Echoes of ‘Freedom Convoy’ as protest backing Dutch farmers strikes from embassy to warfare memorial, Parliament Hill

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Dutch flags and placards studying “No Farmers, No Meals” have been raised alongside the maple leaf and symbols of the “freedom motion” as 150 to 200 folks held a loud, however peaceable rally that spilled onto the road outdoors the Embassy of the Netherlands on Saturday.

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The group marched alongside downtown Ottawa streets to the Nationwide Battle Memorial, the place they sang O Canada.

Then it was on to Parliament Hill, the place they posed for a gaggle image with indicators supporting Dutch farmers who’re protesting their authorities’s plans to stem emissions of nitrogen oxide and ammonia. The farmers say it threatens their agricultural lifestyle and will put them out of enterprise.

“Throughout Canada Freedom Fighters are standing as one in solidarity with our Dutch brothers and sisters!” mentioned Freedom Fighters Canada, whose Grande Prairie, Alta.-based organizers didn’t reply to a request for an interview.

The Dutch authorities goals to slash nitrogen emissions by 50 per cent by 2030, for instance, which a gaggle representing Dutch farmers calls “merely unfeasible,” whereas environmentalists say now’s the time to behave.

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Joyce Rombouts, who lives on a farm in Arnprior, wore conventional Dutch wood clogs to the protest. She has household who farm within the Netherlands and argues that new restrictions will harm farmers who’ve lengthy adopted the principles, whereas the impact on agricultural exports “goes to impression the world.”

Rombouts mentioned she attended the winter “Freedom Convoy” advocating for “freedom of alternative” after dropping her job of greater than 15 years at a consulting firm as a result of she was not vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19.

“I’m right here in assist of my household again in Holland, and the liberty of our personal folks right here in Canada, and farmers all over the place,” mentioned Rombouts, 38.

Saturday’s occasions in Ottawa started with a “slow-roll” of protesters mustering in Kanata, chanting “freedom,” then heading east, honking, on Freeway 417.  Downtown protesters greeted flag-bedecked autos arriving there with cheers as police maintained a “automobile exclusion zone” round Parliament Hill, tow vans on the prepared.

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The Ottawa Police Service mentioned Saturday afternoon that “vehicle-based demonstrations are prohibited within the downtown core, and police are intervening,” pointing to a heavy presence of officers within the space “managing public security and a rise in visitors.”

Police had earlier mentioned that drivers would see momentary closures of downtown Freeway 417 off-ramps and rolling highway closures within the metropolis’s core.

Ottawa’s bylaw division mentioned a dozen autos had been towed and 103 parking tickets issued as of about 6:30 p.m. in enforcement of the automobile exclusion zone from Laurier Avenue to Bronson Avenue and Elgin Avenue.

Saturday’s protest additionally featured placards studying “Maintain the Line” and “Free Tamara” — presumably Tamara Lich, the “Freedom Convoy” organizer once more behind bars after allegedly breaching bail circumstances on fees linked to the winter convoy — and in opposition to vaccination of youngsters in opposition to COVID-19.

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Literature arguing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ought to be charged with treason for invoking the Emergencies Act to quell the winter protests was handed to passersby by a lady who wouldn’t give her title and who known as on marchers to pay tribute to the truckers who began this “stunning motion.”

Freedom Fighters Canada’s web site contains anti-COVID-19-vaccine supplies and a hyperlink to a video from Reside From the Shed, billed as “(s)haring the tales of truckers, volunteers, streamers and different heroes from The Freedom Convoy to Ottawa and the broader Canadian Freedom Motion.”

On Elgin Avenue, vacationers snapped footage of the marchers, who have been greeted with honks of each obvious assist and frustration.

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“Are you defending us or are you defending them?” one motorist leaning out her window requested a police officer who held her again from driving throughout Elgin Avenue because the marchers headed in direction of the warfare memorial, echoing criticism of metropolis police through the winter convoy.

Steph, 33 — she wouldn’t give her final title — stood throughout from the protest on the Dutch embassy sporting a masks and holding an indication studying, “No Hate in My House.”

She mentioned she had appeared with a placard through the winter “Freedom Convoy” — from which there was “no escape” from noise and “hostility” at her house —  and subsequent “freedom motion” occasions. She pointed to “Canada First” on a close-by placard.

The person holding the placard interjected to disclaim “Canada First” was a white supremacist group and to name her a “communist” and a “pedophile enabler.”

“I would like some reflection,” Steph mentioned. “I’m not against folks protesting, I’m not against what they are saying their message is about. I simply don’t consider them.”

With recordsdata from The Related Press