Ottawa Police Crack Down on Trucker Protest: What You Should Know – CNET [CNET]

Law enforcement plans to keep at it until the streets are cleared.

Police cracked down Friday on the trucker protest in Canada, arresting 70 people so far, according to Interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell. 

“We will run this operation 24 hours a day until the residents and community have their entire city back,” Bell said.

Protesters demonstrating against COVID-19 vaccine requirements have been occupying parts of Ottawa, the country’s capital, and blockading major international crossings. On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the federal Emergencies Act to strengthen support for law enforcement. 

“The blockades are harming our economy and endangering public safety,” Trudeau said at a news conference. “We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue. The time to go home is now.”

Calling themselves members of a “Freedom Convoy,” demonstrators across Canada set out in late January to protest the country’s vaccine requirements. Their presence in Ottawa has led to disturbances, including truck horns blaring night and day and alleged property damage and hate crimes. 

The protest hasn’t accomplished its goal of stopping vaccine requirements in the country, but it has put stress on supply lines between Canada and the US. It’s also inspired similar protests against pandemic restrictions in other countries around the world, including New Zealand, Australia and France. There are also plans for a demonstration in the US in March. 

COVID-19 vaccines are safe and highly effective at preventing hospitalization and death, and public health measures like masking and social distancing have helped slow the spread of the virus. The dangers of the illness are clear. To date, more than 900,000 people in the US have died of COVID-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 

Both Canada and the US agreed to vaccination requirements last October for truckers going back and forth across the border. A vast majority of Canadian truck drivers have already been vaccinated, leaving a small but vocal minority of a few hundred truckers behind this convoy. They’ve been joined by people outside the industry who are opposed to vaccine requirements.

Here’s what you need to know. 

How did this protest start?

Last October, the Canadian and US governments established a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for truckers crossing the border between the two countries. It was set to take effect on Jan. 22 for the US and Jan. 15 for Canada. Drivers of commercial vehicles who didn’t show proof of vaccination would be barred entry. 

A group called Canada Unity protested the requirement and raised funds on the crowdfunding site GoFundMe for a cross-country convoy in mid-January. According to Sky News, the group’s founder is a “supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory” and has called for Trudeau to be “put on trial for treason over his COVID policies.”

Protesters departed from Prince Rupert, British Columbia, on the west coast of Canada, with a plan to travel across the country to Ottawa. They have since demanded that the Canadian government stop the vaccine passport, contract tracing programs, vaccine mandates and divisive rhetoric. 

On Jan. 22, the Canadian Trucking Alliance came out against the protest, saying that interfering with public safety isn’t the way to demonstrate disagreement with government policies. 

“The Government of Canada and the United States have now made being vaccinated a requirement to cross the border. This regulation is not changing, so as an industry, we must adapt and comply with this mandate,” CTA president Stephen Laskowski said. “The only way to cross the border, in a commercial truck or any other vehicle, is to get vaccinated.”

The Canadian Trucking Alliance also said a vast majority of truckers were already vaccinated, and Trudeau has said almost 90% of truck drivers in the country are vaccinated, according to Global News. 

What happened when the convoy reached Ottawa? 

The convoy reached Ottawa on Jan. 29 with an estimated 300 to 400 trucks, along with hundreds more passenger vehicles and thousands of participants. Former Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly said Monday that 3,000 trucks entered the city. Sloly resigned as police chief Tuesday amid criticism over his handling of the protest. He was replaced by Interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell.

In the almost three weeks since they arrived in Ottawa, protesters have parked their trucks across the city and have organized multiple demonstrations. Though some protests continue to be focused on the vaccine requirements, others have reportedly grown to include various far-right and anti-government causes. 

The CTA has said many of the protesters “have no connection to the trucking industry and have a separate agenda beyond a disagreement over cross border vaccine requirements,” according to M Live. 

There’s also a significant showing of adherents of QAnon, the right-wing conspiracy theory that believes the bogus notion that former US President Donald Trump led a secret war against a cabal of Satanist pedophiles within the Democratic Party and Hollywood. 

On Feb. 5, Ottawa’s police department said on Twitter that it’s received hundreds of calls for service since the demonstrations started, with more than 50 offenses being investigated, including hate crimes. 

Police have responded to over 400 calls for service related to the demonstrations since they began.

In total, over 50 criminal offences are being investigated—11 of those were hate crimes which resulted in charges against four people. #ottawa #ottnews

— Ottawa Police (@OttawaPolice) February 5, 2022

Truckers blared their horns day and night during the demonstration. On Feb. 7, an Ontario Superior Court judge granted a 10-day injunction to stop the horns, after a proposed class-action lawsuit for $98 million was filed over the constant honking.

