How The Ottawa Anti-Vax Trucker Occupation Collapsed

OTTAWA — Police succeeded Saturday in taking back control of downtown Ottawa from the Freedom Convoy truckers, methodically forcing out the anti-vaccine mandate protesters who occupied the city for three weeks.

Police formed lines and pushed forward a few feet at a time starting in the morning, shoving back protesters and then towing the cars and trucks that clogged city streets. No one was killed or seriously injured, police said. Protesters tried desperately to “hold the line” and push police back. But sapped by defections and freezing cold temperatures, they were overwhelmed. Several protesters were pepper sprayed and 170 were arrested as of Saturday afternoon.

By midday Saturday, protest leaders had thrown up the white flag figuratively and literally — organizer Pat King told his followers, quite wrongly, that waving a white flag meant they could not be arrested under international law. Another organizer, Tom Marazzo, held a press conference where he accused the police of brutality and excessive force, but also said truckers were willingly leaving the city.

“The vast majority of the truckers do want to withdraw, but it is an individual choice for any trucker,” said Marazzo.

It’s a shockingly fast collapse for the one-of-a-kind protest that was for weeks defined by how immovable it seemed. Just days ago, the overwhelming sentiment among the convoy was that the protesters were winning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would soon be forced out of office, and all vaccine mandates would end.