Convoy protester shoved, heckled Ottawa resident at neighbourhood park

An Ottawa resident says he was shoved and heckled at by truck convoy protesters while walking through his neighbourhood park on Monday.

Tim Abray says he tried taking pictures of members of the truck convoy that were encamped at an Ottawa park when he was attacked.

“I’m just an average citizen,” he said. “I’m a guy in my mid-50s. I’ve got a kid who goes to the high school right next door. All I did was raise a camera and I was attacked by several people and nothing was done. That should concern everyone.”

So, for those of you with any doubts about the nature of this “protest”: it’s turning into a violent occupation. I went for a walk in my own neighbourhood, taking some pictures of the current state of things… and ended up being assaulted by so-called freedom fighters. pic.twitter.com/Hv8ZJEtrUd

— Tim Abray (@timabray) January 31, 2022

Abray, a former communications consultant, lives in the Golden Triangle, a neighbourhood next to the Rideau Canal and near Parliament Hill.

As an Ottawa resident, Abray says he’s used to protests, but not like this.

“People have been verbally abused, they’ve had feces left on their property, they’ve had rocks thrown at their houses, teenagers have been intimidated,” said Abray. “For goodness’ sake, Rideau Centre has been shut down for days. When has that happened in the past? There are professional offices in that building, there are medical offices that can’t carry out business.

“The city is incapable, it seems, of simply maintaining some semblance of order that lets people go about their daily lives.”

Abray tweeted two separate short videos of the incident, which appear to show a man hitting Abray’s camera phone out of his hand while it’s recording.

“You’re assaulting me, you realize that, right?” the Ottawa resident can be heard on one of the videos. “Who are you?” he asks the protester.

“I am the guy who kicked you out,” the protester responds. “Move out please,” he shouts at one point.

“At a bare minimum, law enforcement in this city should be endeavouring to protect citizens,” he said. “If they’re unable to do that, we need to really seriously consider the leadership of the organization, and the mandate of this organization as they’re very clearly unable to execute very basic duties.”

Demonstrators remained in downtown Ottawa after a weekend of protests against the Justin Trudeau government and COVID-19 mandates. Some protesters have said they intend to remain in the nation’s capital until all mandates are lifted.

On Monday, Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly called the police response to protests a success.

Ottawa police have begun a number of criminal investigations over incidents that took place during the weekend protests, including the “desecration” of some monuments.

Photos surfaced of a flag with a swastika being waved during the rally, and staff at an Ottawa homeless shelter say they were harassed by protesters on Saturday who were demanding meals from the shelter’s kitchen.

City Coun. Rawlson King sits on the police services board. While the board held a closed-doors meeting late Tuesday afternoon, King underlines the board isn’t allowed to dictate to police how to do their job.

“We ask the questions about the process that’s involved in terms of demonstrations,” he said. “And I’m obviously going to ask those questions today at our meeting.

“We want to have a full report as to police action.”

Questions remain about what will happen when the weather stops cooperating. Snow is expected in Ottawa on Wednesday.

The city says it’s reviewing different options for snow clearing if the trucker convoy protesters remain.

—with files from Xiaoli Li and Kelsey Patterson