Canadian trucker protest: Ottawa Police crack down on convoy: LIVE UPDATES

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson has written to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford to request 1,800 additional personnel to deal with the ongoing Freedom Convoy.

"We are asking for an additional 1,800 police and civilian personnel," Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly said during a Monday press briefing.

"To put that into some perspective, the entire amount of members of the Ottawa Police services are 2,100," Sloly continued. "The entire amount of police officers in the Ottawa Police Service is 1,200. We are asking for 1,800 police and civilian resources for our immediate use within our incident command umbrella."

"Although policing is part of the solution to this demonstration, it is not the only part," Sloly also said. "We are requesting that the city utilize its convening power to engage financial institutions, insurance companies and associations, gas companies and associations, trucking companies and associations, local buyers anything that can be done to restrict the material and financial support going to the demonstrators."

The city successfully engaged with GoFundMe last week to shut off the convoy's fundraising page after it surpassed $10 million.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Hugh McLean granted a 10-day injunction on Monday that forbids truckers parked on city streets in downtown Ottawa from constantly honking their horns.

"Tooting a horn is not an expression of any great thought I'm aware of," McLean said during court proceedings, according to the CBC.

McLean said he had heard sufficient evidence that the constant honking from the convoy in protest of government vaccine mandates was impinging on Ottawa residents' right for “quiet, if we can use that term,” which he said trumped the trucker's right to protest.

Paul Champ, a lawyer for a 21-year-old public servant named Zexi Li, sought an injunction that would prohibit anyone in the ongoing Freedom Convoy protest from sounding their horns while near downtown. The Freedom Convoy has remained in Ottawa for more than a week.

Ottawa Police have been cracking down on the lingering Freedom Convoy demonstrators in the Canadian capital. They have issued hundreds of tickets for offenses ranging from noise complaints to improper mufflers. They have also arrested some demonstrators and seized vehicles.

An elderly man was arrested Ottawa after he was honking in a residential area and declined to show his ID to the police, according to video posted Monday on Facebook.

Three of the organizers of the trucker blockade that shut down the border between Coutts, Alberta, and Montana issued a statement Monday directed to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“While using emergency powers, our provincial and federal governments, with the assistance of health departments, have systematically taken away our rights and freedoms,” the spokesman said, according to Rebel News.

“We, the people, call on Jason Kenney and Justin Trudeau to immediately stop and retract all provincial and federal mandates and emergency health measures. We call on the premier to do the right thing. The people have spoken,” the spokesman continued. “This is not about which side you are on or political clout. This fight is for the freedoms of all.”

The new fundraising page for the Canadian "Freedom Convoy" protesting vaccine mandates raised more than $2 million on its first day.

About $2.4 million was raised by Sunday morning at 9 a.m., one day after the fundraising initiative began on the Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo. The total money raised as of Monday afternoon is more than $4.7 million, with a total goal of $16 million. 

Convoy organizers moved their fundraising to GiveSendGo after GoFundMe pulled their first fundraiser from the platform last week after it surpassed $10 million. GoFundMe cited "evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation."

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