Lee Berthiaume, Jordan Press, Marie Woolf and Erika Ibrahim, The Canadian Press
Published Friday, February 18, 2022 5:40AM EST Last Updated Friday, February 18, 2022 11:08PM EST
OTTAWA - Police officers descended on anti-government protesters in Ottawa on Friday, arresting at least 100 people and towing more than 20 vehicles in a push to end a three-week occupation that has reverberated across Canada and around the world.
Dozens of officers who had gathered in the bitterly cold downtown core following an overnight snowstorm started to move mid-morning under a bright sun, pushing the protesters back and making arrests along the way. |
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Police blasted warnings over a loudspeaker before officers advanced intermittently, forcing back dozens of demonstrators, some of whom linked arms or laid down in resistance while others hurled insults or tried to flee.
Officers in military green, some with gas masks and what appeared to be tear-gas guns, converged on the protesters from another direction in an apparent pincer movement before a third group of police boxed them in.
As officers closed on that group, other protesters watched from their main camp further west on Wellington Street near the National War Memorial and Parliament Hill, urging their embattled comrades to “hold the line” and hurling their own invective.
By evening, the situation grew more heated. A group of mounted police suddenly charged a large group of protesters facing police lines near the Senate in an apparent effort to move the crowd up toward Wellington Street. Many in the shocked crowd ran, some yelling, “You are trampling us!”
Ottawa police said on Twitter that protesters had continued “assaultive behaviour” with the police line and to prevent an escalation or further injury, mounted officers were sent in to create a safe distance between officers and protesters.
As this was happening, police said, a bicycle was thrown at the feet of one of the horses in an attempt to injure it. One person was arrested for allegedly intentionally harming a police service animal.
“Protesters are assaulting officers, have attempted to remove officers' weapons. All means of de-escalation have been used to move forward in our goal of returning Ottawa to its normalcy,” the police service tweeted.
The police action, which included the RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police, local officers and units from other cities, followed an initial round of arrests Thursday against key organizers.
It also came after repeated warnings and signals in the past two days that police were preparing for a crackdown following weeks of accommodating the demonstration, which had left many Ottawa residents angry, frazzled and critical of the city's police force.
Ottawa police interim chief Steve Bell told a news conference Friday that clearing the area will take time, but the operation is “deliberate and methodical” and police are in control on the ground.
Those arrested have been charged with various offences including mischief, he said, adding police are still urging demonstrators to leave peacefully.
He said there has been no need to interact with the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa, but it still “shocks and surprises” him that children are being put in harm's way in the middle of a demonstration where a police operation was unfolding.
“We will continue to look after their safety and security. But we implore all the parents who have kids in there - get kids out of there,” Bell said. “They do not need to be in the middle of this. It is not a safe place for them.”
Read more on CP24 here.
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