2 Indigenous convoy protesters say they were victims of heavy-handed police response in Ottawa

Three weeks after RCMP tactical officers smashed their way into his motorhome during an operation to clear the convoy protest around Parliament Hill, Wayne Narvey drove his patched-up vehicle through a winding country back road tailed by three Ontario Provincial Police SUVs. 

Earlier that evening, March 3, the OPP ended plans by Narvey and a handful of others to set up a protest camp on a patch of federal government land near a small rural airport to continue what they call the "freedom movement" after it was pushed out of downtown Ottawa. Navery, and some of the other protesters there, had been part of the Ottawa protest against pandemic-related mandates and restrictions since it began.

"We have an hour to leave," Narvey was told by another demonstrator named Justin as OPP vehicles with flashing lights waited on the road. 

Some of the windows in the motorhome were covered with black garbage bags and cold crept in through a door that couldn't shut because of a broken latch. The group piled what they could — a wheelbarrow, propane tanks — into the back of a pickup truck and in Narvey's motorhome and left, with the OPP keeping pace in the distance.

Narvey, 34, from Esgenoopetitj First Nation, a Mi'kmaq community in New Brunswick, was arrested by RCMP tactical officers at his motorhome on Feb. 18 and transferred to Ottawa police custody.

He was one of two Indigenous people involved in some of the most dramatic moments during the two-day police operation against the downtown Ottawa protest.

The other, Candice Sero, 49, from Tyendinaga Mohawk territory, west of Napanee, Ont., is still recovering physically and emotionally after she was knocked to the ground by Toronto police officers on horseback on Feb. 19, according to her lawyer, Matthew Wolfson. 

Sero declined to speak to CBC News despite repeated requests. The province's Special Investigations Unit, which investigates injury or death that occurs during police activity, is probing the incident.

Wolfson said Sero, who uses a walker, was not provided any medical assistance by police on the scene, but was instead told to immediately leave the area. Wolfson said Sero managed to make her way to a nearby business and a patron there called an ambulance for her. 

"It has left her shaken. This is one of the sweetest women in the world," said Wolfson. 

"Her heart is still there, but it's had an effect on her mind and her energy.… She is trying to get through day by day, but the mental toll is something that is still fresh."

Wolfson said he could not provide specific details of her injuries. He said she suffered injuries to the "upper right arm" area around her clavicle along with severe bruising.

According to her lawyer, Sero attended the protest because of the impact pandemic restrictions had on children.

WATCH | The moment Candice Sero was knocked over by a Toronto police horse: