Sharjah24 – AFP: The last big rigs were being towed Sunday out of Canada's capital, where the streets were quiet for the first time in three weeks after a massive police operation ended a drawn-out siege over Covid health rules.
A major cleanup was underway in Ottawa's snowy downtown, where police in riot gear faced off with trucker-led demonstrators for two full days, finally driving them out of their protest hub outside parliament.
The last few protesters stayed late into Saturday night, singing 80s protest anthems and setting off fireworks at a four–meter-high (13-foot) security fence hastily erected around the parliamentary precinct.
But the last gasp protest-turned-street-party fizzled as a deep freeze gripped the city.
Sunday morning, police were manning checkpoints restricting access to a 500-acre downtown area, while a sizeable force remained on standby to defend the ground reclaimed from the truckers.
Ottawa police issued a reminder that the core area remains off-limits except to local residents and workers.
Police tweeted midmorning that two people had just been arrested -- and a total of 191 since police moved in on Friday.
It said 57 vehicles have so far been towed out of the city -- paralyzed since January 29 when hundreds of trucks, vans and other vehicles parked there in protest.
Meanwhile crews took down the last tents, food stands and other makeshift structures erected by demonstrators, and cleared heaps of snow from streets in preparation for a reopening of local businesses.
And for the first time in weeks, Ottawa residents were not startled awake by the incessant honking that had become a staple of the protests.
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