{"id":21204,"date":"2022-02-17T22:29:22","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T03:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=21204"},"modified":"2022-02-17T22:36:34","modified_gmt":"2022-02-18T03:36:34","slug":"canada-protests-police-arrest-leaders-of-trucker-convoy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2022\/02\/17\/canada-protests-police-arrest-leaders-of-trucker-convoy\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada protests: Police arrest leaders of trucker convoy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Police in Ottawa have detained two leaders of the trucker convoy in the Canadian capital as they move to break up the last stronghold of the protests against the nation’s Covid rules.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Tamara Lich was arrested on Thursday evening after Chris Barber was held, with both expected to be charged criminally, according to CBC News.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Authorities have already cleared other protests located at border crossings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It comes days after Canada invoked an emergency law for the first time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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However, officers were not yet moving in force on the remaining demonstrators on Thursday night – although interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell warned earlier that if “they do not peacefully leave, we have plans”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Emergencies Act invoked by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday imposes bans on public assembly in some areas, among other measures.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Ottawa demonstrators – many parked in some 400 heavy trucks and other vehicles on city streets around Parliament – have been warned they face arrest as well as having their trucks seized, their insurance suspended and bank accounts frozen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Police say they are also working with child-welfare agencies to arrange how to remove the protesters’ children from the site before authorities move in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ms Lich told the Canadian Press earlier that her personal bank account had already been frozen and she was resigned to going to jail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland confirmed the government had begun freezing truckers’ bank accounts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“It is happening. I do have the numbers in front of me,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Authorities last weekend cleared the most economically damaging blockade – of a bridge linking Windsor, Ontario, with the US state of Michigan. Trucker protests at other border crossings in Coutts, Alberta, and Emerson, Manitoba, ended this week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ottawa police have set up almost 100 police check-points around the main protest site, and a large business and residential district in the city centre.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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