Canadian police regain control of downtown Ottawa

(Image credit: ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP via Getty Images)

published 21 February 2022

Canadian police fenced off parts of downtown Ottawa on Sunday to reestablish control of the capital city after a weekend crackdown ended the so-called Freedom Convoy protest against COVID-19 restrictions. Officers made 191 arrests and towed nearly 80 vehicles. Truckers started the demonstration more than three weeks ago, blocking city streets with parked trucks to protest a vaccine mandate on cross-border truck drivers.

The demonstration grew as others came to express opposition to other coronavirus restrictions. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week invoked emergency powers to give the government authority to shut down the protest. Police said they had gathered intelligence on departing protesters "to make sure that these illegal activities don't return to our streets."

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.