Hundreds of truckers blocking Canada’s capital boldly blew their horns Thursday, despite police arresting two protest leaders and threatening to break up the almost three-week protest against the country’s COVID-19 restrictions.
Busloads of police officers gathered near Ottawa’s Parliament Hill, as workers erected additional fencing surrounding government buildings. Police also began effectively closing off much of the downtown area to outsiders in order to prevent them from assisting the demonstrators.
“Action is imminent,” interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell stated. “We are totally determined to putting an end to this illegal demonstration.”
Police arrested organisers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber near Parliament Hill, however they did not use force against the marchers. Lich was apprehended by police late Thursday.
According to Bell, police continued conversing with the demonstrators and attempting to encourage them to leave. “We want this rally to finish peacefully,” he stated, adding, “but if they do not go peacefully, we have plans.”
Many of the truckers in the self-styled Freedom Convoy looked undaunted despite days of threats from police and the administration that they faced arrest, seizure of their rigs, and freezing of their bank accounts.
“I’m ready to sit on my ass and watch them pepper spray me,” one of their leaders, Pat King, stated. “There are no tow trucks in Canada that will touch them,” he stated of the trucks parked bumper to bumper.
Later, King advised truckers to lock their doors.
Truckers outside Parliament blared their horns in defiance of a court injunction barring honking granted for the benefit of nearby neighbours.
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