OTTAWA, 21 February 2022, (TON): Canadian police secured the downtown core of the capital with fencing as city workers cleaned up trash and snow plows cleared streets after two days of tense standoffs and 191 arrests ended a three-week occupation of Ottawa.

Police said “demonstrators had used hundreds of trucks and vehicles to block the city center since Jan. 28, prompting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to invoke rarely used emergency powers. Seventy-six vehicles had been towed.”

Stragglers packed up a logistics depot the so-called “Freedom Convoy” had set up in a parking lot near the highway to supply the protesters camped several kilometers away in front of parliament, as police handed out flyers warning them to leave soon or risk arrest and a fine.

Winton Marchant, a retired firefighter from Windsor, Ontario said “we were running support for the convoy and the people in the downtown core — food, fuel, basic necessities.”

“This was the base camp and we are cleaning up.”

Police used pepper spray and stun grenades on the die-hard protesters who remained, clearing most of the area in front of parliament. Other demonstrators abandoned their positions in other parts of the downtown area during the night.