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Ottawa’s police chief resigns amid truck protest in Canada

Published:Tuesday | February 15, 2022 | 3:58 PM
A person walks among trucks as Wellington Street is lined with trucks once again after city officials negotiated to move some trucks towards Parliament and away from downtown residences, on the 18th day of a protest against COVID-19 measures that has grown into a broader anti-government protest, in Ottawa, on Monday, February 14, 2022. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Ottawa's police chief resigned Tuesday amid criticism of his inaction against the trucker protests that have paralysed Canada's capital for over two weeks, while demonstrators elsewhere across the country abandoned another one of their blockades at the United States border.

Trucks with horns blaring rolled out of the southern Alberta town of Coutts, across from Montana, ending the siege that had disrupted trade for more than two weeks. Police earlier this week arrested 11 people at the obstructed crossing and seized guns and ammunition.

The two developments came a day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked extraordinary emergency powers to try to end the occupation in Ottawa and elsewhere around the country. Across Canada and beyond, the question in the coming days will be whether it works.

In Ottawa, the bumper-to-bumper demonstration by hundreds of truck drivers against the country's COVID-19 restrictions — and the failure of Police Chief Peter Sloly to break the siege early on — have infuriated many residents.

They have complained of being harassed and intimidated by protesters.

Sloly's resignation was confirmed by a government official who was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. A message seeking comment from Sloly through the Ottawa police force was not immediately returned.

Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said it is time for police to begin using their broad authority conferred under Canada's Emergencies Act, which allows the government to ban the blockades and begin towing away trucks.

“We have given new powers to police, and we need them to do the job now,” he said late Monday after Trudeau announced he was invoking the law.

Government leaders have not indicated when or where the crackdowns on the self-styled Freedom Convoy would begin. Mendicino said they were still working out the details on where the prohibited zones will be.

The government will be able to ban blockades at border crossings, airports and in Ottawa; freeze truckers' personal and corporate bank accounts and suspend their licenses; and target crowd-funding sites that are being used to support the blockades.

It also can force tow trucks to move the big rigs out of intersections and neighbourhoods. Up to now, some towing companies have been reluctant to cooperate because of their support for the truckers or fears of violence.

The protesters around the country are decrying vaccine mandates for truckers and other COVID-19 precautions and venting their anger toward Trudeau's Liberal government.

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