Thousands of people opposed to vaccine mandates have rallied in cities across Canada, as the mostly peaceful but noisy protests against COVID-19 restrictions spread from the national capital.
About 5,000 people demonstrated in Ottawa, police said on Saturday, while hundreds more gathered in Toronto, Canada’s biggest city, as well as in Quebec City, Fredericton and Winnipeg.
“We’re all sick and tired of the mandates, of the intimidation, of living in one big prison,” Robert, a Toronto protester who did not give his last name, told the Reuters news agency.
“We just want to go back to normal without having to take into our veins the poison which they call vaccines.”
The “Freedom Convoy” began as a movement against a Canadian vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers but has turned into a rallying point against public health measures and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government – though it is responsible for few of the measures, most of which were put in place by provincial governments.
For eight days now, protesters have shut down Ottawa’s downtown core.
Police say the well-organised blockade has relied partly on funding from sympathizers in the United States.
On Saturday, demonstrators huddled around campfires in bone-chilling temperatures and erected portable saunas and bouncy castles for kids outside the parliament while waving Canadian flags and shouting anti-government slogans.
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Their chants of “freedom” were met with cries of “go home” by a smaller group of counter-protesters fed up with the week-long occupation of the capital.
The atmosphere, however, appeared more festive – with dancing and fireworks – than a week earlier, when several protesters waved Confederate flags and Nazi symbols and clashed with locals.
‘Threat to democracy, madness’
Participants also roasted hotdogs and doled out baked goods under tarps, while two men on horseback traipsed through the town, one carrying a flag in support of former US President Donald Trump.
Trump has spoken out in support of the truckers against “the harsh policies of far-left lunatic Justin Trudeau who has destroyed Canada with insane COVID mandates”.
Two protesters on horseback ride with flags as truckers and supporters continue to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, February 5, 2022 [Lars Hagberg/ Reuters]Demonstrators stage a counter-protest at city hall as truckers and supporters continue to protest against the COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, February 5, 2022 [Blair Gable/ Reuters]
Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi, reporting from the site of the blockade, said those who joined Saturday’s protest “are raising a range of issues”.
“The protest organizers who are from the extreme right wing of Canadian politics are demanding the overthrow of the government,” he said. “But there are also anti-vaxxers, religious fundamentalists, and those raising topics of concern for those on the right and the left – like the power of pharmaceutical companies, or the civil liberties implications of mandates. And there were those who simply had enough of the pandemic restrictions.”
With the blockade entering its second week, Canadian authorities on Saturday again urged the protesters to “go home”.
“The protesters in Ottawa have made their point. The entire country heard their point,” said Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, calling on protesters to “go home and engage elected officials”.
At an emergency meeting late on Saturday, Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly also called for “an additional surge of resources” to bring an end to what he called a “siege” of the city.
“This is a threat to democracy, this is a nationwide insurrection, this is madness,” he said.
But Trudeau, who has said the protesters represent only a “fringe minority”, earlier this week ruled out the use of troops against the truckers in the capital. Meanwhile, protest coordinator Jim Torma told the AFP news agency that the protesters would not back down.
“They’re not going to hide us,” Torma said. “We’re going to be in [politicians’] faces as long as it takes” to force an end to public health restrictions.
‘Challenging’
But Al Jazeera’s Rattansi said the Canadian authorities, as well as protest organizers, were facing “challenging” times ahead.
“The polls do show a majority of Canadians are fed up with the handling of the pandemic by both federal and provincial authorities. But they also show overwhelming support for mandates and public health measures designed to ease the strain on the healthcare system,” he said. “So, it is difficult to see how all of this will end.”
Demonstrators gather for a protest against mandates related to COVID-19 vaccines and restrictions in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on February 5, 2022 [Geoff Robins/ AFP]
Meanwhile, police forces in other Canadian cities said they have learned lessons from Ottawa’s predicament and have developed strategies designed to protect key infrastructure, such as vital traffic corridors and hospitals, and also prevent possible violence.
In Toronto, police set up roadblocks throughout downtown, preventing any protesters in trucks or cars from getting close to the provincial legislature, which is located near five major hospitals.
Still, several hundred protesters gathered on the south side of the Ontario legislature, chanting “liberte” over reggae blaring from loudspeakers, and sporting signs that stated, “Freedom”.
Demonstrators also gathered in Quebec City, Fredericton and Winnipeg, with rallies also planned for Regina, Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria and the US border crossing in Coutts, Alta.
The Freedom Convoy started on Canada’s Pacific coast in late January and picked up supporters along the long trek to the capital – as well as millions of dollars in an online fundraiser that GoFundMe cancelled late on Friday after receiving reports of “violence and unlawful activity”.
The group had raised about 10.1m Canadian dollars ($8m).
The website initially said it would give refunds for any requests made by February 19 and would give remaining funds to verified charities, but on Saturday, GoFundMe said it would refund all donations automatically.
Ottawa residents, meanwhile, have had enough of the chaos the protests have brought to their streets and launched a class-action lawsuit seeking 10m Canadian dollars ($8m) from organizers.
“The truckers have been terrorizing us for seven, eight days now,” university student Saffron Binder told AFP. “The occupation must end.”
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia‘s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
