Headline Roundup • February 18th, 2022
Multiple Freedom Convoy Protesters Arrested in Canada
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Police in Ottawa, Canada began arresting 'Freedom Convoy' protesters Thursday after weeks of disruptive demonstrations against COVID-19 public health restrictions.
One of the multiple people arrested is one of the leaders of the demonstration; he faces a class-action lawsuit from a local resident who complained that the protests were disrupting the community. Officials had already begun cracking down on protesters after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the country's Emergencies Act, and reports across the spectrum highlighted how financial accounts of some protesters and funders of the convoy were frozen. Police also arrested 11 people after discovering a cache of weapons, including body armor and high-capacity firearm magazines, among protesters at a US-Canada border crossing in Alberta.
Reports from left- and center-rated outlets often focuses on alleged crimes of the protesters and frames them as dangerous or disruptive. Coverage from right-rated sources tends to frame the Canadian government's reaction to the protests as oppressive. One AllSides team member compared defenses of the Freedom Convoy from the right to defenses of George Floyd protests from the left.
Featured Coverage of this Story
(Justin Tang /The Canadian Press via AP)
Authorities in Canada say they are beginning to arrest truckers who have paralyzed traffic in Ottawa for three weeks in a protest against the country’s COVID-19 restrictions.
Police in Ottawa tweeted that some protesters are surrendering and being arrested Friday morning outside Parliament Hill.
Police already arrested two of the protest’s leaders late Thursday and have sealed off much of the downtown area to outsiders.
The capital represents the self-styled Freedom Convoy’s last stronghold after weeks of demonstrations and blockades that shut down border crossings into the U.S. and caused...
GEOFF ROBINS/Getty
Canadian authorities have arrested 11 people after discovering an arsenal of weapons among protesters at the U.S. border in Alberta. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were tipped off about an armed subset embedded in the widespread protests, and proceeded to find guns, ammunition, a machete, body armor, and high-capacity firearm magazines in three trailers, per CBC. Following the successful raid, Premier Jason Kenney said, “Now that the RCMP has successfully resolved this potential threat, they will proceed, I’m informed, with enforcement against others who are involved in the blockade.”
(Lars Hagberg/Reuters)
Ottawa police arrested multiple protesters with the “Freedom Convoy” on Thursday, including a key organizer of the movement that’s been rallying for weeks to pressure the Canadian government to drop the vaccine mandate for cross-border travel.
Authorities have taken Chris Barber, one of the leaders of the demonstration and a truck driver from Saskatchewan, into custody, CBC News reported. He is expected to face criminal charges. A video obtained by the outlet appears to depict Barber being placed in handcuffs and escorted away by police. Barber is also the target of a class-action lawsuit, along...
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