Canadian police have taken a hardline approach in an effort to break up the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa, with at least 100 arrested and mounted police trampling protesters on Friday.
Mounted police and officers clad in riot gear, some carrying rifles, moved in on the Freedom Convoy on Friday, pushing into crowds of people including children as protesters linked arms and sang the national anthem in an effort to block their advances.
Scuffles between police and protesters were reported, with Freedom Convoy members creating makeshift snow barriers to help them defend against the police.
Four senior protest leaders are among roughly 100 people who have been arrested — largely on ‘mischief’ charges — and two dozen vehicles blocking key roads having been towed out of the estimated 350 vehicles belonging to the protesters.
Police have refused to release numbers of remaining protesters or vehicles, AP reports.
Interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell claimed that no protesters were injured, despite footage circulating on social media of police horses trampling protesters at the convoy.
Ottawa Police attempted to justify this extreme behaviour by suggesting “a bicycle was thrown at the feet of one of the horses in an attempt to injure it”, but their account of events has been disputed.
Hellbound and Down 