When Police Impede the Ambulances
'The guy had to exit the ambulance and open the back door.'
Part 1: Bootlegging Fuel into Ottawa
The day police began physically assaulting the peaceful truckers, Martin - a Quebec grain farmer - received three phone calls in the span of an hour from people who don't know each other. "I got one phone call from a friend in Switzerland and he asked me 'How is it going in Ottawa? Are you still there?'"
When Martin replied in the affirmative, the caller said "Would it not be time to leave? I just have the feeling you should leave."
Shortly afterward, the dealer from whom he buys his farm equipment called. Could he give Martin some polite advice? "Just move the tractors. I don't wanna see them in the news all beat up or pulled over the road by tow trucks. Move them please, just move out. Go home. You did your thing. Just go home."
Half an hour later, another person warned him, "the shit gonna hit the fan this afternoon, watch out." By then, he says, "police cruisers were blocking the streets. Everywhere, every corner. I go, 'Wow, okay.'"
Around noon, with the help of some truckers, he moved the remaining four tractors "over the bridge into Gatineau. Parked them at the farm with the fuel."
Determined to return to the downtown core, Martin says the police didn't make that easy. "Where you going? Downtown. Nope, turn around." A friend gave him a ride, but "the police stopped us. They checked everybody. Everywhere you look cops, cops. Holy shit, this is bad."
At a gas station he told his friend, "Just pretend you're gonna fill up, I'm gonna leave the truck then." By that time, he'd donned different outer clothing. There were three cops at the gas station. Martin got out and walked in the direction opposite to downtown:
I made a left turn, made a left turn, go back two blocks over, and then I had to go between the houses because they even checked the ambulances. An ambulance wanted to get in with the lights on. The guy had to exit the ambulance and open the back door. Honestly, I seen it. Not a joke.
There's a walkway between two houses about that wide. I went in between, and I managed to get back in, up to the Chateau Laurier where the police started beating up people. I was there.
That same afternoon, their food tent was dismantled:
That campsite was packed up in a matter of an hour on Kent Street. You can't get it any faster. The military couldn't even do it. All the people stuck together. Shove it in that truck, shove it in that pickup truck, put it there, put it there. Everybody took off.
Saturday, I called Frank. I said, 'Are you out?' He said, 'there's nothing there. There's not even a barbecue. We're gone. We're safe.'
Today, Martin still wonders: "What would have happened if nobody would've moved?"
Interesting idea what would have happened if nobody moved.. but we saw the police horses plow through the crowd. It’s a miracle no one was seriously injured- all I know about was the woman with the walker “bicycle”. Maybe you’ll know about more Donna.