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They promise to maintain occupations and blockades and diversify their actions in Ottawa and other parts of the country
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Conservative politicians begin to ask them to end the barricades and the capital’s police toughen their measures
“We are installed and we’re not leaving. People are talking. We will not be afraid or be intimidated. We are here to recover our freedoms & rdquor ;. The words were pronounced on Wednesday afternoon in an Ottawa hotel Randy Hillieran independent MP from Ontario and controversial politician, who in 2019 was expelled from the Conservative Party after insultingly addressing parents of children with autism. He was speaking at a press conference in which others also participated, such as the leader of the People’s Party of Canada, Maxim Bernier; a truck driver from Alberta; a protestant pastor; a farmer and doctors opposed to vaccinations. And that appearance, on the 13th day of the protests of the so-called “Freedom Convoy”, was a clear declaration by the protesters to continue keeping the pulse of the authorities.
The protest that was born against movement restrictions for unvaccinated truckers continues to evolve and spread. The blockades of transit bridges between Canada and the United States, which for days have affected or even paralyzed traffic and trade between the provinces of Ontario and Michigan and that of Alberta and Montana, reached a third border crossing, this one between Manitoba and North Dakota.
The occupation with trucks and heavy vehicles of downtown Ottawa also continues. This Thursday morning between 60 and 70 demonstrators took their vans to the vicinity of the capital’s international airport, affecting incoming and outgoing traffic. And the police denounced in a tweet “a concerted effort to flood the telephone lines & rdquor; both emergency and non-urgent calls, something that was reminded that “endangers lives and is completely unacceptable & rdquor; and it constitutes a crime, for which it was warned that “he will be persecuted & rdquor ;.
The police tweet was posted a few hours after the department issued another statement on Wednesday warning that “anyone who blocks streets or helps others to do so may be committing a criminal offense & rdquor; and “can be detained without an arrest warrant & rdquor; and “facing charges & rdquor ;. And also on Wednesday the city, which until now has made 23 arrests and has opened 80 criminal investigationsreceived judicial authorization to increase some fines, raising up to 1,000 dollars or more for noise, use and care of the roads and outdoor fires.
The deterioration of the situation has reached a session in the provincial parliament this Thursday, where Joel Harden, a member of the New Democratic Party, has urged the Ontario government to start debating “immediately & rdquor; more emergency measures to deal with the protests, including revoking business licenses or insurance for protesters or improving the security of buildings in the ‘downtown’ and financial support to businesses affected by the paralysis of commercial activity in the center taken by the trucks. Harden has denounced the calls to the police, who are sending the agents to places where their presence is not needed, but has also assured that one of the organizers of the protests is encouraging send “convoys” of vehicles to surround public schools From the capital.
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In the federal government, too, alarm is growing even among politicians who initially supported the protests. This Thursday Candice Bergen, of the Conservative Party of Canada, has asked the protesters to “Remove the barricades and the trucks for the good of the economy & rdquor;. Last week, before being elected interim leader of the Bergen formation, she had met with those who occupy downtown Ottawa and called them “passionate, patriotic and peaceful & rdquor ;.
At Wednesday’s press conference there was no hint that they would heed those calls. Benjamin Dicker, vice president of a group called “Freedom Convoy 2022”, announced that between 1,000 and 1,500 more trucks are on the way from Alberta. And Hillier announced that another convoy of construction workers is expected to arrive in Ottawa. “It’s a grassroots movement, you can’t stop a good idea, an idea of freedom & rdquor ;, Bernier, the leader of the People’s Party of Canada, said in that appearance.