On Day 28 of the Truckers for Freedom Convoy, police shot a journalist with a gas canister, protesters on Wellington Street were driven back and demonstrators remained defiant in cities across the country.
Police resumed aggressively herding protesters off of Wellington Street today. Tensions remained extremely high as the line of officers advanced in front of the protesters at the foot of Canada’s Parliament Buildings.
Rebel News journalist Alexa Lavoie was live-streaming the moment a police officer shot her in the leg with a gas canister from point-blank range. She was also struck repeatedly with a police baton.
Here was Alexa’s entire live stream leading up to the shocking display of police force.
Police continued to use aggressive tactics against protesters.
Quebec police who arrived on the scene to back up the Ottawa officers appeared to have removed their name tags and badge numbers from their uniforms.
Protesters were seen kneeling before police multiple times today in order to pray.
True North’s Andrew Lawton documented the scenes live from Wellington Street as the police cleared the route.
Freedom Convoy co-organizer Tom Marazzo held a press conference on Saturday where he called for protesters to make a peaceful withdrawal from Ottawa.
“There isn’t anything to be gained by being brutalized by police,” Marazzo said.
He went on to stress that this was not a defeat and that the withdrawal is merely one battle in a larger war.
Marazzo criticized the shocking abuse of power displayed by provincial and federal law enforcement, saying there was no violence until the police arrived.
“Never in my life would I believe anyone if they told me that our prime minister would refuse dialogue, and choose violence against peaceful protesters,” he said.
Marazzo announced that the truckers would be initiating a Charter challenge against vaccine mandates and that legal counsel for those arrested and/or injured by police was being arranged.
Several of the Freedom Convoy organizers had already been arrested, including Chris Barber, Danny Bulford, and Tamara Lich.
Appearing in court on a ‘counselling to commit mischief’ charge today, Lich learned that she will be forced to stay in jail until Tuesday while a judge considers whether or not to grant bail.
Ottawa Police announced they were live-tweeting events today in an attempt to “combat misinformation” coming out of media reports.
Claiming they had not used tear gas, the police specified that the gas they had deployed against a journalist was a “chemical irritant” used against protesters who were “assaulting” officers.
“Protesters continue to be aggressive and assaultive on officers. They are refusing to comply with the orders to move. You will have seen officers use a chemical irritant in an effort to stop the assaultive behavior and for officer safety,” Ottawa Police tweeted.
Ottawa Police also posted graphics with the number of arrests made throughout the day. By the afternoon, they claimed 47 arrests and that they had cleared the protesters from Wellington and O’Connor.
Meanwhile, interim Ottawa Police chief Steve Bell said in a press conference that anyone involved in the protests could expect to be charged after investigations that could take months.
“If you are involved in this protest, we will actively look to identify you and follow up with financial sanctions and criminal charges,” Bell said.
Despite these threats and heavy police presence, protesters remained defiant.
In Ottawa, large crowds kept dancing.
In cities across Canada, demonstrators gathered again to continue their protest against the lengthening government overreach and ongoing COVID restrictions.
Here was a crowd in Toronto singing O Canada.
A huge crowd of people gathered in Calgary.
The largest protest outside of Ottawa was in Quebec City.
This was the scene.
The House of Commons resumed debate over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s implementation of the Emergencies Act today after the Liberal government cancelled the session on Friday.
Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis spoke out against the unprecedented measure, announcing she intends to vote on Monday to defeat it.
The Givesendgo set up by the Truckers for Freedom Convoy organizers had reached USD $9,702,091 by the time this article was published.
