Ontario police watchdog investigating use of horses, non-lethal rounds at Ottawa protest clearing
CTV
Ontario's police watchdog is investigating two incidents involving police during the operation to clear out the 'Freedom Convoy' protest that had occupied Ottawa streets for three weeks.
The Special Investigations Unit said in a release Sunday that it was investigating the reported serious injury of a woman in an interaction with a police horse and the discharges of "less-lethal firearms."
The first incident involves a woman who was injured as police officers with Toronto's mounted unit moved through the crowd near the Chateau Laurier hotel Friday afternoon.
"At approximately 5:14 p.m. (Friday), there was an interaction between a Toronto Police Service officer on a horse and a 49-year-old woman on Rideau Street and Mackenzie Avenue. The woman has a reported serious injury," the SIU said.
The woman was the subject of a debunked online rumour that she had been killed in the interaction. Both the Ottawa Police Service and Ottawa paramedics confirmed no one had died, and the woman's family members also said she is alive and is recovering from a broken clavicle.