Ottawa under 'siege,' officials say, as mayor asks for more help

Ottawa is in a state of emergency as the trucker protest continues to paralyze parts of the nation’s capital, while frustrated downtown residents were granted an injunction to stop the incessant truck horns.

On Monday, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson sent letters to Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying the protest had turned into a “siege of our downtown area,” and asked the provincial and federal governments for an “immediate injection of additional officers.”

“Given the scope and scale of the armada of large trucks that are now occupying our downtown core, we are writing to you today to ask that you work to help the City secure 1,800 officers to quell the insurrection that the Ottawa Police Service is not able to contain,” Watson wrote in the letter.

As part of the 1,800 officers Watson is requesting, he’s looking for 1,000 regular officers, 600 public order officers, 100 investigative officers and 100 civilian staff, in addition to “all supporting resources.”

“We must do everything in our power to take back the streets of Ottawa and our parliamentary precinct, from the criminal activity and hooliganism that has transpired over the last nine days,” Watson wrote.

Speaking in-person during an emergency debate on the protests late Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government is ready to provide more support for Ottawa police.

“We’re convening a table with the relevant federal and municipal parties to further strengthen our response,” he said. “The federal government will be there with whatever resources the province and the city need in this situation.”

Ottawa city council also voted on Monday to ask the province to bring legislation that would allow the government to charge the protesters for the costs of the demonstrations. Police in Ottawa estimate the costs are as high as $2.2 million per day in policing the protests.

Watson told CTV’s Your Morning on Monday that the state of emergency declared on Sunday offers “more flexibility” for city staff to get equipment and supplies without going through extra processes.

“It helps administration do its job, and helps the police do their job,” Watson said, adding that he was happy to see the police be more “proactive” Sunday night. “We’re not interested in making those people comfortable who are illegally blocking city streets.”

“This group says they’re all about freedom and against lockdowns, well they have created a lockdown in our downtown core,” Watson said. “Our number one priority is to end this thing peacefully.”

The federal government, meanwhile, has proposed a trilateral meeting with provincial and municipal governments to lay out plans to end the protest, as the truckers continue to dig in.

• Read more: Fed propose special meeting to end convoy protest

“People in Ottawa have got to get their lives back, we want to help do that,” Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told CTV News’ Power Play. “The convoy should go home, we should see a peaceful resolution to this.”

INJUNCTION GRANTED IN CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT

One of downtown Ottawa residents’ major complaints, the incessant honking, spurred the filing on Friday of a $9.8 million class-action proposed lawsuit on their behalf.

The residents asked for an injunction to be issued to prevent truckers parked on the city streets from honking all day and night. Superior Court Justice Hugh McLean heard the arguments Monday afternoon and granted an injunction for 10 days, which orders the immediate end to the incessant honking from the truckers. 

Christine Johnson, a lawyer with Champ and Associates and co-counsel in the matter, told CTV NewsChannel’s Power Play that anyone caught violating this injunction could be held in contempt and face stiffer penalties than a simple bylaw infraction.

“We’re very happy with this win today,” Johnson said. “We hope that it will bring some reprieve to the citizens of downtown Ottawa.”

Lead plaintiff in the class action suit, Zexi Li, described the current living situation for residents in downtown Ottawa as “unbearable.”

“There are people who have had to evacuate their homes because they can't stand the noise because it is literally, quite literally, torturous to us,” Li told CTV News Channel on Monday. “And we are not going to stay quiet anymore because people need to understand the real damage this is doing to real people.”

Li said she took action because she wanted her community to be heard, and that while she “understands that not everyone is a bad actor” in the convoy, their occupation of the streets is “creating the environment for hate, violence and a general sense of unsafety [sic] and fear to accumulate.”

Johnson said Li has suffered online abuse because of the lawsuit.

“While we’ve had an outpouring of support from many in the community, across the country, both towards our law firm and our very brave client we represent, she’s had also received a lot of vile hatred both directed at her,” Johnson said.

“It takes a lot of courage, as you can imagine, for a young woman to stand up on behalf of her neighbours …  It’s been stressful. It’s been overwhelming and I think she felt as though it was the right thing to do.”

Speaking directly to the “Freedom Convoy,” Li acknowledged they have every right to protest, but said their actions are hurting businesses, residents, animals and children.

“There is a way to do a protest and this, quite frankly, is not it,” she said. “I have witnessed countless violations of the law, and a lot of individuals just act with utter impunity and with no respect to the residents.”

Paul Champ, an Ottawa lawyer who is representing Li and the other residents in the class-action suit, told CTV News Channel Monday that it is really focused on the trucks’ air horns.

“On the ground it’s about 100 decibels, and in your apartment you’re looking at 95 to 90 decibels which is basically like having a lawn mower running in your living room all day,” Champ explained. “It’s torture for the downtown residents in Ottawa.”

Champ said the lawsuit centres on the concept of “private nuisance,” in which others’ actions affect the complainants’ ability to enjoy and use their private property.

