act says the government needs temporary but extraordinary powers to end blockades because they are threatening Canada’s supply chains, economic security and trading relationships in a bid to achieve political or ideological goals.

The order is now public on the government website but it took effect Monday when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the plan at a news conference from Parliament Hill.

A motion declaring the same is expected to be introduced in the House of Commons today but the emergency order is already in place and will remain so for the next 30 days unless MPs vote down the motion or the government rescinds the order early.

Attorney General David Lametti says the order is not going to curb free speech or the right to protest peacefully but he says what is happening in Ottawa and at border crossings is not peaceful protest but an ideologically motivated occupation that is endangering the lives of Canadians and the economy.

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12 p.m.

An Ottawa city councillor says police Chief Peter Sloly has resigned.

Riley Brockington tweeted the news today as anti-vaccine mandate protesters continue to clog the downtown core of Canada’s capital city.

The Ottawa police have faced criticism for their handling of the protest outside Parliament Hill, which has stretched into its third week.

Some protesters have harassed residents for wearing masks, flown Nazi and Confederate flags and honked their horns incessantly, though an injunction brought down the volume on the noise for at least some of the time.

Sloly became chief of the Ottawa Police Service in 2019 after previously serving on the Toronto force for decades, including as deputy chief.

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11 a.m.

Government House leader Mark Holland says the federal government will introduce a motion to enact the Emergencies Act “imminently.”

Holland says today on the way into a cabinet meeting that as the act has never been used before, the government wants to make sure it “proceeds prudently.”

He says the government is in discussion with opposition parties on not just introducing the motion but the formulation of a joint House and Senate parliamentary committee,

Holland says in French that the committee is meant to oversee the act’s implementation, ensure the government uses the expanded powers in a responsible manner and produce a report after a certain period of time.

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10:50 a.m.

RCMP in Surrey, B.C., confirm a protest that blocked the Pacific Highway border crossing over the weekend has now been cleared.

Const. Sarbjit Sangha says officers ordered demonstrators out of the area last night and made several arrests, although she could not confirm how many.

She says police are now checking traffic heading south to the main commercial truck crossing into Washington state, to ensure drivers intend to cross the border.

Opponents of public health mandates converged on the crossing last week in support of truck convoy protests that have blocked border crossings elsewhere in Canada this month.

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9 a.m.

The Canada Border Services Agency confirms traffic is moving again at the Pacific Highway border crossing just south of Vancouver.

Protesters opposed to public health mandates blocked routes leading to that crossing on the weekend.

The port of entry was never closed but the protests, and police barricades to contain them, stopped all but pedestrian traffic from reaching it.

The Pacific Highway crossing is the main entry for commercial traffic to and from British Columbia and Washington state.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2022.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the RCMP and the Ontario Provincial Police had taken control of enforcement in Ottawa.