Downtown Ottawa residents describe stress and anxiety of living with ongoing trucker protest

A Centretown man says he was assaulted by demonstrators while trying to take pictures in Confederation Park on Monday.

Tim Abray has lived in the Centretown area for a decade but described the past four days, as “pretty challenging.”

Abray says he decided to go for a walk on Monday around noon. “I took a walk down the (Queen Elizabeth) Driveway to see how many trucks were still here.” When he got to Confederation Park near the National Arts Centre entrance he says, “I was asked to leave.”

He describes the next moments after being approached by demonstrators.

“They asked me if I was a supporter or not, and I said I was just here having a look and that I live in the neighbourhood. They told me to leave, and I said, ‘I don’t think so, this is where I live and anyone is allowed in the park,’ and he physically grabbed me and removed me from the property,” he says.

Abray says he still had his video recording at the time.

“I immediately went and spoke to police officers onsite,” says Abray. “It is clear they are not interested in a conversation, they are interested in a confrontation, and this is what we have been living with all weekend.”

Abray says he is not interested in pressing charges.

Stress and anxiety for downtown residents

Residents who live in Centretown describe the past four days as extremely loud, frustrating, and stressful.

Sarah Mack lives in Centretown has says it has been constant gridlock outside her apartment all weekend and into Monday. She says she has trouble concentrating and working from home.

“It has been nothing short of a nightmare. They were setting off fireworks all throughout the night. It was getting dangerously close to my windows.”

Mack says her cat has also been stressed and has thrown up because of anxiety. Mack says she has also been verbally assaulted by some demonstrators.

Mack says with no end in sight to the protests, she is making plans to leave. “I am exhausted. With this having no sign of ending at any point I don’t know what I am going to do, what choice I have but to leave the area.”

There are community Facebook groups that are trying to help residents get supplies. Laurena Nash says, “We are organizing trying to get parents noise cancelling headphones for their babies, or noise cancelling devices for rescue pets who have lots of anxiety…we are trying to do what we can because there is a lot of anxiety and stress out there.”

Other residents telling CTV News Ottawa that some people have not being able to get groceries or leave their homes because of safety concerns.

Meanwhile, police continue to ask residents to be patient. Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly says Neighbourhood Resource Teams will be back in neighbourhood on Tuesday.

“Our commitment is to redeploy uniformed members, our neighbourhood resource teams, that were previous deployed into the Market area, Lowertown, Sandy Hill, Centretown communities, redeployed out of the operational demonstration command centre that we have had for the past five days.”

Sloly says the officers will help residents feel safe. “Their primary duties and focus is to create a sense of confidence and safety of those communities. And those are the communities that have been the most directly and negatively affected over the last five days.”

Sloly says the police services goal is, “as quickly as possible we will try to return this city to a sense of normalcy.”