As the second week of anti-mandate demonstrations at Parliament Hill continues, the response by the Ottawa Police Service and city officials is under fire by some local residents.<\/p>\n
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared a city-wide state of emergency<\/a> on Sunday in a move which some city councillors are calling \u201cperformative.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n A special meeting of city council <\/a>on Monday inflamed tensions between city councillors after Kitchissippi Ward Coun. Jeff Leiper moved to postpone regular committee and council meetings to allow councillors in affected areas to focus on the occupation. The motion was denied, losing 10 - 14.<\/p>\n Catherine McKinney, councillor for Somerset Ward, which encompasses downtown Ottawa, Lebreton Flats, and Centretown and Centretown West, expressed their disappointment at the motion\u2019s outcome.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Federal Government of Canada has lost control of its capital,\u201d said McKinney. \u201cThe City of Ottawa has lost control of its residential neighbourhoods. Both have fallen to a mob.\u201d<\/p>\n Council met again on Wednesday to discuss their regular agenda and ultimately approved McKenney's motion, delaying regular meetings until after Feb. 18.<\/p>\n Robin Browne, co-lead of Ottawa\u2019s 613-819 Black Hub, has advocated for the defunding of the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) for years<\/a>. He says the OPS response to the convoy\u2019s occupation is \u201cthe best argument\u201d to defund the police.<\/p>\n \u201cIf these truckers were Black, we all know what would be happening,\u201d says Browne. \u201cThey\u2019d bring in the riot squad, there would be tear gas, they would bring in the big trucks to haul them. It's a double standard and is a racist one.\u201d<\/p>\n He asserts that the police handling of BIPOC protesters differs drastically from the way they have addressed the situation downtown.<\/p>\n In 2020, Ottawa police arrested 12 demonstrators<\/a> for shutting down an intersection at Laurier Avenue and Nicholas Street. The protesters, who were young people of colour, according to Browne, were acting in response to the acquittal of Const. Daniel Montsion in the death of Abdirahman Abdi<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cKnowing that those folks had a meeting set up with councillors and members of the police for the next day and [that] they would likely end the protest, Sloly sent the police at three o'clock in the morning, broke up the protests violently, and charged 12 of them,\u201d says Browne. \u201cThose charges hung over their heads for a year.\u201d<\/p>\n Browne believes the OPS handling of the convoy has been deliberately slow. He indicates that the police took over a week to begin ticketing and charging demonstrators at Parliament Hill and in the downtown region.<\/p>\n \u201cThey should have been arresting a lot more people this time, because people are running around and breaking the law,\u201d says Browne.<\/p>\n Browne isn\u2019t alone in his suspicions regarding OPS conduct.<\/p>\n On Monday, city councillors also questioned who would foot the bill for the more than $1-million daily operational costs of the occupation. OPS Chief Peter Sloly assured council that the costs would not impact the police budget, saying they had already appealed to the federal and provincial governments for financial help.<\/p>\n Leiper asked Sloly if the police are \u201cas reticent as they were a week ago to enforce the law.\u201d<\/p>\n Sloly says he is \u201c100 per cent committed\u201d to ending the conflict lawfully and without violence, but indicated that police resources are spread thin.<\/p>\n \u201cI know you want a simple answer to a very straightforward question,\u201d says Sloly. \u201cI cannot give you that.\u201d<\/p>\n On Friday, the OPS announced<\/a> it would implement a \u201csurge and contain\u201d strategy to \u201cprevent and reduce the impacts of demonstrators entering the downtown core and improve neighbourhood safety.\u201d<\/p>\n On Monday, Sloly said the strategy was largely successful, citing the dismantling of demonstrator camps at Confederation Park and Coventry Road.<\/p>\n McKenney says the situation for their constituents, many of whom reside in affected areas, has only worsened since the convoy arrived.<\/p>\n \u201cI am more worried for my residents today\u2026than I was last Monday,\u201d says McKenney. \u201cI can tell you that for anyone who thinks that this past weekend was more successful than last has not considered what that means for residents. Residents were living in terror this past weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n The police have so far made over 20 arrests<\/a> in relation to the demonstrations. They are investigating over 85 criminal offences, including attempted arson<\/a> at an apartment building on Lisgar Street.<\/p>\n Listen to the CHUO News story below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the second week of anti-mandate demonstrations at Parliament Hill continues, the response by the Ottawa Police Service and city officials is under fire by some local residents. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared a city-wide state of emergency on Sunday in a move which some city councillors are calling \u201cperformative.\u201d A special meeting of city…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":81497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,3265,225],"tags":[7947,4611,12262,12256,12486,12485,12484,10713,8076,12398,563,938,12255],"radio":[1290],"origine":[267,269,1571],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81270"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81270"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=81270"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=81270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}