In Ottawa, the step-by-step advance of the police against the demonstrators
Leave or be arrested. This is the choice left by the Canadian police to the anti-health restrictions demonstrators still present in the streets of the Canadian capital Ottawa.
The two camps stare at each other without moving for long minutes. In the streets of Ottawa, on one side the anti-sanitary restrictions demonstrators arm in arm, on the other the police in line. Behind, a robot voice sounds “you must leave or you will be arrested”. And then suddenly the demonstrators sing the national anthem “O Canada” – opposite no reaction from the police who quietly force them to move back.
It takes several minutes for the police to gain a few centimeters, hours for a few tens of meters. In the ranks of protesters, opposed to health measures and more particularly to the vaccine pass and installed in the streets of the federal capital for three weeks, there are dozens of them brandishing their phones, often broadcasting the scene live on social networks. Arriving at the height of a yellow truck, parked for days in a shopping street, the police signaled to the driver to get off. The latter, cap on his head, complies and places his hands directly behind his back so that he can be handcuffed. He is taken away, his truck is inspected.
The voice in the background broadcast by a megaphone did not stop: “you must leave or you will be arrested”, echoing the horns of the trucks – one of the symbols of the demonstration – resound. In the second and third line in the police ranks, the agents are much more heavily armed than those who occupy the front of the stage facing the demonstrators. It is the first day of a vast police operation aimed at dislodging the demonstrators from the streets of Ottawa.
But nothing discourages them. In the streets, their placards are still displayed on the railings, the Canadian flags, which have become an emblem of their mobilization, float everywhere. And then around there are tents, makeshift shelters where the protesters have stored their food supplies for days, or distributed meals and hot coffees…
“My body, my choice” chant the demonstrators
Meanwhile, on social networks the police are pedagogical, tweeting photos accompanied by a text: “What you see are public order units in online training. Protestors are continually being asked to leave, otherwise they risk being arrested.” “You will see the line move slowly to give people who want to leave the opportunity to do so,” adds the text.
In their progress, the police are sometimes confronted with a small wall of snow mounted in a hurry by the protesters. Behind, a woman shouts “my body, my choice”, one of the slogans used by opponents of Covid vaccines. His neighbor continues to address the police: “we do this for your children”. A young woman with a bonnet well down on her head and red makeup on her face tries to resist the advance of the police and clings to a pole. Immediately, she is surrounded, put on the ground and arrested.
Two other demonstrators are on their knees and refuse to move. They too will be apprehended. Police announced in mid-afternoon that 70 people had been arrested for multiple offences. A few yards away in front of the Senate, a small group of children are killing time on a pile of snow. Indifferent to the scene unfolding before their eyes, and to what their parents are up to in their face-to-face with the police.
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