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Police officers at the truck blockade: Increased presence in Ottawa
Photo: Adrian Wyld/AP
Ottawa Police are preparing to clear the blockade of protesting truck drivers.
On Thursday, it significantly increased its presence in the Canadian capital.
Numerous police officers were bussed into the parliament district, where hundreds of trucks in so-called "freedom" convoys have been blocking the streets for weeks.
With the action, the truck drivers are opposing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's corona policy.
Trudeau announced on Monday that he would end the blockades with an emergency law.
This gives the authorities more legal powers to arrest protesters, confiscate their trucks and cut off funding for the protests.
Interim police chief Steve Bell gave the protesters an ultimatum on Wednesday and threatened arrests.
In the coming days, the police will evacuate "the entire city center and every occupied place," Bell announced.
Some of the techniques that could be used "are not what we're used to seeing in Ottawa," warned the police chief, "but we're ready to use them to restore order."
Trudeau defended emergency legislation
Prime Minister Trudeau defended the government's decision to implement the emergency legislation in Parliament on Thursday.
"Illegal blockades and occupations are not peaceful protests," he said.
"They have to stop." He stressed that the emergency laws would not be used to use the military against the demonstrators.
The goal is simply "to deal with the current threat and bring the situation completely under control."
At the weekend, the authorities had already cleared the important Ambassador border bridge, which connects the Canadian province of Ontario with the US metropolis of Detroit.
Other border crossings as well as Ottawa remain blocked.
The actions of the truck drivers had started in protest against the vaccination requirement at border crossings, which had been introduced by Canada and the USA in mid-January.
Unvaccinated Canadian truck drivers must therefore go into a 14-day quarantine when returning from the USA, while US drivers without a vaccination are not allowed into the country at all.
The protests are now generally directed against the corona rules and against the government of Prime Minister Trudeau.
ptz/AFP