Trudeau says ‘everything’ on the table to end blockades, warns of potential violence

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said police will apply tougher enforcement of the laws 'in a predictable, progressive approach,' and that he hopes people will leave peacefully.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says “everything” is on the table when it comes to ending the blockades paralyzing cross-border trade at multiple locations, and which remain encamped outside Parliament Hill.

And he urged anyone still participating in the convoys, which are demanding an end to COVID-19 public health measures, to go home or face “severe” consequences.

“Unfortunately, we are concerned about violence, so we’re taking every precaution,” he said.

“It’s time to go home – especially if you have kids with you.”

For two weeks, members of a convoy that has claimed to represent Canadian truckers have blockaded the streets of downtown Ottawa, frequently blaring air horns at all hours of the day and night until a 10-day court injunction ordered them to stop the noise.

Some of the group’s organizers, though, have ties to white supremacy as well as racist and extremist rhetoric. Ottawa police are now probing more than 120 active criminal investigations into alleged conduct by the convoy members, many of whom continue to say they are part of a “peaceful” protest.

Federal, provincial and municipal officials, however, have been clear over recent days: the blockades and activities of the convoy are now “illegal” and “unlawful,” and must end.