Three or four thousand people on foot listen to rabble-rousing speeches at Queen’s Park before marching north to the trucks in Yorkville
Author of the article:Tom Blackwell
Publishing date:Feb 05, 2022 •
A child looks upon rows of farm tractors Friday on University Avenue, just north of Queens Park, as farmers and truckers protest.
PHOTO BY PETER J. THOMPSON / NATIONAL POST
Several huge dump trucks, tractor trailers and thousands of protesters clogged a major Toronto intersection Saturday as the trucker-led movement against COVID vaccine mandates and lockdowns hit Canada’s biggest city.
But a major police presence and barricaded streets managed to keep the noisy truck convoy away from the area immediately around the Ontario legislature, and further downtown.
Instead, the trucks filled the corner of Bloor Street and Avenue Road in the Yorkville neighbourhood, across from the Royal Ontario Museum.
A string of trucks and other protest vehicles stretched east and west on Bloor and north on Avenue as demonstrators streamed around them. It was unclear how long the trucks planned to stay there.
Despite the disruption in a busy part of Toronto, the event remained relatively peaceful as of mid-afternoon Saturday.
Toronto police said they arrested a 22-year-old man at around 2 p.m. for allegedly igniting a smoke bomb at the demonstration at Queen’s Park.
The man faces one count each of assault with a weapon, administering a noxious substance and public mischief.
Earlier, a few thousand of the protesters descended on the provincial legislature by foot for a more conventional protest.
About three or four thousand people listened to an hour of rabble-rousing speeches before marching north to Yorkville, where the horn-honking trucks had been held back.
Cries of “Freedom” and attacks on the federal government and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rang out repeatedly from the microphone as a peaceful crowd braving minus-10 cold cheered “We need to resist,” said a speaker who identified himself as Danny DeSantis.
“We’re going to crush this establishment and we’re going to get our freedoms back,” shouted another.
Hulking farm tractors and smaller trucks began arriving for the demonstration at on Friday afternoon. Police barricades prevented them from getting near the legislative building, leaving the activists to park alongside the Royal Ontario Museum.
It was part of a law-enforcement effort designed to stave off a long-term occupation of the city’s core and safeguard the five major hospitals that lie just south of Queen’s Park on University Avenue.
The arrival of the farm vehicles was further indication that the movement has expanded beyond just the truck drivers who spearheaded the Ottawa event.
Several huge dump trucks, tractor trailers and thousands of protesters clogged a major Toronto intersection Saturday as the trucker-led movement against COVID vaccine mandates and lockdowns hit Canada’s biggest city.
But a major police presence and barricaded streets managed to keep the noisy truck convoy away from the area immediately around the Ontario legislature, and further downtown.
Instead, the trucks filled the corner of Bloor Street and Avenue Road in the Yorkville neighbourhood, across from the Royal Ontario Museum.
A string of trucks and other protest vehicles stretched east and west on Bloor and north on Avenue as demonstrators streamed around them. It was unclear how long the trucks planned to stay there.
Despite the disruption in a busy part of Toronto, the event remained relatively peaceful as of mid-afternoon Saturday.
Toronto police said they arrested a 22-year-old man at around 2 p.m. for allegedly igniting a smoke bomb at the demonstration at Queen’s Park.
The man faces one count each of assault with a weapon, administering a noxious substance and public mischief.
Earlier, a few thousand of the protesters descended on the provincial legislature by foot for a more conventional protest.
About three or four thousand people listened to an hour of rabble-rousing speeches before marching north to Yorkville, where the horn-honking trucks had been held back.
Cries of “Freedom” and attacks on the federal government and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rang out repeatedly from the microphone as a peaceful crowd braving minus-10 cold cheered “We need to resist,” said a speaker who identified himself as Danny DeSantis.
“We’re going to crush this establishment and we’re going to get our freedoms back,” shouted another.
Hulking farm tractors and smaller trucks began arriving for the demonstration at on Friday afternoon. Police barricades prevented them from getting near the legislative building, leaving the activists to park alongside the Royal Ontario Museum.
