In Ottawa Trucker Protests, a Pressing Question: Where Were the Police?

OTTAWA — A two-minute walk from Canada’s Parliament buildings, hundreds of people danced in an intersection that has been barricaded on all four corners by the metal snouts of tractor-trailers. A D.J. worked under a tent, surrounded by giant speakers buzzing with reverb. When a small group of police officers decked in masks and protective headphones made their way across the makeshift dance floor, cheers echoed through the crowd.

Only a few hours earlier on Friday, the premier of Ontario, home to Canada’s capital, Ottawa, declared a state of emergency across the province and said that anyone involved in the protest would face “severe” consequences, including nearly $100,000 fines or even jail time.

On Saturday the Canadian police cleared many trucks from the Ambassador Bridge, a vital crossing in Windsor, Ontario connecting the United States and Canada, and the protesters seemed to be complying.

The bridge blockage had left carmakers short of critical parts, forcing some to shutter some plants in both countries on Friday, and inspired a copycat protest in France.

But the Ottawa police still were not issuing tickets or making arrests.

“They’ve taken an oath to protect our country,” said Terry Grein, a protester in the crowd, after bumping fists with one of the officers. “A civil servant will not go against watching people being unified.”

Two weeks after Ottawa’s downtown was transformed into a raging tailgate party, many in Canada wonder how this happened — why the police seemingly abandoned the country’s seat of power, with no perceivable backup, and how a motley group of truckers, anti-government activists, anti-vaccine agitators and people just fed up after two years of stringent public health restrictions have managed not only to outfox them, but to become increasingly entrenched and to spread elsewhere.

“This is Jan. 6 in slow motion,” said Catherine McKenney, an Ottawa city councilor, who uses the pronouns they/them, referring to the Jan. 6, 2021, mob assault on the United States Capitol. Mx. McKenney has been bellowing for more police protection for the city’s residents downtown, who feel terrorized by pickup trucks that circle through, delivering supplies to the parked trucks. “But on Jan. 7, 2021, Washington emptied out,” the councilor said. “Here, they stayed.”

The answers will surface in a post-mortem, but initially, analysts link the police officers’ hands-off approach to two opposing factors: the weaknesses of the local police force in size and preparation, and the relative strength of the occupiers — in numbers, but also in tactics, discipline, fund-raising ability and logistics.

While the trucks themselves are the purported cause, symbol and tool of the protest, only a few of the self-proclaimed leaders are actually truckers. Some are, in fact, former police officers and army veterans who many believe have used their expertise to help organize the occupation.

“This is an entirely sophisticated level of demonstrators,” Ottawa’s police chief, Peter Sloly, said in a news conference on Thursday. “They have the capability to run a strong organization here, provincially and…