Good morning from Ottawa where shit is tense. Huge line of cops and a line of protestors two or three deep. Chants of “Were not going to take it” and “hold the line.” #freedomconvoy22
Police just pushed the protestors back quite a bit to behind another set of trucks. They yelled and pushed back a bit but moved.
Lots of worried faces. Saw some kids with their parents who looked rather scared. Think many die hards realizing this is the end of the occupation.
They’re continuing to push back.
It’s getting a bit intense. Police pushing. Some tear gas going off.
Terry Fox in some sort of gas. Doesn’t feel as bad as tear gas but not sure what it is.
Should note I don’t think this was tear gas. It was something but pretty mild.
Police have taken the encampment in front of parliament. Protestors pushed onto a side street.
At one point they had to take a tent with a live fire. Mood around protestors is pretty dire.
Walking back to my hotel to write up a story and I passed a lot of the people getting ready to leave. Some digging out cars on the street, others packing up sound equipment. At my hotel, where quiet a few organizers are staying, they're moving all their computer gear out.
My first dispatch from Ottawa on the end of #freedomconvoy22 occupation and the ceasing of the horns.

vice.com/en/article/z3n…
Back at the protest. Still quite a few people but it’s smaller than before. The street we are on has a pretty strong and bitter wind ripping through it.
Just checked again and crowd is much smaller. People are slowly and steadily streaming out but still massive police presence. But I'm tired and there's an Oilers game on so unless something wild happens that's it from me.

I'll leave y'all with some photos from today.
Couldn’t stay away.

The protestors are all congregated on a major street just off of parliament. It’s got a real block party vibe, a far cry than the morose feel earlier.
Cops pushing. Mood changed very quickly. Crowd is on edge and it’s tense as hell.

Trying to post video but service ain’t great right now
Cops pushing. The mood got very intense very quickly. Someone keeps tossing firecrackers or something and the crowd is on edge.
Cops stopped their push but took over half the street back.
Behind the front line of cops you can see them moving the barricade back.
Sorry for the quality of photos. Hands are a bit chilly.
The DJ, who has a shocking amount of influence on the crowd, is calling people to move and reset back further. Some are listening.
Police pushed again. Arresting a few. Mood again very tense.
Some people still going at metcalfe and slater. Some fireworks being set off and lots of long arduous “freedom” yells.
Walking around with my camera and some drunk dude thought I was “Trudeau’s cameraman.” Got very mad. Wanted to fight me. His nice friend broke it up.

He was very drunk and pretty scrawny but still, wild.

“Go take photos of nazi flags, you f—got,” he yelled walking away.
Probably time to call it a night, eh?
Did one final walk around and this were the biggest gathering I saw and it was significantly smaller than even 15 minutes ago.

This is the Way the Day Ends: Not with a Bang but Drunk People On a Street Corner.

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More from @MackLamoureux

Feb 18
Tensions growing in Ottawa as police move very slowly towards the crowd. #freedomconvoy22

Also I’m here
There is a family with a young boy standing in front of some riot cops “holding the line.” Not gonna tweet the photo of the kid for obvious reasons but here’s the cops.
Shouts of “hold the line” as Quebec cops (shipped in as reinforcement) and protestors show off. Tear gas guns and a couple long rifles are clearly displayed by the cops.

A younger guy behind me just explained to an older woman what kettling is.
Read 9 tweets
Feb 16
Two of the three men arrested in Coutts and charged with conspiracy to commit murder are connected to a shit-posting, far-right, anti-government community.

My latest on the arrests and "Diagalon." vice.com/en/article/k7w…
Also worth reading is this story on Sikh Canadians who are a part of the Ottawa protest. A clearly different but likewise important part of Freedom Convoy 2022.

vice.com/en/article/akv…
The de facto leader of the group, who is attempting to convince his followers that the arrests are a false flag went on Infowars this morning. Infowars, all in on the truckers, are happy to help spread this conspiracy (as well as another floated by Ottawa organizers.) Image
Read 4 tweets
Feb 3
Gonna be an interesting day.
Well they've arrived in Ottawa apparently. Seems she and a very small contingent of followers are "marching" on parliament as we speak .
Like others have reported, Romana left Victoria in a small convoy on Monday. She's made some stops and has seen a small bit of support along the way (more than you would think someone who claims to be the secret Queen of Canada would get tho).
Read 9 tweets
Nov 25, 2021
The QAnon Queen of Canada has told her followers to 'shoot to kill' healthcare workers vaccinating children and arrest those facilitating it.

Her followers are giddy and doing what they can to aid the "duck hunters"—those chosen to carry out the violence.
vice.com/en_ca/article/…
Some of Didulo's thousands of followers have volunteered to be "duck hunters" for her and follow these orders. They've created private chats where they're sharing info of vaccine pop-ups for children.

Like a lot of this stuff, it's goofy until it's not. vice.com/en_ca/article/…
@misterEpete and @AlxnderThaGr8 (both of who you all should follow) were among the first to flag this and both were kind enough to speak to me about it. Here is Peter's story on it. antihate.ca/queen_of_canad…
Read 4 tweets
Jun 28, 2021
Almost 500 people and counting are in a Zoom call to view Adam Skelly's (that anti-lockdown BBQ guy from last year) constitutional challenge and now they say the meeting is at capacity and the judge can't join the meeting.

I think this is a harbinger of what to come.
Now the lead counsel can't join, so they're asking people who are both called in on the phone and on a Zoom call to not take up both.

This is at least better than a ten minutes ago when it was just a wave of people loudly trying to mute themselves.
They just said they're going to allow people to unmute themselves (I think) which is probably going to be very annoying for the counsels but very good for bloggers.
Read 10 tweets

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