Ottawa declares state of emergency over 'serious danger' posed by anti-mandate protest

Police in Ottawa.
(Image credit: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency on Sunday in response to the anti–vaccine mandate protest roiling Canada's capital, saying this declaration "reflects the serious danger and threat to the safety and security of residents posed by the ongoing demonstrations and highlights the need for support from other jurisdictions and levels of government."

Watson told CBC News that the state of emergency "gives our staff and our city a few extra tools to speed things up like procurement. We're in the midst of a serious emergency, the most serious emergency our city has ever faced, and we need to cut the red tape to get these supplies available to our police officers and to our public works staff."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.