Organizers in Canada plan to re-stage their protest this weekend.
Ottawa:
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau poured cold water on sending the military on Thursday to clear protesters opposed to Covid vaccine mandates, whose convoy of large trucks clog downtown Ottawa.
The city’s chief of police, pressured by local residents tired of harassment and incessant loud honking, had put forward the idea at a briefing the previous day.
“That’s not in it now,” Trudeau told a news conference, adding that governments should “be very, very careful before deploying the military in situations against Canadians.”
Since Saturday, Canada’s capital has been ravaged by protesters led by truck drivers who oppose mandatory Covid vaccines for travel between Canada and the United States.
By the middle of the week, their numbers had dwindled from a peak of 15,000 over the weekend to several hundred, but they continued to loudly advocate against public health measures — by honking their horns.
Trudeau said it is up to the police to deal with the protesters and disturbances to the local community, but added that the federal government is ready to provide support, including with federal police and intelligence services.
At the same time, he urged the protesters to go home, as locals were fed up with the “significant disturbances” caused by the protesters.
Residents, he said, have been “harassed for wearing masks” and “have faced hateful rhetoric”, and just want to be able to go to work, school and their daily lives.
“The people of Ottawa deserve to get life back, they deserve to get their neighborhood back,” he said.
Organizers plan to re-stage their protest this weekend, while similar demonstrations are planned in other cities, including Quebec City and Toronto.
Meanwhile, a group of truck drivers and farmers protesting vaccine mandates in Alberta at a border crossing into the US state of Montana allowed traffic to partially resume on Thursday.
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
