Conservatives tell Ottawa protesters to go home

OTTAWA—Interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen is asking demonstrators who’ve blocked off roads in downtown Ottawa for days to pack up and go home.

But she’s pledging her party will take up their cause: a plea for an end to COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates.

Bergen made the case on the floor of the House of Commons Thursday on a day where the opposition gets to choose a motion to debate.

As Bergen sought to press the Liberal government to implement a plan for the lifting of COVID-19 measures by the end of this month, she also issued a message directly to the demonstrators.

Their protests began on behalf of truckers angry about mandatory vaccination requirements for cross-border drivers and have become an international phenomenon, Bergen said.

But it’s time to move out, she said.

“To the protesters here in Ottawa. You came bringing a message. That message has been heard. Conservatives have heard you and we will stand up for you and all Canadians who want to get back to normal life. We will not stop until the mandates have ended,” she said.

“Today though, I am asking you to take down the blockades. Protest peacefully and legally, but it’s time to remove the barricades and the trucks for the sake of the economy and because it’s the right thing to do.”

Bergen’s comments mark the latest shift in the party’s overall response to the protesters, which has evolved since the “Freedom Convoy” went on the move last month.

Initially, many Tory MPs — including former leader Erin O’Toole — supported the issue that was believed to be driving the demonstration: vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers.

Bergen herself has posed for photos with demonstrators and leaked emails suggested she didn’t think the party should initially call for an end to the convoy, but needed to figure out a way to make it Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s problem.

But as the motivations of the organizers were exposed as also being the overthrow of the government, and some elements within the group embraced racist imagery, as well as seemingly non-stop harassment of downtown Ottawa residents that took a court injunction to stop, the Conservative party’s certainty in supporting the movement has begun to break down.

Now, with the demonstrations in Ottawa nearing the two week-mark, and copycat movements springing up — including the blockade of key roads between Canada and the US — the Conservatives are now coming out fully onside with their political rivals in calling for an end to it all.

The motion the Conservatives have before the House of Commons Thursday would not be binding on the government, even if it passes with the support of a majority of MPs.

During the debate, the Bloc Quebecois said a plan makes sense because provinces are already lifting restrictions, and a strategy for dealing with ongoing pressures created by the pandemic — such as the over-burdened health-care system — needs to be in place.