Ottawa protest enters third day

Parliament resumed Monday in the nation’s capital still beset by protesters, vehicles and trucks as the trucker convoy protest enters its third day, though police say the gathering is significantly “scaled down” compared to the weekend.

Transport trucks and other personal vehicles are gridlocking parts of Ottawa surrounding Parliament Hill, with protester’s speeches, music and honking reverberating throughout the city.

Many protesters have remained in the streets since the weekend, wandering around the area in the downtown core, with barbeques set up and drones flying over Parliament for livestreams.

The crowd gathered at Parliament Hill Monday was smaller than those seen on the weekend, but Ottawa Police have maintained a heavy presence in the area.

In a news conference on Monday afternoon, Ottawa Police Service Chief Peter Sloly told reporters that the demonstration resulted in no reported injuries, deaths or riots, and that the situation downtown has “scaled down over the past 12 hours.”

“This is a demonstration unique in nature, massive in scale, polarizing in context, dangerous in literally every other aspect of the event itself,” he said. “This started on the west coast of Canada and spread across the country, it has been fluid, ever changing and increasingly more difficult to manage.”

Beginning tomorrow, Sloly said police who had been sent to the Parliament Hill area over the weekend will be sent back to their respective communities to help out those in need.

Meanwhile, Ottawa mayor Jim Watson told reporters that the protesters have “worn out their welcome” and urged those clogging up the downtown core to return home and bring up their gripes with their local politicians.

“As the capital of Canada, we're used to demonstrations, but it's time for this one to move on,” Watson said. “Businesses and organizations have been subjected to harassment and threats, and these disruptions have been financially debilitating to owners and staff. People who disagree with provincial and federal policies and legislation have the right to demonstrate, but they don't have the right to take their frustration out on people living in our community.”

Video circulating on social media showing a City of Ottawa transportation driver giving protesters a “thumbs up” raised questions about whether city staff were maintaining their neutrality during the convoy’s events.

In a statement emailed to CTV News Monday, Director of Transit Operations for Ottawa James Greer said “OC Transpo is aware of the reported video.”

“As outlined in various City of Ottawa policies, employees must remain impartial when carrying out their duties and any personal use of City vehicles is strictly prohibited,” the statement read, adding that an internal investigation has been launched.

The Ottawa Paramedic Service confirmed to CTV News Monday that a rock was thrown at one of their trucks Sunday and that a racial slur was yelled targeting the paramedic in that vehicle.

There were at least two other incidents of projectiles thrown at paramedic vehicles, and the service had issues responding to calls in the downtown core where protesters were either slowing them down or intimidating paramedics, mostly on Saturday, a spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the police will now be responding “at all times” with the paramedics for safety.

Sloly said that earlier reports of people in downtown core being denied emergency services due to the protest are not true.

It is unclear when the protest will end, but several protesters have said they had planned to stay “for months,” and “freedom convoy” organizer Tamara Lich said on Sunday to a gathering on Parliament Hill that the protest would not leave until “all of you and all of your kids are free.”

Parliament resumed in a hybrid format and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be working virtually after testing positive for COVID-19, and is participating in question period, which began at 2:15 p.m. EST.

Delivering remarks at a press conference Monday, Trudeau said Canadians were “shocked” and “disgusted” by some of the protesters’ actions, and thanked Canadians who made donations to the Ottawa shelter Shepherds of Good Hope and the Terry Fox Foundation after the hubbub on the weekend.

Trudeau also addressed members of the convoy directly.

“To anyone who joined the convoy, but is rightly uncomfortable with the symbols of hatred and division on display, join with your fellow Canadians, be courageous, and speak out, do not stand for, or with intolerance and hate,” he said.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford broke his silence on the protests in a brief statement issued Monday that said the “right to a peaceful protest is core to our Canadian identity,” but that he was “extremely disturbed” by the desecration of monuments and the waving of “swastikas and other symbols of hate and intolerance.”

“That has no place in Ontario or Canada. Not now. Not ever,” the statement reads.

• Read more: Recap of the trucker protest day two

The Ottawa Police Service is in the process of setting up a hotline for hate crimes and any other criminal activity directly related to the demonstrations.

“If you have committed a hate crime, you will be investigated, we will look for you, we will charge you, if necessary we will arrest you and we will pursue prosecutions against you,” Sloly said. “We have several active criminal investigations ongoing, from bribery and threats to assaults to the dangerous operation of vehicles, they will continue. Please report any other matters that we are not aware of.”

Ottawa police had announced earlier Sunday that there were “several” criminal investigations underway in relation to acts described by police as “desecration” to several monuments. And while the protest has largely been non-violent, police they saw “multiple cases of disruptive, inappropriate and threatening behaviour from demonstrators.”

There was widespread condemnation of some of the protesters’ behaviour from Saturday, including adorning the statue of Terry Fox with Canada flags and anti-mandate signs, urinating on the War Memorial and jumping and dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

On CTV News Channel Monday, Ottawa mayor Jim Watson said the people of Ottawa have been “more than patient” with the protestors, adding that they hurt their own cause with some of their actions over the weekend.

“Going and taking free meals from the shepherds of good hope, the soup kitchen for the homeless, urinating on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, dancing on it, desecrating the Terry Fox monument with placards and so on, and really keeping people up 24 hours a day, honking their horns and keeping their diesel engines running and parking in residential areas,” he said.

Watson said the public are “fed up” with the constant noise, disruptions and harassment they are experiencing as a result of the convoy’s presence.

“The very fact that they’re threatening to intimidate retail workers – going in to try and shop without a mask – shows how out of touch these people are,” he continued. “These are individuals that are trying to make a decent wage, some them are working for minimum wage, some of them at fast food restaurants, some of them are17 to 18-years-old being harassed by middle-aged, mostly men, threatening them because they are challenged and told to wear a mask... it's really quite sad on the part of the truckers and its paints them all with the same brush unfortunately.”

Watson said it’s time for the truckers to move on and called for the organizers to condemn the “disgraceful behaviour” from some of their group.

On Sunday, flowers had been laid at the memorials and some protesters were seen picking up trash and alcohol bottles, with other reports suggesting they were policing behaviour from their compatriots and had “set a watch” over the national monuments to avoid a repeat of the behaviour from the day before.

The presence of several hateful symbols at the rally over the weekend, including signs and flags with Nazi imagery, the Confederate flag, yellow stars, patches or clothing that belong to groups with extremist views, and flags and signs that said “F*** Trudeau” sparked widespread concern and public discourse.

Speaking on CTV’s Question Period Sunday, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said the hateful images could not be ignored.

“Some of the images and the voices that we heard come out of that protest were alarming. Canadians saw for themselves. We had swastika flags, we had the Confederate flag, we had voices that called for the overthrow of the government. Canadians saw for themselves that some voices are really disturbing and unacceptable,” he said

“I understand that there are some people who are sympathetic to the protests for other reasons but we cannot look the other way.”