Canadian police arresting protesters, towing rigs in Ottawa

Authorities in Canada are pushing back and arresting protesters who have paralysed traffic in Ottawa for three weeks in a demonstration against the country’s COVID-19 restrictions

Police began arresting demonstrators and towing away vehicles Friday in Canada's besieged capital city, and a stream of trucks soon began leaving under the pressure, raising authorities' hopes for an end to the three-week protest against the country's COVID-19 restrictions.

The crackdown on the self-styled Freedom Convoy began in the morning, when hundreds of police, some in riot gear and some carrying automatic weapons, descended into the protest zone and began leading demonstrators away in handcuffs as holdout truckers blared their horns in protest. Police smashed through the door of at least one RV camper before hauling it away.

A steady procession of trucks began leaving Parliament Hill in the afternoon as lines of officers pushed through the streets.

Tow truck operators — wearing neon-green ski masks, with their companies’ decals taped over on their trucks to conceal their identities — arrived under police escort and got to work removing the big rigs, campers and other vehicles parked bumper to bumper and shoulder to shoulder near Parliament.

Scuffles broke out in places, and police repeatedly went nose-to-nose with the protesters and pushed the crowd back amid cries of “Freedom!” and the singing of the national anthem, “O Canada.”

Hours into the show of force, authorities said 21 people had been arrested and roughly two dozen vehicles had been towed, including all of those blocking one of city's major streets. There was no immediate word of any injuries in one of the biggest police enforcement actions in Canada’s history, with officers drawn from around the country.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said around midday: “There are indications we are now starting to see progress.”