BREAKING: Premier Of Ontario, Doug Ford, Cracks Down on Truckers, Declares State Of Emergency Over Protests

The Premier of Ontario, Progressive Conservative Doug Ford, announced on Friday he is declaring a state of emergency for Ontario, Canada. The source of the declaration is the Ottawa Freedom Trucker Protest — a protest initiated over COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Ottawa is located in Southern Ontario. Doug Ford claims the Freedom Truckers are holding Ottawa “hostage”, “trying to force a political agenda through disruption, intimidation, and chaos.” He maintains the rights of all Canadian workers outweigh the rights of the Freedom Truckers to political protests. He notes there will be very “severe” penalties for the Freedom Truckers — including freezing funds gained from crowdfunding sites. He also suggests financial penalties for those involved and a plan to take away the licenses of the truckers who are protesting. He suggests Ontario will introduce new legislation to make sure no event of like fashion will ever happen again. He ended by saying to the Protestors “we heard you, and it is time to go.”

Here is the full speech:

Premier Ford, Minister @SylviaJonesMPP, Minister @C_Mulroney and Minister @douglasdowney make an announcement https://t.co/BaFvTpzUMp

— Doug Ford (@fordnation) February 11, 2022