Motor vehicle control zone comes into effect around Parliament Hill, 28 vehicles towed
A multi-block vehicle control zone is in effect around Parliament Hill, meant to prevent a second occupation of downtown Ottawa by protesters associated with last winter’s “Freedom Convoy” movement.
Ottawa Bylaw says 120 parking tickets were issued and 28 vehicles were towed Wednesday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
The area stretching from Colonel By Drive/Sussex Drive in the east, Wellington Street in the north, Booth Street in the west and Laurier Avenue in the south will not be closed to vehicles, but will be restricted.
“Motor vehicles taking part in any form of demonstration, event, protest or rally will not be permitted,” the city says. “Barricades, heavy equipment or police officers and vehicles will be at various access points surrounding the control zone, to filter lawful traffic onto those streets.”
The control zone will be in effect from 8 a.m. Wednesday to 6 a.m. Monday. There will also be road closures on Canada Day.
The vehicle control zone is one of the measures the Ottawa Police Service is taking to prevent a repeat of last February, when protesters parked heavy trucks throughout the downtown core and set up a makeshift village to protest the federal Liberal government and COVID-19 public health protections. Police eventually removed them, empowered by the first-ever invocation of the federal Emergencies Act.
A look at the Motor Vehicle Control Zone in downtown Ottawa for Canada Day. (City of Ottawa/release)
Interim Ottawa police chief Steve Bell is assuring residents that last winter’s occupation will not be repeated.
“There won’t be occupiers because all of our planning is established around ensuring that people do not occupy our streets, that people do not take over areas of Ottawa,” Bell told the Ottawa Police Services Board on Monday. “We’ve set very deliberate plans and we’ve resourced those plans so that occupation does not again occur.”
Speaking on CTV News at Noon on Tuesday, Bell said the police have not forgotten what happened five months ago.
“The trauma our community suffered in February is front of centre through all of our planning,” he said. “Canada Day is about celebrating our country… We want to encourage people to come down and we want to let them know that you can come down to a large area that will have a festive environment to it.”
Bell says all lawful protests will be permitted, but illegal activity will not be tolerated. Ottawa Bylaw is also saying there is zero tolerance for setting up tables, tents, or other materials on roads and sidewalks in the city.
Mayor Jim Watson says the city learned from the occupation.
“We got ahead of the situation this time, we didn’t last time. Last time, obviously, things swirled out of control,” Watson told CTV Morning Live on Wednesday. “If 18-wheelers start to show up on residential streets, they’ll be ticketed and towed away. You’re not allowed to an 18-wheeler on a residential street taking up four or five parking spots. There will be zero tolerance.”
Ottawa Bylaw says enforcement of no stopping zones is already underway.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
For the first time in report's history, Canada's air quality worse than U.S.
Thanks to wildfires, air quality in Canada is now worse than in the U.S., according to the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report.
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
DEVELOPING Canada's annual inflation rate ticked down to 2.8 per cent in February, defying expectations
Statistics Canada says the annual inflation rate edged down to 2.8 per cent in February.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and hate 'their religion,' igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.
Toronto family doctor who called patient's body 'perfect' suspended for 3 months: tribunal
A family doctor in Toronto has been suspended for three months after a disciplinary tribunal found that he failed to follow proper protocols while examining a patient's breasts and made inappropriate comments about her body.