Convoy protesters return to Parliament Hill for two-year anniversary of Emergencies Act

Published Feb 17, 2024 • Last updated 4 hours ago • 4 minute read

Hundreds of protesters converged on Parliament Hill on Saturday, two years after thousands gridlocked downtown Ottawa.

Streets were filled with signs and flags reading “Welcome back, truckers,” “Trudeau must go,” and “Protect the children,” among others.

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While the original convoy protest brought wall-to-wall big-rig trucks and pickups to the nation’s capital only a few of them were driven down Wellington Street on Saturday, one of them honking a train-like horn.

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Demonstrators were, for the most part, well-behaved, gathering on Parliament Hill’s front lawn under bright sunshine for speeches and tunes from a DJ. A brief dance party broke out. Outbursts of “Freedom!” chants peppered the gathering, and a firework was shot off.

Some protesters were turned away from entering Parliament Hill as they were carrying massive flags taped to hockey sticks or other long staffs. Rules for demonstrations on the Hill require all signs and banners to be hand-held on poles no more than two metres in length. “Obscene” signs may be banned, as well as signs depicting blood or graphic violence.

Several “F— Trudeau” flags were flown, as well as inverted Canadian flags, commonly known as a sign of distress. Protesters also carried signs against government-mandated ID programs and teaching sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. Some flags and signs promoted conspiracy theories that took root during the COVID-19 pandemic, ranging from anti-vaccine theories to railing against the World Economic Forum and “The Great Reset.”

According to the Anti-Defamation League, an advocacy group specializing in civil rights law and combatting antisemitism and extremism, “The Great Reset” warns of “global elites” pushing an agenda of globalism to destroy national sovereignty. The theory says the COVID-19 pandemic was used as a tool to usher in lockdown measures, restrict freedom, impose mass surveillance and hurt small businesses.

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“One can see long-standing and familiar right-wing conspiracy tropes at play in the Great Reset conspiracy, including the notion that a group of elites are working to undermine national sovereignty and individual freedoms, references to a “New World Order,” and the idea that these malicious actors will seek to exploit a catastrophic incident — like a global pandemic — to advance their agenda,” the ADL wrote in late 2020. “A common undercurrent among proponents is a mistrust of vaccines, which they believe will be forced upon people to fulfill the nefarious objectives of Bill Gates or the pharmaceutical industry.”

Flags with former U.S. president Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan were also flown on Parliament Hill on Saturday, along with a smattering of U.S. flags.

The convoy protesters left the Hill at about 2 p.m. to march through the downtown district and back, with a smaller faction of the group continuing through the ByWard Market.

At approximately the same time, a different group of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered at the Human Rights Monument near Ottawa City Hall before marching to Israel’s embassy on O’Connor Street. The group was protesting what participants described as the Israel Defence Force’s “horrific attacks” on Rafah, once designated as one of the last remaining safe zones in Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel and subsequent war.

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The two protesting groups were directed away from each other by Ottawa police. The city’s bylaw department had warned earlier in the day that safety would be “paramount” during protests and enforcement would focus on megaphones, blocking of roadways and use of fireworks.

As they marched, convoy protesters used megaphones and blared sirens, many of them jeering Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“The racist regime of Trudeau must go,” the crowd shouted as it proceeded along Rideau Street.

Rebecca Sheppard of Stand4Thee, an organization that has accused Trudeau of treason, was among dozens of speakers to addressed the crowd on Parliament Hill

Sheppard asked the crowd to “cover the little ones’ ears” before she launched into a string of expletives against Trudeau and “every one of those Liberal executive branch members who illegally invoked the Emergencies Act in 2022 and attempted to overthrow the government by doing so, infringed on our rights, broke the law, hurt people, stole property and acted as if they were God themselves.”

She said the government needed to be help accountable, and her rights “come from God, not the government.”

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The 2022 protests, which featured big-rig trucks in the downtown core, were spearheaded by some who opposed the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, many of which had ended by that time. Others hoped to bring down the Trudeau government. Police from across Ontario and Quebec were brought in to clear the Ottawa streets in a massive multi-day operation that ended Feb. 17, 2022.

Invoking the Emergencies Act triggered an automatic federal commission to review the government’s decision. The Public Order Emergency Commission issued 56 recommendations for police and governments last February, and commissioner Paul Rouleau concluded that the Liberals were justified in turning to the never-before-used legislation.

In January, though, Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley said invoking the Emergencies Act was unreasonable and violated the constitutional right of free expression. The federal government has pledged to appeal that decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.

With files from The Canadian Press and Associated Press

PHOTO GALLERY

Hundreds of convoy protesters returned to Parliament Hill Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024, on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act that ended the protest. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Hundreds of convoy protesters returned to Parliament Hill Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024, on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act that ended the protest. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Hundreds of convoy protesters returned to Parliament Hill Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024, on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act that ended the protest. A man with very little clothing, who was here for the original protests in similar outfits, returned to the hill. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Hundreds of convoy protesters returned to Parliament Hill Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024, on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act that ended the protest. A man with a tinfoil hat was stopped as he entered the gates of Parliament Hill because of the length of his flag pole. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Hundreds of convoy protesters returned to Parliament Hill Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024, on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act that ended the protest. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Hundreds of convoy protesters returned to Parliament Hill Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024, on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act that ended the protest. Brian Derksen: The Trucker That Never Left, was one of the speakers Saturday. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Hundreds of convoy protesters returned to Parliament Hill Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024, on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act that ended the protest. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Hundreds of convoy protesters returned to Parliament Hill Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024, on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act that ended the protest. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Hundreds of convoy protesters returned to Parliament Hill Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024, on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act that ended the protest. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Hundreds of convoy protesters returned to Parliament Hill Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024, on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act that ended the protest. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Hundreds of convoy protesters returned to Parliament Hill Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024, on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act that ended the protest. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Hundreds of convoy protesters returned to Parliament Hill Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024, on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act that ended the protest. A man with very little clothing, who was here for the original protests in similar outfits, returned to the hill and posed with other protesters. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Hundreds of convoy protesters returned to Parliament Hill Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024, on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act that ended the protest. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Hundreds of convoy protesters returned to Parliament Hill Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024, on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act that ended the protest. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Hundreds of convoy protest supporters returned to Parliament Hill on Saturday, on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act that ended the protest. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Hundreds of convoy protest supporters returned to Parliament Hill on Saturday, on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act that ended the protest. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Hundreds of convoy protest supporters returned to Parliament Hill on Saturday, on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act that ended the protest. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia The 19th weekend of pro-Palestine protests in downtown Ottawa took place Saturday, starting at the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights on Elgin Street and marching to the Embassy of Israel on O’Connor Street. The marchers had to make a last-minute change of directions to avoid other protesters in the downtown core. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia The 19th weekend of pro-Palestine protests in downtown Ottawa took place Saturday, starting at the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights on Elgin Street and marching to the Embassy of Israel on O’Connor Street. The marchers had to make a last-minute change of directions to avoid other protesters in the downtown core. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia The 19th weekend of pro-Palestine protests in downtown Ottawa took place Saturday, starting at the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights on Elgin Street and marching to the Embassy of Israel on O’Connor Street. The marchers had to make a last-minute change of directions to avoid other protesters in the downtown core. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia The 19th weekend of pro-Palestine protests in downtown Ottawa took place Saturday, starting at the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights on Elgin Street and marching to the Embassy of Israel on O’Connor Street. The marchers had to make a last-minute change of directions to avoid other protesters in the downtown core. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia