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Freedom Convoy protesters return for Canada Day | CBC News

Freedom Convoy protesters return for Canada Day | CBC News

Many protesters involved in the Freedom Convoy and Rolling Thunder protests in Ottawa earlier this year are back in the city, co-ordinating events on Canada Day. 

James Topp, a veteran marching across Canada to protest remaining COVID-19 vaccine mandates, ended his journey with his supporters Thursday at the National War Memorial. 

He was joined for a portion of his final leg by Conservative Party of Canada leadership hopeful Pierre Poilievre.

After Thursday evening’s speeches at the war memorial, Ottawa police said they made four arrests, including for assaulting police officers, and are continuing to investigate.

A crowd of people walks beside a man in an orange vest, with some taking his photo.
Veteran James Topp, in the orange vest, is flanked by supporters as he arrives at Hog’s Back Park in Ottawa on June 30, 2022. Topp marched across the country to protest remaining COVID-19 vaccine mandates. (Jean Delisle/CBC)

March, dance party planned

Organizers will hold a “freedom music concert” featuring entertainers who became popular during the Freedom Convoy for performing on a stage that was set up in front of Parliament Hill on Wellington Street. 

Protesters are also planning to march to Parliament Hill and hold a dance party there.

As was the case during the Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally in April, many of the Canada Day events are being co-ordinated by Veterans 4 Freedom (V4F), a group formed by central figures involved in the Freedom Convoy’s weeks-long winter protests.

Andrew MacGillvray, a veteran and member of the V4F steering committee, said while thousands of people are expected, it’s tough to gauge how many will actually attend.

“We’re hoping to get a lot of different groups of workers who have been affected by the mandate,” he said.

“Whether it be paramedics, whether it be postal workers or carpenters or, you know, teachers and all the different professions or workers who — across the country — have had been negatively affected by the mandate.”

Police say officers will allow legal protests but will shut down illegal activities, like setting up structures or speakers without a permit or making threats of an occupation.

“[We’ve] planned, we’re prepared and we have the resources,” said Steve Bell, Ottawa’s interim police chief, earlier this week. 

A person is pinned to the ground by police outside the National War Memorial. Ottawa police said they arrested four people after Thursday evening’s speeches. (CBC)

‘We are not coming to occupy your city’

It’s not clear if protesters have applied for or received permits for their planned events. MacGillvray said his group has been in contact with police and is aware they are “under a lot of pressure.” 

“We are going to be peaceful. We are going to be lawful. And if [police] want to try and crack down on us for peacefully protesting on Parliament Hill, then there’s nothing we can do. We’ll just have to deal with it at that time,” MacGillvray said.

“But from us, it’s going to be nothing but peace. And we’re going to be lawful. And our organization has a code of conduct and we are not going to be breaking the law in any shape or form.”

While V4F is co-ordinating many of the Canada Day events, other groups that continue to hold grievances with the government are also participating — and they’ve organized themselves as the Canadian Citizens Coalition.

“We’re Canadians as well. We are going to be celebrating Canada on that day. We have the right to be able to do that and we have the right to be able do that where we want,” MacGillvray said.

“We are not coming to occupy your city. You just happen to live in our nation’s capital.”

Many of the participants in the Canada Day events have ties to the Freedom Convoy, which descended on Ottawa’s downtown earlier this year. (Ivanoh Demers/Radio-Canada)

V4F’s members also include Tom Marazzo, who was invited to come and help run the Freedom Convoy.

The man who invited him, James Bauder, is facing charges in Ottawa and continues to protest in British Columbia. Bauder is responsible for creating the Canada Unity group and website that helped develop the initial convoy plan to come to Ottawa and clog the downtown with vehicles.

Daniel Bulford, another key organizer who helped co-ordinate the Freedom Convoy, also joined Topp for the final leg of his journey.

Bulford is a former RCMP officer who was on the prime minister’s security detail before quitting after refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine. He was the convoy’s head of security, and boasted of having strong relations to police agencies. 

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Democracy threatened if aggressive protesters make Canadians feel unsafe: Trudeau

Democracy threatened if aggressive protesters make Canadians feel unsafe: Trudeau

OTTAWA –


Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the safety of Canadians participating in democracy should never be jeopardized by the kinds of racist insults and threats of violence lobbed at people attending a Liberal fundraiser in British Columbia on Tuesday.


Trudeau says all governments should be seized with the issue amid a rise in the presence of aggressive or hateful protesters appearing at political events.


Trudeau did not say why specifically he chose to appear at the Surrey, B.C., fundraiser virtually rather than in person but it is at least the second time in less than 10 months that he changed his plans in the presence of unruly protests.


Outside the event in Surrey, B.C., about four dozen protesters used expletives and reportedly also hurled racist slurs at attendees who were mostly South Asian.


One protester carried a noose attached to two flat sticks printed with the words “treason” and “Trudeau.”


An aggressive anti-Israel protester confronted Justice Minister David Lametti in Montreal today, forcing Lametti to temporarily leave his news conference.


Two weeks ago, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was harassed by protesters and aggressively chased into his car outside an provincial NDP campaign office in Peterborough, Ont.


This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 25, 2022.

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Trudeau cancels appearance at event in B.C. after protesters hurl racial slurs

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SURREY, B.C. — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was forced to cancel plans to attend a fundraising dinner on Tuesday evening after two speakers at the event said protesters hurled racial slurs at the mostly South Asian attendees entering a convention centre in Surrey, B.C.

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Trudeau did not enter the building and spoke to a crowd for about three minutes by Zoom instead of making a speech in person.

He said no one should be intimidated or stopped from exercising their democratic freedoms “because that’s what this country is all about.”

Trudeau said he would return to see his supporters in Surrey in the future, and an organizer of the event told attendees they should feel free to stay and enjoy dinner.

Defence Minister Anita Anand addressed the crowd, but a Liberal Party staffer asked a reporter to leave the room.

The party said in a statement to The Canadian Press that everyone participating “in our democracy should feel safe and respected.”

About four dozen protesters used expletives as they chanted against Trudeau and honked horns outside the convention centre.

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“We don’t like the way he’s running Canada,” one man said as another spoke through a megaphone.

About half a dozen RCMP officers stood by watching the crowd.

Earlier this month, police began investigating after a video circulated on social media showed people hurling verbal abuse at NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh during a protest in Peterborough, Ont.

The federal NDP leader had dropped by the campaign office for an Ontario NDP candidate running in the provincial election.

A video shows Singh encountering protesters as he left the campaign office, and they can be heard shouting expletives at him and calling him a “traitor”‘ as he gets inside a vehicle.

Singh later told reporters he found the experience “intense, threatening (and) insulting”‘ but that he is more worried about what it means for politics in general.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 24, 2022.

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Trudeau cancels appearance at event in B.C. after protesters hurl racial slurs

Anita Anand

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was forced to cancel plans to attend a fundraising dinner on Tuesday evening after two speakers at the event said protesters hurled racial slurs at the mostly South Asian attendees entering a convention centre in Surrey, B.C.

Trudeau did not enter the building and spoke to a crowd for about three minutes by Zoom instead of making a speech in person.

He said no one should be intimidated or stopped from exercising their democratic freedoms “because that’s what this country is all about.”

Trudeau said he would return to see his supporters in Surrey in the future, and an organizer of the event told attendees they should feel free to stay and enjoy dinner.

Defence Minister Anita Anand addressed the crowd, but a Liberal Party staffer asked a reporter to leave the room.

The party said in a statement to The Canadian Press that everyone participating “in our democracy should feel safe and respected.”

About four dozen protesters used expletives as they chanted against Trudeau and honked horns outside the convention centre.

“We don’t like the way he’s running Canada,” one man said as another spoke through a megaphone.

About half a dozen RCMP officers stood by watching the crowd.

Earlier this month, police began investigating after a video circulated on social media showed people hurling verbal abuse at NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh during a protest in Peterborough, Ont.

The federal NDP leader had dropped by the campaign office for an Ontario NDP candidate running in the provincial election.

A video shows Singh encountering protesters as he left the campaign office, and they can be heard shouting expletives at him and calling him a “traitor'” as he gets inside a vehicle.

Singh later told reporters he found the experience “intense, threatening (and) insulting'” but that he is more worried about what it means for politics in general.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 24, 2022.

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Anti-mandate protesters return to B.C. legislature

Anti-mandate protesters return to B.C. legislature


Another convoy of anti-mandate protesters descended on the B.C. legislature Saturday, gathering on the lawn to voice opposition to COVID-19-related public health orders.


The organizers of the event, a group called We Unify Canada, said earlier in the week that they expected it to be the “largest pro-democracy rally in the history of Victoria.”


Online livestreams of the event showed a massive turnout, much larger than the estimated 200 people or so that Victoria police said attended a similar rally last weekend.


It was not immediately clear how many people turned out for Saturday’s event, but the crowd looked comparable in size to the previous We-Unify-Canada-organized protest at the legislature on Jan. 29.


Victoria police estimated between 4,000 and 5,000 people attended that January event


Large crowds have been gathering at the legislature weekly ever since to protest vaccine and mask mandates and demand freedoms they say have been taken away during the pandemic.


While some provinces have ended their vaccine passport systems and mask mandates – or announced timelines for doing so – B.C. has so far not followed suit.


The province lifted restrictions related to venue capacity, indoor dining, bars, nightclubs and wedding receptions last month, citing declining transmission of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and decreasing hospitalizations.


Health officials are scheduled to address the province’s remaining restrictions next week, though they’ve given no indication as to when such restrictions could be lifted.


The vaccine passport program is scheduled to expire in mid-June, though health officials have said both that it will be reviewed before then, and that organizations that wish to continue to require proof of vaccination after the program ends will be able to do so


Ahead of Saturday’s protest, Victoria police said they would once again set up temporary surveillance cameras in the area around the legislature. 


The Victoria Police Department said in a news release that, while safe, peaceful and lawful protest is protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, its officers would be present on Saturday and take action against any illegal activities.


VicPD said 10 violation tickets were issued last weekend, as well as two notices and more than 50 warnings for various infractions, such as excessive noise and obstructing traffic.