Anti-mandate protesters gather on Parliament Hill Saturday
Posted Mar 5, 2022 05:51:00 PM.
A few hundred protesters, many waving or draped in Canadian flags, gathered on the grounds of Parliament Hill on Saturday to continue voicing their disapproval and frustration with COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other public-health restrictions.
Roughly 300 demonstrators were on hand by noon on Saturday, March 5.
“Thank you for coming back” shouted a protester into a microphone, with the crowd responding with cheers and applause.
It was the first such gathering of anti-mandate protesters since police cleared out Ottawa’s downtown core on Feb. 19 after more than three weeks of protests.
Demonstrators sang O Canada on Saturday and broke out in chants of “Freedom, Freedom!”
Some members of the Parliamentary Protective Service were on hand.
The relatively small rally – in comparison to the protest that paralyzed the nation’s capital from Jan. 28 to Feb. 19 – took place on the same day a Canada-wide protest was planned.
Dubbed the ‘freedom chain,’ protesters were planning to park their vehicles and form human chains across the Trans-Canada Highway in dozens of cities across the country.
