Horizon Ottawa, a progressive group that lobbies for left-leaning municipal insurance policies, is asking for a robust police response to imminent freedom occasions within the nation’s capital – whereas additionally supporting the Defund the Police motion.
Freedom occasions are planned subsequent week in downtown Ottawa for the arrival of Canadian Armed Forces Veteran James Topp and in celebration of Canada Day. Organizers are additionally planning occasions on weekends all through the summer season.
“It appears to me that their plan is at all times to kind of defend the parliamentary precinct, however they kind of simply go away residential neighbourhoods there to dry,” Horizon Ottawa’s Sam Hersh told The Canadian Press.
“I need to see an acknowledgment of what this really is from our metropolis and from the related authorities: that this can be a far-right motion, and that we should always take it critically. They usually’re not welcome in our metropolis.”
In a information launch, Horizon quoted statements shared by anti-capitalist group Neighborhood Solidarity Ottawa, and wrote that “‘freedom motion occasions are nothing greater than a revival of February’s anti-democratic ‘Freedom Convoy’ occupation of Ottawa.”
Horizon Ottawa’s information launch additionally stated that the actions of freedom protesters “and the far-right politics they signify are a direct risk to our group and a broader risk to our security and democracy.”
Whereas Horizon Ottawa is urging authorities to crack down on attendees of the liberty occasions, they’re additionally very important of the police and help the Defund the Police motion.
In the course of the February Freedom Convoy, the group called for the defunding of Ottawa’s police pressure.
On Feb. 16, Horizon Ottawa issued a press launch calling on the Ottawa Police Companies Board to “instantly freeze the OPS finances at 2021 ranges, and decide to detasking and defunding the Ottawa Police Service.”
The group additionally held a press convention on Feb. 25 that includes activist Robin Browne, who known as for the abolishing of police, citing the pressure’s failure to guard residents from the Freedom Convoy.
“It’s time to begin the method of abolishing the Ottawa police and by massively defunding them and beginning… actual group conversations about what programs we should always fund and create to really make us all safer,” stated Browne at Horizon’s press convention.
Horizon Ottawa had additionally known as for the discount of Ottawa’s police finances in each 2020 and 2021, wanting the funding to as an alternative go in the direction of Ottawa Public Well being and “actual group security.”
Moreover, the group opposes Faculty Useful resource Officer packages, claiming police “exposes kids to human rights violations, a racist school-to-prison pipeline, and gender-based violence.”
Freedom Convoy demonstrations got here to an finish after three weeks when police forcefully eliminated the peaceable protesters – following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act.
True North reached out to Horizon Ottawa for remark, however didn’t obtain a response in time for publication.
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