Ottawa, Canada – The sound of blaring truck horns has been replaced by revving engines in the Canadian capital, still blockaded by truckers who appear to be settling in for the long haul.
Between and around the trucks that have halted city traffic, protesters have erected tents, barbecues, bales of hay for warmth and comfort. Children in snowsuits played with large plastic blocks in what looked like a makeshift outdoor kindergarten.
The demonstration launched in January and billed as a “Freedom Convoy” began in western Canada and descended on Ottawa, arriving on the 28th, paralysing the city centre.
On January 29, thousands of demonstrators and supporters flooded the streets and the open space in front of the Canadian Parliament Buildings.
What started as a protest against mandatory vaccinations for truckers in order to cross the border into the United States, has grown into broader dissent against the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and what is perceived as a tightening of individual rights and freedoms, highlighting the anti-vaccination movement.
Two trucks block the entrance to Rideau street, one of the main commercial streets of downtown Ottawa [Roger Lemoyne/Al Jazeera]
The truckers have effectively shut down a swathe of Ottawa’s city centre, some 1.5km (0.93 miles) long, dubbed the Red Zone by Ottawa Police, where most businesses and office buildings remain closed. This section of the city is home to the seat of government, museums, office buildings and prime business real estate.
The number of protesters has dwindled to a few thousand in the Canadian capital, but police estimate more than four hundred trucks and other vehicles remained parked in the middle of roads, crisscrossing intersections, or within inches of police cruisers that delineate the Red Zone.
The hundreds of police officers deployed around the city, criticised at first for inaction, had issued more than 1,300 tickets and arrested 23 by Wednesday, according to part of the Ottawa police website dedicated to the demonstration. A Monday court injunction had already halted excruciatingly loud truck horn blasts, replaced by the regular revving of truck engines.
“We can stay here for months if we want,” said Harold Jonker, a 49-year-old trucker from the Niagara region, a five-hour drive from Ottawa.
“Our goal is pretty simple: remove all lockdowns and mandatory vaccination and bring the freedoms to this country. What we didn’t realise was how huge the support would be” said Jonker.
Trucker Leo Schmidt told Al Jazeera he was not sure what to expect when he drove with the convoy from Steinbach, Alberta to Ottawa, more than 3,000 kilometres (1,864 miles).
Children of protesters play in a makeshift outdoor kindergarten as Canadian truckers block the streets of Ottawa [Roger LeMoyne/Al Jazeera]
He had regularly crossed the US border as a long haul-trucker for 41 years but said the new regulations halted that, costing him thousands of dollars and he wanted his voice heard.
The convoy was organised by known far-right figures, the Canadian Anti-Hate Network has reported in detail. Confederate flags and at least one swastika were spotted during the first weekend of protests, drawing widespread condemnation from politicians and other observers.
“The swastika, that’s a problem. We think that was a set-up,” Schmidt said, without offering any evidence to back up the claim, adding organisers made sure it was removed. “There are people with a lot of agendas here, other political movers, I’m just a peon.”
On Wednesday morning, demonstrator Roze Ravensbergen fried eggs, bacon and toast on a hotplate on a folding picnic table. She handed out food to anyone who asked for it, creating a community vibe, while standing beside stacks of supplies of water, food and clothes. She said she planned to stay “as long as it takes” for the truckers’ demands to be met.
Roze Ravensbergen serves breakfast to anyone who wants it on the street outside the Canadian parliament [Roger Lemoyne/Al Jazeera]
Ravensbergen, travelled with her husband and their three children from the Niagara Peninsula 500km (310 miles) away to support her brother-in-law whose truck has been parked on Wellington Street since January 28. Some family members sleep in the truck, she said, while she and the three children spend nights at a motel.
Among the protesters, there is a convivial party atmosphere, but for many Ottawa residents, resentment has been mounting.
Vehicles have occupied a main shopping thoroughfare, Rideau Street, a five-minute walk from Wellington Street and the Parliament of Canada. The Rideau Centre, a city centre shopping mall closed its doors on January 29 after maskless protesters flooded the building on the first day of the protest. It has not reopened and most of the businesses along the street are now closed as well.
