‘Rolling Thunder’ event will likely bring hundreds of motorcycles to downtown Ottawa

There are fences on Parliament Hill, an exclusion zone around several blocks downtown and hundreds of additional police officers on duty as Ottawa braces for the arrival of the “Rolling Thunder” bikers on Friday afternoon.

The group has not been clear about why they are joining, except to say that they will be in Ottawa to “peacefully celebrate our freedom.”

Hundreds of bikers are expected to arrive Friday before the Saturday morning rally. They plan to tour downtown, with a stop at the National War Memorial and a march to a rally on Parliament Hill.

Vehicles involved in the demonstration will not be allowed to enter an area that includes the war memorial and Parliament, police say, nor will they be allowed to stop along the route, but participants can walk through the area.

“We’re not going to stop protesters from coming to the nation’s capital to have their voices heard,” Ottawa Acting Police Chief Steve Bell said during a briefing Thursday.

Neil Sheard, one of the organizers who has been involved in the protests against the COVID-19 restrictions, previously warned of an “all against all” if police don’t allow the group to take their bikes out onto the streets around Parliament Hill.

Elgin Street Public School Principal Brian Begbie sent a memo to parents Thursday from the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board saying the board has been in contact with law enforcement to ensure school issues are addressed. school safety.

“We understand that many families had a difficult experience in February and may be concerned about another downtown rally,” the memo said, directing parents to links to community support organizations.

The protesters say they plan to leave the city on Sunday.

That drew criticism that they could disrupt a planned bicycle fundraiser for the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario on the same day. Rolling Thunder organizers have added a link to their website and are encouraging supporters to donate to CHEO.

Police have said there will be no tolerance for a long-running protest like the one that occupied the city center for weeks in February, and that the encampments will be dismantled.

The actions of the Ottawa police have also been under intense scrutiny since February. Chief Peter Sloly resigned from his post, and Bell said the service has learned a lot from the experience.

The February occupation, which ended after the federal government invoked the Emergencies Law for the first time and hundreds of police officers intervened to disperse the crowd and made dozens of arrests, disrupted traffic, closed businesses and generated reports of harassment, intimidation I gave. conduct.

The Rolling Thunder organization is associated with various groups apparently linked to the “Freedom Convoy”.

A statement on the group’s website attributed to Sheard says they do not support “lockdowns, obstruction of police in carrying out their duties, property damage, or hate and vitriol directed at Ottawa residents.”

The statement also encourages supporters to follow the law and says that the police will be held accountable in court for their actions during the event.

“Lastly, as seen during the legal protest in Ottawa, please spread as much peace, love and patriotism as possible among your fellow Canadians,” the statement said.

At a Holocaust Remembrance Day event on Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the world was “shocked and dismayed to see Nazi images displayed in our nation’s capital” in February.

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on April 29, 2022.