Police target fuel supply for ‘Freedom Convoy’ demonstration in Ottawa

Ottawa police moved to cut off fuel supplies to the “Freedom Convoy” demonstrators occupying downtown Ottawa, hours after Mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency due to the ongoing demonstration.

Dozens of armed police officers and firefighters moved into a parking lot at the Ottawa Baseball Stadium on Coventry Road just before 7 p.m. Sunday, seizing 3,200 litres of fuel being stored in the parking lot

“They swooped in, it sounds like, quite quickly and took all the propane and all the fuel and left, in a very big show of force,” reported CTV News Ottawa chief anchor Graham Richardson.  “Some of the truckers are quite angry, started yelling at me. They’re clearly not happy.”

Police have said the stadium five kilometres away from Parliament Hill has been turned into a staging area for the demonstration over COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other public health measures. 

Police have also said several people were arrested downtown on mischief charges for transporting fuel to demonstrators. Deputy Chief Steve Bell told CTV News at Six this is the next step in the enforcement to deal with the ongoing protest downtown.

“Look at how we limit things moving in and out of the protest area,” said Bell.

“We’ve really focused and targeted on removing the access of gasoline to the area and we’ve had several seizures and several arrests related to that.”

Ottawa police said seven people were arrested on Sunday, and 100 tickets were issued.