Justin Trudeau said he would send any help needed to the city after the Ottawa mayor called for another 1,800 police officers.
Nearly two weeks after truck drivers began protesting in the Canadian capital against the mandatory vaccination program, Ottawa police warned that protesters, who they described as “determined” and “unpredictable,” were still in town.
A state of emergency has been declared in Ottawa since Sunday. At the same time, an important border crossing between the United States and Canada, which was closed by truck drivers on Monday night, has been partially reopened.
As truck drivers sit longer in Ottawa, police try to contain the chaos in the city.
Demonstrations by truckers called the “Freedom Caravan” began on January 9 in the west of the country. They were protesting against new regulations requiring vaccination against Covid-19 to cross the US-Canada border.
But the protests have now escalated into outrage over a set of restrictions on Covid and Justin Trudeau’s government in general.
Protesting drivers have been protesting with their trucks in downtown Ottawa for the past two weeks. Residents of the capital say the atmosphere in the city was tense, especially on Saturdays and Sundays when thousands of protesters poured into the city center.
Steve Bell warned senior city police officials on Tuesday that they would face the consequences if protesters came to the capital.
Ottawa Deputy Mayor Laura Dodas also expressed dissatisfaction with the situation on Tuesday.
“This is no longer a peaceful dialogue or an attempt at negotiation, but the taking of the entire city of Ottawa hostage,” he told the BBC.
While most of the protests were peaceful, Ottawa police said they were concerned about extremist slogans chanted by far-right groups.
In addition to shouting racist slogans, the Nazi symbol is said to have been displayed.
Ottawa police say they are investigating nearly 80 incidents, including crimes that could have arisen out of hatred. Police have arrested more than 20 people so far.
Mr Trudeau said in a statement on Monday that Canadians were “shocked and disgusted” by the behavior of some of the protesters.
Even before Sunday and the announcement of the state of emergency in Ottawa, the city center was paralyzed for a week, as hundreds of trucks parked there, forcing business protesters to close their doors.
Residents of the city are also frustrated by the sound of truck horns. On Monday, a court in Ottawa ruled that truckers could not blow the horn for ten days.
However, the drivers say that their demonstration is peaceful. Defending the protesters’ actions, a truck driver lamented that the lives of ordinary people had changed, but said the government could not tell them what to do or not to do, referring to the vaccination program.
Police officers near the truckers’ dormitory
Protests have also spread to other Canadian cities, including Toronto and Vancouver. In Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, and Canberra in Australia, protesters took to the streets in support of them.
At the same time, it is reported that Canada’s busiest border crossing, which was closed by protesting drivers, has been partially reopened.
Truck drivers blocked the Ambassador Bridge Monday night, creating a line of hundreds of vehicles across the border.
According to police in Michigan and Windsor, protest drivers took off authorities before the nine night of local time on Monday, when the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudo was trying to “block the economy “Accused.
Built over the Detroit River, the bridge is a major crossroads between Canada and the United States, with more than 40,000 people and goods worth $ 323 million crossing daily.