No clear end date for protest
Ottawa residents are being told to avoid travelling downtown again today because of the convoy of trucks and cars protesting vaccine mandates and COVID-19 restrictions.
Police say many streets are impassable, while others have been shut down completely.
No one knows when the convoy plans to end its protest.
Some drivers have vowed not to move their vehicles until all their demands are met.
Those demands are included in a Memorandum of Understanding on the Canada Unity webpage demanding the Senate of Canada and the Governor General " issue a cease and desist order abolishing all Federal, Provincial, Territorial and Municipal Vaccine Passport requirements, discriminatory regulations, initiatives and mandates in regard to SARS CoV 2."
The M.O.U. goes on to say that by signing this "Canada Unity will immediately stop “Operation Bear Hug Ottawa" demonstration/ convoy and Federal Referendum activities and will strive to work with all groups and entities et al to bring this country together in unity."
Meantime, Defence Minister Anita Anand says the behaviour of some protesters in Ottawa seen jumping and dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the National War Memorial is `` beyond reprehensible.''
A video posted on Twitter by Steven Thornton, director general at the Department of National Defence, shows people pumping their arms and chanting ``Freedom'' at the war monument including one person apparently standing on top of the tomb.
The Terry Fox Memorial Sculpture near Parliament Hill was also defaced, with protesters adding an inverted Canadian flag and a sign reading ``mandate freedom.''
The Terry Fox Foundation responded online, saying the young cancer patient who ran across Canada in 1980 to raise money for research believed in science, and gave his life to help others.
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