Submitted by: Jackie Juntti
Ottawa Police Threatens to Call In Military to Stop Trucker Protest
Ottawa’s police chief said the capital may request aid from the armed forces to stop the ongoing anti-mandatory vaccine Freedom Convoy trucker protest, but the Defence Ministry responded saying they had no plans to get involved in the situation.
Police Chief Peter Sloly gave a briefing on Wednesday stating that the ongoing trucker protests, which began on Saturday, have become more than just an issue for Ottawa authorities.
“This is a national issue, not an Ottawa issue,” Sloly told city councillors and added, “I am increasingly concerned there is no policing solution to this,” broadcaster CBC reported.
“There is no lawful authority to seal a city, there’s no practical capability to seal a city of this size,” Sloly said and claimed that he would need at least 50,000 officers to attempt such a task. According to the Ottawa police service official website, Ottawa has just 1,480 police officers.
Sloly admitted that escalating the situation by bringing in the military was not a strategy without significant drawbacks. Wall Street Journal reporter Paul Viera quoted Sloly as saying, “Mixing them into a population in a highly volatile population … may mitigate some risk but escalate” others.
Since the remarkable comments on deploying the military to confront pro-freedom truckers, a spokesman for the Canadian Defence Ministry said they would not be getting involved. The Toronto Star quoted the spokesman’s denial of the military being deployed to the streets of the capital, who said: “The Canadian Armed Forces are not involved in law enforcement in this situation, and there are no plans for such CAF involvement”.
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