Nearby, the 143-year-old Ottawa School of Art’s campus looks onto Byward Market, a tourist-friendly farmer’s market and home to art galleries, pubs and shops.
“This has definitely hurt us,” director Jeff Stellnick told Al Jazeera.
Unable to open in late January, and already struggling because of COVID-19 closures, the non-profit school is scrambling to move classes to another campus away from the protests and may hire security guards, he said.
“This isn’t really a demonstration about COVID, they want to overthrow the government. It’s like ‘welcome to the French Revolution,’” Stellnick said.
He said Ottawa hosts many regular demonstrations, often with more participants.
“When they’re done they go home. These guys think they have a lot of support, but the vast majority think they’re barking up the wrong tree”.
Harold Jonker sits in the cab of his truck parked in front of the Parliament of Canada [Roger LeMoyne/Al Jazeera]
Beyond the centre of town, there is more evidence the truckers do not intend to leave soon.
One group had set up camp in the parking lot of the baseball stadium offered by the city as a vehicle overflow option. It has turned into a self-styled command post running supplies to those on Parliament Hill some six kilometres (3.7 miles) away. More than seventy vehicles of all types are parked in the lot where a tent, a wooden shack and several saunas have been installed.
Fuel is one of the truckers’ key necessities, and protesters have been playing cat-and-mouse with police who have arrested people for transporting it. To confound the authorities, protesters and their supporters have been wandering in and out of the Red Zone with empty fuel canisters, making it harder to spot the real transporters.
An Ottawa police officer told Al Jazeera: “We are just trying to keep a line open with the protesters. We want this to end peacefully.” He declined to identify himself, but his uniform read M Bickford.
Moving the protesters without their consent would not be easy, most are large rig heavy trucks that would be no match for towing vehicles authorities have at their disposal.
Jonker said any towing company with the capacity to move them, would not, “because we’re their customers. They’ll never touch us.”
TORONTO – Will Taylor Swift bring chaos or do we all need to calm down?
It’s a question many Torontonians are asking this week as the city braces for the massive fan base of one of the world’s biggest pop stars.
Hundreds of thousands of Swifties are expected to descend on downtown core for the singer’s six concerts which kick off Thursday at the Rogers Centre and run until Nov. 23.
And while their arrival will be a boon to tourism dollars, it could further clog the city’s already gridlocked streets.
Swift’s shows collide with other scheduled events at the nearby Scotiabank Arena, including a Toronto Raptors game on Friday and a Toronto Maple Leafs game on Saturday.
Some locals have already adjusted their plans to avoid the area.
Aahil Dayani says he and some friends intended to throw a birthday bash for one of their pals, until they realized it would overlap with the concerts.
“Ultimately, everybody agreed they just didn’t want to deal with that,” he said.
“Something as simple as getting together and having dinner is now thrown out the window.”
Dayani says the group rescheduled the birthday party for after Swift leaves town. In the meantime, he plans to hunker down at his Toronto residence.
“Her coming into town has kind of changed up my social life,” he added.
“We’re pretty much just not doing anything.”
Max Sinclair, chief executive and founder of A.I. technology firm Ecomtent, has suggested his employees stay away from the company’s downtown offices on concert days, since he doesn’t see the point in forcing people to endure potential traffic jams.
“It’s going to be less productive for us, and it’s going to be just a pain for everyone, so it’s easier to avoid it,” he said.
“We’re a hybrid company, so we can be flexible. It just makes sense.”
Toronto Transit Commission spokesperson Stuart Green says the public agency has been preparing for over a year to ease the pressure of so many Swifties in one confined area.
Dozens of buses and streetcars have been added to the transit routes around the stadium, while the TTC has consulted with the city on how to handle potential emergency scenarios.
“There may be some who will say we’re over-preparing, and that’s fair,” Green said.
“But we know based on what’s happened in other places, better to be over-prepared than under-prepared.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – Electronic Arts has incorporated the Professional Women’s Hockey League into its NHL 25 video game.
