Ottawa is in a state of emergency as the trucker protest continues to paralyze parts of the nationâs capital, while frustrated downtown residents were granted an injunction to stop the incessant truck horns.
On Monday, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson sent letters to Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying the protest had turned into a âsiege of our downtown area,â and asked the provincial and federal governments for an âimmediate injection of additional officers.â
âGiven the scope and scale of the armada of large trucks that are now occupying our downtown core, we are writing to you today to ask that you work to help the City secure 1,800 officers to quell the insurrection that the Ottawa Police Service is not able to contain,â Watson wrote in the letter.
As part of the 1,800 officers Watson is requesting, heâs looking for 1,000 regular officers, 600 public order officers, 100 investigative officers and 100 civilian staff, in addition to âall supporting resources.â
âWe must do everything in our power to take back the streets of Ottawa and our parliamentary precinct, from the criminal activity and hooliganism that has transpired over the last nine days,â Watson wrote.
Speaking in-person during an emergency debate on the protests late Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government is ready to provide more support for Ottawa police.
âWeâre convening a table with the relevant federal and municipal parties to further strengthen our response,â he said. âThe federal government will be there with whatever resources the province and the city need in this situation.â
Ottawa city council also voted on Monday to ask the province to bring legislation that would allow the government to charge the protesters for the costs of the demonstrations. Police in Ottawa estimate the costs are as high as $2.2 million per day in policing the protests.
Watson told CTVâs Your Morning on Monday that the state of emergency declared on Sunday offers âmore flexibilityâ for city staff to get equipment and supplies without going through extra processes.
âIt helps administration do its job, and helps the police do their job,â Watson said, adding that he was happy to see the police be more âproactiveâ Sunday night. âWeâre not interested in making those people comfortable who are illegally blocking city streets.â
âThis group says theyâre all about freedom and against lockdowns, well they have created a lockdown in our downtown core,â Watson said. âOur number one priority is to end this thing peacefully.â
The federal government, meanwhile, has proposed a trilateral meeting with provincial and municipal governments to lay out plans to end the protest, as the truckers continue to dig in.
âPeople in Ottawa have got to get their lives back, we want to help do that,â Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝â Power Play. âThe convoy should go home, we should see a peaceful resolution to this.â
INJUNCTION GRANTED IN CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT
One of downtown Ottawa residentsâ major complaints, the incessant honking, spurred the filing on Friday of a $9.8 million class-action proposed lawsuit on their behalf.
The residents asked for an injunction to be issued to prevent truckers parked on the city streets from honking all day and night. Superior Court Justice Hugh McLean heard the arguments Monday afternoon and , which orders the immediate end to the incessant honking from the truckers.
Christine Johnson, a lawyer with Champ and Associates and co-counsel in the matter, told ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝Channelâs Power Play that anyone caught violating this injunction could be held in contempt and face stiffer penalties than a simple bylaw infraction.
âWeâre very happy with this win today,â Johnson said. âWe hope that it will bring some reprieve to the citizens of downtown Ottawa.â
Lead plaintiff in the class action suit, Zexi Li, described the current living situation for residents in downtown Ottawa as âunbearable.â
âThere are people who have had to evacuate their homes because they can't stand the noise because it is literally, quite literally, torturous to us,â Li told ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ Channel on Monday. âAnd we are not going to stay quiet anymore because people need to understand the real damage this is doing to real people.â
Li said she took action because she wanted her community to be heard, and that while she âunderstands that not everyone is a bad actorâ in the convoy, their occupation of the streets is âcreating the environment for hate, violence and a general sense of unsafety [sic] and fear to accumulate.â
Johnson said Li has suffered online abuse because of the lawsuit.
âWhile weâve had an outpouring of support from many in the community, across the country, both towards our law firm and our very brave client we represent, sheâs had also received a lot of vile hatred both directed at her,â Johnson said.
âIt takes a lot of courage, as you can imagine, for a young woman to stand up on behalf of her neighbours ⌠Itâs been stressful. Itâs been overwhelming and I think she felt as though it was the right thing to do.â
Speaking directly to the âFreedom Convoy,â Li acknowledged they have every right to protest, but said their actions are hurting businesses, residents, animals and children.
âThere is a way to do a protest and this, quite frankly, is not it,â she said. âI have witnessed countless violations of the law, and a lot of individuals just act with utter impunity and with no respect to the residents.â
Paul Champ, an Ottawa lawyer who is representing Li and the other residents in the class-action suit, told ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ Channel Monday that it is really focused on the trucksâ air horns.
âOn the ground itâs about 100 decibels, and in your apartment youâre looking at 95 to 90 decibels which is basically like having a lawn mower running in your living room all day,â Champ explained. âItâs torture for the downtown residents in Ottawa.â
Champ said the lawsuit centres on the concept of âprivate nuisance,â in which othersâ actions affect the complainantsâ ability to enjoy and use their private property.
