Police Raid on Coventry (Part 4 of 6)
'They’re just here for the fuel. Don’t worry about it, we’ll get more.'
Part 1: The Government Went Insane
Sunday evening, February 6th. It’s dark outside, and gentle snowflakes fall from the sky. “We were sitting in a sauna,” Karl remembers. Earlier that day, Ottawa police had objected to the volume of donated fuel passing though Coventry. “We’d gotten most of the fuel off-site already,” says Karl. “I look over, ‘Well, it was it was a fun ride, I guess this is the end.’” A hundred police officers, he estimates, were filing into Coventry.
He remembers high visibility vests, black masks, teargas launchers, pepper spray, and AR15 rifles. “They came in with the riot truck, the big tires and everything else. It’s just intimidation, it’s useless. I mean, yeah, they can ram something.”
Different people saw different numbers of snipers that night. Karl thinks there were six to eight on the stadium building, and eight to ten on the roof of the hotel. “I don't think they were gonna shoot us, to be honest. But they had guns, and they used their scopes to look down at us. I could see the reflection off the scopes.”
The cops headed straight for the back of the compound, he remembers. “They went after every vehicle that was running,” told people to shut them off, to remove their keys. The concern was that someone might do something dumb, he explains.
Two men were arrested that night, charged with mischief. But the charges were dropped prior to their release from police custody around 11 pm. One of them, Dan, says he was standing near the stored fuel at the time. A video shows numerous officers. One repeatedly instructs him to “come out.” When Dan asks for the officer’s badge number, he’s grabbed, shoved toward other cops, advised he’s under arrest, and told to put away his phone so that he can be cuffed behind his back.
Elsewhere, someone in a pickup truck was profanely refusing to exit his vehicle. Karl says he worked to diffuse the situation. “Hang on a second,” he told an officer. “I’m the organizer. Why the hell are you guys here?” The police assured him they were only interested in the fuel.
Karl managed to talk the agitated guy out of his truck. For the next while he and others worked to keep people calm. “They’re just here for the fuel. Don’t worry about it, we’ll get more. It’s not a problem.”
Remembering that night, office-worker Stephanie says, “I've been around hunters all my life, but never that close to a guy with a gun that big. I just didn't understand. We never gave anyone any reason to hurt us. It amazed me that this is how they treated people who just wanted to live their life.”
Karl thinks the police seized “about 150 propane tanks that night. Twenty pounders and thirty pounders. They left all the empties. They didn't have enough room, there was just so much. And they took the tanker.”
The tanker had been leant to them by a farmer. “We were afraid of people throwing bleach or water into the fuel,” Karl explains. “So we inspected and smelled every Jerry can that came onsite. We dipped them, made sure everything was fine. Anything we thought was dirty, we'd put off to the side. Then we started filling up that one big tanker.” Over time, he says, the impurities would settle to the bottom, be drained off, and only good diesel would remain. “It was a legit containment unit,” Karl explains. “I know how to deal with it, cuz I used to make biodiesel for a side thing.” Interviewed two years later, he says, “I don't know if the farmer ever got his tanker back.”
Minutes after the police departed, it was as though the protesters once again received a sign from God. A fresh delivery of diesel showed up at the gate - a couple of pickups with full slip-tanks and dozens of already-filled Jerry cans.
“I think they just came off the highway,” says Karl. “They didn’t know the raid had just happened. ‘You guys gotta get out of here. Bring it back later. Here's my number, I'll call you.’”
next installment: The Non-Emergency
P.S. According to other published accounts, police seized uncooked hot dogs along with fuel. To the best of Karl’s knowledge, that didn’t happen. The person responsible for organizing the deluge of donated food at Coventry - who was also present during the raid - similarly told me she has no knowledge of a hotdog heist :-)
I feel like weeping! Not the sentimental tears, I often experience reading this blog, but rageful despair at the way our government responded! Snipers!? Riot gear? Shame shame shame!
Certainly since the time of Commissioner Zaccardelli, the RCMP echelon has held the attitude of protecting the reputation of the police force rather than protecting the public. It is also an institution that has forsaken its reason for existing.