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Ottawa Police Starting to Remove Protestors from Downtown Core

The House of Commons will not sit today as police try to clear protestors out of Ottawa's downtown core.

OTTAWA - The Speaker of the House of Commons has decided to cancel today's sitting due to police activity in Ottawa.

MPs were supposed to debate the Trudeau government's decision to use the Emergency Act today, but Speaker Anthony Rota is encouraging people to stay away from the parliamentary precinct until further notice.

Ottawa Police have set up about 100 checkpoints in order to secure a roughly four square kilometre area of the downtown core. Officers are screening vehicles and only residents and people with a lawful reason to be there will be allowed in the area.

Officers made a number of arrests last night, including two of the organizers of the Freedom Convoy. Chris Barber and Tamara Lich are now facing several charges including counselling to commit mischief.

The anti-COVID mandate protest took over Ottawa's downtown core almost four weeks ago and police will continue to remove protestors from the area over the weekend.

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