Canadian police clear protesters from front of parliament

Bloomberg

Police dislodged anti-vaccine protesters from the street in front of Canada’s parliament building, clearing the center of a weeks-long blockade that paralysed the capital city’s downtown and plunged the nation into crisis.
By evening, a total of 170 people had been arrested as police intensified their actions, deploying pepper spray, batons and mounted units to remove demonstrators. But the police said their operation to break up the protests was not complete.
Some protesters remained camped in other downtown streets, and there were reports that others were setting up new positions around the city. No serious injuries were reported either among law enforcement or the protesters, according to the Ottawa Police Service’s Twitter feed.
“This operation is still moving forward, it is not over, and it will take more time until we have achieved our goals,” Ottawa’s interim police chief, Steve Bell, said. “We are in this until it is over.”
Semi-trucks and other vehicles have blocked downtown Ottawa’s streets for the last three weeks as protesters demanded an end to Covid-19 vaccine mandates and other restrictions, putting Canada at the forefront of a broader reaction against measures taken to control a global health crisis now entering its third year.
Similar blockades at Canadian border crossings with the US have endangered trade between the two countries, and copycat protests have sprung up as far away as France and New Zealand.