Ottawa.

Coming to Washington, DC. Next month.

1. From The New York Times:

Thousands of protesters across Canada took to the streets on Saturday for the second weekend in a row, snarling traffic, disrupting business and residential neighborhoods and leading the police to compare the demonstrations to a “siege” on the nation’s democracy.

What began last month with truckers complaining about mandated vaccines for crossing the border from the United States has grown into a catchall movement for a variety of antigovernment causes, laying bare deep resentments within Canada’s political right.

While the police and officials braced for rowdy crowds and potential violence, the atmosphere of the demonstrations by Saturday evening, though boisterous, remained mostly peaceful and festive.

But the police in Ottawa, the capital, admitted they were overwhelmed by the crowds and warned that the noisy and disruptive protests posed a real threat.

“This is a siege. It is something that is different in our democracy than I’ve ever experienced in my life,” said Peter Sloly, chief of the Ottawa Police. “We do not have sufficient resources to adequately and effectively address this situation,” while tending to routine policing, he added.

In Ottawa, despite frigid temperatures, a band performed on the street in front of Parliament Hill underneath a Canadian flag dangling from a large construction crane. Nearby, several inflatable bouncy castles were set up, and makeshift canteens throughout downtown dispensed food.

While there were no serious injuries or uncontrolled violence associated with the demonstrations over the past week, they have nevertheless paralyzed Ottawa’s downtown core with traffic, noise and complaints of harassment.

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2. From Bloomberg:

Even in a society known for its civility and deference to authority, many Canadians are reaching their limit.

Pent-up frustration and rage have burst into the downtown core of the nation’s capital, with hundreds of truckers and other protesters occupying Ottawa’s streets for nearly a week to oppose vaccine mandates. Protests are expanding across Canada this weekend and are threatening to spill over into the U.S. with demonstrators planning a convoy to Washington, D.C.

The group in Canada has been championed on Fox News and by podcaster Joe Rogan, Tesla billionaire Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump. Demonstrators have started to build makeshift shelters and collect propane tanks, vowing to stay until vaccine mandates are lifted. 

The populace may disapprove of their un-Canadian-like antics, but there is a growing sense of support for a message they’re delivering -- that strict Covid restrictions no longer make sense. The protests have been the talk of the nation, around dinner tables, on talk shows and social media. And they serve as a warning shot not just to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau but to leaders everywhere: If even Canada is starting to resist pandemic measures, what does that mean for the rest of the world?

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3. From the “Convoy to DC 2022” Facebook homepage:

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