Frustrations are boiling over in Canada’s capital as a protest by truckers against Covid-19 vaccine mandates has clogged downtown Ottawa for a week and shows no sign of ending, Reuters reports, with many residents angry at police for not breaking it up.
Dozens of trucks in the so-called “Freedom Convoy” have been blocking streets since Friday, forcing the closure of the main shopping mall in the area and local businesses, and disturbed residents with constant horn honking.
The city’s police force has stood by as protesters filled jugs of diesel to top up their rigs, which they keep running to provide heat in sub-zero temperatures, rather than cutting off the fuel supply.
“For six days and nights, residents living in downtown Ottawa continue to experience unprecedented violence on their local streets,” said city councillor Catherine McKenney in a letter to the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, on Thursday.
“They are being ... harassed and terrorised,” McKenney said, citing complaints of air horns, erratic driving, open fires and “widespread public urination and defecation,” while asking for more police support.
Police chief Peter Sloly said his officers could neither deny the truckers their right to demonstrate, nor was he in a position to negotiate an end to the protest. I do not have a mandate under the Police Services Act to negotiate with the tens of thousands of people who come to Ottawa to exercise their charter of rights to free speech,” he said.
The protesters have said they will not leave Ottawa until the federal government lifts Covid-19 vaccine mandates and all pandemic restrictions, even though most of those restrictions are controlled by provincial governments.
Updated
The number of home care staff in England has dropped by more than 17,000 since the government launched its consultation on mandatory coronavirus vaccination, figures suggest.
There were 406,365 domiciliary care staff in registered settings reported by councils and providers as being in post in the week ending January 30, latest NHS England vaccination figures show. Analysis by the PA news agency shows this is down 17,664 staff from the week ending September 12, when 424,029 workers were recorded. There will be other types of home care workers, such as agency staff, that are not captured in the data.
