In Ottawa, police and protesters stared each other down for long minutes Friday before the demonstrators burst out with the national anthem “O Canada.”
Defiant against an order blared over loudspeakers to disperse or face arrest, hundreds of trucker-led protesters have been occupying the Canadian capital’s center for three weeks, demanding an end to Covid health rules.
It took the police line, watched over by snipers and backed by tactical vehicles, several minutes to push the protesters back a few centimeters (inches), hours for a few meters.
Dozens of people in the crowd brandished smartphones, snapping images and broadcasting live on social media.
Reaching the first truck blocking an intersection on the east side of downtown Ottawa, police smashed a window of the locked vehicle and dragged a man out from behind the wheel.
The driver, as his feet touched the ground, put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed and was led away without a word.
The warning “You must leave or you will be arrested” ricocheted between the downtown high-rises, as rows upon rows of police moved forward to claim ground grudgingly surrendered by the protesters.
While the so-called “Freedom Convoy” began with truckers protesting against mandatory Covid vaccines to cross the US border, its demands have grown to include an end to all pandemic rules and, for many, a wider anti-establishment agenda.
Behind the front line of police in bright yellow vests, heavily armed tactical officers moved up to close any gaps, as mounted police kept a watchful eye from a short distance away.
Their boots crunched and slid on snow and ice still thick on the ground after a heavy snowfall and plunging temperatures that followed several unseasonably warm days.
‘Hold the line’
Protesters used the snow to their advantage, shoveling it into piles to act as barriers against the police advance.
A woman stood behind one mound, shouting: “My body, my choice,” a slogan repeated by opponents of Covid vaccines.
“We are doing this for your children,” another protester told police, as nearby, seemingly oblivious to the chaos around them, a small group of kids played in the snow in front of the Senate.
Security fencing erected overnight by police to restrict access to the city center was quickly covered with placards bearing anti-government slogans and calls to “hold the line.”
Many protesters waved Canadian flags attached to hockey sticks, as cheery tunes were played to keep spirits up.
But signs of an ebb in the protest fervor were also visible around central Ottawa — an inflatable hot tub used by protesters sagged in front of parliament. A daily pig roast in the street drew a thinner crowd than usual.
Police had taken to social media to warn the demonstrators, tweeting “protesters are continuously being told to leave, or they face arrest.”
“You will see the line slowly moving forward to give people who want to leave the opportunity to do so.”
The warnings were serious, with at least three protest leaders arrested among some 70 charged.
Some resisted, with a woman clinging to a pole before being slammed to the ground and removed, while others faced arrest kneeling in front of the advancing police lines.
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