Canada truckers hold ground ahead of 'imminent' police action

Hundreds of truckers clogging the streets in Canada’s capital stood their ground and defiantly blasted their horns as police poured in for what the protesters feared could be an attempt to break up their nearly three-week demonstration against the country’s Covid-19 restrictions.

Busloads of police officers arrived near Ottawa's Parliament Hill, and workers put up extra fences around government buildings.

"The action is imminent," said interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell. "We absolutely are committed to end this unlawful demonstration."

Police continued negotiating with the protesters and trying to persuade them to go home, Bell said. "We want this demonstration to end peacefully," he said, but added: "If they do not peacefully leave, we have plans."

Bell said authorities have "begun to harden the perimeter around the protests," including installing security barriers and restricting access to the downtown area occupied by protests against Covid rules. 

Many of the truckers in the self-styled Freedom Convoy appeared unmoved by days of warnings from police and the government that they were risking arrest and could see their rigs seized and bank accounts frozen.

"I'm prepared to sit on my ass and watch them hit me with pepper spray," said one of their leaders, Pat King. As for the trucks parked bumper-to-bumper, he said: "There are no tow trucks in Canada that will touch them."

READ MORE: Canada police warn truckers to leave ahead of possible showdown

Challenge to Trudeau

Amid the rising tensions, truckers outside Parliament blared their horns in defiance of a court injunction against honking, issued for the benefit of neighborhood residents.

Ottawa represented the movement's last stronghold after weeks of demonstrations and blockades that shut down border crossings into the US, inflicted economic damage on both countries and created a political crisis for Trudeau.

The protests have shaken Canada's reputation for civility and rule-following and inspired similar convoys in France, New Zealand and the Netherlands. 

"It's high time that these illegal and dangerous activities stop," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared in Parliament, not far from where more than 300 trucks were parked.

"They are a threat to our economy and our relationship with trading partners," he said. "They are a threat to public safety."

Early this week, the prime minister invoked Canada's Emergencies Act, empowering law enforcement authorities to declare the blockades illegal, tow away trucks, arrest the drivers, suspend their licenses and take other measures.

READ MORE: Canada invokes emergency powers to quell trucker blockades

Right-wing extremists enter fray

On Thursday, Trudeau and some of his top ministers took turns warning the protesters to leave, in an apparent move by the government to avert a clash, or at least show it had gone the extra mile to avoid one.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government began freezing truckers' accounts as threatened. "It is happening. I do have the numbers in front of me," she said.

Ottawa police likewise handed out leaflets for the second straight day demanding the truckers end the siege, and also helpfully placed notices on vehicles informing owners how and where to pick up their trucks if they are towed.

The movement has drawn support from right-wing extremists and veterans, some of them armed — one reason authorities have hesitated to move against them.

Some security experts said that dispersing the protest in Ottawa could be tricky and dangerous, with the potential for violence, and that a heavy-handed law enforcement response could be used as propaganda by anti-government extremists.

READ MORE: Canada warns US officials against support for truckers' 'siege'

READ MORE: “Freedom Convoy” exposes the fragmentation in French politics