“We’re going to take back the entirety of the downtown core,”
Mr. Bell said. “We have a good, well-resourced plan to end the occupation.”
The police had begun
distributing written notices to protesters in Ottawa on Wednesday warning those remaining to leave the area or face penalties. A few of the truckers have their children with them, and one police notice warned that anyone taking a minor to an illegal protest could face up to five years in prison.
Some protesters have been accompanied by their dogs, and Ottawa municipal officials warned on Thursday that if protesters were separated from their pets during a police action, the animals would be placed in protective care for eight days, at their expense, and would be “considered relinquished” after that.
On Tuesday, the police charged four people with conspiring to murder police officers, part of a group of 13 people charged with
planning a violent response if the police tried to break up the blockade of a border crossing between Alberta and Montana at the Canadian village of Coutts.
Around the country there have been signs of the protests losing steam as government leaders and law-enforcement officials, who were reluctant at first to take action, have taken a steadily tougher line.
Border blockades have ended at Windsor, Ontario, linking to Detroit; at Coutts; and, on Wednesday, at Emerson, Manitoba, crossing into North Dakota, among others.
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