After the convoy reached Ottawa, other protests across the country kicked off, including blockades of bridges between the US and Canada. This compelled automaker factories in and around Detroit to curtail operations due to lack of parts, causing an estimated $51 million in lost workers’ wages. On Sunday, border crossings were cleared. The Alberta Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported Monday that it found handguns, long guns and a large quantity of ammunition, resulting in 11 arrests at one of the blockades that was cleared. 

How has the Canadian government reacted to the protest? 

Most law enforcement activity since demonstrators arrived in the capital on Jan. 29 came at the local level, largely leaving the Ottawa police to handle the problem. That changed Monday when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the federal Emergencies Act, the first time this act has been used in half a century. 

Under the Emergencies Act, Trudeau has powers to mobilize federal law enforcement and even the military to defend against threats to Canada’s security. He said Monday that the measures will allow the police to administer fines and imprison offenders, as well as secure critical places and infrastructure.

Along with mobilizing federal forces to quell the protest, Trudeau also has the authority to bar travel across borders, evacuate people from areas and freeze bank accounts, which police began doing Thursday. The Ontario Provincial Police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police also sanctioned 34 crypto wallets. 

What was the controversy with GoFundMe?

As word spread about the trucker protest, its GoFundMe campaign grew substantially. The campaign had reached nearly $8 million when the crowdfunding site pulled the plug. 

A statement from GoFundMe on Feb. 4 explained the decision to stop the “Freedom Convoy 2020” crowdfunding campaign, citing multiple instances of crimes being committed. 

“We now have evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity,” the company said in its statement. 

GoFundMe said such activity goes against its terms of service, which prohibits the promotion of behavior that supports “hate, violence, harassment, bullying, discrimination, terrorism, or intolerance of any kind.”

Initially, GoFundMe said it would donate the funds from the campaign to charities approved by the campaign organizers, while providing a refund to people who requested one. Then on Feb. 5, it updated its statement, saying that due to donor feedback, it would automatically refund all donations made. 

Organizers of the protest moved their campaign to the Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo, which is reportedly a safe haven for far-right figures looking to raise money online. The trucker protest has since raised more than $8.6 million. 

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted a request on Feb. 10 to freeze the distribution of donations made through GiveSendGo. Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey submitted the application to the court to prohibit the distribution of funds, citing a section in the province’s criminal code. 

On Sunday, GiveSendGo was reportedly hacked and more than 92,000 donors’ information was leaked online. According to screenshots shared online, a hacker left a message on the front page of the site saying, “On behalf of sane people worldwide who wish to continue living in a democracy, I am telling you that GiveSendGo itself is frozen.” 

BREAKING: GiveSendGo, the crowdfunding website used by the Freedom Convoy, is now redirecting to the domain GiveSendGone[.]wtf.

A video from the Disney film Frozen now appears alongside a manifesto condemning the website and the Freedom Convoy. pic.twitter.com/3TLAwfvZ3w

— Mikael Thalen (@MikaelThalen) February 14, 2022

GiveSendGo stayed down Monday but returned Tuesday. In a tweet, the company said the hack happened Sunday night and that no credit card information was leaked and no money was stolen. However, the DailyDot reported that a leak appeared online containing partial credit card information. 

GiveSendGo said its cybersecurity team took down the site to prevent any further hacks and conducted audits to make sure the site was secure. On Friday, a tweet from the site said some funds had been paid out to one of the campaigns, but that there are discussions on what legal options are available to disperse the rest of the money.

Is a trucker protest coming to the US? 

More protests could happen, though it isn’t yet clear exactly how they’d take shape. 

A memo from the US Department of Homeland Security sent Feb. 8 to law enforcement agencies warned of a possible convoy starting at the Super Bowl in Los Angeles on Sunday and making its way across the country to Washington, where Biden is scheduled to give the State of the Union address on March 1. 

There were no reports of a similar protest happening in LA during the big game. 

Fox News host Tucker Carlson said on Feb. 10 during his show that there’s a plan for a cross-country convoy to happen in March. Meanwhile, right-wing news network Newsmax reported that the protest, dubbed the “People’s Convoy,” could start Feb. 23. 

If what I’m seeing out there this morning is any indication of sentiment, my take is that these folks already feel the oxygen leaving the room. Time will tell if this confusion and date swap affects would-be turnout pic.twitter.com/QLBR6h8TGl

— Jared Holt (@jaredlholt) February 15, 2022