“There is precedence on this that for loud noise going for prolonged periods in a day, an individual can get several hundred dollars per day of sound and that’s what we’re seeking on behalf of the downtown residents,” he said.

Trudeau expressed empathy for the people of Ottawa during Monday’s emergency debate.

“The people of Ottawa don’t deserve to be harassed in their own neighbourhoods, they don’t deserve tobe confronted by the inherent violence of a swastika flying on a street corner or a confederate flag,” he said.

POLICE USING ‘SURGE AND CONTAIN’ PROCEDURES

Speaking with CTV News Ottawa on Monday evening, Sloly said demonstrators have been quick to adapt policing measures in the city.

"What was happening during the course of the day is some of the protesters were deliberately filling jerrycans with water, literally drinking out of them to show the police that they weren't gasoline," Sloly said. "Meanwhile, they were carrying gasoline in other containers that would have been carrying water."

Sloly also said officers have been swarmed while trying to make arrests.

"Our officers were surrounded by over 100 demonstrators," he said. "A near-riot broke out within minutes of being on the air here, to do what we've been saying we doing: enforcing and reducing the fuel supply, interdicting the gasoline going in there—at great risk in every single encounter."

In a police briefing Monday afternoon, Ottawa Police Service Chief Peter Sloly said that he too is asking for additional police resources to contain to the protests. 

Since officers began “surge and contain” procedures regarding the protest, there have been 20 criminal arrests and charges of individuals connected to the convoy, and more than 500 tickets issued, Sloly added.

Sloly said police “went after the funding,” which led to GoFundMe removing its online fundraiser for the so-called “Freedom Convoy.”

“There are other funding avenues that we continue to aggressively go after through intelligence information, co-ordination with financial institutions and all three levels of government,” he said.

Promising to be “relentless,” Sloly said the police are also going after the fuel deliveries allowing the protesters to stay in place on city streets, citing the operation Sunday night that saw a heavily armed police force seize more than 3,000 litres of fuel, according to protesters.

However, pictures and video on the ground in Ottawa Monday show many demonstrators carrying fuel containers, freely walking among parked vehicles and on the street without being stopped or questioned by police.

Every time the police “knock something down” in relation to the convoy, there are “attempts for it to pop up in four or five other locations,” Sloly said.

“We are stretched to the limit,” he continued, adding that “every available” officer has been working over the past four days and that the service has cancelled time off.

“Some officers are on their 14th day straight of 12 hours in a row,” Sloly said. “We have to end this demonstration, we cannot do it alone…. our people are on the breaking point.”

During a question-and-answer segment after the briefing, Sloly replied to allegations that the protesters’ intentions were well known before arriving to the capital, and that police seemed unable to handle the convoy.

“This is an unprecedented protest, never seen in Canada,” Sloly said. “There were certainly indications [that] this would be a demonstration, all of our negotiations with the core convoy stated they would be here on Friday and they would leave on Sunday.”

Sloly said those three-day negotiations were “well in place” days before the convoy arrived.

“While there were fringe elements that said everything from insurrection through to negotiation, our core negotiations were a demonstration for three days in the nation's capital and the return of those vehicles and demonstrators to the parts of Canada that they came from, that is what we planned for, that is what we executed,” he continued. “There was a success around containing that as it turned into more than a demonstration, [and] we have pivoted and we pivoted immediately. We need more resources to deal with an occupation.”

Despite Sloly’s remarks, a “memorandum of understanding” prepared ahead of the truckers’ convoy protest converging on Ottawa vowed the protest would persist until all mandates are lifted.

The trucker convoy protest has been described as a “siege” an “occupation” and “out of control” by Ottawa officials, with an estimated 5,000 people and 1,000 trucks and personal vehicles joining the protest this weekend, compared to the estimated 3,000 trucks and up to 15,000 protesters the weekend before.

Despite their more than $10-million fundraiser being removed from GoFundMe, the truckers are still fundraising through other online platforms, including bitcoin wallets.

Among the other fundraising measures the “Freedom Convoy” has deployed is GiveSendGo, described at a free, Christian crowdfunding site, which has raised more than US$5 million as of Monday afternoon.

In a statement, GiveSendGo said the company has been in contact with the convoy organizers and “has received full assurance that all funds raised will go to provide humanitarian aid and legal support for the peaceful truckers and their families as they stand for freedom.”

The convoy fundraiser is already GiveSendGo’s highest grossing campaign, according to the statement.

BORDER PROTEST EMERGES IN WINDSOR, ONT.

While Ottawa has been ground zero for the protesters, other smaller demonstrations have emerged across the country in recent days.

The latest of which is in Windsor, Ont.,where protesters have blocked two of the three lanes on the Canadian side of the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor to Detroit.

The Canada Border Services Agency confirmed a demonstration taking place along the border bridge, indicating that those entering Canada are facing a delay of about one hour.

With files from The Canadian Press