Starting at midnight today, a state of emergency was declared in Ottawa as the “Freedom Convoy” protests against vaccination mandates and heavy handed covid restrictions continues on. Police are outnumbered by thousands of protesters, with some estimates saying that 5,000 protesters are still in Ottawa. Rather than taking the protesters on directly to attempt to bring an end to the demonstration that has embarrassed the government and weakend their mandate to continue authoritarian covid policies, police have now been ordered to arrest anyone attempting to bring fuel and material support to the protesters. “Anyone attempting to bring material supports (gas, etc.) to the demonstrators could be subject to arrest. Enforcement is underway,” the Ottawa Police tweeted.
IMPORTANT: Anyone attempting to bring material supports (gas, etc.) to the demonstrators could be subject to arrest. Enforcement is underway. #ottawa #ottnews pic.twitter.com/tp4e5d2xe1
— Ottawa Police (@OttawaPolice) February 6, 2022
Today, police started arresting people for attempting to bring aid to the truckers. In one video that was shot before midnight, which was supposed to be when the state of emergency would take effect, police can be seen detaining someone with wagons filled with jerry fans of fuel. The supporter can be heard saying that police are “starving families”. Truckers need fuel to keep warm at night as temperatures in Ottawa are expected to be as low as 10 degrees tonight.
Footage provided to Rebel News shows Ottawa police attempting to arrest someone for bringing fuel to the convoy before the midnight sate of emergency goes into effect https://t.co/XQqZr4vN0X for more. pic.twitter.com/F9hHsh24jp
— Mauricio (@_m2pacheco) February 7, 2022
In another video, police can be seen confiscating a truckers fuel supply as protesters chant “Shame!” Previous coverage of the protests by 100PercentFedUp has shown children present at the protests who will be left without food and heat in freezing temperatures
Footage received from a convoy supporter. Police caught in the middle of seizing the trucker’s fuel supply.
Follow our reports at https://t.co/VfgKKYKzKr
And you can help the truckers at https://t.co/EWuXmVRhvM#TruckersConvoy2022 #Convoy2022 pic.twitter.com/c6zFl95Ul8
— Alexandra Lavoie (@ThevoiceAlexa) February 7, 2022
While some accounts of the protest appear bleak, many protesters remain defiant and have said they will continue to remain in Ottawa. One protester said that police in his area only seized a few jerry cans of fuel and that it was an attempted ‘intimidation’ tactic, but most of the protest camp remained intact.
Actually it seems like they are fine! pic.twitter.com/5fLUAfB9vJ
— Leila Mechoui (@leilamechoui) February 7, 2022