It was part of a law-enforcement effort designed to stave off a long-term occupation of the city’s core and safeguard the five major hospitals that lie just south of Queen’s Park on University Avenue.
The arrival of the farm vehicles was further indication that the movement has expanded beyond just the truck drivers who spearheaded the Ottawa event.
Next stop, Toronto? Fringe group says truckers convoy headed to Queen’s Park
Toronto police barricade streets in advance of truckers' protest, aiming for 'minimal disruption'
Civic leaders vowed to stop them from repeating what happened in the nation’s capital, where tractor-trailers and hundreds of protesters have clogged streets around Parliament Hill and filled the core area with honking.
“We all want to do what we can to avoid the situation we’re seeing in Ottawa,” said Mayor John Tory at a news conference Friday. “If anyone is planning to come here for a protest that is not peaceful and is not respectful, I would urge you on behalf of all Toronto residences and businesses, to please stay home.”
By Friday afternoon, police had used parked buses to block off the stretch of University Avenue known as Hospital Row, home to some of Canada’s largest health-care centres. Previous anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine protests in Toronto and elsewhere have targeted hospitals , in some cases impeding access to the facilities.
Anyone who tries to disrupt the hospitals or emergency routes will be met with “strict enforcement,” said Police Chief James Ramer.
The police service also filled the downtown area with an influx of officers, who have been instructed to keep their body cameras on for the duration of the protest.
Residents may find the large presence of uniformed officers “unsettling” but the department is doing everything it can to make the city safe, Staff-Superintendent Lauren Pogue told the same news conference.
As well, the force placed additional close-circuit cameras throughout the area, to help with police operations and investigations, she said.
Ramer said police will ensure that no vehicles are parked around Queen’s Park and said his officers will not allow encampments in the area by demonstrators arriving on foot.
Tory, meanwhile, appeared to take an indirect dig at the protesters, citing the fact that over 90 per cent of eligible Toronto residents have received at least one dose of vaccine and 60 per cent are triple vaccinated.
We all want to do what we can to avoid the situation we’re seeing in Ottawa
“What great demonstrations of the unity of the people of this city, of teamwork, of concern for each other,” he said.
BAD SPELLER
It’s unclear exactly who organized the Toronto event. One of the promoters of the demonstration is an anti-lockdown / anti-mask group called The Line Canada, whose leader Lamont Daigle appeared on the radar of an anti-extremist watchdog last year.
In a post on his Facebook page supporting the cause of Palestinians in the occupied territories, Daigle propagated anti-Semitic tropes about a conspiracy of Jews that control world banks and the media, wrote the Canada Anti-Hate Network .
“The Israelis who are oppressing the Palestinians are (Z)-ionist Rawthchildrens who own 75 per cent of Israel, the World banks and the World Health Organization,” the network quoted Daigle as writing in a 1,400-word essay. “The Globalist Elites are the ones responsible for the Palestinian occupation ‘testing ground’ for how they propose to ‘Occupy’ and ‘lockdown’ the rest of the World.”
We all want to do what we can to avoid the situation we’re seeing in Ottawa
“What great demonstrations of the unity of the people of this city, of teamwork, of concern for each other,” he said.
BAD SPELLER
It’s unclear exactly who organized the Toronto event. One of the promoters of the demonstration is an anti-lockdown / anti-mask group called The Line Canada, whose leader Lamont Daigle appeared on the radar of an anti-extremist watchdog last year.
In a post on his Facebook page supporting the cause of Palestinians in the occupied territories, Daigle propagated anti-Semitic tropes about a conspiracy of Jews that control world banks and the media, wrote the Canada Anti-Hate Network .
“The Israelis who are oppressing the Palestinians are (Z)-ionist Rawthchildrens who own 75 per cent of Israel, the World banks and the World Health Organization,” the network quoted Daigle as writing in a 1,400-word essay. “The Globalist Elites are the ones responsible for the Palestinian occupation ‘testing ground’ for how they propose to ‘Occupy’ and ‘lockdown’ the rest of the World.”
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