Ottawa truckers' convoy
Canada's Ottawa declares state of emergency, truck convoy vows to remain until all their mandates filled
Ottawa/IBNS: A state of emergency was declared in Canada's Ottawa on Sunday night by Mayor Jim Watson as the truckers convoy of estimated 5,000 people and 1,000 trucks and personal vehicles continued to disrupt the normal life of the Canadian capital during the weekend.
The ongoing road closures and traffic due to the truckers' demonstrations, made the downtown core inaccessible
The Rideau Centre, Ottawa City Hall, an outdoor skating rink, two public library branches and two COVID-19 vaccination clinics remain closed.
Watson said the city will be bringing in more police and resources to end the demonstration in the coming days.
On Sunday night dozens of heavily armed police officers descended on the baseball stadium parking lot filled with anti-pandemic rule demonstration that arrived in Ottawa 10 days ago and cut off fuel supplies from the “Freedom Convoy” participants, seizing more than 3,000 litres of fuel, and disabled the supply of fuel to protesters by fencing the areas storing the fuel.
The police reportedly arrested seven people and issued more than 100 tickets for offences including driving while prohibited, excessive honking, not wearing seat belts, having alcohol readily available and property damage.
More than 450 tickets have been issued since Saturday morning.
Several other protests took place across the country in support of Ottawa's main convoy.
About 10 protesters stood firm in front of fuel supplies that were stored toward the southern end of the lot.
The main organizers of the convoy are still determined to stay until all COVID-19-related mandates are lifted.
A video statement was issued by the former RCMP officer Daniel Bulford, who acts as the convoy’s security to convoy participants to hold the line which was shared on TikTok
Although more than $10-million fundraiser had been removed from GoFundMe, the truckers' fundraising efforts are still going on through other online platforms, including a bitcoin wallet.
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
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