Anti-sanitary measures demonstrations in Ottawa: Justin Trudeau steps up to the plate

Published on : 02/08/2022 – 05:48

Overwhelmed by hundreds of trucks that are the “siege” of the Canadian capital, the mayor of Ottawa called on the federal authorities for help to put an end to the show of force of the truckers against the sanitary measures, object of an emergency debate in Parliament on Monday 7 February.

“It has to stop,” hammered Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, back in person in the House of Commons, after a week of isolation due to Covid. “This pandemic has sucked all Canadians!” he said, visibly irritated by the protests.

“But Canadians know that the only way out is to continue to listen to science,” he added, before facing criticism from opposition parties for his absence in recent years. days. For the conservatives, he is responsible for a “division never seen in the country”.

Despite an increasingly tense situation, the Prime Minister, currently housed in an undisclosed location, did not intervene after the weekend demonstrations, leaving his ministers to step up. “The federal government will respond,” he promised in the evening, without however announcing new measures, demanded by the authorities of the city of Ottawa.

Call for help”

Its mayor, Jim Watson, on Monday asked for reinforcements from the federal state to put an end to the “siege” facing Ottawa and pleaded for the dispatch of 1,800 additional police officers.

Arrived in numbers on January 29 in front of Parliament and under the windows of Justin Trudeau, between 400 and 500 trucks were still blocking the city center on Monday.

“We must put an end to this demonstration, but we cannot do it alone,” police chief Peter Sloly admitted on Monday, also calling for “help”.

Some streets in the city center, congested with heavy goods vehicles, are still blocked to traffic, businesses closed and makeshift shelters have been set up by demonstrators who spend day and night honking their horns, to the chagrin of residents, caught in the noise and diesel fumes.

“Give a hand”

The latter, however, won a first battle on Monday: the Superior Court of Ontario ordered the protesters to stop honking. Some residents had indeed launched a class action against the organizers of the demonstration, claiming some 10 million Canadian dollars (7 million euros).

“We cannot allow an angry mob” to dictate the law, on the contrary declared Marco Mendicino, Minister of Public Security. “It could set a precedent for how policy is made in Canada,” he said.

Insensitive to political declarations, the demonstrators continue to demand “the lifting of vaccination obligations, restrictions, and the restoration of the rights and freedoms of Canadians”, declared Tamara Lich, one of the organizers of the movement, during a Monday live on YouTube.

“We are trying, right now, to reach out to all federal parties so that we can start talks and see how we can move forward,” she added.

She also denounced the attempts to stifle the movement. The Ottawa police, criticized for not having been able to prevent the paralysis of the center of the capital, has indeed been preventing protesters from being supplied, particularly with fuel, since Sunday.

With AFP