Posted25 avril 2022, 23:56
Two months after the end of the trucker crisis, Ottawa is preparing for the arrival of hundreds of bikers who want to demonstrate in Ottawa in the name of “freedom”.
For almost a month in February, hundreds of truckers occupied the heart of the capital to protest against the obligation to be vaccinated to cross the border between Canada and the United States.
AFP
Hundreds of Canadian bikers have planned to demonstrate in Ottawa this weekend in the name of ‘freedom’, as truckers opposed to sanitary measures did in February, but police have warned that the center of the capital will be theirs. forbidden.
The first bikers are expected to arrive in Ottawa on Friday and a large demonstration is planned for Saturday, according to information posted on the movement’s website. The rally worries authorities barely two months after the end of the truckers’ crisis, which paralyzed central Ottawa for three weeks and forced the Trudeau government to use exceptional powers to dislodge them.
On Monday, the Ottawa police said they had put in place an “improved operational system” to supervise the demonstration and recalled that the center of the capital is now prohibited from demonstrations. “We will not allow (the creation of) unsafe or illegal conditions which could result in another illegal protest like the one we experienced in February,” police say.
“Frustrated”
It will ban motor vehicles in several areas of the capital, including the areas around Parliament Hill that had been occupied by truckers. In several videos on YouTube, the organizers who say they are “frustrated” like “the rest of Canada” warn the authorities. “Mr. Mayor, if you look at this, thousands of people are coming to your town. There could be more than a thousand motorcycles,” warned an activist named Neil, who does not give his last name.
Justin Trudeau’s government announced on Monday the creation of a commission to investigate last winter’s use of the Emergency Measures Act, a law that grants exceptional measures and has been used for only the second time. in peacetime in Canada to solve the trucking crisis.
For almost a month in February, hundreds of truckers occupied the heart of the capital to protest against the obligation to be vaccinated to cross the border between Canada and the United States. This protest called “freedom convoy” then spread to other countries and aimed to protest against health measures as a whole.
(AFP)