Weekend counter-protest at Bank and Riverside was ‘spontaneous’

When residents across Ottawa saw a small group of counter-protesters needing help, hundreds of protesters came to their aid.

On Saturday, February 12 a group of nine counter-protesters living in the area had found a message from the truck convoy on Facebook detailing something called the “blue collar convoy.” That convoy would involve pick-up trucks driving through the Bank and Riverside intersection.

Not wanting the convoy to enter their neighbourhood, the small group set up shop and blocked the intersection on Sunday, February 13, stopping vehicles part of the protest from passing through. 

Soon, though, police arrived on the scene, and according to one person involved, tried to get counter-protesters to leave. 

But they wouldn’t — in fact, Twitter became aware of the situation and more counter-protesters came out to support.

And not too long after, hundreds of people from around the city descended upon the intersection.

As participant Sean Devine described, by the time he got there, hundreds of people had already shown up.

“The residents of Ottawa were very patient and we decided not to intervene [at first]. We put our faith in police and authorities — and like many people, we finally wanted to say no,” Devine said. “Here we are so many weeks later and the police and authorities haven’t appeared to take care of it. So I think it came to the citizens of Ottawa — I guess this is up to us to show some form of organized resistance.”

According to Devine, no one got out of hand. While words were exchanged between some protesters and counter-protesters, things remained largely civil. 

But Devine said he took the opportunity to have a conversation with protesters, letting them know about the negative impact they were having on residents. 

A portion of them, Devine said, were surprised or unaware of just how hard the citizens of Ottawa had been, and continue, to be affected.

Some of them, he said, were even “protest tourists,” people just looking to experience being part of something more. 

“At the end of the day, they all had to turn away,” Devine said. “They all turned back. Some of them will surely come back in some other form. Some of them, I hope, were given pause and will think twice about what they were doing.”

He added, “I think yesterday, I hope, was an accomplishment not only from having stopped what could have been another dangerous impact in our city, but I hope that we showed a lot of people that there are humans on the other end of what they’re doing that are being affected by them.”

While Devine isn't aware of any more upcoming organized counter-protests, he said there's nothing stopping residents from sparking another “spontaneous” counter-protest.