With 191 people arrested and 79 vehicles towed by Sunday afternoon, Canadian police have reclaimed Ottawa's downtown from its occupiers 24 days after the trucker convoy rolled into the downtown core.
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The protesters have gathered in Ottawa and blocked the city center since Jan. 28 to oppose the Canadian government's vaccine requirement for truckers crossing into the United States, prompting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to invoke the Emergencies Act.
"We promised we would return our city to a state of normalcy, with every hour we are getting closer to that goal," interim chief of Ottawa Police Steve Bell said, adding that 107 people have been charged with 389 Criminal Code offences, including mischief, assault, disobeying a court order, obstructing police and assaulting a police officer.
Ottawa paramedics said 21 people have been transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries from the secured area in downtown Ottawa since Friday. No fatalities were recorded. Trudeau reiterated Sunday in a tweet that the government will support businesses in downtown Ottawa impacted by the blockades and occupation.
The government on Saturday announced up to 20 million US$15.7 million in investment to support downtown Ottawa businesses impacted by demonstrations. Small businesses will be able to apply for non-repayable contributions of up to 10,000 Canadian dollars for non-deferrable operational costs not covered by other federal programs.
Farel Husseini, an owner of a couple of restaurants in the downtown core, said that there were fights in his restaurant between masked and unmasked protesters.
"For the three weeks, probably we had to forgo revenue of about 20-40 thousand Canadian dollars at one spot. The other spot probably declined around 10 percent in sales just because people were afraid to come in because of the altercations and stuff like that," he stressed.
According to a CTV report, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson didn't say when secured checkpoints and the increased police presence would end. "We'll continue to have increased enforcement in and around the residential areas," he said, noting police have promised not to leave until the city is "safely returned to the people of Ottawa."