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The police again called on the activists on Sunday to leave the city center. More than 450 fines have been issued since Saturday, including for dangerous driving and noise pollution. Several activists have been arrested. Nearly 100 investigations have been opened, including into hate crimes, police said.
Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly estimated the number of protesters at 5,000 on Saturday. About a thousand trucks and other vehicles blocked the downtown area. Residents were urged to avoid downtown.
The protest in Ottawa started a week ago with a meeting of a convoy of several hundred trucks. The self-proclaimed ‘Freedom Convoy’ and the activists have been based in the city, near the parliament, ever since.
The protest was prompted by the vaccination requirement for truckers returning from the US, which was introduced in January. In the meantime, the protest is directed against the corona measures as a whole.
Despite the protest, a large part of the Canadian population supports the corona measures, according to a recently published poll. In Canada, nearly eight in ten residents are fully vaccinated.