OTAWA – Hundreds of former Freedom Fighters returned to the Canadian capital on Saturday to party in Parliament and protest COVID-19 orders as police launched a massive operation to maintain peace and ensure protesters will actually return to their homes.
The protesters hugged each other, many had not seen each other since police cleared the escort camps that had been holding Ottawa for three weeks in February.
Crowds danced in the street in front of parliament shouting “Freedom!”  while others lay on the lawn in front of the Center Block.
Freedom Fighters Canada spokesman Bethan Nodwell, who helped organize the Rolling Thunder rally in Parliament Hill on Saturday, said no activities other than a Sunday church service were planned.
But the president of the Centretown Community Association, Mary Huang, said residents in the area were still waiting to see if the protests would end as expected and not last as long as before.
“Especially some elderly people in Centretown were basically held hostage in their homes for two, three and a half weeks.  “So they are still a little bit injured,” Huang said.
“The real test is whether (the protesters) are going to leave as they say they will leave or whether they will try something else.”
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said police had taken a “strong stand” to prevent the kind of protracted demonstration that engulfed Ottawa this winter.
“Obviously what happened in February hurt a lot of people,” Watson said.
Ottawa police called in more than 800 reinforcements from the RCMP and other police services that blocked highways and any roads in the core to prevent the creation of a new camp.
However, this does not mean that Ottawa saw the end of the escort protesters.
“We never left,” Nodwell said.  Small groups of five to 10 protesters have been visiting parliament since February to continue calling for an end to restrictions on COVID-19, he said.
Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Saturday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck.  Police arrested the person for dangerous driving and found them violating their terms of release over the previous protest when they were ordered not to return to Ottawa.
Ottawa regulations and regulations say more than 560 tickets have been distributed for parking violations, smoking, noise and highway tolls, and 39 vehicles have been towed since Friday morning.
Saturday’s events were relatively peaceful compared to a clash between police and protesters on Friday night, when police arrested seven people and confronted what they described as an “aggressive crowd” just outside the parliament hall.
Protesters began Saturday’s protests by promising to restore the National War Memorial with a morning ceremony at the cenotaph.
Speakers recounted how police removed protesters from the area after a three-week demonstration on Parliament Hill as hundreds of supporters gathered around the monument to listen.
Hundreds of supporters watched retired Afghan veteran Christopher Deering lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at a memorial service.
Deering said he was arrested by police as part of an effort to oust Freedom Convoy protesters from the core in February.
“Then I and the other peaceful citizens were thrown out of the city like rubbish and told not to return to our nation’s capital,” Deering told the crowd on Saturday.
The group also disagreed with police who erected a fence around the monument in February after a woman desecrated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier standing on it during the demonstration.  Protesters who identified themselves as veterans later tore down the fence and undertook to guard the tomb.
Speakers at Saturday’s event also voiced opposition to vaccine orders, restrictions on COVID-19 and the government of Prime Minister Justin Trinto, although supporters were asked to remove slogans with closing remarks aimed at the prime minister.
At the ceremony, the majority raised their hands when a speaker asked who was at the convoy protest in February.
Officials described downtown Ottawa as illegal during the protests, and the federal government invoked the emergency law in a bid to remove participants and similar protesters who blocked border crossings across the country.
Eventually, with the help of hundreds of police officers from other parts of the country, Ottawa police removed them from the streets of the capital.
Shortly before the ceremony on Saturday, a small group of protesters gathered in front of the monument shouting “go home” to express that the protesters were not welcome back in the city.
“The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is not a suitable place to express partisan political views, it is just wrong.  “This is not what we are advocating,” said protester Chris Anderson in an interview.
Anderson said he was a veteran himself, having served as a doctor for seven years.
“In a way, for me, they are poisoning the monument,” said Anderson, who wore a rainbow T-shirt to support some of the city residents who felt insecure because of the protests.
After the ceremony, the crowd moved south to Elgin Street to watch a motorcycle parade pass as police kept people off the road.
The motorcycles were originally planned to pass through Parliament Hill and park near the war memorial, but police barred vehicles from the area.
The afternoon rally on Parliament Hill included the controversial speaker Chris Sky, whose real name is Chris Saccoccia.
According to the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, Sky, a figure in the anti-mask movement, has been noted for making anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and racist comments.
– With records from Sarah Smellie at St.  John’s
This Canadian Press report was first published on April 30, 2022.