Police end truckers protest in Canadian capital

The last big trucks were being towed out of Canada’s capital on Sunday, which was calm for the first time in three weeks after a police operation ended a lengthy protest against Covid-19 health regulations.

Workers were busy cleaning the snowy streets of downtown Ottawa, where riot police staged two days of clashes with trucker-led protesters, finally clearing them completely from outside Parliament, the epicenter of the protest.

The last of the protesters stayed late into the night on Saturday, singing 1980s-era protest anthems and setting off fireworks in front of a four-meter-high security fence that has been hastily erected around the parliamentary compound.

But the protest turned into a street party ended up dying when a strong frost took over the city.

On Sunday morning, police guarded several checkpoints that restricted access to a large area of ​​downtown Ottawa – some 200 hectares – while the heavy deployment of security forces occupied the land reclaimed from truckers.

The Ottawa Police issued a reminder to ban traffic on that perimeter except for local residents and workers.

By mid-morning it had been reported that two people had been arrested, bringing the number of detainees to 191.

He also said that so far 57 vehicles have been towed out of the city, which has been paralyzed since hundreds of trucks, vans, and other vehicles parked there in protest on Jan. 29.

Meanwhile, cleanup crews tore down the last of the tents, food stalls, and other makeshift structures by protesters, and shoveled mounds of snow from streets to prepare for the reopening of local businesses.

And, for the first time in weeks, Ottawa residents weren’t startled awake by the incessant honking, which had become a staple of the protests.