The Occupation.

'Legitimate Political Discourse.'

1. Police in Ottawa, Ontario, are weighing military help or a court order to bring an end to a weeklong protest against vaccine mandates that has forced businesses to close, frayed residents’ nerves and strangled swaths of the city’s core. The protests, led by truckers and their supporters, have clogged Ottawa traffic and disrupted residents’ daily lives. Police said this week their intelligence indicates that more truckers and citizens, perhaps in the tens of thousands, are headed toward Ottawa this weekend. City politicians say the protest, which began Jan. 28, has morphed into an occupation. (Source: wsj.com)

2. Ontario’s Conservative premier called Friday for demonstrators to end the “occupation” of Ottawa, while the crowdfunding site GoFundMe said it would refund or redirect to charities the vast majority of millions raised by demonstrators protesting COVID-19 measures in the Canadian capital. Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly moved 150 officers to the parts of the capital most affected but he gave no indication when the days-old protest would end, saying police expected it to ramp up again this weekend, when protests are also planned in Toronto and Quebec City. “It’s not a protest anymore. It’s become an occupation,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said. “It’s time for this to come to an end.” (Source: apnews.com, emphasis added)

3. Donald Trump weighed in with support for Canada’s “Freedom Convoy” Friday just as Ottawa police were claiming an early win in preventing a Jan. 6-style attack. The former president released a statement backing the protest-turned-occupation now entering its second week in Canada’s capital. “The Freedom Convoy is peacefully protesting the harsh policies of far left lunatic Justin Trudeau who has destroyed Canada with insane Covid mandates,” said Trump. The protest against anti-vaccine mandates in Canada, a country that boasts some of the highest vaccination rates in the world, has disrupted streets around Parliament Hill and cost Trudeau’s former Conservative rival his job. “Our goal is to end the demonstration,” Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly said Friday morning, acknowledging that the extended protest has led to “a lot of unacceptable and unlawful activities.” The demonstrators are “highly organized, well funded, extremely committed to resisting all attempts to end the demonstrations safely,” he said. (Source: politico.com)