The six teams starting their second seasons Nov. 30 will be represented in “play now,” “online versus,” “shootout” and “season” modes, plus a championship Walter Cup, in the updated game scheduled for release Dec. 5, the PWHL and EA Sports announced Wednesday.
Gamers can create a virtual PWHL player.
The league and video game company have agreed to a multi-year partnership, the PWHL stated.
“Our partnership with EA SPORTS opens new doors to elevate women’s hockey across all levels,” said PWHL operations senior vice-president Amy Scheer in a statement.
“Through this alliance, we’ll develop in-game and out-of-game experiences that strengthen the bond between our teams, players, and fans, bringing the PWHL closer to the global hockey community.”
NHL 22 featured playable women’s teams for the first time through an agreement with the International Ice Hockey Federation.
Toronto Sceptres forward Sarah Nurse became the first woman to appear on the video game’s cover in 2023 alongside Anaheim Ducks centre Trevor Zegras.
The Ottawa Charge, Montreal Victoire, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens round out the PWHL. The league announced team names and logos in September, and unveiled jerseys earlier this month.
“It is so meaningful that young girls will be able to see themselves in the game,” said Frost forward Taylor Heise, who grew up playing EA’s NHL games.
“It is a big milestone for inclusivity within the hockey community and shows that women’s prominence in hockey only continues to grow.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. continued to navigate weaker consumer demand in the third quarter as it looked ahead to the spinoff of its pork business in 2025.
“This environment has a particularly significant impact on a premium portfolio like ours and I want you to know that we are not sitting still waiting for the macro environment to recover on its own,” said CEO Curtis Frank on a call with analysts.
Frank said the company is working to adapt its strategies to consumer demand. As inflation has stabilized and interest rates decline, he said pressure on consumers is expected to ease.
Maple Leaf reported a third-quarter profit of $17.7 million compared with a loss of $4.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company says the profit amounted to 14 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a loss of four cents per share a year earlier. Sales for the quarter totalled $1.26 billion, up from $1.24 billion a year ago.
“At a strategic level … we’re certainly seeing the transitory impacts of an inflation-stressed consumer environment play through our business,” Frank said.
“We are seeing more trade-down than we would like. And we are making more investments to grow our volume and protect our market share than we would like in the moment. But again, we believe that those impacts will prove to be transitory as they have been over the course of history.”
Financial results are improving in the segment as feed costs have stabilized, said Dennis Organ, president, pork complex.
Maple Leaf, which is working to spin off its pork business into a new, publicly traded company to be called Canada Packers Inc. and led by Organ, also said it has identified a way to implement the plan through a tax-free “butterfly reorganization.”
Frank said Wednesday that the new structure will see Maple Leaf retain slightly lower ownership than previously intended.
The company said it continues to expect to complete the transaction next year. However, the spinoff under the new structure is subject to an advance tax ruling from the Canada Revenue Agency and will take longer than first anticipated.
Maple Leaf announced the spinoff in July with a plan to become a more focused consumer packaged goods company, including its Maple Leaf and Schneiders brands.
“The prospect of executing the transaction as a tax-free spin-off is a positive development as we continue to advance our strategy to unlock value and unleash the potential of these two unique and distinct businesses,” Frank said in the news release.
He also said that Maple Leaf is set on delivering profitability for its plant protein business in mid-2025.
“This includes the recent completion of a procurement project aimed at leveraging our purchasing scale,” he said.
On an adjusted basis, Maple Leaf says it earned 18 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 13 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
The results were largely in line with expectations, said RBC analyst Irene Nattel in a note.
Maple Leaf shares were down 4.5 per cent in midday trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange at $21.49.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
Two trucks block the entrance to Rideau street, one of the main commercial streets of downtown Ottawa [Roger Lemoyne/Al Jazeera]
Children of protesters play in a makeshift outdoor kindergarten as Canadian truckers block the streets of Ottawa [Roger LeMoyne/Al Jazeera]
Roze Ravensbergen serves breakfast to anyone who wants it on the street outside the Canadian parliament [Roger Lemoyne/Al Jazeera]
Harold Jonker sits in the cab of his truck parked in front of the Parliament of Canada [Roger LeMoyne/Al Jazeera]
