Police officers during a protest against coronavirus restrictions in Ottawa, CanadaMOSCOW, Feb. 18 Ottawa police have detained one of the key organizers of the Freedom Convoy anti-COVID protests, Chris Barber, CBC reports. According to the channel, he is in a police station and is expected to face criminal charges. Barber and two other people, Tamara Leach and Benjamin Dichter, are the main organizers of the demonstrations in a class-action lawsuit that was previously filed in the Superior Court of Ontario over the noise from car horns that flooded downtown Ottawa. In addition to Barber, the police, according to CTV detained several more protesters. Earlier, Acting Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell warned that authorities were ready to take action against protesters in the center of the Canadian capital in the near future. A wave of protests across Canada began in mid-January, when thousands of truckers and other demonstrators gathered in Ottawa, to protest the vaccination requirement for truck drivers crossing the US-Canadian border. The protest has since escalated into an anti-government demonstration in which various groups have united against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. On Monday, the government invoked the Emergency Situations Act, which allowed it to grant Canadian financial institutions permission to suspend financial services in cases where a provider suspects an account is being used to fund protests.
Ottawa police threaten protesters with 'serious punishment'