âThere is precedence on this that for loud noise going for prolonged periods in a day, an individual can get several hundred dollars per day of sound and thatâs what weâre seeking on behalf of the downtown residents,â he said.
Trudeau expressed empathy for the people of Ottawa during Mondayâs emergency debate.
âThe people of Ottawa donât deserve to be harassed in their own neighbourhoods, they donât deserve tobe confronted by the inherent violence of a swastika flying on a street corner or a confederate flag,â he said.
POLICE USING âSURGE AND CONTAINâ PROCEDURES
Speaking with ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ Ottawa on Monday evening, Sloly said demonstrators have been quick to adapt policing measures in the city.
"What was happening during the course of the day is some of the protesters were deliberately filling jerrycans with water, literally drinking out of them to show the police that they weren't gasoline," Sloly said. "Meanwhile, they were carrying gasoline in other containers that would have been carrying water."
Sloly also said officers have been swarmed while trying to make arrests.
"Our officers were surrounded by over 100 demonstrators," he said. "A near-riot broke out within minutes of being on the air here, to do what we've been saying we doing: enforcing and reducing the fuel supply, interdicting the gasoline going in thereâat great risk in every single encounter."
In a police briefing Monday afternoon, Ottawa Police Service Chief Peter Sloly said that he too is asking for additional police resources to contain to the protests.
Since officers began âsurge and containâ procedures regarding the protest, there have been 20 criminal arrests and charges of individuals connected to the convoy, and more than 500 tickets issued, Sloly added.
Sloly said police âwent after the funding,â which led to GoFundMe removing its online fundraiser for the so-called âFreedom Convoy.â
âThere are other funding avenues that we continue to aggressively go after through intelligence information, co-ordination with financial institutions and all three levels of government,â he said.
Promising to be ârelentless,â Sloly said the police are also going after the fuel deliveries allowing the protesters to stay in place on city streets, citing the operation Sunday night that saw a heavily armed police force seize more than 3,000 litres of fuel, according to protesters.
However, pictures and video on the ground in Ottawa Monday show many , freely walking among parked vehicles and on the street without being stopped or questioned by police.
Every time the police âknock something downâ in relation to the convoy, there are âattempts for it to pop up in four or five other locations,â Sloly said.
âWe are stretched to the limit,â he continued, adding that âevery availableâ officer has been working over the past four days and that the service has cancelled time off.
âSome officers are on their 14th day straight of 12 hours in a row,â Sloly said. âWe have to end this demonstration, we cannot do it aloneâŚ. our people are on the breaking point.â
During a question-and-answer segment after the briefing, Sloly replied to allegations that the protestersâ intentions were well known before arriving to the capital, and that police seemed unable to handle the convoy.
âThis is an unprecedented protest, never seen in Canada,â Sloly said. âThere were certainly indications [that] this would be a demonstration, all of our negotiations with the core convoy stated they would be here on Friday and they would leave on Sunday.â
Sloly said those three-day negotiations were âwell in placeâ days before the convoy arrived.
âWhile there were fringe elements that said everything from insurrection through to negotiation, our core negotiations were a demonstration for three days in the nation's capital and the return of those vehicles and demonstrators to the parts of Canada that they came from, that is what we planned for, that is what we executed,â he continued. âThere was a success around containing that as it turned into more than a demonstration, [and] we have pivoted and we pivoted immediately. We need more resources to deal with an occupation.â
Despite Slolyâs remarks, a âmemorandum of understandingâ prepared ahead of the truckersâ convoy protest converging on Ottawa vowed the protest would persist until all mandates are lifted.
The trucker convoy protest has been described as a âsiegeâ an âoccupationâ and âout of controlâ by , with an estimated 5,000 people and 1,000 trucks and personal vehicles joining the protest this weekend, compared to the estimated 3,000 trucks and up to 15,000 protesters the weekend before.
Despite their more than $10-million fundraiser being removed from GoFundMe, the truckers are still fundraising through other online platforms, including bitcoin wallets.
Among the other fundraising measures the âFreedom Convoyâ has deployed is GiveSendGo, described at a free, Christian crowdfunding site, which has raised more than US$5 million as of Monday afternoon.
In a statement, GiveSendGo said the company has been in contact with the convoy organizers and âhas received full assurance that all funds raised will go to provide humanitarian aid and legal support for the peaceful truckers and their families as they stand for freedom.â
The convoy fundraiser is already GiveSendGoâs highest grossing campaign, according to the statement.
BORDER PROTEST EMERGES IN WINDSOR, ONT.
While Ottawa has been ground zero for the protesters, other smaller demonstrations have emerged across the country in recent days.
The latest of which is in Windsor, Ont.,where protesters have blocked two of the three lanes on the Canadian side of the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor to Detroit.
The Canada Border Services Agency confirmed a demonstration taking place along the border bridge, indicating that those entering Canada are facing a delay of about one hour.
With files from The Canadian Press