Protesters who continued to resist at all costs the police who were trying to expel them from the streets of Ottawa on Friday could face serious legal consequences, according to several experts.
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Officers from several police forces have arrived to swell the ranks of police officers who have been present for several days at the site of the “freedom convoy” headquarters. Reinforcements which made it possible to launch a police operation on Friday morning to begin to dislodge the demonstrators still present.
During the afternoon, the Ottawa Police Service said about 100 people were arrested and 21 vehicles were towed. A person was also arrested for having intentionally injured a police animal by throwing a bicycle at the feet of the horses.
“With the horse, people have no choice but to settle down, it’s an important strategy,” said Mario Bernique, retired captain of the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) regarding the arrival of the cavalry after midday.
The situation continued to deteriorate in the late afternoon as protesters began assaulting officers and taking their weapons away, according to police. Children were also seen near the frontline in the morning.
“It is a tactic used frequently by the demonstrators, they will try to provoke [les policiers], to hit them,” said André Durocher, retired inspector with the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM). “The demonstrators who remain there are not altar boys”.
“It’s starting to stir a little more, children don’t necessarily have their place there, so it depends on exactly how a child is used in these circumstances, but for sure a court will not like it”, underlined Cédric Materne, criminal lawyer of Riendeau lawyers, concerning possible charges on this subject.
These means of revolt by the participants of the convoy could thus lead to significant charges against them, even if it is still difficult to determine the type of penalty incurred, according to Ms. Marie-Pierre Boulet, criminal lawyer and vice-president of the Association québécoise lawyers and defense lawyers.
“We would mainly be talking about crimes that will lead to fines, except that a fine is not a criminal fine. So a fine, under the Criminal Code, gives you a criminal record. It’s not nothing, ”she explained in an interview on LCN.
The demonstrators could also be accused in the same way as the organizers of the convoy, Chris Barber, Pat King and Tamara Lich having already been arrested.
“If you aid, abet or participate in any xyz way in the main action, you can be charged, that’s under the principles of complicity, and the consequences are the same as the crime committed by the main instigator”, mentioned Mr. Boulet.
According to Mr. Materne, the charges depend on the situation where the demonstrators find themselves during the arrest, even if “imprisonment is not to be neglected”.
“Is [les policiers] are there to really arrest people, to criminally charge them, or just to make sure that everything is done peacefully, so we tighten them up a little by little so that they go away on their own, That’s police techniques,” he said.
Reference-www.tvanouvelles.ca